Avoyelles ministers group wants Frank case reopened

There is more than one virus plaguing the African American communities of the nation, state and Avoyelles Parish. Everyone knows about the coronavirus and the effect it has had. There is also another VIRUS affecting the African American communities in the nation and the parish -- Violence, Injustice, Racism and an Underserved Society.

It is this second virus that a group of Avoyelles Parish pastors have taken aim at in presenting concerns and propositions to District Attorney Charles Riddle and state Rep. Daryl Deshotel.

The Avoyelles Coalition Taskforce (ACT) has asked Riddle to address its concerns with the October 2017 death of Armando Frank and with the investigation of that death. In the second part of its two-part position paper, ACT asks Deshotel to reverse his support for a state law that allows a person to carry a concealed handgun into a place of worship.

ARMANDO FRANK CASE

ACT President Rev. Chris Augustine said the group supports justice for George Floyd, a black man who died while being subdued by Minneapolis police officers. It joins the Black Lives Matter movement in seeking reforms in the criminal justice system, especially in the areas of police brutality against civilians and the lack of equal justice for all citizens.

Augustine noted that while Floyd's death has exposed racism that has existed in the country for 400 years, the local group's attention is focused on Frank, who "died an eerily similar death enacted through cruelty with excessive and unwarranted force on his neck, strangling him to death, as he uttered the words, 'Let me up, let me up.'"

A group of APSO and Marksville P.D.officers attempted to serve a warrant on Frank as he was driving a tractor in the Walmart parking lot in Marksville. Frank,who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, disputed there was a warrant and resisted the officers. He was tased, dragged from the tractor and subdued with a choke hold.

Officers said he continued to struggle and would not comply with demands to cease resisting. At some point during the episode, Frank went into distress and died.

At the time, there were those who asked where the pastors were after Frank's death, Augustine noted. He said they were meeting, on more than one occasion, with representatives of the District Attorney, Avoyelles Sheriff and Marksville Police Department, asking that charges be brought against the officers involved in that fatal incident in the Walmart parking lot.

"Ministers did not attempt or seek to evoke protest and incite violence," Augustine said. "They operated within procedural guidelines to get justice for Mr. Frank."

Augustine pointed out that a pathologist classified Frank’s death "a homicide as a result of manual strangulation." In short, he was choked to death.

A grand jury refused to indict any of the officers, "we believe due in part to the fact that the pathologist was not allowed to present his finding to the grand jury as the expert witness," Augustine said. The ministers were told the reason for not calling the witness to the grand jury was that it "costtoo much," he added.

Augustine also noted the officer who had administered the choke hold was not brought before the grand jury because he was too sick to appear, according to the district attorney's office.

"How do people in Avoyelles with self-imposed amnesia support the call for criminal justice reform resulting from Mr.Floyd’s death and others', and did not and have not to this day spoken out by peacefully protesting or put forth a call for justice for Mr. Frank," Augustine said. "Who will be next to be a victim of police brutality in Avoyelles Parish?"

The group expressed doubt that any meaningful changes in police policies and procedures have been implemented.

"There is no righteous way to justify why no action was taken without displaying and verbalizing racial biases and revealing the inhumane character and prejudices of our souls," Augustine said. "We say we are a nation of laws guided by the U.S. Constitution, which contains the directive, 'equal justice under the law,'" he continued, "It is ludicrous to say we are practitioners of the words of the Bible with respect to the worth of all human beings in God’s eyes and not do it."

Augustine quoted James 4:17, which states, “Anyone who knows the right thing to do, yet fails to do it, to him it is sin."

"The worth of one human being is just as valuable in the eyes of God as any other," he added.

Augustine said ACT is asking Riddle to immediately start the process of using all available evidence, including the in-person testimony of the pathologist and those involved in the incident, to properly investigate the death of Armando Frank.

RIDDLE COMMENTS
Riddle said his office requested a State Police investigation into the incident and has also asked the FBI to get involved.

"The State Police completed their report," Riddle said. "We have not received a response from the FBI."

Riddle said the State Police "reported no findings of misconduct on the part of any of the officers." He said the evidence was presented to a grand jury, who returned no indictments in the case.

"One distinct difference in this case and others is that he (Frank) was actively resisting arrest at the time," Riddle said. "Our hearts go out to the family of Armando."

GUNS IN CHURCH

The second issue ACT raised deals more with the members' role as "shepherd of their flock," to lead and protect their congregations.

There have been several incidents over the past few years of a gunman opening fire in a crowded church. Augustine noted the Legislature passed a law allowing a person with a concealed weapon permit to carry his firearm into a church without permission or knowledge of church leaders and personnel.

It replaces a law that required church officials' permission for someone to bring a gun into the church.This law will require a church "to come up with other means/measures of prohibiting permit carriers of concealed handguns from carrying them into church worship services," he said. "Why does a gun owner, coming to the church supposedly for worship, need to carry a gun for protection against the worshippers," Augustine asked.

He said permit holders providing security for the church would be given permission to carry a concealed weapon, but "can anyone truly and righteously justify why ANYONE walking in under disguise as a worshipper, supposedly for peaceful purposes, should be allowed to bring in a gun without the knowledge of the church or its administration? What is the reason for allowance of such?"

Augustine noted that 2 Corinthians 10:4 states "The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world" (NIV) and Ephesians 6:14-18 tells the Christian his "sword" is the "Word of God."

ACTS asks that Deshotel, who supported the law allowing concealed weapons in church, to "author, support and advance legislation" that would remove language allowing concealed weapon permit owners from carrying weapons into worship services "without knowledge and permission of the church and its administrators."

The ministers also want language added to the law stating that "only authorized permit holders (security personnel for the church) be allowed to carry concealed guns into worship services in churches."

Augustine said the new law "is not right and only serves to bring on increased violence and death to peaceable church-going worshippers. This is unacceptable."

The Bible teaches that God does not hold it as "sin" if someone does something they do not know is wrong. However, those who know what is right and choose not to do right are sinners in God's eyes, Augustine noted.

"It is time for righteous,God-fearing, God-honoring people in Avoyelles to speak the reality of truth about ways that exist and are practiced in this parish,"he said.If people in the parish can come together, put aside their different political persuasions and their cultural/racial biases and "pro-claim the philosophy of the Word of God without customizing it to our 'feel-osophy,' we will begin to eliminate the ills of humanity."

Augustine said two quotes from Rev. Martin Luther King are appropriate for the current situation: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere" and "The time is always right to do what is right."