Slur uttered at meeting stirs controversy

A member of the Evangeline Parish Police Jury uttered a racial slur at their March 1 meeting. The day after the meeting, several residents of the parish reached out to the media to complain. Some people took to Facebook to find out if what was said was true.
During the jail committee meeting, juror Lamar Johnson used the term “wetback” to refer to the prisoners at the ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) Processing Center in Pine Prairie. The slur is a derogatory term used to describe people with Hispanic ethnicity, most commonly migrant workers from Mexico who cross the U.S. boarder illegally. ICE Processing Centers, operated by GEO Group, are used to house individuals who have been detained by ICE because of questions about their immigration status.
During the executive committee meeting, president Ryan LeDay Williams said one of the main issues hindering the parish as a whole is paying the housing of inmates outside the parish. The courts are backed up, partly due to the pandemic. He said the jury has had multiple meetings with the district attorney, the judges, and the sheriff to give them the sense of urgency of the situation. “Hopefully we can soon have some kind of temporary fix until we can get this under control,” said Williams. He said the criminal courts have been working diligently to get inmates off the parish’s dime.
Secretary treasurer Donald Bergeron said Sheriff Charles Guillory is trying to get the ICE center to help with housing inmates. “They kind of talked in circles, so he really doesn’t have an answer,” said Bergeron. Juror Bryan Vidrine said he spoke with Congressman Mike Johnson to let him know about the situation and mentioned to him the ICE center is getting federal funding, “but they don’t have anybody sitting in the beds.” He asked Johnson if he can do anything on the federal side to help. “We already paid for it,” said Vidrine. “Federal dollars are our dollars.” He said Congressman Johnson will look into it and see if it is possible.
Vidrine then said he does not believe the ICE center’s contract will be renewed. While discussing the future of the center, juror Lamar Johnson said, “Why would we worry about having a place to stick ‘em. It’s all wetbacks [in there].” The ethnic slur “wetbacks” is believed to have been first used in the 1920s and has historically been used in a disparaging manor to describe migrant workers who come to the United States by swimming across the Rio Grande. For Latinos, the slur is comparable to the “n-word” and can evoke the same emotions as the “n-word” does for the African American community.
The day after the police jury meeting, Ville Platte resident Keely Savoie heard about Johnson’s slur. Upon learning of the comment, Savoie said she was “absolutely shocked. I just can’t believe that an elected official would say that. They should be held to a higher standard and use better language.” Savoie, who is of Hispanic descent, in particular Mexican, continued, “It personally offends me because it’s a derogatory word against a group of people, one of them being myself. When a public figure makes a statement such as this, it makes the community think that it’s acceptable language.”
When asked about his comments at the police jury meeting, Johnson said, “I wasn’t talking about any particular person but about a group of people who have crossed the boarder illegally. I stand by what I said, and if someone wants to debate me they can. I don’t care if the person coming in illegally is white, black, or whatever color, if they’re coming in illegally, they’re wetbacks.”
In response to Johnson’s comments, Police Jury President Ryan “LeDay” Williams issued the following statement. “Evangeline Police Jury does not support racism, derogatory statements, or racial slurs aimed towards any race. We as human beings are all created in God’s eyes.”
Additional coverage of Monday’s meeting will be in Sunday’s edition of The Ville Platte Gazette.