The Worrisome Gifts of Commissioner Roy Burrell

Note: This is a raw transcript of Stephen Parr & Louis R. Avallone from American Ground Radio’s Nov. 21st broadcast. The speakers are not delineated to improve readability. Only minor edits have been made.

This is American Ground Radio with Stephen Parr and Louis R. Avallone. So he said the quiet part out loud. He said the quiet part out loud. He bragged about it. I cannot believe this.

You know, this sheriff's race came down to one vote, as most folks know. Yeah. Today was the deadline for John Nicholson and Brett Frazier and any other candidate for elected office who wanted to contest the election.

Today was the day you know who wanted to ask for a recount. To ask for a recount. Not for a contest to the election, but to ask for a recount. And Brett Frazier was running for Cato Parish Tax Assessor. He has officially asked for a recount.

John Nicholson was the candidate for Cato Parish Sheriff. He has now asked for a recount that will take place next Monday, the 27th. But earlier today, Chief Whitehorn Sr. was on a podcast and Roy Burrell, Cato Parish Commissioner, also appeared on that podcast.

And what Commissioner Roy Burrell said is shocking. It is absolutely shocking. We're going to play the clip for you. But of course, many of you are already aware that the Caddo Parish Commission held a Parish Wide Food Distribution event coincidentally, coincidentally on election day. Parish Wide, huh? Parish Wide. It was so it was in every single part of the parish. Parish. Well, according to, I sent you the locations.

Okay. Did they have, did they have a location in Southern Hills? Did they have, did they have a location in the Haven? Did they have a location in? Now, you know, there's a lot of folks that would say that sounds ridiculous, Stephen, because food distribution should occur in those areas of the city where folks are in need of food the most. Okay. I'm making a point.

Okay. I get it. Well, you will see where that point is heading in when you hear this audio clip. You will understand why I'm making the point I'm making when you hear the audio clip.

And so before we play the clip, I do want to remind folks that under Louisiana law, no public funds shall be used, and I'm quoting directly from the criminal statute.

No public funds shall be used to urge any elector, any voter to vote for or against any candidate, any proposition, or to vote at all, right? I mean, if you're using public funds to urge someone to vote or not to vote, that is a violation by my reading of this criminal statute.

And this is revised statute for those of you who are following along at home. This is revised statute, Louisiana revised statute 18, section 1465, under prohibited use of public funds, no public funds shall be used to urge any voter to vote for or against any candidate, okay? So let's play the clip. This is Caddo Parish Commissioner Roy Burrell speaking with Henry Whitehorne from earlier today. –

“It just so happened on that same 18th day, we happened to have a food drive for the parish. It's brought out hundreds of people. We had people at four or six blocks to a mile almost. - That's right. - Those, many of those people who came through, we just asked them to go vote. There's nothing wrong with that. That's your civic duty. - Sure. - But I'm gonna recommend as the president of this commission, because we put the money up to do it. The next time they come through that line, since early voting was a whole week, you're gonna present something to tell me that-- - You voted. - You either voted, I don't care who you voted for. If you wanted to vote for Republican dog catcher, that's fine. - I like that. - But that's part of your civic responsibility. - Amen, bro. - And because of that, I don't care if you poor, blind, or crazy, you can go and pull that lead, but if nothing else, register. I'm gonna give you an example.“

- Okay, shut that off. - Wait, wait. - Shut that off. - We want people who are actually crazy. - No, no, no. - To vote, okay. - Well, nevertheless. all right There's I mean, he there are some other disturbing things he said later on as the president He said as the president of the Caddo Parish Commission, right? We put up the money Yeah, to make these food baskets available to the poor So the Caddo Parish Commission paid for this food giveaway, but I assure you that the commissioners I don't know that all of them necessarily Would have known that this was going to be handled the way that Commissioner chairman president of the commission Roy Burrell described it.

Okay, and that as folks were coming to get their food Baskets. Yeah, they were then told he said mm -hmm. We told them go vote to go vote Yeah, let me let me refresh your memory here because under Louisiana law revised statute 18 1465 Prohibited use of public funds mm -hmm No public funds shall be used to urge any elector to vote for or against any candidate or proposition Let me ask you something mm -hmm is what Roy Burrell the president of the Caddo Parish Commission With public funds.

He already made that statement, right? Was he urging folks to vote for to go vote or not to go vote? What well look if you're voting if you're urging you know, are you if you're urging people to vote? They either by definition they have to vote for or against something when they're voting, right, right? You can't vote and not before or against something and it really doesn't matter that then the effect in other words The action of the person the voter that you're urging them right do it doesn't really matter whether they do or not because the statute Specifically says that's right. You must not urge, right? Right. Any voter so the moment so commissioner simply urging them to go vote and by the way he's sitting there in a podcast with chief white horn you think he didn't tell people to go vote for chief white horn and this actually gets back to my other point about this they did this food giveaway but every single location where they did the food giveaway was in a part of the parish where registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans by at least four to one every single one of these locations where they are using taxpayer money to give food to people to tell them to go vote well not in every area there were a couple there were some like in Broadmoor for example and there was a one in southern Hills Park and Community Center so there okay so there were some where it wasn't it wasn't four to one exactly there was two out of what is over a dozen look different locations.

Okay but this is what they did was Zuckerbucks back during the 2020 election with those drop boxes they were putting them in locations where they were mostly Democrats who were voting and they were trying to make it easy as possible for Democrats to vote but they weren't interested in trying to urge Republicans to vote that's what the Caddo Parish Commission just did. They used your taxpayer dollars to encourage Democrats to go vote. They did not use your taxpayer dollars to go encourage Republicans to vote near in the same numbers that is interfering with an election using your taxpayer dollars to do it and he said there were hundreds of voters hundreds backed up for at least a mile hundreds in all of these different locations you had hundreds and you're telling them all to go vote and Brett Frazier lost his election by 200 votes John Nicholson lost by one because the Caddo Parish Commission urged was using your taxpayer dollars voters to go vote give food to people in essence as a bribe to get them to go vote well you know and he said in that his intent was to bribe them to do it because he said in the next one I’m going to require them to have voted the next time get the food so that tells you his intent when he was doing it. Let's get to the top three things you need to know before tomorrow first thing you need to know before tomorrow there will be a recount in Caddo Parish in two separate races both republican sheriff candidate John Nicholson and republican tax assessor candidate Brett Frazier have requested recounts for the respective races Frazier lost his race on Saturday by around 200 votes John Nicholson lost by a single vote today the voting machines used on Saturday were opened up and inspected the recounts will take place on Monday and the question is will they get a hand recount Lindon Johnson Caddo Parish Commissioner uh former Caddo Parish Commissioner he requested a hand recount last month in a much smaller race and a hand recount was done I think they're going to start with the the scanning machines first yeah and then kind of see what where that leads from there.

Welcome back to American Ground Radio Stephen Parr and Louis R. Avallone. We got a text in on our text line asking how many total food drive locations were there okay it took a question that's a really good question there were 10 it's pertinent to this discussion there were 10 and I’ll give you a list of them there since there aren't that many of them Eddie jones special program center on murphy street okay midway elementary on greenwood road okay greenwood acres gospel Baptist church on greenwood willow chute missionary Baptist church on Dr. Martin Martin Luther King Drive, Caddo Fire District number four out in Keithville, the Sunrise Baptist Church. By the way, my understanding from some folks in Keithville, the African American vote there was the largest they had ever seen. Really? But nevertheless, that may be anecdotal. Also at Sunrise Baptist Church on Lakeshore, Southern Hills Community Center on Burt Coons, Broadmoor Presbyterian Church on Grover, A .B. Palmer Community Center, and Vivian Methodist Church in Vivian.

So wait, wait real quick, just out of curiosity. Nothing in Oil City? Nothing in... Vivian, okay. North Cato. That's North Cato. Certainly. Okay. All right. But nevertheless,

here's what we're talking about folks is these food drive distribution centers where apparently there was, there were food box distribution or available for folks who were in need.

And the Cato Parish Commission sponsored that event they paid for. That president of the commission, Roy Burrell, says it just happened coincidentally to happen or to be scheduled for election day.

But correct me if I'm wrong. They actually had to move a couple of their distribution centers. They did because they were at voting precincts. Well, now that's interesting. That's another discussion altogether. That's part of this discussion because it goes back to what I believe was the intent of this whole food drive.

And if you listen to Roy Burrell in the sound bite, his intent was to drive up the vote of Democrats. Okay. Well, hold on. That was his intent. Well, by driving them, by asking them to go vote, to encouraging them to go vote. By giving them food so that they would go vote. And that is a completely, that's an important discussion to have. But I go back to the criminal statute in Louisiana law where it prohibits the use of public funds funds to urge a voter to go vote that's right so it's it's that's different than educating someone you know because many times the city of Shreveport will educate folks on the bond proposal or bond initiative for example about what voting yes would mean what voting no would mean right and but they're not allowed to say go vote they are not a lot well the statute says that the the reason that this and we've got to accord it the plain meaning of the words it says no public funds shall be used to urge any elector to vote for or against any candidate okay now real quick how do you go vote but you don't vote for or against any candidate it's impossible right by the definition so if you're urging someone to go vote they will be voting for or against a candidate yes what even or an issue even if they don't even if they go and they sign into the roles that go into the ballot box and they decide I'm not voting for anyone yeah that is urge I mean you still urge them to do that to do to take some urge them to go vote and by urging them to go vote they've got it you know you're saying go vote for something now again it doesn't matter what the act of the voter is the act of the person who's using taxpayer funds that's what matters so take a listen this is a clip from a president of the Caddo Perish Commission Roy Burrell talking about how the Commission funded these food boxes and what he told folks who were the recipients of those boxes on election day.

“It just so happened on that same 18th day we happened to have a food trial I saw you with a pair yeah it's brought out hundreds of people we had people as far away as five and six blocks to a mile almost those are many of those people who came through we just asked them to go vote there's nothing wrong with that that's your civic duty sure but I'm gonna recommend as the president of this commission, because we put the money up to do it. The next time they come through that line, since early voting was a whole week, you're gonna present something to tell me that-- - You voted. - You either voted, I don't care who you voted for. If you wanted to vote for Republican dog catcher, that's fine. - I like that. - But that's part of your civic responsibility. - Amen, bro. - And because of that—"

- Okay, shut that off. There's a couple of things that make me sick in my stomach.

- Yeah, there's several things-- - Number one, if you're hungry and you haven't voted, commissioner, the president of the Caddo Parish Commission of Roy Burrell, believes you aren't deserving enough of this food box.

- Right. - So that you can feed your family, unless you do something to prove to him that you've done something that he wants you to do. First of all, when people are starving, when people are living in poverty in this city, if you're going to organize some sort of charitable event, then be charitable. Don't coerce folks-- - Yeah, see, that's not-- - They're already down on their luck to dance for you. - That's not charity, that's coercion. You cannot do something that is generous by doing something that's nefarious.

- And the other part of this that is very concerning that, again, maybe I'm reading too much into this, but he talked about how folks came from blocks around.

- Yes. - Several blocks-- - Several blocks. - Around, up to a mile. - Now remember, if you were giving out those food boxes within 600 feet of the polling location,

you could be accused of electioneering. - That's right. - But if they had to move some of those distribution places, they had planned on electioneering.

- But if you are giving those food boxes away outside of that 600 foot radius, and folks are walking from blocks around-- - They're gonna be walking right by a voting place.

To get back to their car get back to their home and you've just told them here have some food now go vote You're come on. You can't play innocent on this and again, which parts of the parish were they doing this in? most of them were in areas that were dominated by Democrat voters 4 to 1 9 to 1 Democrat locations and Commissioner Burrell is telling you he's telling you he's saying the quiet part out loud There were hundreds of folks who came and stood in line some for up to a mile How many of those folks did exactly what they were asked to do in return as?

Gratitude, but here's the thing in the sheriff's race It only takes one person to have done what Roy Burrell told them to do in Exchange for the food you go vote it only takes one person to have done that to Invalidate that election because it was only one vote difference and it certainly seems from his own statement That there were hundreds the next time that they do this food box distribution, right?

They're gonna make sure they're gonna require it which again that tells you the mindset It tells you the motivation of Roy Burrell. He wasn't giving out food to be charitable He was giving out food to get people to vote and next time he plans on requiring it That tells you his mindset about what he was doing then if you're using taxpayer dollars to try and urge people to go vote Especially people you know that are gonna vote the way you want them to because you're in the part of town.

That is registered Democrat four to one or nine to one and You're you're only giving out food not because you want to be charitable because you want to coerce people into voting You want to force them into voting next time. That's a crime, a crime and it invalidates a free and fair election an election that was decided by one vote another election that was decided by two votes he said he had hundreds of people out there or 200 votes so Brett Frazier's election 200 votes for the tax assessor.

He said he had hundreds of people in line backed up for a mile this doesn't just invalidate John Nicholson's race this might invalidate Brett Frazier's race as well.

I don't think we're reading too much into this in terms of the significance of having the president of the Caddo Parish Commission talk about how he had this food box distribution program using taxpayer money that happened to be on election day and initially happened to have a couple of the different the the giveaways at polling places look is there anybody out there that would say hey we'll pay you $50 if you'll go vote we'll give you $50 where the food if you'll go is there a difference there's no difference there's no difference because if you don't have to spend that $50 on food you can spend it on something else there's no difference it's bribing it's bribing people to vote well that's what he's talking about I mean enhancing next year program and look next year what he's talking about isn't just bribing people to vote it's coercing people to vote you won't get the food unless you vote this time I'm going to give you the vote I'm going to give you the food this time and I want you to go vote and now look the criminal statute has certain requirements in order to define what bribery is and I'm not getting I don't think we should get into that because we're not going to discuss all of the elements of what requires bribery.

But just in common parlance and just common speech, I'm gonna, I'm going to give you this thing of value and I want you to go do this other thing that is valuable to me. That's what took place on Saturday and your taxpayer dollars paid for that to happen.

- And you know, that's what's at play there. It's a psychological effect. It's the reciprocity effect. And when you do something nice for someone, - They're gonna do something nice for you in return.

- They feel, what can, you know, for example, somebody does something nice for you. A lot of times you'll say, oh my gosh, thank you so much. If there's anything I can do for you, don't ever hesitate giving me a call.

- But see, Roy Burrell didn't do that with his money. He did that with yours. See, he got what he wanted with you paying for it. You paid for Roy Burrell to get what he wanted.

- Well, first of all, what he wanted isn't necessarily, well, I guess we do know what he wanted. - He wanted you to go vote. - And specifically he wanted you to vote for Henry Whitehorn because he was sitting in the podcast with Henry Whitehorn bragging about it.

- Presumably he did. - I think it's a reasonable presumption. - And we do know that he is a supporter, but whether or not he urged anyone to go vote for Whitehorn. - We don't know if at any point in the day he said go vote for Henry Whitehorn, or I like Henry Whitehorn, go vote. - But the statute isn't written in a way that says you have to stipulate who to vote for. - You're just not allowed to tell them to vote for, you're not just not allowed to encourage them to go vote on an issue or candidate using taxpayer funds. - And that's what he did. - That's what the statute said. No public fund shall be used to urge any voter to vote for or against any candidate.

- So the question is, how did we get into this mess? 'Cause this is a mess, it could overturn the election. How did we get here? Let's dig deep - How did this happen?

How did we get to a point to where what the Caddo Parish Commission paid for on Saturday might end up overturning an election? Easy. The Caddo Commission regularly does things that no government should do.

Lots of governments do But if you're paying attention to what governments should do They shouldn't be doing the things the Caddo Parish Commission does on the regular basis Well, the role of government is to protect our rights to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

That's right. End of story. That's it governments period governments We got to get our heads wrapped around this because otherwise we're gonna end up with governments doing the wrong thing all the time Governments should only do the things that only governments can do For example, anyone can pass out food to the people in need There are lots of private organizations that already do that. Yes. Oh, yeah, and since anyone can do it government shouldn't however Only governments can run an election private organizations if they ran an election They'd always have a bias and agenda They can't be trusted with an election because they are private biased Organization so governments are the only ones who should run elections. So therefore governments should run elections make sense Oh, we've fallen all along here sure now I always say on the show run all of your political opinions through the second since the Declaration of Independence the second sentence says Governments get their just powers from the consent of the government.

So how can you know if the people consent to something unless you ask them? That's why we have to have elections. That's why we have elections, of course Okay, the second sentence also says that governments are created They are instituted among men to secure our rights to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness Mm -hmm.

That's the only reason why we have governments is to secure our rights. That's it Right because because our first of all securing our rights not that government provides us any rights because the creator Grants us creator gave us the rights Governments job is to make sure that no one else can take them away They aren't there to give us happiness their job is to secure our right to pursue our happiness They aren't there to give us liberty. The creator already gave us that liberty. Government's job is to secure our liberty. Make sense? So the Caddo Parish Commission is a government body. Yes? Oh, of course they are. They were created, they were duly elected. They were instituted among the people to secure our rights to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. Mm -hmm. All right. Okay. So why was it passing out food on Saturday? How is giving out food securing the right of the people?

The only job of government is to secure our rights. Why was Caddo Parish Commission giving out food? Okay, I can tell you. Okay. According to Caddo Parish Commission president Roy Burrell in an official press release of the Caddo Parish Commission, he says we believe it is important to offer distribution opportunities like these to provide some temporary relief to those in the community who may need help with food insecurity.

Okay, wait. Distribution opportunities. So the government should set laws to where people would be able to pass out food. That's how you can give an opportunity. That's how you can secure a right for people to pursue happiness.

That's how you can secure liberty as you pass a law or you pass an ordinance saying you're able to pass out food. Why does that take any money? From the Caddo Parish Commission to actually make it happen?

Well, they did this in partnership with the Food Bank of Northwest Louisiana. Yeah, but they paid for it. Caddo Parish, he said Roy Burrell said on that tape, we paid for this.

No, exactly. He said we're the ones providing the funding, but this press release doesn't say anything about public funds being used. So not that helping the poor is anything that we oppose.

No. So that is, first of all, if there's anyone listening right now that has any misconception about that, that's not what we're talking about here. There is a right way and there is a wrong way, a lawful way and an unlawful way in order to assist people. And you know what? Charity with your own money is always encouraging. And I think you should be doing that as much as you can.

But when you're using other people's money to do good. You can't. Or you should at least ask them first if they have, if they will provide their permission.

You cannot do something that's charitable by first taking something by force. And all taxation has the threat of force behind it. So you don't think that government, in any circumstance, it's certainly, what about welfare? Government? What about government aid? Well, welfare we supposedly paid in, they're just paying us back for that. But yeah, I got philosophical problems with our whole welfare system.

Because we're taking away some people's right to pursue their happiness. We're taking away liberty because actually we take that money away in income taxes, which means it comes out of their paycheck before they ever see it. So we're taking away people's liberty in order to enhance other people's pursuit of happiness.

That's backwards. It has to be in order. Life, then liberty, then the pursuit of happiness. And if you wonder why our welfare system's going broke, it's because it's doing something that government shouldn't be doing.

It's in the wrong order. But you're saying they could have distributed these food boxes in these areas without spending taxpayer money. They shouldn't have spent taxpayer money because that's not the job of the Caddo Parish Commission.

That's not, just because it makes people happy doesn't mean the government should be doing that thing. They write plenty of checks to NGOs every year. And unless their only, their purpose is to secure the right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, they're doing it wrong. You're listening to American ground radio. I can't, I can't get over this Roy Burrell thing. Next year he's gonna say to somebody who's hungry, you want some food? You better vote. Please, please, Mr. Burrell.

I promise I will go vote. Can I have some?

No, no, I have to see that you've already voted. Can I have some more? How many times did you vote? Come on now. That's disgusting. That's really, he's taking money from some people by force because all taxations by force He's taking money from some people To give food to others, but only if those people Do what he wants. Do you really think he feels that way? Yes, that's what he said I mean, I just that's what he said. That's what he said in that sound bite When somebody tells me what they really believe I believe them.