New Orleans Photojournalist and Editorial Photographer Edmund D. Fountain - Policing in Evangeline Parish, Louisiana
Joseph Manuel, 32, at his home in Ville Platte, Louisiana. Manuel says that deputies from the Evangeline Parish Sheriffs Department arrested him for assault and battery on his wife in 2017 and held him for over seven days. Mr. Manuel has never been married, and Manuel is a common last name in Louisiana. He says that there were other people with the same name living in the area, but deputies never bothered to check his social security number or drivers license before they took him into custody. He says they also ignored the fact that he bore no resemblance to the photo the police had of the suspect. He thinks he was simply an easy target for law enforcement because he had a prior criminal record.