Paul Monteiro saw the reports on social media — unrest over a black man killed at the hands of police in Baton Rouge — and quickly got on the phone with his regional director in Texas.
“What can you tell me?” he asked. “What more have you learned that can inform how we sort of figure out our response?”
The situation was serious. Protests and community meetings were being organized rapidly. Police clad in riot gear would soon be deployed to meet them. Monteiro, the head of the Justice Department’s Community Relations Service, dispatched someone immediately to Louisiana to help keep the peace.
Read more in The Washington Post.