A Louisiana woman, Calvinitri White, has filed a lawsuit against the City of Shreveport and the Shreveport Police Department, accusing them of falsely arresting her and violating her civil rights. The arrest, which took place in July, was followed by the charges being dropped after White provided evidence that she had been trying to resolve issues within her apartment.
According to KSLA, White, a mother of three, is suing the city after her arrest was linked to apartment conditions that she had attempted to address with the building’s management. In June, White called the police to report a dispute over a PlayStation, but when officers arrived at her apartment, they noticed unsanitary living conditions, including roaches inside the refrigerator and her children in dirty clothes and diapers.
The officers concluded that the living conditions were “unsanitary and unsafe” for the children and charged White with three counts of criminal neglect of a family. However, White’s legal team asserts that she had been actively trying to rectify the situation with her apartment management since the beginning of the year.
White provided proof that she had made three formal requests for pest control services: one on January 21, another on January 23, and a third on April 29. Caddo Parish District Attorney James Stewart Jr. confirmed that White had submitted the requests and added, “We were provided proof that Ms.
White, an employed single mother of three small children, submitted three requests for service in the year 2025 to her apartment manager regarding insect problems inside the apartment. No drugs or firearms were found inside the apartment, nor any injuries to the children.”
After enduring the ordeal, including having her children placed in the care of their father, White’s attorney, Malik Shabazz, is pushing for accountability from the city and police department. “Ms. White did not deserve this excessive and harsh result, which violated her humanity and crushed her 4th and 14th Amendment rights,” Shabazz said.
“I would hate to think that in 2025, Shreveport, Louisiana police still have not overcome discriminatory policing that would lead them to falsely arrest a Black woman for having a pest control problem in the home with her children, particularly when the apartment management is documented as negligent to the tenant’s request for pest control.
These actions of the arresting officer, the Shreveport Police Department, and the apartment management are shameful and harmful to Ms. White, and she deserves justice for this injustice.” Additionally, Atlanta Black Star reported that the apartment complex allegedly refused to accept White’s rent checks following the incident.
White’s legal team shared with KSLA that she has since relocated to a new, fully furnished home, and her children are back in school.