BATON ROUGE, La. (KLFY) — Civil rights activists are calling for Gov. John Bel Edwards’ resignation.

This comes after the governor denied helping Louisiana State Police cover up the death of a black man.

In May of 2019, Ronald Greene led officers on a high-speed chase. In police reports, officers said Greene died after crashing his vehicle.

An autopsy by the FBI, however, disputed those claims.

When bodycam footage was leaked, the world saw what happened that night. The video shows officers tasing and beating Greene.

Since 2019, Governor Edwards has stayed relatively silent about Greene’s death. Though he now says the officer’s actions were criminal, he claims he didn’t know of the officers’ actions until much later.

A recent text released by the governor’s office, however, shows state police notified him of a “violent, lengthy struggle” that night.

Civil rights activists say that the text proves Edwards was aware of the murder of Ronald Greene and chose to stay silent.

“To say there was no misconduct or any coverup by the Louisiana State Police is a blatant lie, and it’s impeachable. You went before the public on a national news broadcast, Governor Edwards, and lied,” National Chair of the New Black Panther Party Krystal Muhammad said.

Civil rights groups like the New Black Panther Party and The Village 337 say they’re outraged after Governor Edwards’ denied any wrongdoing in the aftermath of Ronald Greene’s death at a press conference Tuesday.

“This was the most flustered I had ever seen our governor. Why was he not that flustered when Ronald Greene was murdered? Why has he not been that flustered as we have continued to report on all of these murders that are taking place by the police across the state of Louisiana that’s being investigated by the very department that he’s in control of?” President and Director of The Village 337 Devon Norman said.

These organizations say the text from state police to the governor saying “a violent, lengthy struggle took place” proves Governor Edwards knew Greene did not die in a vehicle crash, as officers stated in the initial police report.

“We know that was not the case. He was drug and beaten while in handcuffs like a runaway slave,” Muhammad added.

She says Greene was viciously murdered, and Governor Edwards should have taken action immediately and held the officers accountable, especially in this climate of police brutality.

“What is taking place is ethnic cleansing and genocide by the hands of the state to black people and people of African descent,” she said.

Muhammed says the officers violated Greene’s human and civil rights, and the governor stood idly by.

“We believe that Governor Edwards should resign. We would like to see him resign,” she said.

Leaders of the new black panther party also say they want Governor Edwards investigated for conspiracy to cover up the murder.