by: Anthony McDougle
date: 2018-03-28
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/hinds/2018/03/29/jpd-adding-foot-patrols-downtown/471120002/
The chief has been largely out of the public eye until March, when he sat down with reporter Therese Apel. Therese Apel
In its continued efforts to enhance the quality of life in Jackson, the Jackson Police Department will be adding a new patrol unit in downtown Jackson. JPD will implement the new unit beginning Monday.
Officers assigned to this patrol will be a daily presence in order to prevent crime and provide assistance when necessary. The officers will also be tasked with interacting with people in the downtown area in an attempt to foster positive policing relationships.
Officers assigned to this patrol will do their work on foot throughout the downtown area, although JPD said it plans to increase its officers' mobility with patrol bicycles later.
by: Therese Apel
date: 2018-03-29
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/03/30/two-out-state-men-arrested-almost-50-pounds-drugs/472888002/
(Photo: Hinds County Sheriff's Department)
Two men are behind bars after authorities say they were caught with 48 pounds of narcotics Wednesday.
According to a release from Hinds County Sheriff's Department, investigators discovered 46 pounds of crystal methamphetamine and over two pounds of powder cocaine during a traffic stop on I-20 near Gallatin Street.
Sheriff Victor Mason said the drugs are worth about $2 million on the street.
It started when a Hinds County Investigator stopped a 2009 BMW for careless driving. The two men were headed to Atlanta from Dallas, officials said, and they got nervous as the deputy questioned them.
"Anytime anybody gets pulled over they're going to get nervous, but these guys know what to look for," Mason said of his officers. "If you didn't do wrong, why be nervous? It's just that simple. And especially if you're in Hinds County, we're going to talk about it."
A K9 alerted on the drugs located in the trunk, according to authorities.
"The dog went around the vehicle and hit on a certain part which led to the search, and the passenger got out and ran and that caused bigger problems," Mason said.
The passenger was apprehended after a short foot chase, Mason said.
"It sends a message that we're doing our job, and we're taking poison off the streets," Mason said. "But the downside is that as we speak, that drug is going back and forth, let's be real about it."
The driver, Enrique Garzon, 25, of Charlotte, North Carolina, and passenger Jessie Trejo, 22, of Loganville, Georgia, were taken into custody and charged with aggravated trafficking of a controlled substance.
Both are being held at the Raymond Detention Center.
"Everybody knows about I-20, it's the main corridor. Everybody in the world knows about I-20, and that's why we're out there, because we're going to know too," the sheriff said.
Not only are cocaine and meth illegal drugs, these days dealers will cut drugs with other substances in order to sell more and make more money. Mason added that there's almost no way to know what could be in drugs anymore.
There's a good opportunity to use drug stops like this to track down the origin of the narcotics, Mason said.
"What we do is work with our federal partners, and even though we stop in Hinds County, we have members assigned to the task force that can reach out. That's what I like about it. It doesn't stop here," Mason said.
He also commented regarding a question about how sometimes people transporting drugs would rather be in prison than face the people whose shipments and money they've lost. More often than not, deliveries along the I-20 are cartel-related.
Basically, he said, Garzon and Trejo have lost $2 million for their supplier.
"Their job was to bring the dope. Their job was to bring the money. Their job was not to get caught," Mason said. "I'm sure he's at the house waiting for it right now."
The sheriff said the BMW will also be seized.
"You never know, I'll probably be cruising in it next week," he said.
by: Harold Gater
date: 2018-03-29
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/03/30/mississippi-minister-statutory-rape/473837002/
When breaking news happens, we want you to see it first hand. Thank you for trusting the Clarion Ledger. Wochit
(Photo: Warren County Jail)
A Warren County minister has been charged with statutory rape and sexual battery, Sheriff Martin Pace said.
The Vicksburg Post reported that The Rev. Troy Anthony Piccaluga, 48, pastor of the Eagle Lake and Redwood United Methodist churches, was arrested Thursday at his home in the Redwood community.
Piccaluga is accused of having sexual contact with two girls between the ages of 14 and 16. The investigation began after the sheriff's department received information that a juvenile had a sexual relationship with an older male. During the course of the investigation a second victim was identified. The alleged incidents occurred at several locations in Warren County, but Sheriff Pace would not say where.
Piccaluga is charged with two counts of statutory rape and one count of sexual battery. He is being held without bond.
by: Associated Press
date: 2018-03-29
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/03/30/mississippi-boy-killing-settlement/474129002/
This is a shortened version of video from a body camera worn by a Marksville Police Department officer on the night of Nov. 3, 2015. It shows the end of a chase between Christopher Few and Marksville Ward 2 deputy marshals. Few was seriously wounded when two marshals, Derrick Stafford and Norris Greenhouse Jr., fired their weapons at his car. Few's 6-year-old son, Jeremy Mardis, was shot and killed. Wochit
BATON ROUGE, La. — A settlement agreement has been reached in a family's lawsuit over the fatal shooting of a 6-year-old autistic Mississippi boy during a traffic stop by law enforcement in Louisiana.
U.S. District Judge Dee Drell dismissed the suit late Thursday as the parties worked toward a final agreement. Drell's order says he can reopen the case if the settlement isn't "consummated" within 90 days.
Steven Lemoine, an attorney for relatives of the slain child, Jeremy Mardis, said in a text message that he can't disclose the terms. Jeremy is from Hattiesburg, Miss.
Jeremy was strapped into the front seat of his father's car when two deputy city marshals in Marksville opened fire on the vehicle after a November 2015 chase, killing the boy and critically wounding his father, Christopher Few.
One deputy, Derrick Stafford, was convicted of manslaughter last March and sentenced to 40 years in prison; the other, Norris Greenhouse Jr., pleaded guilty last September to negligent homicide and was sentenced to 7 ½ years in prison.
The Nov. 3, 2015, shooting was captured on video by a police officer's body camera. Defense attorneys claimed Stafford and Greenhouse acted in self-defense, but prosecutors said the video shows the deputies firing on Few's car from a safe distance while his hands were raised inside the vehicle.
The family's 96-page lawsuit, filed in October 2016, claims Marksville city officials had failed to properly train the deputies on the use of deadly force. The suit also says the officers involved did nothing to stop the boy's bleeding or alleviate his suffering, even after one of them found a pulse on the child.
"Sadly, Jeremy was left to suffer — and die — while the officers casually searched for gloves," the suit said.
The boy's father and two other relatives sued the town of Marksville and its city court, Avoyelles Parish, Marksville City Marshal Floyd Voinche Sr., and the officers involved in the shooting.
Drell's order doesn't specify whether all of the parties are involved in the settlement agreement.
Court filings show Stafford and Greenhouse were ordered to be brought to Alexandria this week for a two-day settlement conference before a federal magistrate judge.
Attorneys for Avoyelles Parish and Stafford declined to comment Friday.
Stafford was a Marksville police lieutenant. He and Greenhouse, a former Marksville police officer, were moonlighting as deputy marshals.
Marksville's deputy marshals were part-timers who normally serve court papers, but Voinche had them stopping cars, writing traffic tickets and going on patrols for months before the shooting because the City Council slashed the city court's budget at the recommendation of Mayor John Lemoine.
The city court, which presides over traffic citations, sued the city over the deep cuts in July 2015, saying Marksville had stopped paying the salaries of Voinche, Judge Angelo Piazza III and the court's clerks.
The family's lawsuit calls the shooting a "barbaric and excessive use of deadly force" that fit a pattern of behavior unpunished by town officials who supervised the two deputies.
The deputies' lawyers claimed Few drove recklessly while leading officers on a 2-mile chase and then rammed into Greenhouse's vehicle as he was getting out of it, before he and Stafford opened fire.
Stafford testified at his trial that he didn't know the boy was in the car and didn't see Few's hands in the air. But he said he shot at the car because he feared Few was going to back up and hit Greenhouse with his vehicle.
Few is white, as was his son. Stafford and Greenhouse are black. Their defense attorneys accused investigators of rushing to judgment, arresting the officers less than a week after the shooting. One of Stafford's attorneys questioned whether investigators would have acted more deliberately had the officers been white.
by: Chuck Poole
date: 2018-03-26
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/opinion/columnists/2018/03/27/bible-belt-christianity-far-spirit-jesus/460087002/
Russell Graddy was part of the organizational and security team for Martin Luther King, Jr. when he visited Paterson on March 27, 1968. Here, Graddy shares pieces of their conversation. Recorded on February 21, 2018. Kevin R. Wexler/NorthJersey.com
(Photo: Special to the Clarion Ledger)
On April 3, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. preached his famous “I have been to the mountaintop” sermon to an enthusiastic congregation on a stormy evening in Memphis.
The next day — April 4, 1968 — he died.
Fifty years later, I don’t remember where I was or what I was doing when I heard that King had been assassinated. I do, however, remember feeling a compelling need to find Marietta Green, an African-American woman who was the custodian at the church my family attended, Log Cabin Baptist Church in Macon, Georgia. So, as soon as I could slip away, I rode my bike to the church, found “Miss Marietta” and said to her, “I heard about Mr. King being killed. I wanted to find you and say that I am sorry.”
She seemed even more nervous and uncomfortable than I, so I got back on my bike and pedaled my way back home, never to mention to anyone my awkward offering of condolence. Even at 12, I was aware that most of the people I knew were not mourning the death of Dr. King and would neither have understood or approved of my gesture.
I imagine that Marietta Green has long since joined King in the nearer presence of God. But, even so, I feel that same need, 50 years later, that I felt 50 years ago, to try again to say at 62 what I tried to say at 12: “I’m sorry.”
I’m sorry for Dr. King’s death at the hands of an assassin 50 years ago. And I’m sorry for the ways the popular Christianity of the Bible Belt has so often failed to embody the spirit of the one we call our Lord, especially when it comes to treating others as we want others to treat us.
I know, of course, that many are quick to dismiss a white person asking forgiveness for racial wounds and scars as “white guilt” and “political correctness.” But what popular culture calls “political correctness” is, in this case, the basic kindness of the Christian conscience. And what is so often derided as “white guilt” is, in fact, the moral responsibility inherent in having been born on the advantaged side of human difference.
Let’s be honest. In the American South, even those who, like myself, were born into families with not much money were nonetheless born on the advantaged side of human difference if they were born, like myself, white, male, straight and in “a Christian home.”
Those of us who were born on the majority side of human difference have held most of the power for most of the time. Therefore, we bear most of the responsibility for the way things have been and for changing things. That isn’t white guilt or political correctness; that is simple, basic, no-frills Christianity:
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
“Love your neighbor as you love yourself.”
“To whom much is given, much is required.”
“Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.”
If we white Christians had more faithfully embodied the spirit of the one we claim to follow, most of the marchers in the civil rights movement would have been white. Indeed, if we had more faithfully embodied the spirit of Jesus, there would not have had to be a movement because we would never have stood silently by while those who were born on the other side of human difference were marginalized and oppressed.
There may be no more obvious commentary on how far Bible Belt Christianity is from the spirit of Jesus than the fact that the states that claim the most Christians have often been the least Christian when it comes to how those of us born on the majority side of human difference have treated those born on the other side of human difference. It is a sad history, one from which we should repent and for which we should ask forgiveness, not only from God but from those who have been marginalized for no other reason than that they happen to have been born on the minority side of human difference.
Needless to say, that is not the sort of forgiveness we need to seek every week or even every year. But certainly the 50th anniversary of the assassination of King is a moment for that kind of remembering and repenting.
And, of course, there is that other, even smaller gesture of repentance and reconciliation — the smallest and simplest one of all, the simple act of saying, “I’m sorry.” Sorry for the pain so many suffered on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Montgomery. Sorry for the murderous violence which took the lives of Addie Mae Collins, Carol Denise McNair, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley on a tragic Sunday morning in Birmingham. Sorry for the bombing of Beth Israel; the murders of Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner; the incarceration of the Freedom Riders; the slayings of our own Medgar Evers and Vernon Dahmer; the assassination of Dr. King; and the countless indignities and injustices people have suffered for no other reason than that they happen to have been born on the minority side of human difference.
No, it wasn’t I who did those things, but it was my people. Thus, it can only be myself and those who look like me who genuinely, simply say that we are sorry.
To give ourselves to that kind of gesture and speech is to own the moral responsibility that rests on those of us who were born on the majority side of human difference and to decide, by words and gestures of kindness, to become channels of reconciliation and grace.
So, 50 years later, with the uniquely heavy weight of responsibility that rests upon a white Baptist preacher in Jackson, Mississippi, and with the prayerful hope that gentle words can somehow travel from this side of the Jordan to the other, “Miss Marietta, I’m still sorry.” Amen.
Chuck Poole is a Jackson-area minster.
by: Marshall Ramsey
date: 2018-03-27
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/opinion/2018/03/28/its-time-legislative-sine-die-april-fools-day-easter-egg-hunt/464096002/
Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves was quick to blame the media and Democrats for killing a new education formula bill, but he did not mention that nearly a fourth of Senate Republicans voted against the measure and four other Republican lawmakers did not vote at all. Bracey Harris and Sam R. Hall/Clarion Ledger
"Welcome to the 2018 Legislative Sine Die April Fool's Day Easter Egg Hunt! I'm your host, Tater Rabbit! In just a few minutes, we will be sending the kids and the lobbyists out onto the Capitol lawn to look for 6.1 billion tasty Easter eggs. But first, I'd like to thank all of you for being here today." Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves paused for a moment to catch his breath. Sweat fogged his glasses inside his big, pink Easter bunny suit. A Mississippi Public Broadcasting truck pulled up to cover the event, causing House Speaker Philip Gunn to yell at the driver, "You better have a plan to pay for your own gas by 2024." Gov. Phil Bryant handed out baskets with Cindy Hyde-Smith for Senate stickers on it. Tater Rabbit and Rep. Andy Gipson, R-Braxton (Smith and Wesson) walked back up to the front of the crowd and said, "As soon as Rep. Gipson fires off his legally concealed weapon, you can go hunt the grounds for eggs!"
Lobbyists jumped up and down with glee, rapidly clapping their hands together like over-caffeinated hummingbirds. Kids and grownups alike bunched together until they heard, "BAM!" from Rep. Gipson's hand cannon. He fired his .38-caliber magnum into the air, killing a flying pigeon and sending the kids and lobbyists scurrying.
"And they are off!"
A pair of lobbyists saw an egg over by a giant oak and pushed a kid out of the way to get to it first. The kid got up and tripped the lobbyists, sending them flying into the nearby bushes. The kid bent over and picked up the egg. The egg read "MAEP funding." The egg was a little bit bigger than last year but way smaller than it was supposed to be. The kid grinned, put the egg in his basket and continued his hunt. "Yeah right — Adequate Eggs-ucation," he mumbled. "We can't even do adequate."
Two kids from the Mississippi Gulf Coast found an egg that was labeled "BP Oil Spill Settlement." They wrestled it open, but it was empty. Tater Rabbit grinned and said, "April Fool's!"
A lobbyist for school vouchers looked all over the lawn for the eggs he just knew were out there but they had been hidden too well by a group of local superintendents. Mississippi Transportation Commissioner Dick Hall walked around like he was lost. He stared at this empty basket and mumbled, "Son of a MDOT." The road and bridge repair eggs were nowhere to be found. "We put out the eggs, but for you to get them, cities had to pay a portion of them up front," Tater Rabbit said. "But If you can't find them, it's the Democrats' fault." The Democrats, who didn't even have enough authority to make coffee without asking permission, were completely perplexed by his comment. Gunn grinned, knowing he had hidden the eggs from Tater Rabbit. Gipson looked at Tater Rabbit and said, "You know, if we armed the participants like I want to arm teachers and everyone in football stadiums including the mascots, we'd be a lot safer out here."
One kid opened an egg that read, "Lottery!" Inside was a piece of paper that read, "Go to Delta, Louisiana to redeem your prize." Over by the outside of the Senate Chamber, two people fought over an egg stamped, "Medicaid." One was from a managed care company, the other from the Mississippi Hospital Association. Before they could decide who got it, a legislator picked it up and yelled, "that's mine, not the governor's!" Bryant signed a law protecting unhatched eggs.
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After many agency heads filled up their baskets, Tater Rabbit and Gunn went around removing eggs from them. "Level funding my friends. Level funding! We must have level funding! And no new state cars. YOU WILL NEVER HAVE NEW STATE CARS!"
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State Senator Chris McDaniel ran across the lawn yelling, "Haley Barbour and the Democrats stole my eggs out of my basket! We must empty the swamp to find my eggs! The establishment is an egg thief!" Two kids holding baskets looked at each other and said in unison, "If you are a sitting state senator, aren't you technically the establishment?" A hissing possum ran up to them and hit them with an egg while screaming, "Liberal!"
Marshall Ramsey (Photo: Clarion Ledger,)
It was a grand sight — a glorious end to an uneventful session. And as Tater Rabbit said goodnight to the crowd, the happy egg hunters gathered around the Capitol dome and sang a classic R.E.M. song:
"It's the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine."
by: Erick Erickson
date: 2018-03-29
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/opinion/columnists/2018/03/30/jesus-christ-history-not-story/470699002/
Survey academic historians on the most important events in history and, regardless of their personal beliefs, they inevitably tend to list the execution of a Jewish carpenter some time around 33 AD as one of the most important events. Whether atheist or religious or Muslim or Buddhist, historians recognize that civilization shifted on this weekend nearly 2000 years ago.
The death of Jesus of Nazareth reshaped the map, gave us a common set of idiomatic expressions, brought down empires, inspired the rapid evolution of art and gave the world a truly global religion. While Judaism is still anchored in Jerusalem and Islam in Mecca, Christianity is a global phenomenon where, even as it purportedly declines in the West, it continues to spread in China, Africa and South America.
Those of us who do believe that Jesus was more than a mere carpenter point to this and find reason to believe had Jesus merely died, he'd just be one of hundreds of men who claimed to be the Jewish messiah during that time period. There were certainly others. Most of them are lost to history. Jesus, however, remains. The gospel writers recorded that Jesus did not just die, but conquered death and rose again. The Apostle Paul documents that Jesus appeared to more than 500 people in the 40-day period between his resurrection and ascension into Heaven.
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Many prefer to believe Jesus never existed. It is a far easier explanation for them than to deal with the inconvenient truth that the death of a supposed carpenter set off a global religion. Only something profound associated with that death could have pulled that off. Only something profound would see people, less than a generation after His death, willing to lay down their own lives for Him. It does suggest the resurrection is a historic event. It boggles the mind that so many would be willing to die proclaiming Jesus the risen Lord so soon after His death if it had not happened.
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Erick Erickson (Photo: Submitted photo)
In truth, we have more contemporaneous accounts of the existence of Jesus than we do of several Roman Emperors, including the Emperor Nero, or even Mohammed. Merely by the standards of examining the truth of history, it is hard to argue Jesus, the man, is a myth. The Roman historian Tacitus, around 116 AD, noted, "Nero fastened the guilt [for burning Rome] and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular."
That "mischievous superstition" was the belief that Jesus was still alive. In the Roman Empire, everyone was expected to worship a god. Christians were considered enemies of mankind because they worshipped a living person, not a dead man, which made them atheists.
Beyond the historic references, something more had to have happened. Even Jesus's brother James, who the historic record shows rejected Jesus in life and did not even show up at his crucifixion, became a leader in the early church. Eusebius, one of the earliest church historians, documents that leaders in Jerusalem went to James to have him publicly denounce the religion that had sprung up around his brother. Eusebius notes that James announced he'd been wrong and his brother really was Yahweh incarnate, the living God. The local leaders, enraged, dragged James to the top of the temple wall and hurled him off to his death. That those who knew Jesus best were willing to die in defense of His divinity is staggering. I assure you neither my siblings nor yours would be willing to die in defense of your divinity.
There really is no historic dispute that Jesus lived. The question is whether He still lives and is God. For those who doubt, perhaps they should ask Him, sincerely, and find out.
Erick Erickson is a nationally syndicated columnist and conservative commentator.
by: Ray Mosby
date: 2018-03-29
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/opinion/columnists/2018/03/30/ray-mosby-easters-very-complex-simplicity/472559002/
(Photo: Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledge)
“A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act.” —Mahatma Gandhi, a Hindu man of peace, about Jesus of Nazareth.
ROLLING FORK—Easter is Sunday morning.
Sunday morning the Easter Bunny will make his annual appearance in front yards, weather allowing, and in living rooms if it doesn’t. (Of all the traditional little white lies we tell our children in order to make their childhoods more childishly wonderful, it was this one I recognized as such the earliest. At about seven or so, I think a magic rabbit bringing boiled chicken eggs and hiding them exceeded even then my willingness to suspend disbelief.)
Sunday morning will mark the virgin appearances of Easter dresses and new spring suits and the once-a-year appearances at churches of many on their congregational rolls.
But more importantly, Sunday morning will also mark the Christian faith’s celebration of its most central tenant — of what it holds as the most significant occurrence in the collective histories of all those who now or have ever inhabited the planet Earth.
Easter Sunday will be a joyous ones for Christians because of what they believe, a sort of perversely joyous one for atheists because of what they don’t believe and a confusingly troubling one for the agnostics of the world who neither believe nor disbelieve within their no-man’s-land of reality-based doubt that asks if such a thing could even be known.
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Because Easter is the most exclusively faith-based holiday that is widely observed in this country of ours. There’s some wiggle-room from a theological standpoint with Christmas, but not so, with Easter, any religious observance of which requires one to accept as fact something literally supernatural.
No less a thinker than the English philosopher and man of letters C.S.Lewis, whose marvelous little treatise “Mere Christianity” lays out his case for Christianity in a well reasoned and otherwise logical manner, takes no prisoners when it comes to that point:
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the truly foolish thing about (Jesus),” Lewis wrote, “that I’m ready to accept Him as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on the level of the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice.”
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And ultimately, it is that choice which is the central tenet of the Christian faith and the essence of Easter.
It is simple, as tenets go. It is both remarkable and overwhelming within that simplicity, and yet, as intellectually inexplicable and fundamentally inherent as a young child’s recitation of its most sacred words: “For God so loved the world…”
It is a tenet manifested within the life of a man who was yet, not a man, of a man who died and yet, did not. It is a tenet whose symbolic representation of life is one of death and whose storyline is that of self-servitude transformed by self-sacrifice.
It is a story whose plot is preposterous by virtually all standards — save its own.
It is melodrama; it is mega-epic. It is the most amazingly brazen account of any event at any time before or since.
At yet, it is believed. Not merely believed, but BELIEVED.
It has, for millions of Christians, that which the admirable Mr. Lewis observed as having, “that ring of truth which real things do.”
For it is not the story of a man, but rather the story of what Man might be. It is the ultimate of all things ultimate—of sacrifice, of hope, of peace, of reason for things unreasonable, of love.
And one man of peace so admired by the other quoted above, said that the greatest of these is love.
As millions gather in Christian places of worship Sunday morning, it will be suggested that the day is one of celebration, a day of recognition and awe at this most complex of all simplicities.
It will be suggested that the divine was made manifest so that the world might aspire to the divine.
One translation of the word “amen” is “may it be so.”
Amen.
Ray Mosby is editor of the Deer Creek Pilot in Rolling Fork.
by: Anthony McDougle
date: 2018-03-20
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/03/21/billions-unclaimed-2014-tax-refund-dollars-await-american-citizens/447895002/
On Wednesday, Gov. Phil Bryant appointed the first female U.S. senator from Mississippi, state Agriculture Commissioner Cindy Hyde-Smith, to fill the seat vacated by Sen. Thad Cochran. Geoff Pender/Clarion Ledger
WASHINGTON ― Billions of unclaimed dollars are waiting for citizens across the country. That's the word from Washington after the Internal Revenue Service announced March 8 in a press release that $1.1 billion may be waiting for an estimated 1 million taxpayers who did not file a 2014 federal income tax return.
Any taxpayers who did not file in 2014 and wish to collect their money must file their tax return with the IRS no later than April 17.
"We’re trying to connect a million people with their share of $1.1 billion in unclaimed refunds for 2014,” acting IRS Commissioner David Kautter said. "Time is running out for people who haven’t filed tax returns to claim their refunds. Students, part-time workers and many others may have overlooked filing for 2014. And there’s no penalty for filing a late return if you’re due a refund.”
The estimated median of potential refunds for 2014 is projected to be $847; half of the refunds are more than $847 and half are less. In Mississippi, around 10,200 individuals may be due a refund, with the median at $777. A total of $10,291,100 — excluding earned income tax — is the total of estimated refunds for taxpayers in the Magnolia State.
Normally, if a tax return is not filed within three years, the money becomes the property of the U.S. Treasury. Although law usually provides taxpayers with a three-year window to claim a tax refund, the window for 2014 tax refunds was extended a year to the aforementioned date. The law requires taxpayers to properly address, mail and ensure the tax return is postmarked by that date.
Even if a taxpayer is entitled to a 2014 refund, their checks can be held if they failed to file returns for 2015 and 2016. The refund could also be applied to amounts owed to the IRS or a state tax agency and may be used to offset unpaid child support or past due federal debts like student loans.
Current and prior year tax forms and instructions are available on the IRS.gov Forms and Publications page or by calling toll-free 800-TAX-FORM (800-829-3676).
Taxpayers who are missing Forms W-2, 1098, 1099 or 5498 for the years 2014, 2015 or 2016 should request copies from their employer, bank or other payer. Taxpayers who are unable to get missing forms from their employer or other payer can order a free wage and income transcript at IRS.gov using the Get Transcript Online tool.
by: Sarah Mearhoff
date: 2018-03-20
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/03/21/mississippi-warden-testifies-private-prison-conditions/445480002/
In its lawsuit against Mississippi, the American Civil Liberties Union and Southern Poverty Law Center argue that the state has been aware of East Mississippi Correctional Facility's unconstitutionally abusive conditions. Special to Clarion Ledger
(Photo: photos.com)
A warden testified Tuesday that he saw reports that document what plaintiffs argue are unconstitutionally abusive conditions at a Mississippi state prison.
The American Civil Liberties Union and Southern Poverty Law Center are arguing that the state has been aware of dangerous conditions at East Mississippi Correctional Facility. Defense attorneys, however, say the conditions are acceptable, and that some prisoners' harm is self-inflicted.
Located near Meridian, the prison is privately operated under contract by Utah-based Management and Training Corp.
Warden Frank Shaw oversees the day-to-day operations of the notoriously violent prison.
Plaintiffs presented evidence Tuesday of reports compiled by prison staff that document conditions like inmate deaths and injuries and prison fires. Shaw testified that he sees the reports before they are sent to the Mississippi Department of Corrections.
According to most recent reports presented by plaintiffs, 78 inmates were injured in June 2017.
Four inmates have died so far in 2018, and one remains in intensive care. When asked whether he considers this a large number of deaths in a year, Shaw said, "Every corrections facility I've ever worked in has had a certain number of deaths."
Fires, qualified as major or minor, are also documented. According to reports presented Tuesday, there were no fires over 11 months.
But several inmates have testified during the three weeks of the federal trial that fires are started by inmates on a daily basis, and plaintiffs have presented video evidence of such. Oftentimes, fires are started in cells to get guards' attention.
Shaw testified that inmate fires are not documented. He said, "disaster fires" would be reported.
When asked if he considers fires started by inmates a "major problem," Shaw said no. Video evidence of fires from 2016 and 2017 presented by prosecutors, he said, is outdated.
Plaintiffs also argued that much of the prison's violence can be attributed to insufficient supervision.
Several inmates have testified that guards were not present during attacks or medical emergencies. Shaw testified he is ultimately responsible for ensuring mandatory security posts at the prison are filled "if at all possible."
If guards leave their posts while on duty, Shaw said they are disciplined "depending on how often it happens and what the type of abandonment may be."
In addition to the reports, plaintiffs showed video evidence of several incidents involving prison guards. In two incidents, they were standing back as an unrestrained inmate assaulted another. Shaw said they did so to protect their own safety.
In other videos, guards used pepper spray to subdue inmates while they were in their cells. The intention is to cause inmates pain, forcing them to subdue. Pepper spray can irritate eyes and induce coughing.
When asked if cells are decontaminated after being sprayed before inmates are put back inside, Shaw said there is not a "blanket policy on how to decontaminate a cell." Sometimes a blower is used to air out the cell, and other times, Shaw said keeping the cell door open is enough.
Shaw is one of the state's primary witnesses for the defense and will testify again once it begins to make its case in the coming weeks.
by: Jimmie E. Gates
date: 2018-03-18
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/03/19/police-dog-mauled-jackson-man-three-times-lawsuit-against-flowood-pd-alleges/438557002/
Download The Clarion-Ledger app for free on the Apple app store or Google Play. Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger
A Jackson man is accusing the Flowood Police Department in a federal lawsuit of “brazen police brutality and lawlessness” for allegedly allowing a police dog to maul him three times while he was in their custody.
Derrick Robinson filed the $5 million lawsuit in federal court against Flowood, its police department and five of the department’s officers. It also names the Jackson Police Department and/or Hinds County Sheriff's Department as defendants.
Robinson alleges the maulings by the dog occurred in the early morning hours of Aug. 19, 2016, during the course of his arrest and detention, including while he was handcuffed, helpless and injured outside his Jackson home.
Flowood has not filed a response to answer the lawsuit.
The Clarion Ledger has left messages with Flowood Police Chief Richie McCluskey and attorney H. David Clark III, who is representing the city in the lawsuit. Robinson is represented by Bradley Clanton of Jackson and Daniel Waide of Hattiesburg.
“Defendants violated a plethora of plaintiff’s civil rights on the night of Aug. 19, 2016, when plaintiff was repeatedly mauled by a dog, had gun pointed at his head in the presence of his wife and children, and needlessly arrested for no reason at all,” Robinson’s lawsuit said. “Indeed, the officers and others involved had to call an ambulance to take Mr. Robinson to the hospital to repair the gashes in his head caused by the police dog assault prior to taking him to jail on trumped-up, bogus charges to justify the brutal and unnecessary beating he received by the officers involved.”
Robinson said he was traveling from his job at Sanderson Farm in Flowood at approximately 12:15 a.m. that morning when he noticed a police sports vehicle was following closely behind him. He said the SUV followed him for about 20 minutes and a few moments after crossing into Hinds County, the Flowood police cruiser turned on its lights.
Robinson said he became concerned for his safety, knowing that the Flowood police had been following him for miles and a great length of time, and suddenly turned on their lights only after they exited their jurisdiction.
Robinson said he promptly dialed 911 and the operator advised him to continue to drive until he found a safe, well-lit place to pull over. Robinson said he continued to his home and upon exiting his vehicle, he was attacked by a Flowood police dog resembling a German shepherd.
The dog attacked him for approximately 10 seconds, Robinson said, while the officers looked on. He was screaming, and the officer called the dog off. Robinson said he was lying on his stomach, injured and bleeding, and then handcuffed behind his back. He said the police officer cursed at him and told him he commanded the dog to attack him because he was angry that Robinson didn’t immediately pull over.
Robinson said his wife and four children, ages 4, 6,11 and 14, witnessed the incident. He said police officers, using profanity, told his wife and children to get out of the window. He said the officers told him to get up off the ground and when he struggled to get up, one of the officers with the dog ordered it to attack him again.
“As Mr. Robinson was visibly injured, bleeding and limping toward the police car, his wife cracked the front door open to ask if he was OK,” Robinson’s lawsuit said.
The police officer pushed against the screen door against his wife and using profanity told her to stay in the house. He said the officer then ordered the dog to attack Robinson again.
According to Robinson, an officer held a gun to his head.
The lawsuit said one of the officers told Robinson all he had to do was to pull over. Robinson said he replied, “I was in Jackson and I felt unsafe. I just work. Please don’t do this.”
Robinson said the officers were yelling and cursing and demanding, “Where are the drugs?”
Robinson said he told them he didn’t have any drugs and a search of his vehicle didn’t find any drugs. During the incident, a Hinds County sheriff's deputy arrived on the scene as well as a sergeant in the Flowood Police Department. Sometime later, several Jackson Police Department officers arrived and an ambulance came to transport him to a hospital.
Robinson’s lawsuit said he received stitches and clamps at River Oaks Hospital to close the gashes in his head and legs. He said he was then arrested. He said four days after his incarceration, he was taken by the Flowood Police Department to the Flowood municipal building and placed in a holding cell. He said he met with an appointed defense attorney for roughly 15 minutes and the attorney said he had been given a deal for him to plead guilty to fleeing, evading and resisting arrest in exchange for dropping the felony evading charge. Robinson said he took the deal, which required him to serve 90 days to six months in jail.
Robinson said he saw the medical staff every week for the for the first two months he was in custody.
More: Judge: Racial bias lawsuit against Mississippi coroner can proceed
by: Jimmie E. Gates
date: 2018-03-19
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/03/20/death-sentence-reinstated-mississippis-only-woman-death-row/443397002/
Download The Clarion-Ledger app for free on the Apple app store or Google Play. Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger
(Photo: Miss. Dept. of Corrections)
The 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has reinstated the death sentence of Lisa Jo Chamberlin, Mississippi's only female death row inmate.
The ruling Tuesday came almost three years after a federal court ruling granting her a new trial in a double homicide in Hattiesburg.
The full 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, with the exception of Judge James Graves who recused himself, reviewed the judge's ruling and a ruling by a three-judge panel of the court that voted 2-1 to affirm the ruling.
On a motion by the Mississippi attorney general's office, the 5th Circuit agreed to hear the case.
Special Assistant Attorney General Cameron Benton argued the two U.S. Court of Appeals judges put together unimpressive statistics and an incomplete comparative analysis to find the existence of discrimination in the striking of two black prospective jurors.
Jimmie Gates: Bill on the way to governor to allow UMMC to move buried bodies
"There is ample proof in the record to suggest that the exercise of peremptory strikes was not motivated by racial animus," Benton said in court papers. "Given the dearth of proof and the deference owed to the State Court, the Majority opinion seems to have improperly substituted its judgment for that of the trial judge and appellate court."
In 2015, U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves ordered the state to grant Chamberlin a new trial within four months, saying prosecutors intentionally struck black potential jurors from her capital murder trial.
Chamberlin is white. She argued on appeal that her rights were violated by prosecutors striking some black potential jurors for non-racial neutral reasons.
But the 5th Circuit 9-to-5 ruling Tuesday said, "The prosecution in Chamberlin’s case did what it was supposed to do: it rejected some black prospective jurors and accepted others, accepted some white prospective jurors and rejected others. When asked why it struck individual black prospective jurors, it gave specific race-neutral reasons for the strikes."
The five who opposed reinstating Chamberlin’s conviction said: “The prosecution struck nearly two times as many black jurors as it accepted (eight strikes compared to five accepted, including one alternate), while accepting more than four times as many white jurors as it struck (five strikes compared to 23 accepted, including three alternates). It exercised 62 percent of its strikes on black jurors, despite black jurors making up only 31 percent of qualified prospective jurors.
"This racial breakdown of the strikes is even more telling when compared with the results random strikes would predict. Given the demographics of the venire, the probability that random, race-neutral strikes would result in 8 of the 13 struck jurors being black was about 1 in a 100.”
Chamberlin and her boyfriend, Roger Lee Gillett, were convicted of two counts of capital murder in the March 2004 slayings of Gillet's cousin, Vernon Hulett, 34, and Hulett's girlfriend, Linda Heintzelman, 37, in Hattiesburg. Their bodies were transported to Kansas in a freezer.
Gillett and Chamberlin were arrested March 29, 2004, after Kansas Bureau of Investigation agents raided an abandoned farmhouse near Russell, Kansas, owned by Gillett's father, and found the dismembered bodies of Hulett and Heintzelman in a freezer.
KBI agents were investigating Gillett and Chamberlin for their possible connection to the manufacture of methamphetamine, according to published reports.
Gillett and Chamberlin were living with Hulett and Heintzelman in Hattiesburg at the time of the slayings.
Chamberlin, in a taped confession played at her trial, said the victims were killed because they wouldn't open a safe in Hulett's home.
Chamberlain was sentenced to death row in 2006, and Gillett was sentenced in 2007.
However, Gillett's death sentence was later overturned by the Mississippi Supreme Court. The court said an escape couldn't be used as a crime of violence to support a death sentence.
Chamberlin filed a post-conviction challenge to her conviction in 2011 in U.S. District Court after the state Supreme Court upheld her conviction and death sentence.
One of the claims was that the prosecution improperly struck seven African-Americans from serving on her jury. The prosecutor said he struck 12 potential jurors — seven black and five white. He denied any effort to strike potential jurors based upon race.
Reeves said federal law requires in death penalty cases that comparative analysis be done when black potential jurors are struck compared to white jurors allowed to remain in the jury pool.
by: Jimmie E. Gates
date: 2018-03-19
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2018/03/20/new-law-prohibit-local-government-banning-plastic-bags-other-type-containers/442256002/
Gov. Cuomo is showing support for banning single-use shopping bags after New York City mayor Bill De Blasio called for a ban on plastic bags. Natasha Vaughn, Albany Bureau
(Photo: Anne-Marie Caruso/NorthJersey.com)
A new law goes into effect in Mississippi in July to prohibit local governments from regulating use of plastic bags, paper cups or other auxiliary containers by retailers or food vendors.
Gov. Phil Bryant has signed Senate Bill 2570 into law.
The bill prohibits a government from banning the use of the containers or imposing a fee on their use. It says an auxiliary container means a bag, cup, bottle or other packaging, whether reusable or single-use, that meets both of the following requirements:
• It's made of cloth, paper, plastic, cardboard, corrugated material, aluminum, glass, post-consumer recycled material, or similar material or substrates, including coated, laminated or multi-layer substrates.
• It's designed for transporting, consuming or protecting merchandise, food or beverages from or at a food service, including manufacturing, distribution or further processing, retail facility.
Sen. Rita Parks, R-Corinth, authored the bill. It passed in the Senate 37-15 and 113-0 in the House.
Parks' bill doesn't prohibit any restrictions on a curbside recycling program, a designated residential or commercial recycling location, or a commercial recycling program. It also doesn't apply to any ordinance prohibiting littering, or use of auxiliary containers on city-owned property.
When the bill was presented on the Senate floor, Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Armory, spoke against it.
"If a local government wants to regulate plastic bags and Styrofoam cups, why are we trying to keep them from doing it?," Bryan asked.
Bryan said everyone faces the problem of the amount of garbage humans are leaving on this planet.
He said the amount of garbage isa problem that that people need to decide what they will do about.
Bryan said there have been reports of fish in the ocean having small pieces of plastics in their system and larger fish eating the smaller ones with the plastic.
Some cities and other government bodies have passed ordinances banning plastic bags or have imposed fees for their use.
Bryan said the new law was likely inspired from national events because he doesn't believe any local government has an ordinance prohibiting plastic, paper or any other type containers.
by: Associated Press
date: 2018-03-16
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/03/17/ex-chickasaw-county-deputy-indicted-child-porn-charges/435143002/
HOUSTON, Miss. — A former Chickasaw County sheriff's deputy has been indicted on child pornography charges.
WTVA-TV reports 48-year-old Jimmy Rappe was booked into the Chickasaw County jail Thursday. He was later released after posting $25,000 bond.
It was unknown if Rappe has an attorney.
According to Sheriff Jim Meyers, the attorney general's office contacted him last year about a complaint made against Rappe. Meyers says Rappe promptly resigned after learning of the attorney general's investigation. Further details were not released.
He says the attorney general's office presented its case to a grand jury on Wednesday which then returned an indictment.
by: Anna Wolfe
date: 2018-03-13
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2018/03/14/almost-9-out-10-arrested-seat-belt-violations-madison-county-black/423120002/
ACLU Mississippi announced today its filing of a motion for class action against the Madison County Sheriff's Department for alleged disproportionate targeting of African American residents. Sarah Warnock/Clarion Ledger
(Photo: Sarah Warnock/Clarion Ledger)
Nearly nine out of 10 people arrested for seat belt violations by Madison County sheriff's deputies are black.
Though black residents make up less than 40 percent of the county's population.
Attorneys for residents who are suing the sheriff alleging discriminatory policing practices said the statistics show black residents are targeted, sometimes violently, by law enforcement because of their race.
Black people in the county are five times more likely to be arrested than white people, according to the lawsuit.
"I don't believe there's an explanation for that data other than what we believe it to be, which is that it has to do with some sort of racial-based policy, practice or custom," attorney Jonathan Youngwood said a news conference Wednesday.
Attorneys for plaintiffs suing Madison County sheriff's officers, alleging discriminatory policing practices, say they found officers using a pre-filled form on which "black," "male," and "arrested" are already indicated.
(Photo: Special to Clarion Ledger)
The American Civil Liberties Union and the New York City-based law firm of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett filed the class-action lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Jackson against Sheriff Randy Tucker and his deputies in May. After six months of discovery, attorneys filed additional evidence, hundreds of pages of documents and testimony, in court Wednesday.
The complaint focuses on two areas: black residents being disproportionately stopped and searched in cars, especially through the use of roadblocks, and black residents being disproportionately stopped and searched while on foot.
In the official response to the complaint, filed in June, attorneys for the sheriffs deputies denied the allegations and said roadblocks are equally located in the southern part of the county, including Madison and Ridgeland, where there is a greater white population.
The county is divided, north and south, by race. In Canton, a predominately black city and the county seat, 30 percent of residents live under the poverty line compared to less than 4 percent in Madison.
"The Sheriff's Department does not set up 'pedestrian' checkpoints, does not conduct warrantless searches of the homes of Black residents, and does not conduct 'jump out' patrols," the response states. "Instead, the Sheriff's Department utilizes patrols known as the 'NET' or Neighborhood Enhancement Team. These teams do not concentrate their patrols to Black neighborhoods; instead, they are used in all facets of law enforcement in Madison County and are conducted throughout the County, regardless of the racial make-up of an area."
But Youngwood said that through the investigation, his team was able to map the locations of roadblocks and found they exist in predominately black communities at nearly twice the rate of predominately white communities.
He said they analyzed the data for other factors and explanations beyond the racial makeup of the population, but "we were unable to find a non-racial basis for the placement of the roadblocks."
"Given all of that, evidence strongly suggests that racial bias is related to the disparity of frequency of roadblocks in predominately black communities," Youngwood said.
The sheriff's office would not comment on the latest filing because of the ongoing litigation. The June response, however, said Tucker created a Madison County Community Advisory Group, made up of both black and white citizens, to discuss concerns.
"One of the purposes for his creating this Group was to improve race relations in Madison County, which has been one of his main objectives since being elected to office," the response states.
Plaintiffs attorneys say they have evidence and testimony to describe the atmosphere in the department, including the use of racial slurs not being met with discipline.
Emails attached to the plaintiffs' latest filing show Sgt. Joe Butler sent an email in 2009 with the subject title "WHITE Pride" to several addresses, including Sheriff Tucker. The email played on the widely publicized racist rant of Michael Richards, or Kramer on the TV show "Seinfeld," in 2006. It compared names like "cracker" and "whitey" to the n-word and other offensive slurs for several ethnicities and complained about the existence of B.E.T. and absence of White Entertainment Television.
Canton resident and plaintiff Lawrence Blackmon said there's also a "suspect first, citizen later" mentality in the Sheriff's Department.
In another email, Tucker responded to three pieces of legislation the ACLU introduced during the 2016 session, one that would have required officers to receive written consent to search a vehicle when the officer doesn't have a warrant, isn't making an arrest, or does not have probable cause.
"I've read these and all are utterly ridiculous. Sure hope they don't pass any of them!" the sheriff wrote Jan. 8, 2016, according to emails attached to the latest court filing.
In order to qualify as a class action suit, the residents' attorneys sought to show a pattern of discriminatory policing procedures which target the area's black residents.
"This is not a case about individual (officers). If it were a case about individuals, it would be very different," Youngwood said.
Attorney Joshua Tom, Legal Director, ACLU of MS addresses members of the press at the announcement of the ACLU's filing of a motion for class action against the Madison County Sheriff's Department alleging disproportionate targeting of black residents.
Through discovery, attorneys found that at least two deputies use template "Narcotics Unit Case File Cover Sheet" forms on which "black," "male," and "arrested" are already marked.
"(Madison County Sheriff's Department)'s own paperwork confirms that it targets Black citizens for arrest," Joshua Tom, legal director for the ACLU of Mississippi, said in a release. "The evidence will show discriminatory and unconstitutional policing, and we are looking forward to presenting all of the facts as our case moves forward."
The suit involves eight plaintiffs, black men and women ages 28 to 63, who were stopped, searched or arrested while walking to work, driving in their neighborhoods, or at their homes.
In 2015, several sheriffs deputies arrived at Blackmon's home, threatening to kick down his door. They were searching for his cousin, whom Blackmon said no longer lived there.
Blackmon said he allowed the officers inside and they forced him on the ground by gunpoint and handcuffed him. Blackmon said he asked deputies to produce a warrant, but they did not.
"Instead, they proceeded to check the entirety of the home, including areas where it were not even possible for my cousin or anyone else to be, including drawers, cabinets, etc.," Blackmon said during the news conference. "Unfortunately, this was not an isolated incident, but rather another reminder of the fact that being black in Madison County oftentimes means that your constitutional rights can be disregarded by overzealous Madison County sheriff's deputies."
The sheriff's response contradicts Blackmon's story, saying the officers had an arrest warrant for Anthony Green for failing to pay child support, which they held up to the door prior to kicking it down. Officers also allege Blackmon refused to give his name.
Deputies entered the home of another plaintiff, Khadafy Manning, in 2016 and threatened him with jail time if he did not provide a statement accusing someone of burglary — a statement he said was false.
"Mr. Manning was asked to write a witness statement concerning a burglary that he, as well as his wife, had been observed witnessing," alleges the sheriff's response. "Mr. Manning was told that if he did not cooperate and provide the statement, he would be arrested for being accomplice in the crime. Mr. Manning was handcuffed after he was detained, but no unreasonable force was exercised against him while he was being detained."
Someone was filming. The video shows the officer with his hands around Manning's neck while Manning's hands are behind his back.
"Officer, why are you handling me like this?" Manning said.
"Because you're not acting right," he responded.
"We were very fortunate that this time, that particular incident was caught on camera and so it kind of brings us beyond a he say, she say point," Blackmon said. "It's kind of impossible to argue with what the camera shows in that incident. With that being the kind of propeller for the rest of this ... We recognize if we don't stand up and speak out and confront this reality, that blacks in Madison County will continue to be subject to such treatment."
by: Therese Apel
date: 2018-03-14
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/03/15/narcotics-head-inappropriate-contact-batesville/429226002/
When breaking news happens, we want you to see it first hand. Thank you for trusting the Clarion Ledger. Wochit
The former head of the narcotics division for the Batesville Police Department is under investigation by the Mississippi Attorney General's Office, officials said.
Assistant Chief Kerry Pittman said Sgt. Charlie Tindall, a veteran officer with roughly 12 years at BPD, resigned a few weeks ago because of the investigation.
Tindall is accused of inappropriate contact with an informant.
Batesville police have been aware of the investigation for a few weeks now, Pittman said. He directed further comment to the AG's office.
AG Jim Hood's spokeswoman, Margaret Ann Morgan, said as is policy, she could neither confirm nor deny the investigation.
The exact nature of the allegations has not so far been made public.
Pittman confirmed that McCloud was not the chief at the time the allegations against Tindall took place.
This story will be updated as more information is available.
by: Justin Vicory
date: 2018-03-14
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/03/15/jackson-council-majority-supports-releasing-jpd-officer-ids-after-shooting-deaths/416120002/
Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba banned the release of mug shots by the police of persons shot in officer-involved shootings Wochit
(Photo: Special to The Clarion-Ledger)
Before former Jackson Police Chief Lee Vance stepped down, he warned City Council that a staff shortage within his department had forced him to pull personnel from other areas to work patrol.
Vance said he feared for the safety of his officers and residents alike and favored loosening residency requirements.
"And if you have a situation where an officer gets hurt because they don't have the backup, that's a larger problem — with all due respect — than where they live," Vance said last fall. "Or if they have to take a deadly force action against somebody because they don't have the backup, that's a bigger problem than where they live."
The council voted 6 to 1 to in October to pass the ordinance.
More: Jackson lifts residency requirement for police, fire personnel
Less than a month later, an officer-involved shooting took the life of a Jackson man.
Since Jan. 1, there have been two more officer-involved shooting deaths.
In such cases, JPD has stood behind the longstanding policy to not identify the officers.
Interim Chief Anthony Moore has said disclosing the officers' names could threaten their safety, a familiar refrain from departments across the state.
But, Jackson council members, who have been hearing from concerned residents over the recent shooting deaths, are leaning toward more transparency.
City Council Vice President Melvin Priester last week said he supports the release of officer identification after officer-involved shooting deaths but with some caveats.
"I personally believe there needs to be more transparency unless there’s a credible and specific threat or it's proven it'll hurt an ongoing investigation," he said.
Incidents over last four months
• On Nov. 15, a JPD officer fired one shot into the chest of a man who allegedly approached her with a 6-inch knife.
• Crystalline Barnes, 21, was shot while in the 1400 block of Fernwood Drive after she drove her vehicle directly at two officers, JPD said.
• Lee Edward Bonner, 37, died days after being shot by police while in the 1300 block of Deer Park Street on Feb. 23. After a foot pursuit, Bonner allegedly pulled out a handgun and fired at officers. They returned fire, striking Bonner.
The officers involved in the shootings are on administrative leave while an internal and criminal investigation is being conducted. They will also need to be cleared by a grand jury before returning to service, according to an unwritten policy put in place by Moore.
Ward 4 Councilman De'Keither Stamps said he favors releasing officer information but is holding out for a thorough explanation from the department of its concerns.
"They talk about officer safety, but when a civilian is involved, you see their picture on the news," he said.
"I know in the more popular national cases, we know officers who are involved. We don't want people to take matters into their own hands, whether police or civilian, but in most cases, people already know who's involved. This is Jackson, not New York or Los Angeles," Stamps said.
Ward 1 Councilman Ashby Foote, the only Republican on the council, said he leans in favor of more public transparency and shares Priester’s views on safety concerns.
Ward 6 Councilman Aaron Banks supports a conditional release of JPD information.
"We need to make sure the department is transparent and also remains safe. I believe whoever is involved in investigating the case is given the opportunity to make the case that releasing the information is a threat to the officers, before making it public," Banks said.
Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba recently backed Moore at a news conference, also citing officer safety, but he said Thursday he would have to look at all arguments before making a final decision.
"I haven't come to a decision. That doesn't mean I'm not against it or for it. I think we need to know the implications first," the mayor said.
Lumumba has scheduled a meeting at the Jackson Convention Center on April 19 to discuss policing strategies such as citizen review boards and community policing options.
by: Jimmie E. Gates
date: 2018-03-15
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2018/03/16/bipartisan-bill-seeks-reduce-repeat-offenders-end-debtor-prisons/431470002/
Gipson says HB 387 will help prevent repeat offenders and do away with debtor prisons. Wochit
In a rare show of bipartisan support, lawmakers have sent to the governor a bill that seeks to reduce repeat inmate offenders, do away with debtor prisoners and study sentencing disparities across the state.
Not a single lawmaker in the House or Senate voted against House Bill 387, which is awaiting the governor's signature.
House Judiciary B Chairman Andy Gipson, R-Braxton, author of the bill, said the proposals would give released inmates a better chance of getting a job and becoming taxpaying citizens instead of returning to prison.
Last year, a similar bill was vetoed by Gov. Phil Bryant because of a typographical error that the governor said could have allowed habitual offenders to be released after serving only 25 percent of their sentence.
The version of the bill this year doesn’t allow early release of habitual or violent offenders.
Story continues after gallery.
It does allow those on probation or parole to check in with their probation officers via technology such as FaceTime and Skype to prevent them from having to leave work and risk losing jobs.
One of the main parts of the bill does away with so-called debtor prisons.
A federal lawsuit filed late last year accused Corinth and its municipal judge of operating a debtor prison by unlawfully jailing poor people for their inability to make bail and pay fines.
"Even though debtors' prisons have been outlawed in this country for more than 200 years, Corinth is running a jail from the Dark Ages in one of the nation's poorest regions — it's shameful," Sam Brooke, deputy legal director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, said in a statement.
In 2015, a similar lawsuit was filed against Jackson, alleging the city was unconstitutionally jailing the poor for not paying fines owed for traffic violations and other misdemeanors — sometimes for months at a time.
The Corinth lawsuit says the city routinely was violating the constitutional rights of people facing misdemeanor or municipal charges by holding them in jail until they pay bail money or their fine, without taking into account their ability to pay, as required by law.
The SPLC and MacArthur Justice Center said they have been investigating the court's practices over the last year. Over the course of the investigation, the groups encountered many indigent defendants who were threatened with jail time or spent a considerable amount of time in jail for their inability to pay court-imposed fines.
Cliff Johnson, director of the MacArthur Justice Center at the University of Mississippi School of Law, said the center and other civil rights organizations like the SPLC will keep filing lawsuits and judicial performance complaints until judges, cities and counties abide by the law.
Gipson said House Bill 387 prohibits a person being jailed for failing to pay fines or court costs.
The bill says a person can only be incarcerated after a court conducts a hearing and examines the reasons for nonpayment and finds, on the record, that the person wasn't indigent.
American Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Jennifer Riley Collins called the legislation one of the most significant steps forward in criminal justice reform in the state since the comprehensive reform bill known as House Bill 585 was passed in 2014.
Americans for Prosperity-Mississippi, a grassroots group that believes in limited government, is also praising HB 387.
“By passing HB 387, the House and Senate have made smart, bipartisan progress toward protecting the public, reducing the burden on taxpayers and helping incarcerated individuals successfully re-enter our communities,” said AFP-MS State Director Russ Latino.
Gipson said HB 387 will also create a study committee to review sentencing disparities in the state for the same crime, which he said can vary from zero to 30 years.
More: Pearl Youth Court judge resigns, court permanently closed
by: Therese Apel
date: 2018-03-15
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/03/16/inmates-mother-alleges-son-singled-out-abuse/432351002/
"Pretty much all of Jackson, Mississippi is incarcerated," says Tracey Chandler who gathered with other supporters to protest unfair laws, corruption and the poor treatment of prisoners on Thursday. Hear them explain why you should care. C. Todd Sherman/The Clarion-Ledger
The mother of a state inmate is concerned her son has been singled out for brutal treatment by corrections officers on more than one occasion.
Tracy Henry's son, Chris Henry, who is serving time in Central Mississippi Correctional Facility for breaking and entering, grand larceny and jail escape, claims that he fears for his life after he was allegedly assaulted twice by four prison guards.
She said that she's received communications from other inmates who have told her they don't know why her son has been singled out. She said she thinks some of the backlash from the prisoners to the allegations is why a prisoners' advocacy group contacted her Thursday. The advocacy group confirmed it had spoken with Tracy Henry, but could not comment further. When the alleged assaults started, the Henrys contacted Mississippi Department of Corrections officials as well as the FBI.
FBI officials said per Department of Justice policy, they are not able to confirm or deny whether they are involved in any investigation, but Tracy Henry said she's spoken with multiple agents about the case.
Grace Fisher, spokeswoman for MDOC, also cited policy regarding the allegations.
"MDOC takes any allegations of abuse seriously. However, discussing any investigation is contrary to MDOC practice," she said. "Investigations are treated in a confidential manner. Findings will be released upon completion of the investigations following MDOC’s policies and procedures."
Chris Henry calls home regularly to make sure his mother knows he's OK. Sometimes because of the steep charges involved in calling out from a correctional facility, she said, she doesn't accept the call. She just takes it as a sign of life.
Tracy Henry, who is open about the fact she also served time several years ago, says her son can't figure out why he's being singled out. She wondered if guards might have thought he had joined the Aryan Brotherhood. She told him when he went to prison that he'd better not join a gang, and according to MDOC records, he has not.
The first alleged attack was on or around Valentine's Day, Tracy Henry said. The story he told her was that he was assaulted by a male corrections officer and three female corrections officers shortly after he had a disagreement with one of the female officers.
Chris Henry told his mother he was taken to the medical holding tank with several other inmates, all of whom were seen and taken back to their housing units. Then he was allegedly taken in a room without a camera.
Tracy Henry said her son told her all four officers allegedly participated.
"They choked him out, slapped him to, then beat the brakes off him again. When they split his head they thought they killed him because he bled so bad," she said, recounting the story her son told her.
A cellmate had told his wife that Chris Henry's face was black from bruising for more than a week, Tracy Henry said.
Chris Henry was allegedly attacked again a few days later. Tracy Henry said the alleged retaliation isn't just physical.
"They’re telling people he’s a narc, he’s a rat. They’ve put a target on his back, like he’s telling things that aren’t happening," she said.
The Henrys also allege that Chris Henry was made to sign a suicide note written by one of the guards. Tracy called it an intimidation tactic and said that the implications of that incident scared her and her son both quite a bit.
She also said trying to find an affordable attorney has been prohibitive, and she feels overwhelmed as to how to help protect her son in the meantime.
"I don’t know how to advise him because I don’t know the legal ins and outs," she said. "When you’re inside the system, it’s completely different."
Tracy Henry said her family, in spite of having several run-ins with the law, has always respected law enforcement and the jobs they have to do.
"I raised my children that we need law enforcement, someone has to maintain the peace," she said. "I’ve been to prison, my dad went to prison, his dad went to prison. We all came out and got our stuff together. There's no animosity in our family for law enforcement."
by: Associated Press
date: 2018-03-14
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/03/15/psychiatrist-solitary-confinement-hurts-mississippi-inmates/430644002/
Levon Brooks and Kennedy Brewer of Noxubee County had the prime of their lives taken from them. Billy Watkins/Clarion Ledger
(Photo: Special to the Clarion Ledger)
A psychiatrist testified Thursday in a trial about prison conditions that solitary confinement at a Mississippi prison is "shockingly harsh and inhumane," saying long stays in solitary cause serious damage to the mentally ill inmates held there.
Dr. Terry Kupers testified that East Mississippi Correctional Facility needs to remove seriously mentally ill patients from solitary confinement. The Meridan Star reports that he said conditions in the prison's medical unit are as bad as solitary confinement. He also said prison guards at the privately run prison near Meridian are more "callous and uncaring" than at any prison he's ever examined.
"The conditions in solitary confinement at EMCF are the worst I have witnessed in my 40 years as a forensic psychiatrist investigating jail and prison conditions," Kupers said.
U.S. District Judge William Barbour Jr. is hearing testimony in the bench trial which began March 5. He will rule on whether conditions at the prison run by Utah-based Management and Training Corp. violate constitutional prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment.
Story continues beyond gallery.
State lawyers have said at the trial that the prison has improved since lawyers for plaintiffs began scrutinizing it and that whatever failings it may have don't violate constitutional rights. The defense asked Kupers about past work on solitary confinement conditions, of which Kupers said he'd testified in roughly 30 cases. Kupers said he nearly always worked with plaintiffs in these cases.
Also read: Levon Brooks: 'An extraordinary man' who wrongfully spent one-third of his life in prison
Kupers testified that solitary confinement conditions at EMCF increased the risk of "lasting and serious psychological harm" when confinement lasted more than 14 days. Mental illness serves to exacerbate risks, and more than 80 percent of inmates at the prison are under some sort of care for mental illness.
"What we do know from the data is that the longer people spend in solitary confinement the worse the damage," Kupers said.
Kupers said he urgently advocated that prisoners with serious mental illnesses be removed from solitary confinement.
Plaintiffs presented photos showing what appeared to be burn marks on several solid metal doors throughout the facility. An illustration from the plaintiffs mapped out fires in Unit 5 and documented 66 fires between Feb. 25 and March 12, with a high of 11 fires on Feb. 26. "I've never been in a prison with so much evidence of fires or where walls weren't cleaned following a fire," Kupers said.
He added that inmates are also cutting themselves frequently, in a sign of distress. "I've never seen this degree of cutting in a correctional setting," he said.
Inmate Merlin Hill told the court Thursday that the prison frequently doesn't provide his seizure and schizophrenia medications. Hill visibly shook during his testimony, a side effect, he said, of not receiving his medication since Wednesday morning. The medication is supposed to be taken twice daily.
According to prison logs presented by the plaintiff, medical staff said Hill refused to take the medication. Hill testified that he had never refused medication and that staff frequently let his prescription "run out."
Also read:Clergy for Prison Reform calls for an end to private prisons
Once, after 13 days, Hill filed a sick log request for his appropriate medication. Hill, who had been at EMCF for nearly 17 years, said that every month he goes at least a few days without one of his prescribed medications.
"Sometimes I have murderous thoughts, suicidal thoughts, pain in my head," Hill said about withdrawals. "It's unbearable sometimes. I've got bad pain behind my eyes and I'm shaking pretty badly. The pain goes away after the first day or two without my (medication)."
by: Anna Wolfe
date: 2018-03-13
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2018/03/14/almost-9-out-10-arrested-seat-belt-violations-madison-county-black/423120002/
ACLU Mississippi announced today its filing of a motion for class action against the Madison County Sheriff's Department for alleged disproportionate targeting of African American residents. Sarah Warnock/Clarion Ledger
(Photo: Sarah Warnock/Clarion Ledger)
Nearly nine out of 10 people arrested for seat belt violations by Madison County sheriff's deputies are black.
Though black residents make up less than 40 percent of the county's population.
Attorneys for residents who are suing the sheriff alleging discriminatory policing practices said the statistics show black residents are targeted, sometimes violently, by law enforcement because of their race.
Black people in the county are five times more likely to be arrested than white people, according to the lawsuit.
"I don't believe there's an explanation for that data other than what we believe it to be, which is that it has to do with some sort of racial-based policy, practice or custom," attorney Jonathan Youngwood said a news conference Wednesday.
Attorneys for plaintiffs suing Madison County sheriff's officers, alleging discriminatory policing practices, say they found officers using a pre-filled form on which "black," "male," and "arrested" are already indicated.
(Photo: Special to Clarion Ledger)
The American Civil Liberties Union and the New York City-based law firm of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett filed the class-action lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Jackson against Sheriff Randy Tucker and his deputies in May. After six months of discovery, attorneys filed additional evidence, hundreds of pages of documents and testimony, in court Wednesday.
The complaint focuses on two areas: black residents being disproportionately stopped and searched in cars, especially through the use of roadblocks, and black residents being disproportionately stopped and searched while on foot.
In the official response to the complaint, filed in June, attorneys for the sheriffs deputies denied the allegations and said roadblocks are equally located in the southern part of the county, including Madison and Ridgeland, where there is a greater white population.
The county is divided, north and south, by race. In Canton, a predominately black city and the county seat, 30 percent of residents live under the poverty line compared to less than 4 percent in Madison.
"The Sheriff's Department does not set up 'pedestrian' checkpoints, does not conduct warrantless searches of the homes of Black residents, and does not conduct 'jump out' patrols," the response states. "Instead, the Sheriff's Department utilizes patrols known as the 'NET' or Neighborhood Enhancement Team. These teams do not concentrate their patrols to Black neighborhoods; instead, they are used in all facets of law enforcement in Madison County and are conducted throughout the County, regardless of the racial make-up of an area."
But Youngwood said that through the investigation, his team was able to map the locations of roadblocks and found they exist in predominately black communities at nearly twice the rate of predominately white communities.
He said they analyzed the data for other factors and explanations beyond the racial makeup of the population, but "we were unable to find a non-racial basis for the placement of the roadblocks."
"Given all of that, evidence strongly suggests that racial bias is related to the disparity of frequency of roadblocks in predominately black communities," Youngwood said.
The sheriff's office would not comment on the latest filing because of the ongoing litigation. The June response, however, said Tucker created a Madison County Community Advisory Group, made up of both black and white citizens, to discuss concerns.
"One of the purposes for his creating this Group was to improve race relations in Madison County, which has been one of his main objectives since being elected to office," the response states.
Plaintiffs attorneys say they have evidence and testimony to describe the atmosphere in the department, including the use of racial slurs not being met with discipline.
Emails attached to the plaintiffs' latest filing show Sgt. Joe Butler sent an email in 2009 with the subject title "WHITE Pride" to several addresses, including Sheriff Tucker. The email played on the widely publicized racist rant of Michael Richards, or Kramer on the TV show "Seinfeld," in 2006. It compared names like "cracker" and "whitey" to the n-word and other offensive slurs for several ethnicities and complained about the existence of B.E.T. and absence of White Entertainment Television.
Canton resident and plaintiff Lawrence Blackmon said there's also a "suspect first, citizen later" mentality in the Sheriff's Department.
In another email, Tucker responded to three pieces of legislation the ACLU introduced during the 2016 session, one that would have required officers to receive written consent to search a vehicle when the officer doesn't have a warrant, isn't making an arrest, or does not have probable cause.
"I've read these and all are utterly ridiculous. Sure hope they don't pass any of them!" the sheriff wrote Jan. 8, 2016, according to emails attached to the latest court filing.
In order to qualify as a class action suit, the residents' attorneys sought to show a pattern of discriminatory policing procedures which target the area's black residents.
"This is not a case about individual (officers). If it were a case about individuals, it would be very different," Youngwood said.
Attorney Joshua Tom, Legal Director, ACLU of MS addresses members of the press at the announcement of the ACLU's filing of a motion for class action against the Madison County Sheriff's Department alleging disproportionate targeting of black residents.
Through discovery, attorneys found that at least two deputies use template "Narcotics Unit Case File Cover Sheet" forms on which "black," "male," and "arrested" are already marked.
"(Madison County Sheriff's Department)'s own paperwork confirms that it targets Black citizens for arrest," Joshua Tom, legal director for the ACLU of Mississippi, said in a release. "The evidence will show discriminatory and unconstitutional policing, and we are looking forward to presenting all of the facts as our case moves forward."
The suit involves eight plaintiffs, black men and women ages 28 to 63, who were stopped, searched or arrested while walking to work, driving in their neighborhoods, or at their homes.
In 2015, several sheriffs deputies arrived at Blackmon's home, threatening to kick down his door. They were searching for his cousin, whom Blackmon said no longer lived there.
Blackmon said he allowed the officers inside and they forced him on the ground by gunpoint and handcuffed him. Blackmon said he asked deputies to produce a warrant, but they did not.
"Instead, they proceeded to check the entirety of the home, including areas where it were not even possible for my cousin or anyone else to be, including drawers, cabinets, etc.," Blackmon said during the news conference. "Unfortunately, this was not an isolated incident, but rather another reminder of the fact that being black in Madison County oftentimes means that your constitutional rights can be disregarded by overzealous Madison County sheriff's deputies."
The sheriff's response contradicts Blackmon's story, saying the officers had an arrest warrant for Anthony Green for failing to pay child support, which they held up to the door prior to kicking it down. Officers also allege Blackmon refused to give his name.
Deputies entered the home of another plaintiff, Khadafy Manning, in 2016 and threatened him with jail time if he did not provide a statement accusing someone of burglary — a statement he said was false.
"Mr. Manning was asked to write a witness statement concerning a burglary that he, as well as his wife, had been observed witnessing," alleges the sheriff's response. "Mr. Manning was told that if he did not cooperate and provide the statement, he would be arrested for being accomplice in the crime. Mr. Manning was handcuffed after he was detained, but no unreasonable force was exercised against him while he was being detained."
Someone was filming. The video shows the officer with his hands around Manning's neck while Manning's hands are behind his back.
"Officer, why are you handling me like this?" Manning said.
"Because you're not acting right," he responded.
"We were very fortunate that this time, that particular incident was caught on camera and so it kind of brings us beyond a he say, she say point," Blackmon said. "It's kind of impossible to argue with what the camera shows in that incident. With that being the kind of propeller for the rest of this ... We recognize if we don't stand up and speak out and confront this reality, that blacks in Madison County will continue to be subject to such treatment."
by: Justin Vicory
date: 2018-03-12
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/03/13/jackson-airport-offer-flights-orlando-disney-world/418448002/
Download The Clarion-Ledger app for free on the Apple app store or Google Play. Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger
The Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport will now offer flights to Orlando.
The airport will offer service through Via Airlines from Jackson to Orlando Sanford International Airport beginning June 11.
One-way tickets will be $99 and about $200 for a round-trip ticket, said Liston Sage, marketing and air service development coordinator for the Jackson Municipal Airport Authority.
Tickets can be booked today, he said.
Via Airlines departure times to Orlando will be 9:03 a.m. Monday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday. The return flight will leave Orlando at 7:30 a.m. and be in Jackson by 8:30 a.m., Sage said.
"Being able to go to Disney World makes Jackson all the more attractive," Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said.
However, a local travel consultant warned Orlando Sanford International Airport is not to be confused with Orlando International Airport. Sanford is about 45 minutes to an hour from the Disney World and Universal Orlando resorts. The Orlando International Airport is considered the closest airport to Disney World, about 10 to 15 minutes away.
Corinthian Sanders, who used to work at Disney, said he has been getting phone calls from clients lining up trips to Disney World.
"Orlando is a pretty sprawling city and Sanford is really far away from Disney, so they're going to have to get a rental car if they're planning a trip," he said.
JMAA Board of Commissioners Chairman James Henley made the announcement at a Tuesday news conference in the terminal of the airport. He hinted at future air service announcements. Currently, the airport offers flights to Chicago, Houston, Dallas Fort Worth, Charlotte and Atlanta.
"Make sure you keep your eye on our press releases," he said.
According to a Jackson State University College of Business study released last fall that examined airport operations, authors concluded the Jackson airport was still suffering from the departure of Southwest Airlines in 2014.
Southwest also ceased service in June 2014 to Key West, Florida, and Branson, Missouri, which had been served by AirTran, the Atlanta-based company Southwest merged with as it left these second-tier markets with an eye toward the nation's largest markets.
The study had projected civil operations to decline through 2023 because of Southwest. It's not known how Via Airlines will alter those numbers.
Meanwhile, the city of Jackson is still fighting efforts by the state to seize control of the airport and create a regional authority over it. The city's lawsuit against the state has stalled those efforts. The Federal Aviation Administration has said it will not approve changes if the matter is in litigation.
More: Jackson Airport study touts $1.84 billion state footprint
More: Jackson airport provides high-tech app to better parking
OTHER TOP STORIES
by: Jerry Mitchell
date: 2018-03-12
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/03/13/gangs-private-prison/421008002/
In its lawsuit against Mississippi, the American Civil Liberties Union and Southern Poverty Law Center argue that the state has been aware of East Mississippi Correctional Facility's unconstitutionally abusive conditions. Special to Clarion Ledger
After evidence in federal court Tuesday detailed problems with gang members “running things” at the private East Mississippi Correctional Facility, Mississippi’s contract monitor refused to discuss the matter on the witness stand.
After meeting with the monitor and lawyers, U.S. District Judge William Barbour Jr. cited the sensitivity of the matter and ordered reporters out of courtroom Tuesday morning for the rest of that testimony because it involved inmates by name..
In its lawsuit against Mississippi, the American Civil Liberties Union and Southern Poverty Law Center argue that the state has been aware of East Mississippi Correctional Facility's unconstitutionally abusive conditions. The state’s defense attorneys argue the prison conditions are acceptable and that some of the prison’s ailments can be attributed to inmates’ self-sabotage.
In a May 5, 2015, email, Vernell Thomas, who monitors the East Mississippi Correctional Facility near Meridian, wrote that “several prisoners seem to be running things, even though some are in (segregation) units," where inmates are supposed to remain in their cells at least 22 hours a day.
Thomas, who is an employee of the Mississippi Department of Corrections, testified that was a problem then, but not now.
She reported repeatedly on problems of cleanliness in 2014 and 2015.
In March 2015, the American Correctional Association gave a score of 100 to the prison, operated by Utah-based Management and Training Corp. (Epps was a longtime ACA president.)
“All units have improved with the cleaning due to the ACA in March,” Thomas wrote in an email.
Inmates have complained in testimony about unsanitary conditions and health care services. About 80 percent of the 1,200 inmates at the facility are under some form of mental health care.
A Clarion Ledger series in 2014, “Hard Look at Hard Time,” detailed the problems of corruption, violence against inmates and the power of gangs inside the prisons.
Then-Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps is now serving just shy of 20 years in prison for running one of the largest and longest criminal conspiracies in the state's history.
Thomas used the word gangs in a series of 2015 emails, complaining repeatedly to prison officials about the unsolved problem.
In a July 1, 2015, email, she wrote that gang members were selling “drugs to offenders and staff is aware, but does nothing.”
When she visited the segregation unit, she saw an inmate, who had been caught with cocaine, meth, marijuana, shanks and a sim card, outside his cell, “working” the unit.
She wrote that gang members and leaders assigned to segregation units were being allowed to work outside those units unsupervised.
“These are 10 offenders who have been calling the shots/running the offenders/staff here with the ability to move almost anywhere they want to go,” she wrote in an Oct. 14, 2015, email.
Until testimony was closed to the media, she named the inmates, one by one, who were controlling each pod.
One inmate on the segregation unit “still runs things and staff,” she wrote. “He even questions me.”
When she removed a broom from the pod, she wrote he replied, “You must not know who I am.”
Another inmate, serving a life sentence for murder, maintained “control even though he’s supposed to be locked down constantly,” she wrote.
Thomas wanted the gang members transferred to other prisons.
Other emails and reports by Thomas detailed continuing problems with understaffing, cleanliness, lighting and leaving out mops and broomsticks that could be used as weapons.
"Staff are leaving the pods unmanned," she wrote, later complaining, "When are we going to correct this serious matter?"
When visited the prison at 2 a.m. on April 3, 2015, she found people missing from their posts, including no one at the search desk. When she emailed Tony Compton, who oversees the private prisons for the state Department of Corrections, he replied, "Amazing what you find when they least expect you to come in."
During her testimony, Thomas struggled to come up with the minimum number of correctional officers that the prison should have each shift.
Barbour, who will make the decision in the case, was puzzled, telling her, "I frankly don't understand why you don't know what the exact count should be."
Plaintiffs’ lawyers asked Deputy Corrections Commissioner Jerry Williams about EMCF’s staffing shortfalls (24 out of 30 of the day shifts lacking some mandatory staff positions in November 2016).
Defense lawyers challenged those numbers, saying the numbers in the staffing reports weren’t actually correct.
“That leads me to believe the prison doesn’t know what they’re doing,” the judge said. “I don’t understand why that is not accurate.”
Defense lawyers told the judge that just because no one is listed beside the mandatory positions doesn’t mean the positions have gone unfilled.
Williams was asked about the problems of inmates jamming doors, sometimes getting out and assaulting other inmates, which has happened at the private prison.
Asked if the Corrections Department had ever studied whether hardware should be installed to stop that problem, Williams replied, “Not that I’m aware of.”
Of the 97 reports Thomas filed between 2014 and 2017, 88 cited the problem of inmates covering up their doors and windows.
Asked if it was a security risk for the windows to be covered, she said yes and that she asked them to take it down if she was inspecting, “and they put them right back up.”
Asked if one reason for keeping these windows clear would be to prevent rape, she replied, “Anything can happen in prison.”
Other Top Stories
by: Anthony McDougle
date: 2018-03-12
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/03/13/shooting-range-moves-bigger-space-gluckstadt/422377002/
(Photo: Getty Images / iStockphoto)
Gluckstadt's Guns-N-Gear store is set for relocation to a more spacious venue after the move was approved March 5 by the Madison County Board of Supervisors. The store is currently located at a retail site off Highway 51. Store owner Hunter Sartain told the Madison County Journal the new facility will be built on Dees Drive.
“We have been in the planning and meeting phase for over 16 months. Now it is time to get to work," Sartain said in a press release. "I am really excited because this will be something that we and the Metro area will be very proud of."
The new facility is planned to open early 2019 and, according to Sartain, will more than double their current space. The 13,000 -square-foot facility will include an 11-lane shooting range and 2,500 sqare feet retail space, as well as office space.
The new shooting range will offer classes for all levels of experience. Certification training for Instructor Certified Enhanced Carry, as well as a full-service gunsmith, will be offered as well.
Customers will be able to try out firearms before making a purchase, and can rent and shoot machine guns while at the range.
by: The Clarion-Ledger
date: 2018-03-12
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/03/13/4-000-plus-mississippi-soldiers-set-year-long-deployment/422643002/
TUPELO -- More than 4,000 Mississippi National Guard soldiers are leaving their homes this month as part of a year-long deployment.
The 155th Armored Brigade Combat Team, headquartered in Tupelo, is leaving for a three-month training deployment in Fort Bliss, Texas, followed by nine months overseas. The guard unit is supposed to deter and react to threats in the Middle East.
The brigade is based in Tupelo, with units in McComb, Senatobia, Starkville, Amory, Monticello and Meridian, as well as in Kansas City, Kansas.
Some of those communities held send-off events for local units last week. Police in Columbus on Monday are escorting artillery members as they leave town.
This will be the brigade's third deployment to the Middle East since 2001.
by: Bracey Harris
date: 2018-03-11
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2018/03/12/mississippi-students-hold-demonstrations-against-gun-violence-guns-schools-bill/417079002/
A portion of the 911 calls and first responders’ radio traffic recorded during the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting last month has been released to the public. (March 8) AP
Some Mississippi school students expected to join a demonstration protesting gun violence said they do not support legislation that would allow schools to train and arm designated employees on campus.
Students across the country are expected to leave their classrooms at 10 a.m. on Wednesday as part of the National School Walkout, which was organized in response to the Feb. 14 deadly mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that claimed the lives of 17 students and educators.
Pascagoula High School Principal Anthony Herbert said he expects up to 500 students to walk out of class and take part in the 17-minute student-led event, which will take place at the school’s football stadium.
Wednesday marks the one-month anniversary of the attack, and Herbert said he began meeting with student leaders last month to coordinate details with the goal of minimal disruption to the learning process.
“I don’t want to sound like a cliche, but we really are raising tomorrow’s leaders,” he said. “If we’re going to do that in an effective way, we need to make sure they know the proper way to have a voice.”
Herbert said several students planning the demonstration are opposed to the Senate’s passage of a House bill that would authorize districts to adopt a voluntary school safety program that would allow teachers or other employees to carry guns.
Supporters have envisioned the legislation as a preventative measure against school shootings; several educators and students have pushed back against the proposal.
Asked if he were concerned about drawing the ire of the legislation's proponents, Herbert responded: slightly.
More: What do you think of arming teachers? Mississippi educators respond to proposed law.
"We're a school that has about 260 graduating seniors, many of whom are already old enough to vote. At the end of the day, if you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything. There's a right way and wrong way to get your message out there, and we want students to get it out there the right way."
Caroline Wiygul, a senior at nearby Ocean Springs High School, said she along with several of her classmates will gather in their school’s courtyard at 10 a.m. for 17 minutes to honor each of the shooting victims.
Wiygul says she was inspired by the mobilization of the Parkland survivors who launched the "Never Again" movement with the goal of passing tighter gun regulations to prevent gun violence.
More: Analysis: Teachers in West Virginia and Oklahoma are fed up. Are educators in Mississippi?
The 17-year-old was a part of a group of student leaders who coordinated with Ocean Springs officials to arrange the demonstration.
Students will be dismissed from class four minutes early to participate in the event, which will then take place during the school’s scheduled morning break.
Ocean Springs Superintendent Bonita Coleman said administrators worked with students to coordinate the demonstration as "an organized period of reflection — not a walkout."
"I'm glad our students felt comfortable coming to us and having the conversation," she said.
Working together, Coleman said, helps to keep students safe.
Wiygul also said it was important to get approval from administrators because organizers didn’t want students deterred from attending because of possible repercussions for leaving class unexcused.
“We’re not trying to rebel against them, and we don’t want to take away from class time,” she said. “But it was important for the event to take place during school to honor children, who can no longer attend school, because of poor gun safety (laws).”
by: Jimmie E. Gates
date: 2018-03-09
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2018/03/10/can-mike-espy-win-thad-cochran-senate-seat/410369002/
Retired Rep. Robert Clark, who was the first black lawmaker elected since Reconstruction, and his son, Rep. Bryant Clark, who took his place in the Mississippi Legislature discusses the state of African-American politics. Wochit
(Photo: File photo/Clarion Ledger)
For an African-American to win statewide in Mississippi, it will require a candidate with broad appeal to voters, political experts say.
The model often used as an example is former 2nd District U.S. Rep. Mike Espy, who was in Congress from 1987 to 1993. He was then appointed as the first black U.S. Agriculture Secretary by then-President Bill Clinton.
Leslie McLemore, a retired Jackson State University political science professor, has said for an African-American to win a statewide election will require a candidate who appeals to black voters and white voters. He said Espy was an example of just that when he ran for Congress.
Millsaps College political science professor Nathan Shrader also has said he believes an African-American candidate could win statewide in Mississippi, but it will require a candidate with mass appeal.
Now, Espy has announced that he will be a candidate in the special election to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran, who announced he is retiring April 1. Gov. Phil Bryant is expected to name an interim senator to fill the seat until someone is elected in the Nov. 6 special election (or, more likely, the Nov. 27 special election runoff), which Bryant will not officially call until next month. The winner of the special election will serve the remainder of Cochran’s term, which ends in 2021.
No one knows whom Bryant will appoint. Names floating around include Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, Agriculture Commissioner Cindy Hyde-Smith and House Speaker Philip Gunn.
Espy has name recognition but will likely face an uphill battle to win the seat. He has been out of the political spotlight for roughly 25 years. It’s not known today whether he will still have mass voter appeal, especially in a state most see as solidly Republican.
Then there's this fact: No African-American has been elected to a statewide office since Reconstruction in Mississippi.
The special election will be non-partisan, meaning there will be no party primaries, and candidates won’t have to declare a party. But a candidate's political affiliation will nevertheless be obvious.
However, the non-partisan special election could still help Espy, who already has at least some crossover appeal among Republican voters after endorsing Haley Barbour in his 2007 gubernatorial re-election bid. And with African-American voters making up 37.7 percent of the voting-age population according to the U.S. Census, political observers believe it would give Espy or some other candidate who appeals to black and white voters a chance.
Of course, Espy isn't assured of being the candidate that African-Americans and white Democrats will rally around, nor is he a lock for making a runoff in what is expected to be a crowded field.
How voters perceive Espy today is the question. He was a rising political star a quarter century ago, but an ethics investigation, from which he was ultimately cleared, led to his resignation from the Clinton administration and ultimately the end of his political career. Today Espy is a private attorney in Jackson.
In this 1993 file photo, then-U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy, flanked by then-Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad and then-U.S.Sen. Tom Harkin, R-Iowa, tour the flood-damaged farm of Dalen Miller in north-central Iowa near Dumont on June 30, 1993.
When asked if he believes an African-American can be elected to a statewide office in Mississippi, Espy responded, "Yes, I do. Mississippi will elect an African-American to a statewide office in the not too distant future."
More political coverage:
by: Sarah Mearhoff
date: 2018-03-09
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/03/10/inmates-testify-east-mississippi-conditions/413560002/
A look at major crime numbers in Jackson through COMSTAT. Wochit
(Photo: Special to The Clarion-Ledger)
JACKSON — Three inmates testified in federal court Friday that a Mississippi state prison has unsanitary conditions, is inadequately staffed and provides insufficient health care.
In its federal suit against the state of Mississippi, the American Civil Liberties Union and Southern Poverty Law Center argue that the state has been aware of East Mississippi Correctional Facility's unconstitutionally abusive conditions. The state's defense attorneys argue that the prison conditions are acceptable and some of the prison's ailments can be attributed to inmates' self-sabotage.
The prison, located near Meridian, is privately operated under contract by Utah-based Management and Training Corp.
All three inmates described instances of failing plumbing, such as sewage backups that caused feces to seep through shower and cell drains, or broken, unusable cell toilets. Inmate Terry Beasley said at one point, the water in his cell's sink ran black.
The inmates also described periods where the electricity failed and lights in their cells would go out - sometimes for weeks at a time.
Defense attorneys said these instances could be attributed to the inmates, saying they "tear up" the facilities. And when there were maintenance problems, they said EMCF sends maintenance workers to address them.
According to the testimonies, the unsanitary conditions extended into the prison's food facilities. Eddie Pugh, who worked in the kitchen for nearly a year, described it as "nasty," saying he could point out hundreds of roaches in the kitchen at any given time. And when making repairs in the kitchen, inmate and maintenance worker Saul Mata said he saw roaches and mouse droppings.
Defense attorneys argued that Pugh worked in the kitchen back in 2015 and the conditions could be different now, and that the prison has passed its state health inspections.
Each inmate also testified that guards did not consistently monitor their cell blocks. According to the inmates, guards make counts once every 30 to 40 minutes during the day, then leave the inmates unmonitored. In emergency situations, the inmates said it is difficult to get officers' attention.
Beasley, who works as a porter in the prison, said a common way for prisoners to try to get officers' attention was to start a fire within their cell, or cut themselves and stick their bleeding arms out of the tray slots in their doors.
In one instance, Beasley said he saw an inmate die after bleeding out on his cell floor. A guard did not respond until after inmates were banging on the door of the cellblock to get his attention.
Beasley said he has diabetes, and if his sugar drops too low, he can go into shock and eventually die. When asked by prosecutors how it makes him feel to know that officers can take this long to respond in the event of a medical emergency, Beasley began crying and answered, "It's scary."
Pugh said he has Crohn's Disease. Sometimes, he said, prison nurses forget to order refills of his medication and he can go without it for weeks at a time.
When asked what he does in this situation, Pugh said, "be in agony."
In each of the inmates' cross-examinations, defense attorneys noted the inmates' mental illness diagnoses and their convictions.
The trial is estimated to take up to six weeks and will resume Monday.
by: Anthony McDougle
date: 2018-03-07
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/03/08/sheriff-flowood-officer-involved-shooting/409510002/
A look at major crime numbers in Jackson through COMSTAT. Wochit
A suspect shot by police at the Flowood Kroger is reported to have suffered four gunshot wounds and now lies under sedation with a breathing tube in critical condition in ICU. Authorities said police suspected Kenara McDavid of attempting to illegally obtain prescription drugs.
The incident occurred at 8:30 p.m., at which time the police responded to the Kroger at 143 Albertson Drive. Flowood Police Chief Richie McCluskey said McDavid would not cooperate when the arrest attempt was made.
According to McCluskey, McDavid got into his vehicle and tried to run over one of the officers after they approached him. During his escape attempt, the officers shot into the car, hitting McDavid. He continued through the parking lot and eventually wrecked in a ditch near Grants Ferry Road.
McDavid's family attorney, Dow Yoder, said his client has requested an immediate preliminary hearing and intends to "vigorously defend himself."
"Mr. McDavid is not guilty. I have requested body cam and patrol car video, as well as any other evidence. At this time, I am unaware of any evidence which may justify the use of deadly force during an attempted custodial police detention, since Mr. McDavid was not under arrest when he was repeatedly shot at close range," Yoder said.
In order to ensure the integrity of the case and upon the request of the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation and Crime Scene Unit, McCluskey said the case has been turned over to the MBI.
by: Harold Gater
date: 2018-03-08
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/03/09/panola-county-deputy-accused-rape/412121002/
Only about 40 percent of sexual assaults are reported to police. Find out more about sexual assaults and the resources available for victims in Larimer County. Saja Hindi
A Panola County Sheriff’s deputy is on leave while an accusation of rape is investigated. The alleged victim is a police officer from a nearby jurisdiction, WREG reported.
The deputy claims the encounter was consensual. He has not been charged with a crime.
The sheriff’s office confirmed that one of their deputies has been on administrative leave for a few weeks. The sheriff says the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office is investigating the case.
An Attorney General’s Office spokesperson said It is their policy to neither confirm nor deny an investigation.
by: Brice Wiggins
date: 2018-03-07
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/opinion/columnists/2018/03/08/gangs-and-education-improved-academics-reduction-future-crimes/407862002/
Download The Clarion-Ledger app for free on the Apple app store or Google Play. Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger
(Photo: Special to The Clarion-Ledger)
This legislative session, my fellow senators and representatives have debated important matters in education funding and combatting crime in our state. While the two subjects seem vastly different on the surface, research proves time and again that there is an inverse correlation between education and crime. Less education (especially early education) = More crime. More and better education (especially early education) = Less crime.
I started my legal career as an assistant prosecutor. I stood in courtrooms prosecuting sometimes the youngest of our citizens, who were led down a road of crime. They found themselves there due to a lack of promise, opportunity, education or a combination of all three.
More: Anti-gang bills pass out of committees in Senate and House
For these reasons, I ran for elected office. I had to find a way to positively impact the youth of our state and spend my time allocating less money to building prisons to house these offenders and find ways to allocate money to programs that would stop these individuals from going down a path of crime.
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Investments in our youngest children are the most effective and fiscally-responsible approaches to crime reduction. Research clearly shows that early childhood education and learning systems from birth to age 5 not only substantially improve academic outcomes, such as reading by the third grade and 44 percent students more likely to graduate from high school, but they also have a profound impact on reducing future crime and violence. At-risk kids who were left out of preschool programs were five times more likely to be repeat offenders by age 27. And for every child who drops out of school, uses drugs and becomes a career criminal, he or she will cost society an estimated $2.5 million on average.
In my first year as a senator, I was able to successfully author and pass the Early Learning Collaborative Act that provided $ 3 million in funding to 10 centers across the state. Due to their success, an additional $1 million has been allocated to these centers, and we have grown the number of collaboratives to a total of 12 statewide. The private sector saw the success we were making and also invested their dollars to the tune of over $1.5 million, creating a very productive public-private partnership that has reaped national recognition for Mississippi, putting us at the top of an education list rather than 50th. The current education bill contains a permanent stream of funding for these proven Early Learning Collaboratives (ELCs).
But our success in these areas is being overshadowed by the growing rate of gang violence and recruitment in our state. For these reasons, I introduced, for the second year in a row, a bill to give our prosecutors more tools to take on those who would recruit our children to a life of crime in a gang. With the support of the Mississippi Prosecutors Association and the Center Against Gang Violence, we are trying to go after high-level gang members, their funding sources and are securing stiffer sentences and fines for those who go after our most vulnerable citizens.
From Jackson County to DeSoto County, prosecutors and investigators are dealing with this problem. The issue is not black or white, rich or poor, Republican or Democrat. It is one on which we find common ground because gang recruiting is causing irreparable harm to our state's youth and has the potential to cost our state millions of dollars in new youth incarcerated. With these new tools passed by the Senate, prosecutors would be able to get to upper-level gang members, get at their tactics, and attack their funding operations, all within the bounds of the law. This legislation should send a message to gangs that prosecutors and legislators, and the citizens they represent, will not tolerate gangs' abuse of our legal system and should go a long way to restore the public's faith in our criminal justice process.
This legislative session, we have a chance to make a meaningful impact in the areas of early education and crime prevention. Due to the importance of these issues, I am personally dedicating time to tour our Early Learning Collaboratives in March with several of my fellow legislators. Our goal is for them to see for themselves the important work the ELCs are doing and to gain their support (and votes) to secure a sustainable future for them through the long-term funding in the education bill.
Sen. Brice Wiggins, R-Pascagoula is a member of the Senate Education Committee and the author of the Early Learning Collaborative Act
by: Bracey Harris
date: 2018-03-07
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2018/03/08/delbert-hosemann-lieutenant-governor-bid/407470002/
Miss. Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann talks to the Clarion-Ledger Editorial Board. Harold Gater/The Clarion-Ledger
(Photo: File photo/Gannett Mississippi)
Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann at the Capitol on Thursday appeared to confirm -- to school kids -- that he will run for lieutenant governor next year.
The Clarion Ledger overheard Hosemann giving his consent, when a lawmaker asked if it was OK to tell a group of school children from North Point Christian School that Hosemann was running for lieutenant governor.
Political observers have openly speculated that Hosemann will run for the office, which carries considerable influence in the state because the lieutenant governor presides over the Senate.
Hosemann, himself, has dropped hints in the past that he could seek the job.
In 2016, Hosemann told the Vicksburg Post that he had accomplished most of his goals as secretary of state and that he was considering the next step.
“It’s time to look what’s next and see if there are some other things we can accomplish,” he said in an interview.
Elected secretary of state in 2011, Hosemann has become a familiar face to Mississippi residents, in part, because of his comical campaign ads where an elderly woman struggles to recall his name.
More: Who's (maybe) running in 2019 in Mississippi and why
by: The Clarion-Ledger
date: 2018-03-06
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/03/07/state-juvenile-detention-officers-accused-assault-cover-up/405361002/
Sen. Briggs Hopson, R-Vicksburg, discusses amendment to bill that could potentially allow armed teachers in classrooms. Wochit
A Mississippi juvenile detention officer and his supervisor could face jail time after being charged with assault and a subsequent attempt to cover it up.
The U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday announced that Edward Gibson, 28, was being charged with assaulting two juveniles in his custody.
According to the indictment against Gibson, he is alleged to have punched and thrown an electric fan at one juvenile and struck the other in the head and body.
The incidents took place at the Leflore County Juvenile Detention Center in Greenwood.
In a separate indictment, Gibson's supervisor, Dianne Williams, 60, is charged with writing a false report to cover up one of the assaults. The indictment against Williams states she falsely wrote that she was unaware of the assault. Both indictments were unsealed Wednesday.
The indictments were announced by Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division John Gore, United States Attorney William C. Lamar of the Northern District of Mississippi and Christopher Freeze, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Jackson Field Division.
Gibson faces a maximum of 10 years imprisonment for each excessive force charge if convicted, while Williams faces up to 20 years on the false report charge.
This case is being investigated by the Jackson Division of the Federal Bureau Investigation, with the cooperation of the Leflore County Sheriff’s Department and the Leflore County Detention Center. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Robert Mims of the Northern District of Mississippi and Trial Attorney Dana Mulhauser of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice.
by: John Koufos
date: 2018-03-06
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/opinion/columnists/2018/03/07/bills-promote-recovery-rehabilitation-over-jail/403919002/
Download The Clarion-Ledger app for free on the Apple app store or Google Play. Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger
(Photo: Special to the Clarion Ledger)
When I was invited to Mississippi to meet with policy leaders and discuss productive ways to address the national opioid epidemic, I leaped at the opportunity. At Americans for Prosperity’s reception and at the Clergy for Prison Reform’s Third Annual Policy Summit, I learned about the great strides the good state of Mississippi has made in developing effective crime and drug control strategies.
I approach these issues having worn a tailored suit as a criminal defense lawyer, an orange jumpsuit as an inmate, and as a felon with regret and shame for my crimes. In 2011 my 20-year battle with addiction led me to make a disastrous decision to drive under the influence. I seriously hurt someone and tried to lie my way out of it. I was sentenced to six years and served roughly a year and a half before I was paroled. In prison, I witnessed the gaps in the system firsthand and truly understood why so many who want a second chance, fail nonetheless.
More: Clergy for Prison Reform calls for an end to private prisons
I am pleased to hear that two smart criminal justice reform bills are pending this week in the Senate — specifically HB 387 and SB 2841. Considered together, these bills emphasize meaningful recovery and rehabilitation opportunities over simply warehousing nonviolent offenders. They recognize that some nonviolent offenders in prison turn their lives around, exhibit exemplary behavior, and transform their lives, indicating they are prepared to reenter society through a merit-based release program.
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This legislative package also expands prerelease vocational programs, which would enhance an inmate’s ultimate employability. HB 387 requires flexible parole supervision to accommodate an individual’s work schedule — one of the most important factors for successful reentry. When I was in prison, very few inmates asked me for money, but virtually all asked me to help them get a job. Many of these men simply wanted the dignity of work but had no path to achieve that goal.
Additionally, HB 387 creates a rational framework for dealing with people who might relapse or violate a technical parole requirement. And finally, HB 387 restricts the rampant abuse of debt collection related to fines and fees someone simply cannot pay. These old fines generate arrest warrants that law enforcement officers will serve, and prevent ex-offenders from securing drivers licenses which are often necessary for work. When a person is arrested for these old warrants it disrupts the continuity of treatment and productivity. For those who were lucky enough to have a job, they face almost certain termination when they miss work because they are in jail dealing with their fines. I am hopeful those bills make it to the Governor’s desk to be signed.
These bills recognize that people make mistakes but must have an opportunity to pick up the pieces and move on with life. The evidence has demonstrated that effective treatment interventions, incentives to complete programs, and pathways from prison to paycheck makes us all safer by reducing recidivism. Many of these interventions also free law enforcement to pursue more serious crimes.
Ninety-five percent of inmates will be released at some point, and effective reentry policy translates into safer communities, lower prison costs, and increased employment opportunities. I want my colleagues in Mississippi to become familiar with Safe Streets & Second Chances (S3C), a new reentry initiative led by the Texas Public Policy Foundation and Right on Crime, along with Koch Industries and Florida State University.
This initiative brings together researchers and practitioners from the public and private sectors to help identify and implement proven reentry interventions and services.
My life’s work is now committed to recovery, reentry, and reintegration, and I think about how I would not have committed my crimes if I was in recovery. Just as we must hold offenders accountable for their actions, we must hold the criminal justice system accountable for producing a better public safety return on our precious tax dollars.
Effective reentry begins with effective legislation, and I am encouraged by Mississippi’s commitment to both. I thank the courageous leaders in the Mississippi legislature for proposing SB 2841 and HB 387. We can save tomorrow’s victims with today’s reentry interventions.
John Koufos is the national reentry director of Right on Crime and is the executive director of Safe Streets and Second Chances.
by: Harold Gater
date: 2018-03-06
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/03/07/dean-scott-named-new-pearl-police-chief/402797002/
Assistant Pearl Police Chief Dean Scott was selected as the city's top cop on Tuesday.
Scott has over 26 years of experience in law enforcement. The Board of Aldermen approved Scott's nomination. Former Chief Ronnie Connerly retired last week.
by: Anthony McDougle
date: 2018-03-05
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2018/03/06/starkville-board-aldermen-sign-off-pride-parade/401746002/
A report released by the state auditor's office shows a failure to address Mississippi's accounting problems could affect the state's credit rating. Wochit
The second time proved to be the charm for the LGBT Mississippi community organization Starkville Pride.
After being denied permission to hold the first-ever Pride Parade in Starkville, the organization got the go-ahead during Tuesday's Board of Alderman's meeting to put on the parade in the city.
The alderman voted 3-3 to approve the Pride Parade, with Ward 3 Alderman David Little electing to abstain from the vote. Starkville Mayor Lynn Spruill' broke the tie vote in favor of the event.
"Proud to be in Starkville," Starkville Pride Director and Founder Bailey McDaniel told the Clarion Ledger. "I'm just glad to be a 22-year-old again. I think this is a really good learning experience, and this sets a precedent for activists in younger generations. I've been fighting for four years, and the culmination of that was in that vote."
The parade will be held March 24.
Alderwoman Sandra Sistrunk had moved Friday to put the issue back before the city board. Tuesday, she told the Associated Press that it was important to not treat the application for the city's first gay pride parade differently from any other application.
"I think we're in a position where we can make a more measured and reasoned vote tonight," Sistrunk said. "This has been a bit of a growing pain for the city of Starkville."
Little told AP that he maintained his "principled position" but would abstain.
"I believe the city of Starkville's interests are better served in moving forward beyond this and pressing forward on other positive matters facing our community," Little said.
Spruill, who doesn't normally vote on the board, had supported the parade, saying the rejection didn't reflect Starkville's diversity and welcoming attitude.
In response to the aldermen's vote to approve the parade permit application, Starkville Pride's attorney, Roberta A. Kaplan, renowned civil rights attorney, issued the following statement:
“Bailey McDaniel, Emily Turner and Starkville Pride stood up to vindicate the right to freedom of speech held by every American, no matter whether they are straight or gay. What happened at tonight’s meeting was a victory not only for our clients and for their equal dignity under the law, but also for the core principle that in this country, we do not restrict a person’s ability to speak based on whether or not we agree with what they have to say. We look forward to celebrating Pride with the LGBT community of Starkville and the rest of Mississippi on March 24."
Starkville Pride filed a federal lawsuit in late February against the city of Starkville after it initially voted to deny its parade permit despite widespread town support. The lawsuit stated the board's decision was "a textbook violation of the First Amendment and its discriminatory treatment, based solely on LGBT-related animus, violates the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause".
The case, Starkville Pride et. al. v. City of Starkville, was filed Monday afternoon in U.S. District Court for the Northern District.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
by: Geoff Pender
date: 2018-03-05
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2018/03/06/pickering-glaring-accounting-problems-could-cost-taxpayers/399137002/
A report released by the state auditor's office shows a failure to address Mississippi's accounting problems could affect the state's credit rating. Wochit
State Auditor Stacey Pickering said Mississippi government has some glaring, systemic accounting problems it must address to protect taxpayers from fraud and abuse and keep the state's credit rating healthy.
Pickering released the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for the state for fiscal 2017. He said the report is a couple of months late because of problems with state agency accounting. He said $21 billion in corrections was required to balance the books from problems the audit found.
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Pickering said that since the state implemented a new accounting system in 2014, his audits have uncovered more reportable problems or "findings," up from one finding in 2013 to 27 for 2017.
A major issue, Pickering said: "We implemented a government-wide accounting system without spending a dime on training ... It's only a matter of time before we reach a critical mass of affecting our financial health and welfare."
State agency leaders concurred with Pickering's findings, and many submitted plans to correct them
Some issues from the report:
► Agency accountants lack qualifications and training, and there is no updated, comprehensive accounting training manual for the state after it switched accounting systems.
► There is a lack of security or "segregation of duties" in agencies' accounting. Some people who had left state jobs still had computer access and passwords. In other cases, individuals had too much autonomy with spending and accounting. Nearly 500 people at the state Department of Revenue had the ability to make changes to tax returns without approval from another user, raising the possibility of abuse, the report said. DOR says it has since installed a new computer system that has solved this issue.
► The "MAGIC" state accounting system has an audit log tracking system that is supposed to flag potential problems or misspending with state accounts. But the Department of Finance and Administration had difficulties early on, so it turned that system off in 2015.
► Some agencies lack oversight and documentation of employee leave, leaving room for abuse of leave time or pay. Pickering recounted a recent case of an employee of a small state agency who hadn't claimed leave time in years, but was running her own business during state working hours.
► Tax incentives or abatement given to private businesses could not be adequately reported, as is now required under new regulations. "The state has no way of disclosing the amount of economic incentives we gave away last year," Pickering said. It's estimated to be more than $50 million a year.
► "Federal grant oversight is inadequate in the state of Mississippi." Pickering said the federal government has recently issued or is prepared to issue more than $100 million in demands for repayment of grants to Mississippi agencies. These include:
• $11 million — Mississippi Department of Education
• $12 million — Department of Public Safety
• $20 million — Mississippi Emergency Management Agency
• $20 million — Medicaid
The review also flagged the state Department of Education for misreporting its account balance for federal grant programs. Auditors noted this was a repeat issue for the agency, and one that’s cost the state millions in the past.
In 2016, poor accounting practices resulted in MDE inappropriately awarding $19 million for after-school programs. That deficit led the agency to cut after-school grants for several school districts with thousands of children affected.
Pickering noted that MDE which receives 42 percent of the state's budget, accounted for 15 percent of the findings.
► Department of Environmental Quality
• The agency recorded vendor payments in the wrong accounting year, leading to incorrect journal entries.
► Department of Health
• The agency lacks procedures to detect materially incorrect financial statements.
► Department of Rehabilitation Services
• Federal revenue was not recorded in the correct accounting year.
► Department of Transportation
• The agency provided incorrect information to the Department of Finance and Administration for disclosure in financial statements. The amount for construction in progress was "overstated" by $453 million in initial reports MDOT submitted to DFA.
by: Ron Maxey
date: 2018-03-05
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/03/06/james-meredith-embraces-ole-miss-statue/399170002/
Meredith marker dedication Ron Maxey/The Commercial Appeal
(Photo: Jim Weber/The Commercial Appeal)
Civil rights pioneer James Meredith says he has changed his feelings toward the statue of him on the Oxford campus of the University of Mississippi, now thinking it's not such a bad thing.
The Daily Mississippian, the university newspaper, reports Meredith expressed his feelings over the weekend while attending a Black Alumni Reunion on the Ole Miss campus in Oxford.
"This is really a time for change in me and in what I'm going to do," the newspaper reported Meredith saying during the event.
Meredith, who now lives in Jackson, touched off riots when he integrated the Ole Miss campus, about 85 miles south of Memphis, in 1962.
Meredith has opposed the statue honoring him, near the iconic Lyceum, since it was unveiled in 2006. He has said both it and the Confederate statue on the circle in front of the Lyceum should be removed.
But now, he told the newspaper, he thinks the more measured approach of administrators, who have been working to untangle the university's Old South symbolism for years, is a smarter approach than removing statues.
The Meredith statue has been a frequent point of controversy. In 2015, a former Ole Miss student received a six-month prison sentence after he and two other Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity members placed a noose and an old Georgia state flag, containing the Confederate battle emblem, on the statue.
The Confederate statue was rammed by a pickup last year, damaging a historical marker added to provide context. It was not clear if the action, which occurred on a Saturday night, was intentional.
More: Marker dedicated at site where James Meredith was shot
During the 2016 dedication of a marker in Hernando, noting the location where Meredith was shot in 1966 as he was doing the "March Against Fear" from Memphis to Jackson, Meredith said he was confident his home state would come to grips with its troubled racial history.
"Mississippi is the center of the black-white, rich-poor universe," he said. "If Mississippi can't come up with the solution to the problem of the day, it can't be done. I'm very confident it's going to get done."
by: CJ Rhodes
date: 2018-03-05
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/opinion/columnists/2018/03/06/clergy-prison-reform-calls-end-private-prisons/398686002/
Download The Clarion-Ledger app for free on the Apple app store or Google Play. Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger
(Photo: Special to The Clarion-Ledger)
In anticipation of Clergy for Prison Reform’s third policy summit, we take note of the strides Mississippi has taken to improve the criminal justice system. Over the last several years, lawmakers have demonstrated courage by enacting common sense laws that focus on morality and comply with biblical notions of forgiveness and redemption. As citizens, we have been proud to boast about Mississippi’s criminal justice reforms, setting an example for other Southern states. Certainly, there remains much work to be done. This year has the potential to usher in additional advancements towards a more just, effective system.
Since its inception in March 2015, Clergy for Prison Reform has advocated for a more holistic and humane approach to incarceration and remediation. A diverse group of Christian pastors and community leaders from all corners of the state — representing theological and political conservatives, moderates, progressives and libertarians — join hands and hearts to advocate for a system that considers both the human and fiscal costs of an unjust criminal justice system.
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For several years, CPR has advocated for reforming the state’s draconian “habitual offender” laws and other sentencing enhancements that create legal fictions resulting in too many people being warehoused away for too long. While we maintain that the Legislature’s leaders have neglected to prioritize such common-sense reforms that are greatly needed in a state with one of the highest incarceration rates in the nation, we are immensely hopeful HB 387, currently pending before the Senate, will be signed into law and serve as a major blow to the phenomenon of criminalized poverty. Threatening the poor with jailing if they fail to pay the government an amount of money they cannot possibly afford is certainly immoral, and apparently unconstitutional. We praise the several senators and representatives like Rep. Andy Gipson, R-Braxton and Rep. Joel Bomgar, R-Madison who prioritized this legislation for two consecutive sessions, and we encourage them and others to continue advancing further reforms in the coming years.
CPR has broadly defined prison reform in many regards, but we have maintained a constant focus on ending — or at the very least reducing — the state’s reliance on private prison contracts. In 2016, CPR rejoiced upon receiving news that Walnut Grove would be closing, but we also made clear that we would continue to advocate for the closing of the three other private prisons (also operated by MTC) in Mississippi. The prison conditions at East Mississippi Correctional Facility — alleged in a class action lawsuit filed in 2013 — are even worse than the conditions revealed at Walnut Grove. Ultimately, prisons should not be run by for-profit entities more accountable to shareholders than the people of Mississippi. Rehabilitating incarcerated people makes moral and fiscal sense, and it better serves public safety. We look forward to standing in solidarity with other criminal justice reformers and human rights activists during the federal trial which began this week.
Scripture is clear; even the prisoner has value in the eyes of Jesus, who he counts among the least of these among us. Rehabilitating people is morally right and fiscally sound. Jailing them for no purpose other than exact revenge does not.
The Rev. CJ Rhodes is president of Clergy for Prison Reform and pastor at Mount Helm Baptist Church in Jackson.
by: Jeff Amy
date: 2018-03-05
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/03/06/prison-conditions-disputed-trial-east-mississippi-correctional-facility/398176002/
Levon Brooks and Kennedy Brewer of Noxubee County had the prime of their lives taken from them. Billy Watkins/Clarion Ledger
JACKSON — Lawyers for inmates argued Monday that conditions at a Mississippi prison are unconstitutionally abusive, while the state's lawyers said they're proud of the prison and that inmates' complaints don't justify a federal judge's intervention.
Both sides made opening arguments Monday in what could be a six-week trial examining conditions at the privately run East Mississippi Correctional Facility near Meridian. U.S. District Judge William Barbour Jr. will rule in the case, as there's no jury.
Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union and the Southern Poverty Law Center want Barbour to order improvements at the prison, run by Utah-based Management and Training Corp., or MTC. Plaintiffs say medical and mental health care are substandard, the facility is overly violent, too many inmates are locked in solitary confinement, and inmates don't even get nutritious food. Lawyer Elissa Johnson laid those failings at the feet of the Mississippi Department of Corrections, saying the state is failing to force MTC and a medical contractor to live up to their responsibilities.
Also read: Levon Brooks: 'An extraordinary man' who wrongfully spent one-third of his life in prison
"It is a bedrock constitutional principle that states must provide constitutionally adequate care," Johnson said.
Lawyers plan to put on evidence in seven separate areas where they said the prison violates the U.S. Constitution's guarantee against cruel and unusual punishment. She argued that each issue put inmates at an unacceptable risk of harm.
About 80 percent of the 1,200 inmates at the facility are under some form of mental health care. The state has designated the prison to host mentally ill inmates. Johnson said that made some practices, such as solitary confinement, particularly inappropriate.
She called the solitary confinement conditions "oppressive."
State lawyers told Barbour that the plaintiffs can't prove any constitutional violations. They also say MTC and the new medical contractor have made improvements.
"It's hard to see how reasonable people can look at the same facility and come to such opposite conclusions," said William Siler, a lawyer for the state.
Siler said that every prison has problems, but added inmates are to blame for some issues such as damaged cells or contraband weapons.
"What you see is them trying to say we need to protect the inmates from themselves," Siler said.
State lawyer Michael Bentley said that former contractor Health Assurance, whose co-owner was convicted of bribing former Corrections Commissioner Christopher Epps, provided poorer health care than the current contractor. But Bentley said what's important is the current conditions.
"The question before your honor is not what was happening in 2013 or 2014 or 2015," Bentley said. "The question is what is happening now."
Bentley said plaintiffs had to prove more than isolated horror stories, but instead show that for all the inmates, prison officials are refusing treatment, ignoring complaints, or intentionally providing incorrect care. He said evidence that companies aren't complying with their state contract or aren't meeting professional standards isn't enough.
"You can't hide deliberate indifference in a facility wide class-action," Bentley said, urging Barbour to make a planned tour of the prison on short notice. "You can't clean it up in a day, or a week, or a month."
Siler told Barbour Monday that he expects the entire trial to take as long as six weeks. More than a dozen lawyers were present between the plaintiffs and defendants. Corrections Commissioner Pelicia Hall was absent from court, with Siler saying she had gone to a hospital with symptoms of appendicitis.
by: Bradley Wellborn
date: 2018-03-01
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/opinion/columnists/2018/03/02/expand-treatment-not-jail-opioid-use/388695002/
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(Photo: Special to the Clarion Ledger)
There are 121,000 Mississippians currently in need of treatment for substance use disorders, according to Dr. Mary Currier, the State Medical Officer. But in all of Mississippi, there are a total of 501 beds, certified by the Department of Mental Health, to treat such disorders. Mississippi, like the rest of the nation, is in the midst of an opioid epidemic. Large numbers of our citizens have become addicted to legal drugs, prescribed to them by medical professionals.
Our response has been to answer this epidemic with abrupt prescription crack-downs, thereby encouraging a migration to illegal drugs as a replacement. The result has been a doubling of fatal overdoses in Mississippi, which plainly reveals the ineffectiveness of our current strategy. Treating addiction as a criminal matter is wrong and does nothing to solve the underlying problems faced by these Mississippians.
For us, this epidemic is still in its early stages, but the coming crisis is so clear that major public figures, such as Marshall Fisher, head of Mississippi’s Department of Public Safety, and Dr. Currier, have spoken out on the limitations of law enforcement and the state’s health system to either stop, mitigate, or manage the damage that is being done to our communities and our broader society.
More: On the offensive: Fighting opioids in Ohio and Mississippi
More: Opioid prescribing at 55 mph when the speed limit's 75: MS Pulse
Not only do we have far too few beds available for treatment, there is no tracking or coordinating technology to effectively match patients to beds. There are scarce resources to manage patients awaiting beds, and predictably some patients who desire treatment become more firmly addicted after waiting overlong for those beds.
Historically, Mississippi has relied upon law enforcement and the courts to deal with substance use issues. Unfortunately, neither were designed as regulatory or preemptive agencies. Still, 20 percent of Mississippi's inmates, 38 percent of our probationers, and 48 percent of our parolees are there on drug charges. At the cost of $18,615 per year (plus medical expenses) to house a single prisoner at Parchman Penitentiary, we are using a vast amount of resources on an ill-fitting solution. Incarceration does little to rehabilitate, isolates individuals from family and other positive allies and resources, and ultimately creates the need for the taxpayers to expend more resources after imprisonment on welfare and recovery systems. The criminal justice system is not the right tool for a public health crisis.
We have 121,000 Mississippians currently outside the prison system that struggle with substance use disorders. Many of these have underlying mental health issues. Yet statewide, we have the ability to treat only 501 at a time.
Mississippians must recognize the coming threats and reexamine our ultimate objectives in order to develop better, cheaper, and more effective responses to substance use.
Clearly, we must increase capacity to effectively treat substance use disorders. The Department of Health has unequivocally stated the need for more beds and better technology to coordinate the use of those beds for maximum effect. We should develop these capacities now, before our health systems are completely overwhelmed.
We must also find new tools to prevent substance use disorder and help people who are struggling with it. At every opportunity, we should divert them away from the criminal justice system.
We should also develop support and counseling networks at the community level. Imagine churches and community organizations throughout the state offering their facilities and a few volunteers to host a weekly telehealth counseling session for those in their local community. Matching the substance use and mental health resources available in Jackson’s premier medical community with local social networks would enable coverage to every corner of the state at very low cost, and would alleviate many problems related to our backlog of treatment needs.
It is time to treat substance use and mental illness as health issues. The criminal justice system is the wrong tool for the task.
Bradley Wellborn is a Jackson attorney.
by: Therese Apel
date: 2018-03-01
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/03/02/jones-deputies-find-explosives-during-drug-raid/389265002/
A Jones County drug raid turned into a larger investigation when deputies found explosives inside a home on Trace Road.
"They weren’t looking for any type of explosives, I’m just glad our swat team who is so well trained was there, and their search," Jones County spokeswoman Allyson Knotts said.
Jones County officials said there were "numerous alleged detonated homemade explosives."
Michael Sanchez, 32, is charged with conspiracy to sell narcotics. Additional charges will be filed, including felony possession of a weapon and other federal crimes.
Several explosive devices had been tested on the site and there could be upwards of five detonation sites, according to the sheriff's department. They also believed the explosives were blown up to test the range and see if the trajectory could be concentrated to a small area.
Sheriff Alex Hodge said there appeared to be definite intent to harm. The explosives, he said, would have caused mass casualties if they had been set off in public.
Major Jamie Tedford said the devices were "made to cause destruction and death," and had what appeared to be different types of shrapnel.
A woman who was also taken into custody initially was released pending the results of a grand jury.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is also involved in the investigation.
by: Jerry Mitchell
date: 2018-03-01
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/03/02/hunger-strike-east-mississippi-prison-eve-trial/389225002/
Attorney General Jeff Sessions signed a memo reversing an Obama-era order that sought to limit the use of private prisons. Video provided by Newsy Newslook
(Photo: Special to the Clarion-Ledger)
Days from a trial centered on problems at the East Mississippi Correctional Facility, some inmates went on a short hunger strike.
Issa Arnita, a spokesman for Management & Training Corp., which runs the private prison in Meridian along with the Marshall County Correctional Facility and Wilkinson County Correctional Facility, confirmed the hunger strike by some inmates on Thursday.
He explained that MTC is combatting contraband in all three prisons. Part of that effort has included a Correctional Emergency Response Team conducting daily, unannounced contraband searches of all of its housing units.
After a search of one of the East Mississippi housing units on Wednesday, CERT discovered several items of contraband, the bulk being cellphones and cellphone chargers, he said.
Under state Department of Corrections rules, housing units are placed under lockdown after the discovery of contraband.
Several inmates went on a hunger strike to reportedly protest that shakedown.
Arnita said inmates in the housing unit on lockdown ate breakfast but refused to eat lunch on Thursday.
He said inmates ate dinner on Thursday night and breakfast on Friday morning without incident.
A trial is slated to begin Monday in U.S. District Court in a class-action lawsuit filed by inmates at the East Mississippi prison, alleging violence, dysfunctional mental health care system, filthy cells and other woes.
by: Jimmie E. Gates
date: 2018-03-01
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/03/02/federal-lawsuit-over-barbaric-conditions-prison-slated-trial-monday/389683002/
Tales of murder, sexual favors, contraband and neglect. The Governor's Task Force on No-Bid Contracts for the Mississippi Department of Corrections got an ear-full from inmates' families during a public forum in Jackson on Friday. Hear their stories.
(Photo: Special to the Clarion Ledger)
Four inmates have died in the last two months, including two who died of opioid overdoses, said attorneys for inmates in a federal class-action lawsuit over conditions at the private-run East Mississippi Correctional Facility near Meridian.
Inmates are still living in barbaric and horrific conditions and their basic human rights are violated daily, said Jody Owens of the Southern Poverty Law Center Mississippi office.
On Friday, the attorneys conducted a phone press briefing about the trial in the 5-year-old prisoners’ lawsuit, which is scheduled to start Monday in federal court in Jackson. Federal judge William Barbour is set to preside.
Read: Gay pride parade organizers sue Mississippi city over denial
The lawsuit is against the Mississippi Department of Corrections and the Management & Training Corp., which has the state contract to house inmates at the private prison.
Plaintiffs described the private prison, which houses many suffering from mental illness, as a facility where inmates are being mistreated, beaten and exploited by gangs and others.
“Inmates are crying for relief,” Owens said.
The litigation alleges there was sex between officers and inmates, widespread contraband and weapons, a "buddy" system in which officers cover up the beatings of inmates and the rehiring of former employees who used excessive force.
In November 2012, the president of Utah-based Management & Training Corp. toured the institution and was quoted as saying "the living conditions were awful," according to the lawsuit.
However, MTC officials say they have made significant improvements since they took over the prison in July 2012.
But Owens said Friday with other plaintiffs’ attorneys that conditions at the prison aren’t any better than when the lawsuit was filed in 2013 and may have gotten worse.
Owens said SPLC tried to settle the lawsuit at least twice, but the Mississippi Department of Corrections and MTC refused.
MTC began operating East Mississippi Correctional Facility, one of the state's three private prisons, in 2012. Its current population is 1,291 inmates with a capacity for 1,500.
MDOC issued a statement Friday through spokeswoman Grace Fisher saying the agency's practice is not to discuss ongoing litigation. Therefore, the agency is reserving comments until after trial, she said.
MTC's corporate spokesman, Issa Arnita, said in a statement that the company can't speak to specific allegations because the case is in court, but said MTC officials can say "unequivocally" that the facility is safe, secure, clean and well run.
"From the warden on down, our staff are trained to treat the men in our care with dignity and respect. Our mission is to help these men make choices in prison and after they're released that will lead to a new and successful life in society," Arnita said.
Arnita said the facility is accredited by the American Correctional Association and the Correctional Education Association. It's also 100 percent compliant with the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act, which was created to further protect the rights of inmates.
Arnita said some of the improvements MTC, in partnership with the Department of Corrections, has made since MTC began operating the facility, include:
Security
New full-body scanner; 30-foot netting around the perimeter; iron reinforcements and locks installed in cells to prevent access to pipe chases; new canine unit to search for contraband; new motion sensors; additional razor wire installed on the interior perimeter fence; new high-intensity lighting installed around the perimeter; and upgraded security control boards.
Staffing
Enhanced training for all staff members, additional staff added to certain areas and shifts to improve overall operations.
Programming
More than 100 GEDs earned, nearly 1,000 vocational and other certificates awarded, increased "contact hours" (hours where inmates are engaged in meaningful activities including programming, work and recreation) from 101,000 hours in 2012 to 180,479 hours.
The trial is expected to last more than a month. Owens said the plaintiffs' case is expected to last four weeks before the state and MTC begin their defense.
Last month, Barbour denied a motion by the prisoners to prohibit the defendants from introducing evidence regarding the criminal histories of their witnesses but said the plaintiffs’ attorneys can raise objections on a case-by-case basis.
The prisoners also asked the judge to limit the state from bringing up evidence regarding alleged changes in conditions at the prison that occurred after July 14, 2017, the date when discovery closed.
However, Barbour denied that request, saying the current conditions at EMCF is probative on the issue of whether injunctive relief is warranted in the case, which is the only relief sought.
by: Therese Apel
date: 2018-03-01
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/03/02/burning-cross-reappears-mississippi-county-2-years-after-first-seen/389965002/
When breaking news happens, we want you to see it first hand. Thank you for trusting the Clarion Ledger. Wochit
(Photo: Photo by Vincent May)
Two years ago to the day that a burning cross was found in Lawrence County in 2016, another one was found on a state road sign on Mississippi 27 just over the state line.
The Daily Leader's Donna Campbell reported that motorists Lawrence County Sheriff Lessie Butler told them that motorists saw the burning cross and reported it to authorities.
The cross, which the sheriff said is about two feet tall and was made from flammable materials, was attached to a can of what appeared to be freon.
Butler told the Daily Leader the call came in that something was on fire at the county line.
Lawrence County Fire Coordinator Jared Evans said the cross was attached to the sign by coat hangers. The fire was put out by a passer by with a fire extinguisher before firefighters got there.
It's the second burning cross in Lawrence County in two years, and the other was two years ago to the day.
“We called the FBI and because nobody got hurt and it wasn’t in a predominantly black community during that time, they said there wasn’t a lot they could do with it but file it. I guess we’ll do the same thing with this one,” Butler told the Leader about the first one.
Lawrence County did not alert the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. It is not yet clear if they notified the FBI in Saturday's case.
The Clarion Ledger has left messages for the sheriff and others involved in the case. We will update as we have more information.
If you have information on this crime, please call the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office at 601-587-2961.
If you have photos of this breaking news event, please share them with us at tapel@gannett.com.
by: Anthony McDougle
date: 2018-03-01
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2018/03/02/starkville-board-aldermen-reconsider-pride-parade/391077002/
Here's some of the buzzworthy quotes coming out of the Mississippi Legislature this week. Dustin Barnes/Clarion Ledger
(Photo: File photo)
It seems Starkville Pride still has a chance of securing its parade in March after all. In a surprising turn of events, Starkville's Board of Aldermen has announced its intention to reconsider the permit application from the LGBTQ community organization committed to equality and dignity.
This intention was indicated in the agenda for Tuesday night's board meeting. Starkville Pride’s attorney, Roberta A. Kaplan, a renowned civil rights attorney and founding partner of Kaplan & Company, LLP, said she hopes the board will make the right call this time around.
“While we are obviously disappointed that the Board of Aldermen did not grant our clients’ application the first time around, we are hopeful that the board will use this opportunity to do the right thing — and follow the Constitution," Kaplan said.
Although the board's decision provides a glimmer of hope for the city's LGBTQ community, Starkville Pride Director and Founder Bailey McDaniel said she still remains cautiously optimistic.
"On behalf of Starkville Pride, I sincerely hope the board makes the correct decision Tuesday," she said. "Honestly, I'm upset at the idea they get to remedy such an injustice to the LGBTQ community so easily just because they are scared of the repercussion of their actions. However, everyone deserves a chance to right their wrongs and I have to remember that they are not exempt from that."
Starkville Pride filed a federal lawsuit last week against the city of Starkville for denying a permit application to hold a parade. Despite widespread town support, the city’s Board of Aldermen voted 4-3 against allowing the group to host its parade, originally scheduled for March 24.
According to a statement released by Kaplan's law firm, the board’s decision to ban "is a textbook violation of the First Amendment and its discriminatory treatment, based solely on LGBT-related animus, violates the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause."
The case, Starkville Pride et. al. v. City of Starkville, was filed Monday afternoon in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi, Eastern Division.
by: Linda A. Moore
date: 2018-03-04
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/03/05/woman-claims-southaven-desoto-authorities-violated-her-rights/394480002/
Washington Redskins safety Su'a Cravens claimed in a series of tweets Monday that he was racially profiled during a traffic stop in Northern Virginia nearly three weeks ago and threatened to file a lawsuit. Time
Were it not for missing salad dressing, Jessica Hughes and her family would have never stopped in the parking lot of the Steak 'n Shake restaurant on Goodman Road in Southaven on Feb. 9.
It was there that she was arrested and charged with misusing the 911 emergency phone system, and where she says she was racially profiled and harassed.
Now, the Grenada, Miss. resident has filed a federal lawsuit against Southaven, the city's police department, DeSoto County, the DeSoto County Sheriff's Department, the arresting officer and others, claiming that her rights were violated.
"I was arrested because I called 911 for someone to come help me. I felt threatened in that situation and with his line of questioning. I didn't feel safe," Hughes said.
Efforts to reach Southaven and DeSoto County officials have been unsuccessful.
Her attorney Carlos Moore believes as a university administrator, U.S. Army reservist, wife of a city councilman, she's the "perfect victim" to prove the double-standard in DeSoto County.
"There are two sets of laws in DeSoto County and that’s not right," Moore said. "She had a right to not be illegally searched and seized and she had a right to equal protection under the law."
Hughes, 38, said her family had left her daughter's basketball when the family went through the drive-through at Steak 'n Shake. Her husband, Joshua Hughes, parked the car in a handicapped space to retrieve the absent salad dressing.
Officer P. Croy was patrolling the parking lot at about 10 p.m., saw their SUV in the space without the required license plate or placard.
Hughes was on the passenger side and told the officer she didn't realize they were parked in a handicapped spot. She said she got out to move their vehicle.
"But he didn’t want to hear any of that. He just wanted to find a reason to harass us. He didn’t ask about registration or insurance. Those are common questions for a traffic violation," she said. "He asked for my license. I gave him my license. He was asking about warrants and drugs and weapons."
During the encounter Hughes said she felt unsafe and called 911 twice to request a supervisor.
In his report, Croy stated that Hughes was aggressive during the encounter and said she was not upset until she found out her husband was getting a ticket.
Hughes also called the department's non-emergency number, Croy said in the arrest report, and could be heard using profanity and calling him an "asshole."
After the arrest, she said she was not allowed to bond out from the police headquarters, even though there were two white men there on drug charges were allowed to leave from the police headquarters.
"They transferred me there just to make me go through the motions. That’s the way I feel," Hughes said.
At the county lockup, only the African-American women were subjected to a physical search and required to wear pink jumpsuits, Hughes said. A white woman being held on a DUI charge told them, she wasn't required to change clothes because she was bonding out.
"White privilege and white supremacy reigns, even in jail," Moore said.
During the incident, the couple's three children were in the car. The two younger children were unaware, but her 16-year-old daughter, a basketball player at Grenada High School, was upset, Hughes said.
"She’s strong. I thinks she’s going to be fine after she processes this and gets through it. But it's going to be tough," she said.
Hughes is anything but a criminal, Moore said.
"She is married to a city councilman in Grenada, (is) an administrator at the University of Mississippi (in Grenada) and has been a member of the military, serving this country for the past 21 years," Moore said. "And to be treated like a dog is beyond her and beyond me and we're going to make them pay. If you could have a perfect victim, she’s the perfect victim."
The lawsuit asks for a jury trial and $500,000 judgement.
by: Justin Vicory
date: 2018-03-04
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/03/05/city-jackson-sanctuary-city-ethics-commission-complaint/393254002/
Gov. Phil Bryant on Monday signed into law a measure that would prevent local governments and universities enacting policies that would limit enforcement of and cooperation with federal immigration laws and enforcement. Geoff Pender/The Clarion-Ledger
(Photo: File Photo/The Clarion-Ledger)
Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba emphatically refuted Monday a public records complaint by a conservative-leaning organization that suggests the city is destroying federal immigration records.
"This is a meritless, baseless, senseless waste of time," the mayor said at a Monday news conference. "It's an out-and-out lie, an alternative fact. This administration has not destroyed anything."
The Mississippi Justice Institute filed the complaint with the Mississippi Ethics Commission Monday morning. In it, institute Director Shadrack White alleged the city was illegally destroying federal immigration detainers. Such written requests to detain individuals provide immigration agents extra time to decide whether to take the individuals into custody for deportation. White made the claim after the city said it doesn't "keep or maintain" federal detainer information.
An immigration detainer, also known as an immigration hold, is one of the key tools U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement uses to apprehend individuals who come in contact with local and state law enforcement agencies and put them into the federal deportation system.
White submitted a January public records request that sought information on detainers the city has received dating back to 2014. White said his organization, the legal arm of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy, hasn't requested similar detainers from Hinds County, which oversees the jail. He also said he hasn't requested the information from ICE itself because of the legal effort involved.
White said he submitted the request to the city since the Department of Justice recently targeted Jackson in its crackdown on so-called sanctuary cities.
At the news conference, interim Police Chief Anthony Moore didn't answer whether the city had received any ICE detainers or if the department had a particular policy on such requests.
The city already prohibits its police officers from asking the immigration status of individuals. As such, JPD doesn't keep immigration records of persons that are not detained.
"I'll say it clearly and one more time," Lumumba said. "We can't destroy what we don't have and we can't produce what we don't have. It's akin to me requesting the million dollars in my account. I will never get the million dollars out of my account because I don't have the million dollars in my account."
But White remained steadfast following the mayor's heated news conference.
"Mayor Lumumba was asked repeatedly at his press conference whether the city receives detainers, with the police chief standing next to him. He could not or would not say the city does not receive detainers. We need clear answers to these questions, and apparently filing a complaint is the only way to get answers," he said.
White said he stands behind his allegation.
"What else would you call it? When I asked for the records, the JPD responded by saying we don't keep the records. To me, that means they are destroying the records," he said.
The institute is requesting the Ethics Commission order the city to produce any detainer records and explain its policy. It's also asking the commission to grant an oral argument for this case.
This is a developing story.
by: Jimmie E. Gates
date: 2018-03-04
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2018/03/05/did-you-know-mississippi-still-can-penalize-you-being-homeless/394979002/
Troy Thigpen has spent the better part of the last 20 years on the streets, traveling from state to state as a self-proclaimed nomad. Thigpen is currently homeless in Jackson. Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger
It's illegal in Mississippi to be homeless, and those who are can be jailed.
But a bill is on the way to the governor that would remove penalties from archaic Mississippi laws, which refer to the homeless as "vagrants" and "tramps."
Rep. Dana Criswell, R-Olive Branch, filed House Bill 668 to remove the language.
"This is a good step to take," said House Judiciary B Chairman Andy Gipson, R-Braxton, who handled the bill on the House floor.
"They don't need to be put in prison for not having a home," Gipson said, though he added that no one is charged or prosecuted any longer under such terms. He said someone might have been prosecuted for sleeping in a park back in the 1940s.
Mississippi Code contains the following language:
'Tramps'
Any male person over 16 years of age, and not blind, who shall go about from place to place begging and asking subsistence by charity, and all who stroll over the country without lawful occasion, and can give no account of their conduct consistent with good citizenship, shall be held to be tramps.
Every person, on conviction of being a tramp, shall be punished by a fine of not more than $50, or imprisonment in the county jail not more than one month, or both.
'Vagrants'
A police officer is authorized to arrest any person defined as a vagrant by this section only if the officer warned the person to move from a certain location and such person refused to move from the location.
Upon conviction for being a vagrant, the justice of the peace or mayor or police justice by whom such person was tried shall commit the person to jail for not more than 48 hours, or fine such person in an amount up to $100.
Gipson said HB 668 is a bipartisan bill and that law enforcement supports it.
The House passed the bill 116-0, and the Senate passed it 51-0. If Gov. Phil Bryant signs it, it will become law July 1.
More: Who is in charge of mass fatality scene? Bill seeks to clarify
by: Harold Gater
date: 2018-03-04
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/nletter/the-clarion-ledger-now/2018/03/05/cl-now-jackson-public-records-complaint-prison-lawsuit-begins-woman-claims-racial-profiling/396310002/
Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Thomas Homan said he believes politicians in "sanctuary cities" should be arrested and charged with crimes. Wochit
Good afternoon. Today is Monday, March 5, and this is your CL NOW! newsletter. Here are some of the day's top stories at ClarionLedger.com.
Group files records complaint against City of Jackson
Jackson is again being questioned over so-called sanctuary city policies.
The Mississippi Justice Institute filed a public records complaint with the Mississippi Ethics Commission Monday which alleges the Jackson Police Department under Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba is illegally destroying federal immigration detainers.
An immigration detainer, also known as an immigration hold, is one of the key tools U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement uses to apprehend individuals who come in contact with local and state law enforcement agencies and put them into the federal deportation system.
Federal lawsuit over 'barbaric' conditions at Mississippi prison
A federal class-action lawsuit over conditions at the private-run East Mississippi Correctional Facility near Meridian went to trial on Monday.
Inmates are still living in barbaric and horrific conditions and their basic human rights are violated daily, said Jody Owens of the Southern Poverty Law Center Mississippi office. Four inmates have died in the last two months, including two who died of opioid overdoses, attorneys said.
Woman sues over alleged racial profiling in DeSoto County
Jessica Hughes of Grenada, Miss. resident has filed a federal lawsuit against Southaven, the city's police department, DeSoto County, the DeSoto County Sheriff's Department, the arresting officer and others, claiming that her rights were violated.
Hughes was charged with misusing the 911 emergency phone system. Hughes says she was racially profiled and harassed.
"I was arrested because I called 911 for someone to come help me. I felt threatened in that situation and with his line of questioning. I didn't feel safe," Hughes said.
Hughes' attorney Carlos Moore believes as a university administrator, U.S. Army reservist, wife of a city councilman, she's the "perfect victim" to prove the double-standard in DeSoto County.
Other News: Body found may be victim of hit-and-run, JPD says
by:
date: 2017-08-09
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/03/05/south-mississippi-gang-activity-increased/396604002/
Simon City Royal gang member Welford Lee McCarty, aka “Pork Chop,” shot and killed a fellow gang member, the force of the gunshot blast thrusting the victim’s body into a makeshift grave in rural Greene County.
Later, the victim’s body was dug up, chopped up, placed into garbage bags, covered in a blue tarp and taken to another location. There, the gang weighted down the remains and stuffed the bags under a culvert overlooking a beaver dam in the middle of nowhere.
The victim’s family searched for him for more than a year before someone worked up the nerve to turn McCarty in and lead authorities to the victim’s body. Most people in the area fear McCarty because they knew they could face repercussions that include death.
McCarty is now serving a life sentence plus three years for the 2016 gang-initiated killing, all because the gang erroneously thought the victim had become a snitch.
But McCarty’s reputation as a feared member of the Royals and a loyal follower of the Southern Brotherhood white supremacist street gang earned him freedom from prosecution and even jail time for years because witnesses were too afraid to testify against him.
District Attorney Tony Lawrence still gets angry when he thinks about how he had to dismiss another capital murder charge against McCarty in another drug and gang-related slaying in George County after witnesses changed their testimony at the last minute because of what prosecutors called a fear of being killed. In the years that followed, Lawrence managed to gather enough witnesses and evidence in the case to re-indict McCarty in that killing. That case is still pending.
“The gang membership and criminal activity in this area has increased alarmingly over the last few years,” Lawrence said Thursday. “That’s why prosecutors drafted gang legislation to give law enforcement the tools they need to address the violent activity of criminal gangs.”
But the gang bill that called for stricter penalties for gang members passed through the Senate in the last week but never made it to a vote in the House. The bill died once again, mostly because of a fear among some leaders that blacks would be unfairly targeted as gang members, thought gang investigators say the majority of the gang members arrested are white.
‘Recruiting every day’
Another year without a gang law to get more prison time for gang activities is upsetting to both prosecutors and law enforcement officials in South Mississippi as well to members of the Mississippi Association of Gang Investigators.
“These gang members are recruiting every day,” said Jimmy Anthony, vice president of the MAGI. “Every day, gang members are using a young person to commit crimes because they know these kids will get a lessor sentence. Every day, they are approaching someone’s child to get involved in criminal activity.
“If we don’t start making a difference now, we are going to be begging for help just like Chicago did in a matter of years after they tried to deny the gang problems there.”
In Chicago, officials tried to avoid the stigma of gangs for years by downplaying their presence in the city, Anthony said, but now officials in the windy city have called on federal authorities to help them combat the rampant and growing gang problem there.
“I don’t want us to wait until it’s too late to address these gangs,” Anthony said. “We don’t want to end up like Chicago.”
Harrison County Sheriff Troy Peterson warns residents that the one common denominator behind the gang members who often commit these crimes are their roots in the ever-growing drug trade.
Top gangs in South Mississippi
If you’ve ever wondered if gangs are operating in your neck of the woods, here are the statistics for the six southernmost counties of Harrison, Hancock, Stone, Jackson, George and Greene counties.
This is where the street thugs are that are known to commit property crimes, home invasions, assaults, drug operations, kidnappings and other violent crimes, including murders.
Simon City Royals
Previously known as the Almighty Simon City Royals Nation, the gang started as a Chicago street gang in the 1950s. After deadly turf wars with rival gangs later in the 1970s, the gang’s popularity spread throughout cities across the nation and into prisons.
The Royals are more organized than most gangs, according to law enforcement officials, with ranks, titles, rules and punishment in place to exact upon members who violate their rules.
Signs and symbols: Royals are usually easily identified because they often wear their colors — blue with white and black — and their symbols are usually proudly displayed on their jackets or in tattoos on their bodies. The symbols include a six-point star, a Latin cross with three dashes and rabbit head with a bent right ear.
By the numbers: Totals for convicted members in each county in 2017.
Jackson County - 124
Harrison County - 200
Hancock County - 49
George County - 29
Stone County - 19
Greene County - 8
Gangster Disciples
The gang first formed in the south side of Chicago in the late 1960s and later grew to more than 50,000 members and counting today. The gang is known for its involvement in drug trafficking, robberies, extortion, murder, prostitution and other crimes.
Signs and symbols: The gang’s colors are black, blue and gray and their symbols include a six-point star, pitchforks, hearts with wings, tails and horns. The six-pointed star is often in the color blue and represents love, life, loyalty, knowledge, wisdom and understanding.
By the numbers: Totals for convicted members in each county in 2017.
Jackson County - 154
Harrison County - 317
Hancock County - 28
George County - 19
Stone County - 19
Greene County - 8
Vice Lords and subsets
Known as the Almighty Vice Lord Nation, the gang is one of the oldest street gangs to form in Chicago and its membership has grown over the years to more than 40,000 members. The gang is primarily involved in drug trafficking, robbery, extortion, fraud, money laundering, property crimes, and even racketeering schemes.
Signs and symbols: The gang’s colors are black, gold and red and the symbols include a five-point star, a Playboy Bunny, and the left side of Top Hat. The five-point star represents love, truth, peace, freedom and justice.
By the numbers: Totals for convicted members in each county in 2017.
Jackson County - 17
Harrison County - 228
Hancock County - 12
George County - 1
Greene County - 6
Stone County - 7
Jackson County - 17
Latin Kings
Known as the Almighty Latin Kings, the gang of immigrants formed in Chicago in the 1950s as a way to overcome racial prejudices and improve the quality of life of immigrants. The gang, with more than 40,000 members, is involved in drug and gun trafficking, assaults, robberies, auto thefts, racketeering and murder.
Signs and symbols: The gang’s colors are black and gold and the symbols include the five-pointed crown and drawings of the Lion or a King master. The five-point crown represents love, respect, sacrifice, honor and obedience. The most notable case in South Mississippi occurred when Latin Kings gang member Josh Vallum stabbed and beat to death 17-year-old Mercedes Williamson, a transgender girl he had dated. Vallum committed the crime after he learned other gang members had found out Mercedes was a transgender girl. Vallum killed Mercedes because he feared reprisals from the gang, which forbids homosexual activity, if they learned of Vallum’s sexual relationship with the teen. Vallum made history in federal courts in 2018 when he because the first person to face a federal hate prosecution against the killer of a transgender victim.
By the numbers: Totals for convicted members in each county in 2017.
Jackson County - 44
Harrison County - 0
Hancock County - 0
George County - 6
Stone County - 0
Greene County - 0
Black Gangster Disciples
Founded in the south side of Chicago in the 1960s, the Black Gangster Disciples criminal gang formed after the leaders of two other Chicago gangs — the Highlife Supreme Gangsters and the Black Disciples, merged. The gang has more than 50,000 members and is involved in street-level drug distribution, assaults, auto thefts, firearms violations, fraud, homicides, prostitution rings and money laundering.
Signs and symbols: The gang’s colors are blue and blue and dominant symbol of this criminal gang is the six-pointed Star of David, symbolizing the gang's principles: love, life, loyalty, knowledge, wisdom, understanding.
By the numbers: Totals for convicted members in each county in 2017.
Jackson County - 0
Harrison County - 132
Hancock County - 10
George County - 0
Stone County - 0
Greene County - 4
by: Michelle Malkin
date: 2018-02-28
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/opinion/columnists/2018/03/01/release-florida-school-shooting-surveillance-video/384773002/
Download The Clarion-Ledger app for free on the Apple app store or Google Play. Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger
(Photo: Creators Syndicate)
Open government isn’t just good government. It’s the public’s right.
In Florida, the Broward County Sheriff’s office and Broward County school district are fighting to keep exterior surveillance video from the day of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School hidden from view. As journalists and citizens who’ve waged uphill battles against secrecy well know, government agencies too often invoke broad disclosure exemptions in the name of protecting public safety when they’re really just trying to protect their own jobs.
Feckless Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel and media-luvin’ school Superintendent Robert Runcie are defendants in an open records lawsuit filed Tuesday by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the Miami Herald and CNN. The local officials claim that surveillance videos from cameras outside the school are completely exempt from sunshine laws because they would expose the district’s security system plan; are part of an active criminal investigation; and involve an active internal affairs investigation of school resource officer/BSO Deputy Scot Peterson, whom Israel notoriously threw under the bus last week.
More: America and gun violence, how will it end?
More: Are we bowing to the idol of the 2nd Amendment?
Let’s break down these specious excuses for keeping information vital to the public interest locked in a black box.
First, the disclosure of the videos would pose no danger to students because Building 12, where the shooting took place, will be demolished.
Second, key investigative records, transcripts and logs in the active criminal probe against the Parkland school shooter have already been released to the public. Israel himself coughed up call logs documenting 23 times the shooter’s family or neighbors called deputies to the house. Additional dispatch records obtained by local and national media outlets revealed 22 more calls to law enforcement dating back to 2008 that had not been initially communicated by the selectively disclosing sheriff.
Moreover, the open records lawsuit notes that Israel has already publicly described in detail what the video shows about Peterson’s actions: He arrived at the west side of Building 12, took position, got on his radio, had a view of the western entry of Building 12 but never went in for “upwards of four minutes” while the shooter slaughtered 17 innocent students and teachers.
In addition, government sources have leaked FBI transcripts of caller tips reporting Nikolas Cruz’s violent threats and tendencies that went unheeded. Unidentified sources leaked school disciplinary records documenting the shooter’s troubles dating back to elementary and middle school. And a Broward Circuit Court judge ordered the release last week of a State Department of Children and Families investigation into allegations of abuse and neglect in the shooter’s home.
“If there were shortcomings,” Broward Circuit Court Judge Charles Greene concluded, “the public has the right to know.” Any right to privacy that the shooter may have claimed was effectively waived by his own bloody actions and outweighed by the public interest.
The Broward County school district is hiding behind the sheriff’s skirt, claiming that since law enforcement took possession of the videos, its hands are tied. But that school property is the public’s property, subject to the state’s public records act. As Fort Lauderdale lawyers Dana McElroy and James McGuire, who filed the petition on behalf of the media outlets, point out in the “good cause” petition for disclosure that I obtained this week: “The District should be required to demand, and the Sheriff’s Office should be required to deliver, a copy of the video back to the District” in order to comply with the “legal requirement that it maintain and disclose its own public records.”
Third, Deputy Scot Peterson has already resigned, so the sheriff’s office should not be able to hide behind the confidential personnel records shield. Peterson publicly disputes Israel’s version of events and released his own detailed account of his actions after his former boss blabbed about the surveillance tape at a backside-saving press conference last week. This is “information the public needed to know,” Israel pontificated last week, yet he is denying the public’s right to see and judge the surveillance videos for themselves.
Israel is a grandstanding publicity hound, enabled by gun control extremists in the media, whose “just trust us” arrogance is an obstacle to the truth. He’s a dime a dozen. Across the country, government control freaks in local, state and federal agencies — both civilian and law enforcement — routinely block public disclosure of information that destroys their carefully spun, job-preserving narratives.
Release the videos. Let the public, especially competent security experts, see them. Without transparency, there can be no accountability. Without accountability, “Never Again” is yet another empty, expedient cable TV sound bite in an ocean of self-serving rhetoric.
Michelle Malkin is host of “Michelle Malkin Investigates” on CRTV.com. Her email address is writemalkin@gmail.com
by: Therese Apel
date: 2018-02-26
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/02/27/arrest-made-wayne-high-school-threat/379341002/
For students, parents and teachers of Parkland, Florida the shock has subsided as the Stoneman Douglas High School doors will open for the first time since 17 people lost their lives in a mass shooting two weeks ago. (Feb. 27) AP
An arrest has been made in a bomb threat situation at Wayne County High School, and authorities want to make sure it's clear that it's not okay to call in a threat.
A 15-year-old male is in custody, charged with felony threat of a school by explosive, said Waynesboro Police Chief Holt Ross.
Ross said he was at the school on another matter Monday when a threat was called in around 1:28 p.m. As authorities were clearing the school, two more calls came in quick succession, at 1:30 and 1:33.
"I began to get concerned because I thought the guy was trying to funnel the students in a certain direction," Ross said. "He was persistent with those phone calls, and I was deeply concerned with the kids’ safety."
Ross said he sent the students to the baseball and football fields and told them to get behind and under the bleachers.
Even though the calls came in from an anonymous number, Ross and others were able to track down the phone number of the phone that made the call. An agent with the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation called the number and told him his phone had been used to make a threat at the high school in Waynesboro.
"I'm in Meridian driving around," the suspect told authorities, who replied that he needed to come to the police department as soon as possible.
"He was there in about five minutes," Ross said. Meridian to Waynesboro is about an hour's drive.
By the end of the day, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives were both also assisting on the case in addition to the Wayne County Sheriff's Office, the Mississippi Highway Patrol, MBI, Waynesboro police, and several fire departments.
"First of all, we're going to take every threat seriously," Ross said. "We’re going to use every resource, whether local, state, or federal to track you down and you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Think about the consequences. In light of the shootings in Florida and throughout the United States, we can’t take it lightly, and once we find you we’re going to prosecute you."
The suspect, whose name is not being released since he is a juvenile, could potentially have been charged federally, officials said.
"It’s not a prank, it’s not a rite of passage, it’s not a ploy to get out of school, it’s a serious crime. It’s a federal crime, and we’ll jump in when asked to assist and bring all our resources to find the offender to prosecute as fully as the law allows whether it’s state or federal," ATF Resident Agent in Charge Jason Denham said. "We have to treat every one of these as something that jeopardizes every teacher, student, every faculty member, but also the lives of first responders who are running code, coming in from all over the state."
Officials stressed that they have to take every threat seriously, which in the wake of the shooting in Parkland, Florida, has become almost prohibitive because of the vast number of threats coming in by phone and social media. But Denham pointed out that a bomb inside a school is not unprecedented since the shooters in Columbine, Colorado originally planned to blow up load-bearing columns to kill hundreds, but it didn't work.
More: What do you think of arming teachers? Mississippi educators respond to proposed law.
It's arguable that most people who are about to commit a crime won't call themselves in first, Denham said, but it's also possible that the calls are not coming from the perpetrator.
"That’s information we initially don’t have. This could be a member of the conspiracy who takes this as an overt step to make sure someone else in the conspiracy doesn’t go through with it," he said.
Ross said he wanted to thank all the agencies who assisted. It's the minority of school threat cases that have resulted in arrests, and Ross said the teamwork made it happen.
"All the students were loaded on the buses, the car students loaded into their cars, and at the end of the day we had the suspect in custody," he said.
by: Dustin Barnes
date: 2018-02-26
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/02/27/gay-pride-parade-banned-poll/379658002/
When Starkville aldermen voted to deny an LGBT group's request to hold a parade, the decision made national headlines.
Earlier this week, a lawsuit against the city for the decision was announced.
We're asking Clarion Ledger readers what they think about the city's decision. Answer in the poll below.
by: Justin Vicory
date: 2018-02-26
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/02/27/jackson-mayors-mugshot-ban-legal/379779002/
(Photo: Justin Vicory/Clarion Ledger)
Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba banned the release of mug shots by the police of persons shot in officer-involved shootings Wochit
Jackson police may have the discretion to withhold release of jail mug shots of persons shot to death in officer-involved shootings, but there are some caveats.
A Mississippi Ethics Commission opinion says law enforcement agencies have the discretion to withhold mug shots from the public, but only if a case is under investigation.
In an executive order on Monday, Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba banned in Jackson the release of the mug shots of those killed in officer-involved shootings.
Lumumba said mug shot images have a negative impact and widen the "historical divide" between police and the community.
"A mug shot is just one snapshot in time and cannot be presumed to represent the sum total of any individual's existence," he said.
State law requires law enforcement agencies to keep a "jail docket" that notes the name of each individual taken into custody, the crimes they are charged with and their name, age, color and sex, and dates of confinement and release.
The Ethics Commission opinion, however, makes a distinction between "incident reports" and "investigative reports." While incident reports are deemed a public record and include jail docket information under the Mississippi Public Records Act of 1983, law enforcement agencies are given the discretion to withhold from the public "all or any part" of an investigative report.
In addition, a photo may not be part of the report.
"The mug shot, the picture of the arrested individual, is not listed as an item to be recorded in the jail docket..accordingly, to the extent that the public records requests seek information outside of what is required to be recorded in the jail docket and contained in an incident report, the (law enforcement agency) will need to, in its discretion, make an evaluation and determine on a case-by-case basis whether to release the mug shots," the opinion reads.
Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba's executive order on image dissemination for the city of Jackson Police Department.
The mayor and the city's legal department said they will make decisions on a case-by-case basis, however, Jackson attorney Leonard Van Slyke, who specializes in first amendment cases, takes issue with withholding mug shots under the guise of an investigation.
"It's hard to see how one could argue that these mug shots would be part of an ongoing investigation that never ends," he said. "While his (Lumumba's) motives may be pure, and he doesn't want to further divide the community, I fail to see how not allowing the public to know what's happening isn't just as divisive. In my view it's just the opposite," Van Slyke said.
The mayor at a Monday news conference referred to the "If They Gun Me Down" social media movement created by local attorney C.J. Lawrence in the wake of the officer-involved shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.
Lawrence created the hashtag #iftheygunnedmedown on Twitter, suggesting the police or mainstream media tend to distribute or run images that perpetuate negative stereotypes. Lawrence managed social media for Jackson under the late Mayor Chokwe Lumumba, the current mayor's father.
There have been seven officer-involved shootings in Jackson since Lumumba took office on July 3, 2017.
JPD reported a man who was shot by Jackson police near Jackson State University died Monday. That afternoon, the mayor held the news conference to sign his executive order.
JPD said Lee Edward Bonner, 37, fired a shot at them, before officers returned fire, striking Bonner. Officers recovered a handgun that was later determined to be stolen, Jackson Police Sgt. Roderick Holmes said.
Both officers involved in the Bonner shooting are on administrative leave while an internal and criminal investigation is being conducted, Holmes said.
Interim Police Chief Anthony Moore said Monday it was part of JPD protocol to not release the identification of JPD officers involved in officer-involved shootings. He would not comment on whether the recent shootings may have involved the same officer or some of the same officers.
by: Marc Levin
date: 2018-02-25
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/opinion/columnists/2018/02/26/criminal-justice-reform-bill-would-reduce-recidivism-lower-costs/373084002/
Download The Clarion-Ledger app for free on the Apple app store or Google Play. Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger
(Photo: Special to the Clarion Ledger)
Mississippi lawmakers have impressed conservative policy leaders around the country with their commitment to smart justice policies. Smart justice means protecting public safety by using taxpayer dollars wisely to get the best outcomes from our criminal justice system.
Mississippi has been leading the way since 2014 when Governor Phil Bryant championed the most comprehensive criminal justice reform package Mississippi had ever seen. He and leaders in the legislature recognized that Mississippians were paying a steep price as the prison population ballooned over the last decades, with no end in sight and no evidence Mississippi was better off. So they passed HB 585, a bill which overhauled the criminal justice system, reformed sentencing guidelines and supervision, and put in place evidence-based, data-driven best practices for reducing recidivism and lowering costs.
That bill has been a success. Within two years, Mississippi’s prison population dropped by 5 percent while crime rates continued to decline. The success rate for people coming out of prison and completing probation without re-offending increased by 10 percent. HB 585 focused on alternatives to hold nonviolent offenders accountable and from the first half of 2014 to the first half of 2017 the property crime rate in Jackson has fallen more than 27 percent. These reforms are also on track to save Mississippi at least $264 million over the next 10 years.
More: Why we must continue to invest in the criminal justice system
Now, Mississippi has a chance to build on this success. This year, the legislature is considering HB 387, which would alter policies that keep people coming through the revolving door of the justice system instead of setting them up for success when they reenter their communities. One provision of this bill, sponsored by State Rep. Andy Gipson, R- Braxton, reins in debtor’s prisons through the use of reasonable payment plans for civil infractions like traffic tickets. Why not allow people to keep working so they can pay overtime rather than languish in jail at taxpayer expense?
The bill also makes important improvements to parole policies. First, it prioritizes limited prison space for those who are dangerous by expanding parole eligibility for nonviolent offenders. While this will provide relief to taxpayers, it does not provide an entitlement to early release. It simply ensures the parole board has the discretion to identify nonviolent individuals who have paid their debt to society and are ready to be productive, law-abiding citizens. Additionally, this legislation makes the common-sense change of allowing parole officers to check on parolees at work, instead of the parolee risking losing their job to visit a parole office.
Conservative leaders from Newt Gingrich to Mike Huckabee have signed the Right on Crime Statement of Principles because the evidence shows we can enhance public safety and keep families together without being too tough on taxpayers. With HB 387, Mississippi continues down the path of states like Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and my home state of Texas in implementing policies that are based on conservative principles of limited government and personal responsibility. And like Mississippi, these states have reaped the benefits of better policy with lower prison populations and a better return on their public safety dollars. For example, since Texas began taking this approach in 2005, its crime rate is down more than 30 percent and its incarceration rate is down more than 20 percent.
These successes, principally in red states, have spurred a push at the federal level. My colleagues and I recently met with President Trump and his Senior Advisor Jared Kushner, along with conservative leaders from around the country, to discuss plans for federal reforms that will mirror the positive developments at the state level. When President Trump called for second chances in his State of the Union address, it gave members of Congress who can’t agree on anything a chance for a standing ovation in unison.
Mississippians should be proud that their state is a leader on the issue of criminal justice reform. Reforms don’t happen overnight; they succeed as the result of the commitment of state leadership to stay the course while constantly seeking new opportunities to improve public safety, lower taxpayer costs, and grow the state’s workforce. If Mississippi follows the path it is on, it will continue to be a leader for years to come.
Marc Levin is vice president of Criminal Justice Policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation and Right on Crime, a project of TPPF in partnership with Prison Fellowship and the American Conservative Union Foundation.
by:
date: 2018-02-25
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/02/26/mississippi-has-3rd-most-hate-groups-per-capita/373208002/
For decades, hate groups have been dwindling in this country. According to a report published by a hate group watchdog, the Ku Klux Klan saw something of a resurgence in activity. Wochit
(Photo: Courtesy of Arete13/Flickr)
The number of white and black hate groups has surged under President Trump, with white nationalists emboldened by the president’s election and black power groups rising in response, the Southern Poverty Law Center says in a new report.
Mississippi has the third most hate groups in the country with five hate groups per million residents and 15 total hate groups operating within the state, reports 24/7 Wall St.
24/7 Wall St. reviewed the number of hate groups in each state for every 1 million state residents according to data provided the Southern Poverty Law Center. To be considered for 24/7’s ranking, a state needed to have at least 10 active hate groups. Of all hate groups espousing a white supremacist ideology, neo-Nazi groups grew the fastest, from 99 groups in 2016 to 121 in 2017.
Most Hate Groups Per Capita:
Idaho: 7.1 hate groups per million people, 12 total
Tennessee: 5.6 hate groups per million people, 37 total
Mississippi: 5.0 hate groups per million people, 15 total
Alabama: 4.7 hate groups per million people, 24 total
Indiana: 4.5 hate groups per million people, 30 total
Virginia: 4.4 hate groups per million people, 37 total
Oregon: 4.4 hate groups per million people, 18 total
Arkansas: 4.0 hate groups per million people, 12 total
Georgia: 3.9 hate groups per million people, 40 total
Colorado: 3.8 hate groups per million people, 21 total
More than 950 hate groups operated in the country last year, with the majority focused on white supremacy, the center said. The report found about 223 black extremist groups, compared to more than 600 white extremist organizations.
Overall, the number of extremist groups, which also include armed militias and male supremacy organizations, rose 4 percent since 2016, according to the center, which monitors hate groups and other extremists throughout the U.S. and exposes their activities.
"(This) was a year that saw the 'alt-right,' the latest incarnation of white supremacy, break through the firewall that for decades kept overt racists largely out of the political and media mainstream,” the report said. “The overall number of hate groups likely understates the real level of hate in America, because a growing number of extremists, particularly those who identify with the 'alt-right,' operate mainly online and may not be formally affiliated with a hate group.”
Kyle Bristow, a self-described "alt-right" activist and attorney for high-profile white nationalist Richard Spencer, dismissed the report, saying the center inflates numbers as a fundraising tactic. He also pointed to articles highlighting inconsistent findings by the center, including a recent Politico report about an Illinois town placed on the organization’s “Hate Map,” even though police found no evidence of hate groups there.
“The SPLC reports every year that ‘hate is on the rise' — and their new ploy is to blame President Trump for it — and then they yelp to their left-wing donors that they need more donations to oppose it,” Bristow said. “A lot of the groups they claim to exist don’t actually exist, and those that do many times have the same four or five members.”
The report mirrors similar findings across the country by other experts, who conclude the "alt-right" — a term that covers a loosely defined group whose far-right ideology includes racism, populism and white nationalism — has exploded into popularity.
The rise can partly be attributed to Trump's election, which became a rallying point for white nationalists, who watched as the Republican repeatedly amplified some of their views in campaign rallies and tweets. The movement has also downplayed the white hoods and robes of the KKK in exchange for a seemingly more moderate approach while still focusing on its goal of United States run by and for white people, with minorities either marginalized or removed.
"The 'alt right' is quickly gaining influence and members, but most of the members are soft-spoken and educated citizens who are concerned about issues like immigration, affirmative action and economic and foreign policy," Bristow said.
Max Wachtel, a forensic psychologist and the author of the book "Sociopaths & Psychopaths," said the rise of hate groups follows a loss of empathy. In a polarized nation, it's no surprise the extremes are getting further apart, he said.
“It can be boiled down to the mantra that the ends justify the means. If you feel very strongly about something, and you absolutely believe that it’s right, anything you do to further that goal is going to be right or justified, even if it’s dangerous or tramples on the rights of others," Wachtel said.
"People think, 'it’s scary to think that someone might take over and do something to the country that I don’t believe in, so I need to react in the strongest terms from happening.' And both sides are doing that,” he added.
While white nationalists have grabbed the majority of headlines, black extremist groups are also active, according to federal law enforcement. The FBI warned last year of the rise of what it called "Black Identity Extremists," suggesting that the killing of unarmed black men by police could spur further violence. As an example, the FBI cited the July 2016 shooting of 11 police officers in Dallas by a black military veteran who said he was angry about police violence.
The Southern Poverty Law Center criticized portions of the FBI's report, but acknowledged black nationalist groups have been increasing in a backlash against "the rising white supremacist movement."
"Typified by their anti-Semitic, anti-LGBT, anti-white rhetoric and conspiracy theories, these black nationalist groups should not be confused with activist groups such as Black Lives Matter and others that work for civil rights and to eliminate systemic racism," the report concluded.
by: Harold Gater
date: 2018-02-25
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/02/26/man-shot-police-officers-dies/373361002/
Jackson Police Dept. spokesman Sgt. Roderick Holmes talks about an officer-involved shooting that happened near Jackson State University. Harold Gater, Clarion Ledger
(Photo: Harold Gater / Clarion Ledger)
A man who was shot by Jackson police near Jackson State University has died, officials confirmed Monday.
Lee Edward Bonner, 37, was shot Wednesday afternoon in the 1300 block of Deer Park Street, according to Jackson Police Department Sgt. Roderick Holmes.
JPD officials said narcotics officers were in the area investigating possible drug activity when they came in contact with two men who immediately ran.
Officers chased both suspects on foot to a nearby abandoned house. One man escaped while the other man produced a handgun and fired at the officers. They returned fire, striking the suspect.
Bonner was transported to an area hospital. His weapon was recovered and was later determined to be stolen.
Both officers involved are currently on administrative leave while an internal and criminal investigation is being conducted.
"Everything is still under investigation," Holmes said.
by: Justin Vicory
date: 2018-02-25
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/02/26/mayor-bans-release-mugshots-persons-shot-police/374646002/
Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba banned the release of mug shots by the police of persons shot in officer-involved shootings Wochit
Jackson police may have the discretion to withhold release of jail mug shots of persons shot to death in officer-involved shootings, but there are some caveats.
A Mississippi Ethics Commission opinion says law enforcement agencies have the discretion to withhold mug shots from the public, but only if a case is under investigation.
In an executive order on Monday, Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba banned in Jackson the release of the mug shots of those killed in officer-involved shootings.
Lumumba said mug shot images have a negative impact and widen the "historical divide" between police and the community.
"A mug shot is just one snapshot in time and cannot be presumed to represent the sum total of any individual's existence," he said.
The Ethics Commission opinion makes a distinction between "incident reports" and "investigative reports." While incident reports are deemed a public record and include jail docket information under the Mississippi Public Records Act of 1983, law enforcement agencies are given the discretion to withhold from the public "all or any part" of an investigative report.
In addition, a photo may not be part of the report.
State law requires law enforcement agencies to keep a "jail docket" that notes the name of each individual taken into custody, the crimes they are charged with and their name, age, color and sex, and dates of confinement and release.
"The mug shot, the picture of the arrested individual, is not listed as an item to be recorded in the jail docket..accordingly, to the extent that the public records requests seek information outside of what is required to be recorded in the jail docket and contained in an incident report, the (law enforcement agency) will need to, in its discretion, make an evaluation and determine on a case-by-case basis whether to release the mug shots," the opinion reads.
The mayor and the city's legal department said they will make decisions on a case-by-case basis, however, Jackson attorney Leonard Van Slyke, who specializes in first amendment cases, takes issue with withholding mug shots under the guise of an investigation.
"It's hard to see how one could argue that these mug shots would be part of an ongoing investigation that never ends," he said. "While his (Lumumba's) motives may be pure, and he doesn't want to further divide the community, I fail to see how not allowing the public to know what's happening isn't just as divisive. In my view it's just the opposite. ," Van Slyke said.
Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba gets ready to sign an executive order Monday that bans the release of mug shots of persons involved in officer-involved shootings.
The mayor at a Monday news conference referred to the "If They Gun Me Down" social media movement created by local attorney C.J. Lawrence in the wake of the officer-involved shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.
Lawrence created the hashtag #iftheygunnedmedown on Twitter, suggesting the police or mainstream media tend to distribute or run images that perpetuate negative stereotypes. Lawrence managed social media for Jackson under the late Mayor Chokwe Lumumba, the current mayor's father.
There have been seven officer-involved shootings in Jackson since Lumumba took office on July 3, 2017.
JPD reported a man who was shot by Jackson police near Jackson State University died Monday. That afternoon, the mayor held the news conference to sign his executive order.
JPD said Lee Edward Bonner, 37, fired a shot at them, before officers returned fire, striking Bonner. Officers recovered a handgun that was later determined to be stolen, Jackson Police Sgt. Roderick Holmes said.
Both officers involved in the Bonner shooting are on administrative leave while an internal and criminal investigation is being conducted, Holmes said.
Interim Police Chief Anthony Moore said Monday it was part of JPD protocol to not release the identification of JPD officers involved in officer-involved shootings. He would not comment on whether the recent shootings may have involved the same officer or some of the same officers.
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by: Jeff Amy
date: 2018-02-25
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/02/26/jail-but-no-trial-bail-judge-again-eyes-claims-inmates/375646002/
Levon Brooks and Kennedy Brewer of Noxubee County had the prime of their lives taken from them. Billy Watkins/Clarion Ledger
A federal judge is again calling officials from a Mississippi county before him to ask why inmates are languishing in the county jail without bail or trial.
The Monday hearing before U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves was the second time Reeves had taken up claims from inmates held in the Lauderdale County jail in Meridian.
The county of 80,000 people is just one of Mississippi's jurisdictions under scrutiny for holding people on bail they can't afford, or not providing them a lawyer, or not moving fast enough to trial.
Leroy Lewis, who was arrested in December 2014 and indicted on a murder charge in March 2015, said he's been seeking trial for more than a year.
More: Levon Brooks: 'An extraordinary man' who wrongfully spent one-third of his life in prison
Assistant Attorney General Jerrolyn Owens told the judge that the defense is to blame for some delays and that Lewis is scheduled for trial next month.
Jarvis Hampton, who's jailed on a drug charge, accused Lauderdale County of speedy trial violations as well as violating his civil rights. The judge indicated Monday that he's likely to split those claims into two or three separate lawsuits.
Lewis asked that he be let out of jail and that the indictment against him be dismissed. Owens told Reeves that he didn't have the power to dismiss the indictment, and said Lewis' demand to be released from jail should be rejected. Instead, she said he needed to formally demand a speedy trial in state court. However, with a trial scheduled only weeks away, she indicated such a legal demand would be basically pointless.
The judge is expected to rule on Lewis' request later. But Lewis is ineligible for bail under Mississippi law because he's been indicted for assaulting a prison guard since he was jailed. Anyone who's indicted for a second felony while still accused of a first felony is required to be held without bail.
Reeves spent two hours dissecting Lewis's case. Owens and Lauderdale County Assistant District Attorney Thomas Bittick said that despite Lewis' claims to Reeves, Lewis and his defense lawyers have sought multiple delays in Lewis' trial.
Reeves is considering a number of petitions from Lauderdale County prisoners complaining about their detentions. Bittick said authorities believe Lewis and other inmates are "trying to have it both ways," complaining about slow trials in federal court but doing nothing in the state court system to speed up their trials.
Reeves, though, suggested that prosecutors and other people should do more to bring inmates to trial.
"Does an inmate have any obligation to bring himself to trial?" Reeves said.
More broadly, though, Lauderdale County is another Mississippi county where a series of issues including a rickety public defender system, delays in gathering evidence from an overworked state crime lab and high bails can conspire to keep people in jail before trial for months or years. A list provided by the sheriff's department showed that as of Jan. 8, the county had 113 inmates in custody more than 90 days who hadn't gone to trial.
Civil liberties advocates have brought lawsuits against a number of jurisdictions, including a four-county judicial circuit next door to Lauderdale County.
Lee Thaggard, who represents the county, deferred comment to District Attorney Bilbo Mitchell when asked to comment about inmates who languish without trial. Mitchell didn't immediately return a phone call and an email seeking comment.
by: Jeff Amy
date: 2018-02-25
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2018/02/26/gay-pride-parade-organizers-sue-mississippi-city-over-denial/375602002/
In Washington and dozens of other US cities, supporters of LGBT rights mobilized for marches and rallies Sunday, celebrating their gains but showing anger over threats to those advances. Many speakers focused on President Trump's administration. (June 12) AP
(Photo: Logan Kirkland/The Starkville Daily News,)
Two women sued a Mississippi college town Monday over its denial of a permit for a gay pride parade, saying the city had denied their constitutional rights to free expression and equal protection.
Mississippi State University students Bailey McDaniel and Emily Turner filed the federal lawsuit Monday against the city of Starkville, asking a judge to overrule the city and immediately grant a parade permit to Starkville Pride.
"The city banned plaintiffs from speaking in a public forum solely because it disagreed with the viewpoint and content of their speech," states the lawsuit, filed in Aberdeen, Mississippi. "That hostility to their message was inextricably intertwined with hostility to their LGBT identity and pro-LGBT advocacy."
City aldermen had voted 4-3 last week to deny the parade permit, which sought to have the city's first-ever gay pride parade as part of a larger set of events. The four aldermen have refused to say why they made the decision, although one told a local newspaper that his constituents agreed with the move.
Mayor Lynn Spruill, who supported the parade but doesn't vote on the Board of Aldermen, said Monday that the city will study the lawsuit and then respond.
Thanks to the university, Starkville is more cosmopolitan and diverse than many Mississippi towns.
Turner said the weekend was meant to showcase LGBT people's place in the community.
"For us, I think Starkville Pride is a way to celebrate the diversity of Starkville," Turner said last week. "It's a very diverse and accepting community. It's also about showing that we're here."
But Starkville also has a recent history of public contention over lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues. In 2015, aldermen repealed a resolution that made Starkville the first city in Mississippi to denounce discrimination based on sexual orientation. The same day, aldermen also repealed a city health insurance policy that allowed employees to ensure same-sex partners. Gay marriage was legalized later that year nationwide by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The lawsuit says McDaniel and Turner were warned by an unnamed city employee who helped them fill out their application that they should keep LGBT-related content "under the radar" if they wanted approval from aldermen. All four aldermen who voted against the parade application also voted to repeal the two LGBT-related items in 2015 and have since been re-elected.
The suit also states that aldermen failed to give any permissible reason for denying the permit, and says the judge should assume they agreed with the two people who spoke against the permit citing religious opposition. Sixteen people spoke in favor.
The lawsuit says Starkville had approved 55 straight special events applications in recent years, mostly without discussing them, emphasizing that the Starkville Pride permit was treated differently even though it didn't present any unusual issues.
"This difference in process is strong evidence of viewpoint bias," the lawsuit states.
Roberta Kaplan is the lead attorney for McDaniel and Turner. She has litigated other gay-rights cases in the state, including a challenge, thus far unsuccessful, to a law that lets some government workers and business people cite religious objections to refuse services to LGBT people.
by: Anthony McDougle
date: 2018-02-20
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/02/21/aclu-responds-starkvilles-denial-pride-parade-lgbt/361644002/
Download The Clarion-Ledger app for free on the Apple app store or Google Play. Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger
The Starkville Board of Aldermen's decision Tuesday to deny a request from LGBT support group Starkville Pride to hold a Pride Parade has drawn criticism from a state civil liberties group.
After the Aldermen voted 4-3 to said no to permitting the group to host the first Pride Parade the city has ever seen, the Mississippi affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union posted a press release on its website expressing its dismay with the board's decision.
The release, which can be attributed to ACLU of Mississippi Executive Director Jennifer Riley-Collins, states the actions taken by the board "potentially violates the First Amendment and Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment."
It also implored the city to act quickly and approve Starkville Pride's request:
“The government cannot prevent a parade or event simply because it promotes LGBTQ pride or because its organizers and marchers are LGBTQ. In addition, the government cannot treat people unequally because they are LGBTQ. This is exactly what the Board of Alderman did, and that is discrimination, plain and simple. It also violates the Constitution.
“It is disappointing and disturbing that the Starkville Board of Alderman would decide to treat LGBTQ people differently from everyone else. The ACLU of Mississippi, therefore, urges the Starkville Board of Alderman to reconsider their decision and approve the request.”
The Pride Parade was originally scheduled to be held on March 24 and was on the consent agenda for the meeting, which means it would have been approved without discussion. However, Ward 6 Alderman Roy A. Perkins requested the item be removed from consent to allow a separate vote.
None of the aldermen who voted against the parade spoke on the matter during the meeting.
by: Harold Gater
date: 2018-02-22
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/02/23/west-point-high-student-school-shooting-threat/366398002/
In a wave of demonstrations reaching from Arizona to Maine, students at dozens of U.S. high schools walked out of class Wednesday to protest gun violence and honor the victims of last week’s deadly shooting in Florida. Time
A West Point High School student has been charged after allegedly making a threat against his school on social media.
The West Point Police Dept. received a tip from the FBI about the threat that was to be carried out on Friday. After obtaining the identity of the student from the FBI, the police chief and assistant police chief went to the school and transported the student to police headquarters for questioning. The school principal contacted the student's father who also went to police headquarters.
The student said he made the threat because he was kicked off of an app on his phone, the assistant chief told WCBI.
“I think the app was like “Fun Run” or something like that right there, he may have gotten kicked off and then he got mad,” said Meaders. “He took it as a joke, but with all of the stuff that’s going on in the country today, we have to take these threats very seriously and make sure that our students and our community are safe.”
The case was turned over to youth court.
by: Associated Press
date: 2018-02-22
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/02/23/7-charged-drug-conspiracy-included-2-killings/367977002/
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Seven people have been indicted in a Kansas City drug-trafficking conspiracy that included two killings.
The U.S. attorney’s office says 29 -year-old Shawn Burkhalter, of Kansas City, and 23-year-old Joshua Nesbitt, of Crowder, Mississippi, are among the suspects charged in the 14-count indictment that was unsealed Thursday. No attorneys are listed for them in online court records.
Prosecutors say the September 2015 killing of Danny Lamont Dean and Anthony Dwayne Johnson one month later were committed while Burkhalter and Nesbitt were trying to steal drugs. The indictment says Johnson was a potential witness.
The same AR-15 rifle was used in both killings.
The other five suspects are accused of drug-trafficking crimes and assisting Burkhalter and Nesbitt.
All seven suspects are in custody.
by: Emily Wagster Pettus
date: 2018-02-22
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2018/02/23/mississippi-honors-civil-rights-activist-john-lewis-decades-after-arrest/368086002/
The family of Vernon Dahmer Sr., who died defending his family from the Ku Klux Klan, toured the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum in Jackson on Friday.
JACKSON — The first time John Lewis traveled to Mississippi in 1961, he was arrested and jailed with other Freedom Riders, black and white, who challenged segregation in a bus station.
Lewis, who is African-American, remembers going into a restroom labeled for white men only. A Jackson police officer told him and other young people in the group to leave. They refused.
"The next words he said: 'You're under arrest.' And that was my introduction to the state of Mississippi and the city of Jackson," Lewis told The Associated Press on Thursday in a phone interview from Atlanta.
After 37 days of being locked up in sweltering local jails and a notorious state prison on the disorderly conduct charge, Lewis was released. He continued working for racial equality in Mississippi and across the South in the 1960s, and as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, he helped organize the 1963 March on Washington. Georgia voters elected him as a Democrat to the U.S. House in 1986, and he remains in office.
Lewis, 78, returns to Mississippi on Friday, one of five people being honored for advancing civil rights.
A private group called Friends of Mississippi Civil Rights organized a gala Friday and symposium Saturday to celebrate the new Mississippi Civil Rights Museum.
Lewis' jail mug shot hangs in a gallery at the museum with those of other Freedom Riders. He was scheduled to speak at the museum's state-sponsored opening in December but canceled his appearance because Republican Gov. Phil Bryant invited President Donald Trump.
More: 'We gave so much': Reflections on Mississippi Civil Rights Museum
Lewis said Thursday that he has never met Trump but, "I felt that I couldn't be there with him after he said some unbelievable things about individuals and about groups — whether it's members of the African-American community or the Latino community or the Dreamers," younger immigrants who arrived in the country illegally as children and have been protected under President Barack Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA.
"I just couldn't be there with him," Lewis said.
The opening of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum and the adjoining Museum of Mississippi History capped the state's bicentennial observation.
The two museums are in downtown Jackson and are separate entities under a single roof. They are a short distance from the bus station where Lewis and the other Freedom Riders were arrested. The general museum skims 15,000 years of history, from the Stone Age to modern times. The civil rights museum concentrates on the intense period of social change from 1945 to 1976.
More: Trump's absence means black lawmakers will now celebrate new civil rights museum
Lewis grew up south of Montgomery, Alabama, and was 15 years old when a black 14-year-old from Chicago, Emmett Till, was lynched while visiting relatives near the small town of Money, Mississippi. A cousin who was with Till said he had whistled at a white woman in a country store.
"I kept thinking that if something like this could happen to Emmett Till, it could happen to cousins of mine that were living in Buffalo, New York, or were living in Detroit, Michigan, when they came to Alabama to visit during the summer," Lewis said.
One of the other people being honored Friday for civil rights work is Rita Schwerner Bender, who demanded answers from Mississippi officials after her first husband, Michael Schwerner, and two other activists, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman, were killed outside Philadelphia, Mississippi, in 1964 — a case that became known by its FBI name, "Mississippi Burning."
Bender, now an attorney in Seattle, said Wednesday that in accepting the award in Mississippi, she intends to urge people to stand up for justice.
"Most social change doesn't happen without a demand side," she said.
Bender said she also would emphasize the importance of public education: "How can we be a thriving democracy which provides for the intellectual development of all our people, for the health of our people, for our place as contributors on the world stage, without high quality education?"
The other honorees are Ruby Bridges, a Tylertown, Mississippi, native who faced threats and ostracism when she became the first black child to integrate a public school in New Orleans in 1960; former state Rep. Robert Clark, who in 1967 became the first African-American of the 20th Century to win a seat in the Mississippi Legislature; and Democratic U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi.
by: Sarah Fowler
date: 2018-02-22
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/02/23/wake-school-shooting-false-threats-continue-mississippi-schools/368244002/
FGCU Student and News-Press Citizen Editorial Board Member Bruno Halpern talks about attending a vigil for students and the inspiration that he sees around the students protesting and speaking out for safer schools at Tallahassee and around Florida. Wochit
More than one week after 17 people were killed in a school shooting in Florida, false threats continued to be made against schools in Mississippi.
Friday morning, the Lee County Sheriff's Department was made aware of a threat on Instagram against Mooreville High School, according to Chief Deputy John Hall.
Hall said the threat, which was not specific, was determined to be fake and students were never in danger. Deputies are trying to determine who made the threat. They do not yet know if a student was responsible.
Hall said he has seen an increase in false threats, each of which must be thoroughly investigated. He said students used to make bomb threats "because someone wanted to get out of school" but the recent uptick is different.
"You hope that's all it is but, since you can't be sure, you have to treat every one like it's an imminent threat," he said.
In addition to the school resource officer permanently stationed at the school, Hall said multiple investigators responded to investigate Friday morning. Hall said the investigations are stressing resources.
"If this is the new normal, I’m going to need about two more investigators just to do this," he said. "The world doesn't stop turning. I guarantee you, I’m preaching to the choir of other law enforcement agencies because they're thinking the same thing.”
More than a dozen threats have been made against Mississippi schools since the Florida Valentine's Day shooting last week. None of the threats have been substantiated. In West Point, a high school student was arrested and handed over to youth court after making a threat against the school.
Hall said those making threats, once identified, will face prosecution.
by: Harold Gater
date: 2018-02-22
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/02/23/undocumented-immigrant-pretending-police-officer/368373002/
A federal report finds deportation officers are so overworked, they can't carry out their duties.
(Photo: Leak Co. Sheriff's Dept.)
Four undocumented immigrants were taken into custody in Leake County Thursday, one of whom is accused of impersonating a law enforcement officer.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents conducted the operation along with the Leake County Sheriff's Department at a location outside of Carthage, according to media reports.
Manuel Cadenas-Pardo, 24, faces felony charges. Authorities said he was driving a dark gray Dodge Charger with a blue light, a siren and a dash camera. He also had a badge, a gun belt and a shirt with "POLICE" on it. He has been deported three times. Juan A. Custodio, 19, was riding with Cadenas-Pardo.
Laura Pardo Palma, 49, lived with Cadenas-Pardo and was in possession of a handgun, authorities said, and Elvia Ledezma Gonzalez, 38, had an assault-style rifle in her vehicle. Both women face felony charges.
All four individuals are in federal custody.
Out athletes: Being gay in sports
by: Jeff Amy
date: 2018-02-23
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2018/02/24/gay-pride-parade-sparks-major-debate-mississippi/368707002/
Debating gay rights and religious expression. Time
STARKVILLE - At first, the plan to hold a gay-pride parade here didn't seem like such a big deal. Such festivals aren't that unusual even in the traditionally conservative Deep South, and Starkville, "Mississippi's College Town," made a name for itself as the first community in the state to pass a resolution denouncing discrimination against people for sexual orientation.
But when organizers applied for a permit, they ran into a roadblock: A majority of Starkville's aldermen voted it down, transforming what had been envisioned as a relatively small-scale event into a constitutional confrontation over free speech and equal rights.
A successful gay-rights lawyer representing the event planners says there is no question she'll sue. The aldermen aren't explaining their decision earlier this week to vote down the permit, but at least one indicated he was acting on behalf of what the larger community wanted.
"I was elected to represent the constituents and the majority of the constituents from my ward have been supportive of this," Alderman Ben Carver was quoted by The Commercial Dispatch as saying in a story published Friday.
Alderman Roy Perkins was not as forthcoming.
"All I can tell you is I have no comment. Two words: No comment," Perkins told The Associated Press on Thursday. Perkins was the one who moved to reject the application, and alderman approved his proposal on a 4-3 vote.
Like Perkins, two other aldermen who voted against the permit declined to comment to the AP.
Parade organizers have hired Roberta Kaplan, a well-known attorney who won a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case in 2013 that extended spousal benefits to same-sex couples.
Roberta Kaplan, a well-known attorney who won a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case in 2013 that extended spousal benefits to same-sex couples, has been hired by Starkville event organizers. "We absolutely intend to sue," says Kaplan.
(Photo: File/AP)
"We absolutely intend to sue," Kaplan said. "We think that grounds are extremely strong. We intend to do so extremely promptly."
Kaplan is no stranger to Mississippi. She has litigated other gay-rights cases in the state, including a challenge, thus far unsuccessful, to a law that lets some government workers and business people cite religious objections to refuse services to LGBT people.
Opposition to the parade wasn't entirely unexpected in Starkville, a town that is in many ways still caught between the old South and the new.
More: 'Will & Grace' return to TV reminds editor of growing up LGBT in Mississippi
A city of 25,000 about 110 miles northeast of the state capital of Jackson, Starkville is mainly known as the home of Mississippi State University. Southeastern Conference football rivals for years poked fun at the town as a distant, dull backwater. They dubbed it StarkVegas, the joke being that it was the polar opposite of Las Vegas. But Starkville grew and changed. Now a four-star restaurant shares Main Street with the plate lunches of the Starkville Cafe, and a mosque settled in among the Baptist churches.
The engine of Starkville's transformation is Mississippi State. The school's focus on agriculture and engineering is seemingly unthreatening to Mississippi's conservative values, but it brings in plenty of people with new ideas. Among those is Bailey McDaniel, a senior criminology major at the university and the organizer of Starkville Pride weekend.
Bailey McDaniel, 22, an organizer with Starkville Pride, an LGBT support group, explains her reaction Tuesday evening, when Starkville, Miss., aldermen voted 4-3 to deny a parade permit to allow the college town's first-ever gay pride parade, Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018. McDaniel says she and others wanted to have a parade to show the strength of the city's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
(Photo: Rogelio V. Solis/AP)
"I was trying to plan a pride parade before I left so a community that I had been a part of for four years could have a celebration," said the 22-year-old McDaniel, who grew up in Corinth in Mississippi's northeast corner and plans to attend law school. She identifies as lesbian.
In 2014, Starkville became the first community in Mississippi to pass a resolution denouncing discrimination against people for sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. Later that year, aldermen allowed city employees to ensure not just spouses, but other adults who lived with them. With same-sex marriage still banned in Mississippi, that meant city employees could insure same-sex partners.
But some aldermen later balked, claiming then-Mayor Parker Wiseman sneaked the insurance policy through without explaining the impact. Wiseman vetoed one attempt to overturn it. Months later, however, a veto-proof group of five aldermen, including the four who voted against the parade permit Tuesday, repealed the insurance policy and the anti-discrimination resolution.
For Mayor Lynn Spruill and the three aldermen who supported the parade application, the rejection is a self-inflicted black eye and distracts from progress.
Standing outside her city hall office, Starkville Mayor Lynn Spruill, says Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018, that she was disappointed at the Starkville aldermen voting 4-3 Tuesday to deny a parade permit requested by Starkville Pride, an LGBT support group, for a gay pride parade, in Starkville, Miss. Spruill is happy though, with the positive support, the business community has shown the group and hoped the parade would show inclusiveness for the city's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
(Photo: Rogelio V. Solis/AP)
"I think it creates a view of the city of Starkville of being non-inclusive and I happen to think we are an inclusive community," Spruill said. "We value diversity."
Rachel Allison, a sociology professor at Mississippi State who has been supporting McDaniel and Turner, described the parade permit as "kind of a litmus test."
McDaniel, one of 16 people who spoke in favor of the parade at the city meeting Tuesday, said she tried to look aldermen in the eyes as she addressed them, but they wouldn't look back.
"They wouldn't speak; they wouldn't make eye contact; they looked ashamed, but they still did it," McDaniel said.
Some areas residents said they agreed with the rejection, citing Christian teaching that homosexuality is sinful.
"It's an abomination in the sight of the Lord," Albert Friddle of nearby Ackerman said Thursday as his daughter loaded groceries into their van outside a supermarket. "The government has given them too much already. There shouldn't be allowed to be a parade for that."
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled decades ago that while authorities can regulate a parade or march, they can't wholly deny permits, saying that infringes on free-speech and equal-protection rights.
Lawyer Roy Carpenter expressed a different view as he left the Starkville Cafe after lunch Thursday.
"Everyone's got a right to assemble," Carpenter said. He said the men who gather at the cafe's communal "liar's table," where locals chew over the news and Mississippi State sports during the week, mostly agreed on that point.
McDaniel said pride weekend is going forward, and she still believes it will include a parade. Now, though, she expects supporters to flock to Starkville to "make history."
"I think this is way bigger than we intended or ever expected," she said.
by: Justin Vicory
date: 2018-02-23
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/02/24/civil-rights-activists-hold-post-trump-visit-museum-celebration/359091002/
Mississippi Civil Rights Museum Director Pamela Junior talks about the new museum's central exhibition before presenting a question which may provoke introspection in visitors. Sarah Warnock
Just blocks away from where he was arrested more than a half-century ago, Rep. John Lewis stood before a room of state and national leaders gathered Saturday at the new Mississippi Civil Rights Museum.
The 78-year-old activist reflected on the courageous, determined work of the Mississippi Freedom Riders, who joined forces to fight segregation and empower African-Americans to vote in the 1960s.
Lewis, a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, said he was on the second Greyhound bus coming from Montgomery to Jackson on May 24, 1961. When he headed to the “whites only” men’s bathroom at the bus station in Jackson, he was arrested.
“That was my welcome to the state of Mississippi,’’ said the Democratic congressman from Georgia.
"Where did it lead?" Lewis asked of the efforts Saturday, before making a connection to the first African-American president, Barack Obama.
"1961, the same year President Obama was born ... I went straight to jail," said.
"I've been picking them up ever since. As long as I have breath in my body, I will speak up and speak out and I will find a way to get in trouble. Good trouble. Necessary trouble," Lewis said defiantly as attendees stood in applause.
Lewis was on stage with fellow U.S. Congressman Bennie Thompson, the longest-serving elected African-American in Mississippi, Derrick Johnson, the head of the NAACP, and others at a christening of the recently opened Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, sponsored by the private group Friends of Mississippi Civil Rights.
Sen. Cory Booker, D-New Jersey, just the fourth African-American elected to the U.S. Senate, gave a lengthy speech covering a litany of what he called modern-day civil rights issues:
• Voter disenfranchisement
• Declining environmental protections
• Unequally applied drug laws
• The practice of redlining, or refusal to provide loans or insurance to poor Americans
• The undermining of The Affordable Care Act and health insurance for low-income Americans
• Existing segregation
• Wage deflation: "Black Americans are the only racial group in America now that is making less money than they were in 2000," Booker said.
• A growing wage gap between white and black workers: "It has not been this wide since 1979," Booker said.
• An unemployment rate that is still more than double for African-Americans than it is for whites
Booker paid homage to the museum's unflinching honesty.
Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., speaks at the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum in Jackson Saturday, Feb. 24.
"This is not a Mississippi museum. This is America's museum. This is essential for our country to advance because you cannot advance as a nation if you aren't willing to air the truth. Expose it to light," Booker said.
Lewis and the other speakers didn't address President Trump by name but did say they were discouraged by events at the national level. Lewis, whose 1961 jail mugshot hangs in a gallery of the museum devoted to the "Freedom Riders," encouraged the audience to walk through the museum, to be mindful of the actions others took and apply it to their own lives and others.
"I truly believe what's going on now is a threat to our entire nation. If you walk through this museum you will not give up. You will not lose that sense of hope," he said.
The official opening of the Mississippi Civil Rights and history museums in December received high praise from Trump and other state leaders, but — in large part — it was also marked by who wasn't there and what wasn't discussed.
Lewis and Thompson announced at the time they would not attend the opening after Republican Gov. Phil Bryant extended an invitation to the president.
Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba also boycotted the original museum opening. Saturday, the mayor found solidarity with Lewis, as they briefly spoke to one another on stage.
"I wanted to let you know personally now that you are in Jackson, that we as a city are going to be the most radical city on the planet," Lumumba said.
At the symposium, Lewis also invoked the recent Parkland school massacre that took 17 lives. He called out to political leaders on stage and in the audience to join him on March 24 in Washington, D.C. for the "March for Our Lives" rally, organized by the teenage survivors.
The congressmen has long supported gun-safety legislation. Following the Orlando nightclub shooting that took 50 lives, Lewis led a sit-in demanding House Speaker Paul Ryan allow a vote on gun-safety legislation.
Lewis appealed to Ryan on Twitter last week: "Mr. Speaker, the time for action is now. We know the facts. There are too many guns. How many more children must die? How many more students? How many more teachers? People who are not willing to lead should get out of the way," he said.
Lewis was also instrumental in the establishment and opening in 2016 of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, a combination of patience and resilience that took 28 years to achieve.
Thompson was 13 when Lewis first came to Jackson.Thompson, too, has made a career of fighting for civil rights.
The congressman, who represents the only majority African-American district in the state, filed a lawsuit to increase funding at Mississippi's historically black universities. The suit led to a $503 million settlement to be distributed over a 17-year period to Alcorn State, Jackson State and Mississippi Valley State.
In 1998, he protested discriminatory hiring practices of the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks. In 2000, he created the National Center for Minority Health and Health Care Disparities law.
The events Saturday were preceded by a gala Friday night honoring Lewis, Thompson and three other civil rights activists: Ruby Bridges Hall, a native of Tylertown, who became the first African-American child to enroll in an elementary school in New Orleans in 1960; Rita Schwerner Bender, who demanded answers after her first husband, Michael Schwerner, was one of three civil-rights workers killed by Ku Klux Klansmen in the state in 1964; and former state Rep. Robert Clark, who in 1967 became the first African-American of the 20th Century to win a seat in the Mississippi Legislature.
Said Hall, during the event, “When I think about our babies today and them not being safe in school, I think that should be the next civil rights movement, you know, is to ban the assault weapons so that our babies can be safe.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
by: Therese Apel
date: 2018-02-20
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/02/21/more-than-dozen-school-threats-mississippi-since-florida-shooting/358291002/
When breaking news happens, we want you to see it first hand. Thank you for trusting the Clarion Ledger. Wochit
There have been more than a dozen school threats in Mississippi in the days since the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on Valentine's Day.
So far none of the threats have been substantiated.
Thursday morning brought news of threats from North Gulfport Middle School, where a student allegedly threatened to bring a weapon to school, and Stone County schools, after a Facebook post read, "Killing ppl at stone middle school and high school."
On Wednesday morning, authorities were investigating threats against at least four Mississippi schools: Murrah High School, McLaurin High School, Pearl High School, Pearl River Central High School and Wesson Attendance Center.
An arrest has been made in the Pearl High School threat.
Later Wednesday, WCBI reported that there was a complaint about 'a suspicious child' at Caledonia High School which ended up in a gun investigation.
On Tuesday, Olde Town Middle School in Ridgeland and Natchez High School were the subjects of social media threats.
A Petal High School student is being disciplined for making threats on SnapChat on Sunday, and was identified by school authorities on Monday.
Pascagoula High School parents were alerted in a message on Monday after students were told to shelter in place for a brief period in response to "rumors of a potential threat," according to WLOX.
Senatobia High School and Northwest Mississippi Community College in Senatobia were both put on lockdown Friday after threats were made against them.
Seminary High School was on lockdown briefly on Friday after a threat, according to WDAM.
Choctaw County authorities took a report from a concerned mother about an alleged person with a suspicious bag who allegedly threatened a shooting. Authorities later published a release stating that it was a hoax perpetuated by students who were bullying the student in question, according to WCBI.
Two teens were arrested for allegedly threatening Long Beach High School on Friday, according to the SunHerald's Patrick Ochs.
On Thursday a bomb threat was called in to Lawrence County High School.
Center High School in DeSoto County was threatened on Snapchat on Thursday and authorities arrested two juveniles on Saturday.
Gautier High School principal Al Sparkman alerted parents of students about a reportedly threatening statement made by a student while at the school on Thursday, according to WLOX's Annie Johnson.
by: Anthony McDougle
date: 2018-02-20
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/02/21/aclu-responds-starkvilles-denial-pride-parade-lgbt/361644002/
Download The Clarion-Ledger app for free on the Apple app store or Google Play. Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger
The Starkville Board of Aldermen's decision Tuesday to deny a request from LGBT support group Starkville Pride to hold a Pride Parade has drawn criticism from a state civil liberties group.
After the Aldermen voted 4-3 to said no to permitting the group to host the first Pride Parade the city has ever seen, the Mississippi affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union posted a press release on its website expressing its dismay with the board's decision.
The release, which can be attributed to ACLU of Mississippi Executive Director Jennifer Riley-Collins, states the actions taken by the board "potentially violates the First Amendment and Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment."
It also implored the city to act quickly and approve Starkville Pride's request:
“The government cannot prevent a parade or event simply because it promotes LGBTQ pride or because its organizers and marchers are LGBTQ. In addition, the government cannot treat people unequally because they are LGBTQ. This is exactly what the Board of Alderman did, and that is discrimination, plain and simple. It also violates the Constitution.
“It is disappointing and disturbing that the Starkville Board of Alderman would decide to treat LGBTQ people differently from everyone else. The ACLU of Mississippi, therefore, urges the Starkville Board of Alderman to reconsider their decision and approve the request.”
The Pride Parade was originally scheduled to be held on March 24 and was on the consent agenda for the meeting, which means it would have been approved without discussion. However, Ward 6 Alderman Roy A. Perkins requested the item be removed from consent to allow a separate vote.
None of the aldermen who voted against the parade spoke on the matter during the meeting.
by: Harold Gater
date: 2018-02-21
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/02/22/stone-county-social-media-scare/362575002/
A student is in custody and being questioned about a threatening social media post, the Stone County Sheriff's Dept. said Thursday morning.
"Killing ppl at stone middle school and high school" was posted on Facebook, WLOX reported. Wiggins Police Dept. and the FBI are also investigating.
Around 6:30 a.m., the Stone County School District shared the following message on Facebook.
"The Stone County School District is aware of additional Facebook activity that was posted early this morning. Local and state authorities are thoroughly investigating this incident. Extra precautions are in place to ensure the safety of your child. Thank you for your support and cooperation as we strive to make the best decisions possible for our students, teachers and faculty."
"This one here is specific," Wiggins Police Chief Matt Barnett said. "We take every threat seriously,"
Chief Barnett said his officers will be very visible at all Stone County schools.
by: Therese Apel
date: 2018-02-21
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/02/22/lets-debate-say-gang-bill-authors/356722002/
Federal, state and local officials address the gang presence in the Magnolia State. Therese Apel/ The Clarion-Ledger
(Photo: dailybeast.com)
Just put the bill up for debate, say crafters of the Anti-Gang Act, or Senate Bill 2868.
"Let the bill come to the floor, put it up for a vote. Enough members of the House have spoken to me about wanting this bill, and they just never get to vote on it," said Jackson County District Attorney Tony Lawrence. "This could be the second year in a row the House has not been able to vote on this bill because of technicalities."
SB 2868 seeks to crack down on gang activity in the state through enhanced penalties for gang-related crime and penalties for recruiting people into gangs. It faces strong opposition from civil rights groups and the Legislative Black Caucus.
Lawrence said the authors of the bill feel debate would be a chance to provide answers to some of the concerns raised by its detractors.The bill passed the Senate 35-14 and is now in House.
"I'm all for vetting the bill. This bill has been vetted through the Prosecutor's Association, the Sheriffs Association, the Mississippi Association of Gang Investigators, the Department of Public Safety — all of these have had a hand in making sure this bill is constitutional and is narrowly drafted so we're not taking away your right to have any association. We're taking away your right to commit a crime that allows gangs to flourish at the expense of our communities."
More: Gang bill faces criticism from Black Caucus, other organizations
A hearing held by the Black Caucus last week and featuring speakers from several groups as well as the state public defender's office raised possible scenarios if the bill becomes law, such as that law enforcement could target sports teams because they wear similar uniforms, or groups of friends who have similar hairstyles or clothing. They argued that SB 2868 was targeting particularly black youths who might be joining gangs for protection or mentorship.
No one from the entities involved in putting the bill together was at the hearing.
"This bill does not make it illegal to be associated with a certain group. You can be in a gang all day long. When you violate the law and further that gang, that's when we have a problem. Gang members and the gangs we're trying to go after are criminals," Lawrence said.
Critics of SB 2868 expressed fears that people would be prosecuted for simply being affiliated with a gang. Jimmy Anthony, vice president of the Mississippi Association of Gang Investigators, explained the bill kicks in when a crime is committed by a validated gang member.
"The point is that there's a validation process that has to be done. We have to be able to prove that you are a gang member before this law even applies to you," he said.
"Remember the burden is on the state to prove all this," Lawrence added.
At last week's hearing, speakers also called SB 2868 unconstitutional, but Lawrence said many of those issues have been before the supreme courts and upheld in other states. It was written from bills being used in several states, but primarily Georgia.
Several lawmakers questioned why an anti-gang statute is needed, noting there are already laws on the books for the crimes usually attributed to gang members. One mentioned was Mississippi's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
More: MDOC, DPS commissioners explain gang number discrepancy
Authorities say Mississippi's RICO act is very hard to prosecute under.
"If I was a criminal defense lawyer and defended people who commit crimes for a living, I'd want the only tool the state had against gangs to be our present RICO statute because it's going to make my job a lot easier," Lawrence said. "It's almost impossible to use and to get the evidence we need to be able to prosecute the individuals.
"Gangs have evolved. They understand the criminal justice system, and they know that without witnesses and evidence we'll never be able to prosecute them, so they go after our witnesses and our evidence and if they can eliminate that, they can eliminate the charge, and that's why this is such a problem."
Most of the arguments against the anti-gang bill this year were used last year when a similar measure died.
"Last year I went to several of the members who were at the press conference last week and said, 'I will meet with you during the year, call me and I will address your concerns. I promise I can prove to you why this bill is not doing some of those things you fear,'" Lawrence said. "Not one person has called me in a year to talk about this. Not one person called us to be at the press conference last week."
Members of the Prosecutor's Association and Mississippi Association of Gang Investigators said last year in crafting the bill and this year in discussions, some of the public critics of the bill had input on the language.
In addition, both Anthony and Lawrence said they had met with various critics of the bill who had expressed fears of what it could mean to their communities.
"We fought tooth and nail and made changes last year to appease the very people that are trying to take our legs out from under us this year," Anthony said.
One of those people was State Public Defender Andre DeGruy. Asked about his involvement, he said in an email that he had met with the prosecutors "and they agreed to many of my objections." But there were two others they wouldn't change — one dealing with the standard of proof and the other being the proposal that criminal gang activity be classified as a violent crime.
"I was not aware of the impact (in the bill) on juveniles nor were any of us aware of the huge potential impact. That is why we need to do data assessment before we pass bills," he said.
Gang investigators point to the fact many adult gang members use juveniles to commit crimes that profit or promote the gang because those cases are generally handled in Youth Court, and juveniles will serve lighter sentences.
Lawrence says the bill is designed to protect juveniles from being recruited into those criminal organizations.
More: Gov. Phil Bryant speaks with The C-L on gangs
"This bill is designed to protect the public in general, but it's really designed to protect the children from being recruited and some forced into a gang to commit acts they know will go to Youth Court and protect the adults," he said.
"You have the gang leaders that stand up here and are clean and untouchable because they have these children doing the dirty work for them, and that's what we're trying to conquer," Anthony said.
Lawrence said he doubts figures quoted by detractors of the bill potentially costing upwards of $1 billion to house gang members who are serving extended sentences. Anthony said there shouldn't be a cost put on people's lives, citing children as young as 13 that he's seen killed in gang violence.
"So their lives are not worth the money it would take to house these people? I have a problem with that," he said.
by: Anthony McDougle
date: 2018-02-21
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/02/22/two-ocean-springs-ninth-graders-custody-threats-against-school/365448002/
President Donald Trump Thursday proposed “a little bit of a bonus” for teachers who go through “rigorous” training to carry guns in the classroom. Time
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A duo of Ocean Springs High School ninth graders has been taken into custody after allegedly making threats against the school. According to Jackson County Sherriff Mike Ezell, the threats were issued Tuesday morning.
At that time it is said the two unidentified boys, ages 14 and 16, were talking about "shooting up the high school". The 14-year-old was arrested Wednesday night, while the second suspect was detained Thursday afternoon.
The teens are being held at the Jackson County Youth Court and are charged with a misdemeanor count of interfering with a school session. The investigation is ongoing.
by: The Clarion-Ledger
date: 2018-02-20
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/02/21/student-charged-false-threats-against-pearl-high/358179002/
A student has been charged for making false statements about a shooting threat against Pearl High School.
Pearl police took the unidentified student into custody overnight. The student has reportedly confessed that he lied about hearing another student say that a shooting would happen at the school Wednesday, Lt. Brian McGairty said.
The student was turned over to Rankin County Juvenile Detention Center. The Pearl Public School District will take appropriate action regarding the student charged in this case.
by: Therese Apel
date: 2018-02-20
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/02/21/more-than-dozen-school-threats-mississippi-since-florida-shooting/358291002/
When breaking news happens, we want you to see it first hand. Thank you for trusting the Clarion Ledger. Wochit
There have been more than a dozen school threats in Mississippi in the days since the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on Valentine's Day.
So far none of the threats have been substantiated.
Thursday morning brought news of threats from North Gulfport Middle School, where a student allegedly threatened to bring a weapon to school, and Stone County schools, after a Facebook post read, "Killing ppl at stone middle school and high school."
On Wednesday morning, authorities were investigating threats against at least four Mississippi schools: Murrah High School, McLaurin High School, Pearl High School, Pearl River Central High School and Wesson Attendance Center.
An arrest has been made in the Pearl High School threat.
Later Wednesday, WCBI reported that there was a complaint about 'a suspicious child' at Caledonia High School which ended up in a gun investigation.
On Tuesday, Olde Town Middle School in Ridgeland and Natchez High School were the subjects of social media threats.
A Petal High School student is being disciplined for making threats on SnapChat on Sunday, and was identified by school authorities on Monday.
Pascagoula High School parents were alerted in a message on Monday after students were told to shelter in place for a brief period in response to "rumors of a potential threat," according to WLOX.
Senatobia High School and Northwest Mississippi Community College in Senatobia were both put on lockdown Friday after threats were made against them.
Seminary High School was on lockdown briefly on Friday after a threat, according to WDAM.
Choctaw County authorities took a report from a concerned mother about an alleged person with a suspicious bag who allegedly threatened a shooting. Authorities later published a release stating that it was a hoax perpetuated by students who were bullying the student in question, according to WCBI.
Two teens were arrested for allegedly threatening Long Beach High School on Friday, according to the SunHerald's Patrick Ochs.
On Thursday a bomb threat was called in to Lawrence County High School.
Center High School in DeSoto County was threatened on Snapchat on Thursday and authorities arrested two juveniles on Saturday.
Gautier High School principal Al Sparkman alerted parents of students about a reportedly threatening statement made by a student while at the school on Thursday, according to WLOX's Annie Johnson.
by: Jerry Mitchell
date: 2018-02-20
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/02/21/could-mississippi-elect-1st-democratic-governor-20-years-jim-hood-thinks-so/357773002/
Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood speaks at Neshoba County Fair. Geoff Pender, The Clarion-Ledger
In his strongest statement to date, Attorney General Jim Hood said he is doing all he can to get ready to run for governor in Mississippi.
The 55-year-old former prosecutor said his wife and family are still considering it.
"It's tough on the kids," he said. "If you're the candidate, everybody's patting you on the back and telling you what a good fellow you are, but your family at home doesn't get any of that."
Instead, he said, they often have to face the brunt of social media.
The odds are against Hood, the lone statewide Democratic office holder, in a state that has grown increasingly Republican.
In 2016, President Donald Trump won more than 57 percent of Mississippi's vote.
It's been more than four decades since a Democratic presidential candidate won in this state (Jimmy Carter in 1976).
The last Democratic governor was Ronnie Musgrove, who was elected in 1999 and lost in his reelection bid.
Political observers say Hood represents one of the strongest Democratic candidates in years. In 2015, Gov. Phil Bryant's Democratic competitor was an unknown truck driver.
If Hood does run in 2019, he would most likely face off against Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves or Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann.
If his wife "comes around," Hood said he plans to run for governor.
"We've got to do something," he said. "What we're doing is not working. We've got our economy sitting dead in the water.
"Since the Great Recession, all the states around us … (are averaging) 16 percent growth, and ours is less than 1 percent."
by: Alex Holloway
date: 2018-02-20
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/02/21/starkvilles-first-lgbt-pride-parade-denied-city/358786002/
LGBT advocates rally on Friday outside the Mississippi State Capitol Building to celebrate a federal ruling striking down HB 1523. Elijah Baylis/The Clarion-Ledger
(Photo: Logan Kirkland/The Starkville Daily News,)
STARKVILLE - Aldermen voted Tuesday to deny a request from Starkville Pride to host the city's first Pride Parade.
Starkville Pride, a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) support group, was seeking to hold the parade on March 24. The proposed route would have started on Russell Street, and looped around downtown Starkville on Main and Lampkin streets.
The vote against the parade came on a motion from Ward 6 Alderman Roy A. Perkins. Ward 1 Alderman Ben Carver seconded Perkins' motion. David Little and Henry Vaughn, of wards 3 and 7, respectively, also voted to deny the request.
Ward 2 Alderman Sandra Sistrunk, Ward 4 Alderman Jason Walker and Ward 5 Alderman Patrick Miller voted in support of the parade.
More: 'All we want is equality': The impact of HB 1523
After the meeting, Carver, Little and Perkins left from the municipal courtroom's back entrance. Vaughn declined to comment on his vote.
Carver, reached later by phone, said he had "been advised" not to comment on his vote, and declined to elaborate further.
Little and Perkins did not immediately respond to phone calls for comment after Tuesday's meeting.
None of the aldermen who voted against the parade voiced their opinions on the matter during the board meeting.
The parade was originally on the consent agenda for Tuesday's meeting, meaning it would have been approved among other housekeeping matters without discussion. However, Perkins asked that the item be removed from consent to allow a separate vote.
More than a dozen people spoke in favor of the Pride parade during Tuesday's citizen comment period, while two spoke against it.
Alexandra Hendon, one of the Starkville Pride organizers, said she's found Starkville to be a supporting, inclusive place. She asked aldermen to expand that support to allow the LGBT event.
"I want that to be expressed for everybody," she said. "I want that to be expressed for the students who come here as freshmen who are in the LGBT community and who want so desperately to find that sense of community and that binding sense of welcoming. This event, I think, will do that.
"This isn't a march," she added. "This isn't a protest. This is something that will bind this community together."
Longtime Starkville resident Dorothy Isaac spoke against the request.
"If anything should be held up and down our streets, it should not be this," Isaac said. "God made Adam and Eve. I'm not saying what you want to be -- everybody can be what they want to be. I said he made Adam and Eve."
Pastor Thomas Rogers, of Josey Creek Missionary Baptist Church, indicated he believes Starkville already adequately accepts the LGBT community but said the parade request sought "special privilege."
"I think this is a very inclusive, a very friendly place, a very friendly city, a very friendly county," Rogers said. "We've done a lot of things for the university and to attract businesses and influential people. But every city has to have limits. Cities without walls are easily taken."
Mississippi State University Assistant Vice President for Multicultural Affairs Ra'Sheda Forbes spoke on behalf of the university Tuesday and asked aldermen to support the parade. She said MSU is making efforts to make sure its faculty, staff and students feel welcome in the community and asked aldermen to do the same.
"We really encourage the city to continue to make strides as well, so that as we continue to grow our institution, as we continue to grow our faculty, staff and students, they know the city of Starkville is their home as well," she said.
Oktibbeha County National Association for the Advancement of Colored People President Chris Taylor also spoke in favor of the parade.
"The mission of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is to ensure the political, educational, social and economic equality and rights of all people," Taylor said. "All people. And to eliminate race-based discrimination. That's all I got to say. That is the mission. I am the president, and I support the mission."
Spruill, who spoke in favor of the parade during the meeting, told The Dispatch she was disappointed with the board's decision.
"I am hurt that we feel as though we have to tell any group in our community 'No' to something as simple as a parade and a show of unity," Spruill said. "I am very disappointed that we chose to disallow that opportunity to have that Pride parade."
Spruill also pointed out Oxford has held Pride parades for several years without incident, and she felt there was no reason Starkville couldn't do the same.
She also said the decision will likely reflect poorly on Starkville.
"I think it does, and I think it's very unfortunate because I don't think we are as closed as this vote indicates," she said. "We obviously are a divided board — it was a 4-3 vote. So I think you have a group of people who are made uncomfortable, and while I tend to embrace things that make me uncomfortable because it's a way to grow, there are some folks who are not so inclined."
Miller, who offered an impassioned defense of the parade, also said the board's decision could harm the city's image.
"I think it quickly becomes about what the city is not," he said. "The narrative changes about what this board is doing, and how we're moving forward. I didn't see it as anything different than any other event that we have."
Walker also expressed disappointment with the vote, and with the lack of explanation as to why the request was denied.
"It's unfortunate that you go through the process, you do everything you're supposed to do and you get denied, really without any explanation as to why," Walker said.
Sistrunk recalled people asking her when she and her husband decided to return to Starkville, if they really wanted to move back to Mississippi. Tuesday's vote, she said, showed the city may have more growing to do than she expected.
"I'm more disappointed that we would have a board that felt it was OK to do this," she said. "That's very disappointing to me. It feels like it says we've not made as much progress in 20 years as perhaps I thought we had."
The Human Rights Campaign's Mississippi director, Rob Hill, said, "Twice now Starkville leaders have shown that they are not supportive of their LGBTQ residents, and the LGBTQ community will not forget. It's disappointing that the Starkville Board of Aldermen would deny LGBTQ people in Starkville the chance to celebrate pride in their own city."
by: Therese Apel
date: 2018-02-20
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/02/21/mdoc-dps-commissioners-explain-gang-number-discrepancy/359316002/
In certain jurisdictions across the nation, gang violence counts up to 90 percent of violent crime. And Mississippi is no exception. Therese Apel/The Clarion-Ledger
Confusing wording led to a discrepancy in the release of gang numbers in Mississippi's correctional system, according to a joint statement from state officials.
That discrepancy between a report by the Mississippi Office of Homeland Security's Analysis and Information Center in its Gang Threat Assessment earlier this month and the response last week to an open records request from two lawmakers has added fuel to the debate over a bill now pending in the House that's designed to crack down on gang-related crime,
The Mississippi Department of Public Safety and the Mississippi Department of Corrections issued a joint statement Wednesday addressing the discrepancy surfacing late last week that led to a report reflecting double the percentage of gang-identified inmates incarcerated as of Dec. 14.
State Defender Andre DeGruy said in an email that the reply to a records request by Sens. Willie Simmons and Derrick Simmons showed half the number of affiliated gang members in MDOC population than were released in the report.
The report included "the prevalence of gangs both inside and outside prison walls,” Corrections Commissioner Pelicia Hall and Public Safety Commissioner Marshall Fisher said in a statement.
“The total number of offenders in the published gang report includes both the population incarcerated and on community supervision," they said in their statement.
More: Why did MDOC tell 2 senators gang number is half what was previously reported amount?
However, the MSAIC, also known as the Fusion Center, interpreted that all the offenders accounted for were incarcerated, when in reality it was the number of those both living within MDOC facilities and those who are in MDOC custody and supervision but not living within prisons.
"After further review of the data MDOC provided, MSAIC has modified its calculations and will correct the percentage of gang affiliates in the incarcerated population to be 32 percent rather than 62 percent as originally reported,” the commissioners said in the release.
DPS officials stressed that the issue came from confusing wording as it relates to inmates "behind the wire" and others in programs like probation, parole, earned release supervision, house arrest, and state inmates. The Fusion Center's information included all of those, while the senators' information only included the ones housed in MDOC facilities.
The release stated that as of Dec. 14, 2017, there were 19,150 incarcerated offenders in the prison system. Of these incarcerated offenders, 6,087, or 32 percent, have a gang affiliation.
The numbers provided to senators were based on data from the incarcerated population Feb. 14, the release said.
When emailed for further questions, a spokesman from the Office of Homeland Security said, "MOHS and MSAIC are going to leave all remarks about the 2017 Gang Threat Assessment to the joint release issued today."
by: Associated Press
date: 2018-02-20
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/02/21/court-declines-re-jail-man-accused-traffic-light-murder/360143002/
When breaking news happens, we want you to see it first hand. Thank you for trusting the Clarion Ledger. Wochit
(Photo: Jackson Police Dept.)
A three-judge panel of the Mississippi Supreme Court on Tuesday denied an attempt to keep a man accused of murder in jail.
The panel turned down the request Tuesday by Hinds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith, finding instead that Hinds County Circuit Judge Tomie Green acted in accordance with state rules meant to keep people from sitting in jail indefinitely.
"After due consideration, the panel finds that the district attorney has had four-and-a-half months in which to present this matter to the Hinds County grand jury," Presiding Justice James Kitchens wrote. "The panel finds that Judge Green's actions are ... reasonable and appropriate."
In question is the January release of Nicholas Coats, who had been jailed without bail on charges that he shot and killed a woman at a Jackson traffic light in August. The death of Chelsie Lynn Kirschten was a high-profile case, and police needed almost two weeks before they arrested Coats and 19-year-old Lidarious Dixon.
Chelsie Kirschten (Photo: Stacey Kirschten)
Smith said his office is supposed to get a chance to object to the release of jailed prisoners, but said it wasn't notified that Circuit Judge William Skinner intended to release Coats.
Smith asked Green, the senior circuit judge, to hold a hearing to re-jail Coats after reporters asked him about the man's release. Green, though, declined, instead suggesting that Smith should call back grand jurors who last met earlier in January and indicted Coats. Smith then appealed to the Supreme Court, asking justices to force Green to hold the hearing.
Smith said he's not ready to indict because Jackson police didn't turn the investigative file over to him until Jan. 22. The next Hinds County grand jury isn't scheduled to meet until April, although previous grand jurors could be recalled before then.
The ruling comes after justices last year issued new rules of criminal procedure that in part emphasized that judges should do more to make sure people who haven't been convicted of crimes don't spend long stretches in county jails.
Green and Smith have clashed in the past, with Green trying in 2016 to block Smith from using a grand jury to indict employees of Attorney General Jim Hood, part of a power struggle that led to Smith's indictment on charges that he was hindering prosecution of an accused drug dealer. Smith was acquitted in August after an earlier trial ended in a hung jury.
Dixon, accused of the same crime, remains jailed in Hinds County.
by: Harold Gater
date: 2018-02-20
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/02/21/man-injured-when-shot-police-near-jsu/360832002/
Jackson Police Dept. spokesman Sgt. Roderick Holmes talks about an officer-involved shooting that happened near Jackson State University. Harold Gater, Clarion Ledger
(Photo: Harold Gater / Clarion Ledger)
A man has been shot by Jackson police near Jackson State University, officials said.
Jackson Police Dept. spokesman Sgt. Roderick Holmes said the man was shot Wednesday afternoon in the 1300 block of Deer Park Street.
Narcotics officers were in the area investigating possible drug activity when they came in contact with two men who immediately ran. Officers chased both suspects on foot to a nearby abandoned house. One man escaped while the other man produced a handgun and fired at the officers. They returned fire, striking the suspect.
The suspect was transported to an area hospital and is listed in critical condition. His weapon was recovered and was later determined to be stolen.
Both officers involved are currently on administrative leave while an internal and criminal investigation is being conducted.
by: Sarah Fowler
date: 2018-02-20
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/02/21/madison-county-planning-commission-member-resigns-over-racial-comment/360363002/
Download The Clarion-Ledger app for free on the Apple app store or Google Play. Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger
A board member of the Madison County planning and zoning commission resigned Tuesday after repeatedly using a racial slur in comments to two separate Facebook posts.
Don Drane of Madison commented on a post by Facebook user William R. Martin last Thursday regarding crime in Durant.
Someone commented on the post, “Does anyone have the guts to name the problem?”
“The problem is negroes. Where do I pick up my prize?” Drane replied.
Martin published another post last Friday saying someone requested Drane remove his comment because of using the word “negro.”
"I got a note from Don Drain that said some one requested that he remove the word, negro, from his post. Come on people, this is absolutely absurd. Are we going to stand by and let a bunch of offended wimps censor our free speech. A little history lesson, when I was growing up, my grandmother cal led them darkies. Then I remember, negroes, then colored people, African Americans, and finally blacks.They couldn't decide what they wanted to be called. In the workforce I have heard them call each other n----- and laugh about it.Get over it and worry about some thing important.Don, stand tall," Martin wrote in his Friday post.
The Clarion Ledger used dashes in place of the full n-word, which was used in the post.
Drane replied to Martin's post, “Most of the years of my state employment, every form we used that categorized people used the term 'non-white negro'. I can't apologize for that. These were government forms, both federal and state.
“Every census form used that term at one time. Nor will I adjust my word usage for the sake of political correctness or in an attempt to sound more pleasing to certain folks. My answer to the question posed by Mr. Edwards was an honest assessment of my understanding of the situation. More people need to deal with the problem instead of 'shooting' the questioner and the respondent. Frankly I don't give a damn.”
Madison County Supervisor Sheila Jones also commented on the thread, asking who owned a dairy bar in Durant. Jones and Drane then get into a conversation on Martin's Friday thread that used the n-word.
When reached Wednesday, Jones said she didn't realize her comment was on a thread that contained the n-word and other racial slurs.
"I was just asking about my college roommate's grandmother's dairy bar. That's all I was doing," Jones said. "I had no idea."
As of Wednesday evening, all of the posts and comments were still published.
Drane was appointed to the planning and zoning commission in January 2016. He could not be reached for comment.
Madison County Supervisor Paul Griffin said Drane resigned from the board Tuesday.
"We, as Madison Countians, especially, hopefully, board members are trying to get away from that point, that stereotype," Griffin said. "That’s what I've been trying to do for the last 18 years. Let’s look at tax revenue, not skin color. But some of us can't get past it, and what's holding us back from being, for lack of a better word, a 'mega-county' is a division over race. And that goes both ways."
by: Sarah Fowler
date: 2018-02-18
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2018/02/19/all-we-want-equality-impact-hb-1523/336618002/
Singers from across the state perform "My, My Mississippi" at a rally against HB 1523 in front of the Governor's mansion Sunday afternoon. Anna Wolfe
A Hattiesburg woman and her partner wanted a second child and went to the same OB/GYN they used during their first pregnancy.
This time, they were told the doctor's policy had changed and unmarried couples would no longer have access to fertility services. At the time, same-sex marriage was not legal in Mississippi.
As a result, the couple decided not to have a second child.
The experience of the woman, only identified as Paula M., is included in a report the Human Rights Campaign released Monday detailing the impact of discrimination in the United States. It's written in response to state laws like Mississippi's House Bill 1523, which the report calls "legalized discrimination."
"When LGBT people are refused service, this discrimination has material and psychological consequences," the report stated. "Some individuals will obtain the good or service they sought, but will face additional costs: finding an alternative provider can require time, energy, and money, which can prove discouraging or even prohibitive."
The 41 page report, All We Want is Equality: Religious Exemptions and Discrimination against LGBT People in the United States, examines how laws "carve out space to discriminate against LGBT people in adoption and foster care, health care and access to some goods and services." The report was funded by the Human Rights Watch.
"These laws fail to balance moral and religious objections to LGBT relationships and identities with the rights of LGBT people themselves," the report states. "The findings illustrate that these exemptions encourage discriminatory refusals, discourage LGBT people from seeking out services and harm people's dignity."
The report refers to HB 1523 as a state law that "permits a wide array of individuals, businesses and service providers to discriminate based on their religious or moral objections to same-sex marriage, extramarital sex and the recognition of transgender identity."
The Mississippi Legislature passed the measure in response to the U.S. Supreme Court's 2015 decision legalizing same-sex marriage across the country. Gov. Phil Bryant signed it into law in 2016. It was blocked for more than a year amid several legal challenges. It took effect Oct. 10.
Related: U.S. Supreme Court won't step into Mississippi HB 1523 law fight
Bryant said in an emailed statement Friday that HB 1523 was a "good law that was democratically enacted and is perfectly constitutional."
"The people of Mississippi have the right to ensure that all of our citizens are free to peacefully live and work without fear of punished for their sincerely held beliefs," he said.
The law allows county clerks who object to same-sex marriage on religious grounds to avoid issuing licenses to gay and lesbian couples. It also protects merchants who refuse services to LGBT people, and might also affect adoptions and foster care, business practices and school bathroom policies. Opponents say it also allows pharmacies to refuse to fill birth control prescriptions for unmarried women.
The report calls on Congress to enact legislation that protects those in LGBTQ community, including the Equality Act or other legislation that would prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, education, health care, housing and public accommodations.
Ryan Thoreson, a researcher in the LGBT rights program at Human Rights Watch, spoke with 112 people in Mississippi, Tennessee and Michigan about their experiences with discrimination.
"Describing these laws as 'exemptions' is misleading," Thoreson said. "Given the dearth of laws that protect LGBT people from discrimination in the first place, legislators are getting it exactly backwards and creating exceptions before they've ever established the rule."
State House Judiciary B Chairman Andy Gipson, R-Braxton, who authored HB 1523, did not return calls seeking comment but previously stated he was pleased with the Supreme Court's decision to not take up HB 1523, clearing the way for it to go into effect.
"Two years ago, Mississippi passed one of the strongest religious freedom laws in the country," Gipson said in January.
While HB 1523 took effect last June, some Mississippi residents said they felt the effects of discrimination based on religious views long before.
In Mississippi, Leiana Coakley, 39, of Gulfport, said she and her wife were refused service by a fertility doctor because of their sexuality in 2012.
They called the office of a reproductive doctor in Mobile. Coakley said the woman who answered the phone bristled when she said "my wife and I" and told her the doctor did not see unmarried or same-sex couples.
"It was one of those things I was so shocked at what she said that I didn't know what to say and I freaked out and hung up the phone," she said. "You're surprised that anyone would say that to you."
In tears, Coakley called back. A different woman answered but confirmed the office's policy. When Coakley asked for a referral to another office, she said the woman began laughing and asked, "How can a same-sex couple have a baby?"
"You have straight couples all time who deal with male infertility issues, that's really not a factor in this ... I was just so discouraged that I gave up at the idea of trying anymore."
One year later, resolve set in and the couple decided to try again.
"I was so terrified to call, that the same thing would happen again," Coakley said. The couple found a clinic in New Orleans and now, five years later, have two sons.
Coakley said she and her wife chose to turn the situation around and look at it from a positive viewpoint.
"I feel like if that hadn't happened we would have been able to have a baby sooner but that sharp contrast, it led us to the place it needed to be," she said. "There is hope."
She noted, though, that those who have never faced discrimination can't fully digest the impact it has on daily life.
"I think we all walk a different walk in life," she said. "I can't say what it's like for a person of color or a disabled person, what they feel like to be discriminated against. I know what it's like from my point of view but I think your average everyday person, no, they don't what it's like."
Thoreson said acts of discrimination can "blindside people at times when they least expect it."
In his research, Thoreson interviewed a same-sex couple who struggled to find a pediatrician for their newborn because of their sexuality. Years later, the couple found themselves asking their child's soccer coach if their child would be allowed to play because they were same-sex parents.
"People laugh and say 'You don't need to ask that' but our experience is we do need to ask that," Thorseon said of the couple. "It may be OK 99 percent of the time. You might not face discrimination for weeks or even months but all it takes is that one instance to put you in your place and remind you how vulnerable you are.
"There's the humiliation and indignity of being turned away but then there's a longterm sort of psychological toll on LGBT people."
The report notes that while many religious exemptions focus on health care or child welfare services, religious objections have motivated discriminatory refusals in a wide range of contexts and references. Jack Zawadski, a Picayune man, said a funeral home refused to cremate his late husband because the two were in a same-sex relationship. The funeral home denied the allegations.
"As Zawadski’s case illustrates, refusals can occur in circumstances where LGBT people urgently need services and cannot readily access alternatives in the event that they are turned away," the report stated.
Thoreson spoke with people in rural and urban areas, of different races and financial backgrounds. The one thing he noticed, he said, was the shock and immediate feeling of isolation people felt when they faced discrimination.
"One of the things that was really striking was how they personally took the act of being rejected," he said. "We often talk about religious refusal in abstract or hypothetical terms, but for the people who were turned away, this was a very direct message that they are not equal or welcome in their communities."
by: Therese Apel
date: 2018-02-18
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/02/19/gang-threat-assessment-number-double-number-submitted-senators-according-state-defender/351427002/
Mothers say their families paid thousands of dollars to keep gangs from hurting or killing their sons Jerry Mitchell/The Clarion-Ledger
The number of gang members in the state's prison system released in a public records request by two Mississippi senators is half that published in the Mississippi Office of Homeland Security's gang threat assessment, according to the state Public Defender's Office.
The discrepancy adds fuel to the debate over Senate Bill 2868, which seeks to crack down on gang activity in the state through enhanced penalties for gang-related crime and penalties for recruiting people into gangs. The Senate passed the bill 35-14 and sent it to the House for further action.
More: Gang bill faces criticism from Black Caucus, other organizations
An email from State Defender Andre DeGruy, who opposes the bill, dated Friday states, "The Street Gang Assessment being used to support SB 2868 claims 62% of prison population is gang affiliated" and cites as its source the Mississippi Department of Corrections. The attached information report from MDOC to Senators Willie and Derrick Simmons reports half as many — 31%."
Attached to the email is the senators' request for "the number of persons in MDOC custody who have been identified as gang members."
The request, dated Feb. 7 and marked as being hand-delivered to Corrections Commissioner Pelicia Hall, references a letter written on the same day that seeks to determine the fiscal impact of SB 2868. That letter was not included.
At a joint news conference of groups opposed to the bill, DeGruy said the enhanced penalties under the bill could cost the state more than $1 billion by incarcerating those identified as gang members for longer periods.
The Gang Threat Assessment lists as one of the "Key Findings" that "The Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) data determined 62% of the 19,150 inmates, incarcerated as of December 14, 2017, have been identified as active gang members within their facility," with a footnote that states, "Federal Correctional Facilities were excluded from this assessment as those populations are not representative of Mississippi's gang activity."
The assessment goes on to say the 62 percent is equal to 11,917 inmates identified as gang members.
MDOC's answer to the senators' records request says that "there are 5,872 offenders in custody/confined population who have been identified as gang members."
It goes on to say there were 733 gang members admitted into MDOC custody in 2017, as opposed to 3,350 with no known affiliation. That amounts to roughly 22 percent.
More: We know very little about Mississippi crime. Here's why.
It's unclear so far where the difference in the numbers originated.
Contacted Friday, neither the MDOC nor the Mississippi Analysis and Information Center, better known as the Fusion Center. could provide an answer, but the Clarion Ledger has submitted public records requests to both for the numbers and the process used to determine them.
by: Jimmie E. Gates
date: 2018-02-15
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/opinion/columnists/2018/02/16/dont-allow-politics-decide-duties-ags-office/345225002/
Download The Clarion-Ledger app for free on the Apple app store or Google Play. Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger
The more than a decade-old legal fight between Attorney General Jim Hood and Entergy could be headed to court in November. Or could the Legislature derail a court fight?
Senate Bill 2295 reauthorizes the Public Service Commission. Hood believes language added to the bill is an attempt to stop him from filing lawsuits like the long-pending lawsuit against Entergy.
Language added to Senate Bill 2295 gives PSC jurisdiction over any rate dispute involving a public utility. Sen. Briggs Hopson, R-Vicksburg, said the language was added because that is the way the law dealing with the PSC meant it to be.
Hood said he believes the bill, if passed, will be used to challenge his authority to bring the Entergy lawsuit, which is set for trial in federal court in Jackson.
Entergy Mississippi President Haley Fisackerly says the power company just wants clarity as to who regulates the utility, the AG's office or the PSC. Entergy is pushing for the language to remain in Senate Bill 2295.
Haley Fisackerly is president and CEO of Entergy Mississippi Inc.
In 2008, Hood’s office filed the Entergy lawsuit, alleging the New Orleans-based utility and its subsidiaries illegally manipulated the purchase and sale of electricity to maximize profits. Entergy has denied Hood's claim.
Prior to the lawsuit, Hood and Entergy were already at odds with Hood alleging the utility overcharged ratepayers by buying electricity from sister companies at a higher rate than on the open market, then passing the cost on to ratepayers.
Entergy has refuted Hood’s allegation and continues to do so. Also, Entergy officials say the PSC and federal regulators annually audit the utility and have found no evidence of wrongdoing or improper practices.
The Hood versus Entergy case has dragged on for many years. (In fact, I had forgotten the case was still alive until a ruling last year by the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to remove the case from one federal judge and reassign it.)
The key question is how taxpayers and ratepayers will be impacted. If the case makes it to court and Hood wins, what would it mean for taxpayers? There is also the question, as Fisackerly points out, of the cost of defending the lawsuit and the possible impact on ratepayers if that cost is passed on.
Maybe there should be an independent arbiter to settle this dispute once and for all. Hood argues that the independent arbiter should be the court. Entergy argues there is already an independent arbiter and that is the PSC.
That argument will likely be decided with the PSC reauthorization and whether lawmakers adopt the new language at the center of this dispute.
by:
date: 2018-02-15
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/02/16/ummc-clinic-enhances-access-free-hiv-testing/346550002/
Gene therapy has scored wins against some rare blood diseases and even a form of blindness. Now scientists are trying it for a much more common foe, HIV, the virus that causes AID. (Feb. 13) AP
If you don’t know you're infected with HIV, then you don’t know you need life-saving treatment, and you don’t know that you should take precautions not to spread the AIDS virus.
Express Personal Health, a new clinic operated by the University of Mississippi Medical Center, is filling a gap by providing free HIV testing for those whose sexual health puts them in danger of infection. The clinic at the Jackson Medical Mall is discreetly located on the third floor, which formerly housed the state Department of Health-funded Crossroads Clinic.
“We’re trying to address access,” said Dr. Leandro Mena, professor of infectious diseases and director of UMMC’s Center for HIV/AIDS Research, Education and Policy.
“The CDC says that everyone should be tested for HIV at least once in their lifetime,” said Mena, who chairs the Department of Population Health. “If you have any risk, you should be tested more frequently, and if you have an ongoing risk, you should be tested at least once a year.”
Express Personal Health is inviting to patients because of its third-floor location and pains taken to create a comfortable atmosphere, Mena said. The clinic is funded for two registered nurse educators and a receptionist.
The need for HIV screening, the first line of defense for prevention, is critical. One in seven Mississippians who have the HIV infection, or about 15 percent, don’t know it, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of those aged 15-24 who have HIV, more than half don’t know it.
The continuing bad news is that Jackson has the fourth-highest rate of HIV diagnosis per 100,000 population among the nation's metro areas. Overall, an estimated 10,300 Mississippians are living with HIV — but that’s only the diagnosed cases.
Those at high risk for HIV infection include men who have sex with men; people with multiple sex partners, especially partners who inject drugs; people who have sex with high-risk partners; and those who have or have recently had a STD such as syphilis or genital herpes.
The Health Department is providing funding for UMMC to operate Express Personal Health and provide HIV screening — but not on-site treatment — to individuals who are at high risk, Mena said. Supplementing that is a grant from Gilead Sciences, a research-based pharmaceutical company, which will fund free testing for hepatitis B and C and for the sexually transmitted disease syphilis.
Shanita Greer, clinical research nurse, prepares vaginal and urine specimens for transport, processing and storage at Express Personal Health.
The Health Department “has provided funds for free testing to a number of community based organizations, resulting in more than 5,000 screenings that detected about 20 positive readings,” said Dr. James Stewart, the department’s director of the Office of Communicable Diseases, which oversees the Office of STD/HIV.
In 2017, individuals ages 15-34 comprised 62 percent of all new HIV diagnoses in the state.
In the Jackson metro area, Stewart said, 60 percent of those newly diagnosed were under 35.
“Because of this, it makes the most sense to target testing to these groups,” Stewart said. “We are providing funds to the new clinic to focus on reaching these individuals, especially those who are not comfortable getting tested in a traditional clinic setting.”
Open Arms Healthcare Center in Jackson is a provider of primary and mental health services, with an emphasis on the health care needs of the LGBT population. Open Arms is a service of the nonprofit organization My Brother’s Keeper.
Partnerships among entities such as UMMC, the Health Department and My Brother’s Keeper can help lower the state’s HIV rates and increase access to care and testing, said Deja Abdul-Haqq, director of the Office of Organizational Development at My Brother’s Keeper. “Under the weight of Mississippi’s current disparity situation, especially in Jackson, it will take all us to change the tide of the HIV epidemic,” she said.
Pearl resident Regi Stevenson is glad Express Personal Health is a resource should he need it. “For one thing, it’s free,” Stevenson said. “The way the economy is now, it sets you up for failure. With this being free, you won’t lose people because they don’t have the funds.
“It’s a really good thing, and the name is catchy, too,” he said. “I hope that it’s actually express so that you get fast, quality care.”
The Crossroads Clinic in June 2017 relocated to the Health Department’s Five Points clinic on the Medical Mall’s first floor. It offers STD screening and treatment, but only screening for HIV. For those who test positive, both Five Points and Express Personal Health will provide immediate referrals to community based clinics and organizations for treatment.
Blood and urine samples are tested quickly at Express Personal Health, UMMC's new free HIV testing clinic on the third floor of the Jackson Medical Mall Thad Cochran Center.
Testing is as simple as collection of a blood sample from a finger stick or mouth swab to be analyzed at a laboratory for detection of antibodies your body makes against HIV. “You will get results within 20 minutes,” Mena said of Express Personal Health. “If you test positive, you will be linked with a HIV primary care provider that same day.”
If someone tests negative at Express Personal Health, Mena said, they’ll also be linked to comprehensive HIV services, including those that prescribe or provide the drug PrEP, or pre-exposure prophylaxis. It's a pill that people who don't have HIV take daily to reduce their risk of infection from sex. Clinic staff will provide counseling and other early interventions that aim to promote sexual health and reduce risk of sexually transmitted infections.
“We want people to feel safe,” Mena said. “We recognize that while there’s been progress, the stigma of HIV and testing continues to be high. Many people have concerns with confidentiality. Some of them don’t want to ask their primary care provider for an HIV test."
“There is no judgment. We are inclusive of everyone.”
Details
by: Harold Gater
date: 2018-02-15
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/02/16/girl-charged-capital-murder/344382002/
Midazolam is supposed to prevent condemned prisoners from suffering while they die. But opponents say several problematic executions involving the drug are evidence that it doesn't work consistently. Wochit
(Photo: Jackson Police Dept.)
A 14-year-old girl has been charged with capital murder in a shooting that Jackson police said began as a robbery.
Crystal Marshall was charged as an adult in the shooting death of Joseph Baker. Baker, 38, was found inside a vehicle on Robinson Street on Sunday evening. The victim had been shot multiple times. He was transported to an area hospital but died from his injuries on Wednesday.
Chrishun Jones, 17, and Orlando Carey, 20, were previously arrested and charged with capital murder in the case.
All three are jailed without bail.
Jackson police Sgt. Roderick Holmes told the Associated Press that he's not sure whether any of them have a lawyer.
Police say they believe someone was trying to rob Baker, who was shot multiple times while inside his car.
Holmes says investigators aren't sure what the three might have been trying to take from Baker, or who actually shot him.
The investigation is still ongoing, JPD said.
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by: Justin Vicory
date: 2018-02-15
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/02/16/black-male-found-hanging-tree-scott-county/345037002/
The philanthropic arm of Google helped the Equal Justice Initiative to create the platform showcasing one of the more grim aspects of American history. Buzz60
Authorities are investigating the death of a 21-year-old black man who was found hanging from a tree in Scott County.
Willie Andrew Jones Jr. was found outside his ex-girlfriend's home the night of Feb. 8, officials said.
Scott County Sheriff Mike Lee, according to an Associated Press report, said the death is consistent with suicide and there’s no evidence of a racially motivated crime. Lee says witnesses say the man fought with his girlfriend and threatened to hang himself shortly before he was found dead near her home south of Forest.
The Jones family contacted a local representative of the NAACP the day after the hanging, Mississippi NAACP President Charles Hampton said. Hampton then contacted the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation and the FBI on Monday, after he was made aware of the incident.
He said the family was told by the investigator working the case that the death appeared to be a suicide. However, the family expressed doubt to Hampton.
"The family never believed it was a suicide, and that's why they reached out to us," he said.
"The Jones and Townsend families deserve a complete and thorough accounting of the facts surrounding this incident," Hampton said.
Mississippi Department of Public Safety Commissioner Marshall Fisher, in a news release, said, "This is an ongoing investigation. All evidence is being considered and at this time, no conclusions have been reached."
The sheriff said an initial autopsy cited death by hanging, but he’s awaiting more results.
Also, according to AP, someone shot into the girlfriend’s house Wednesday. No injuries were reported, but the shooting remains under investigation.
by: Billy Watkins
date: 2018-02-14
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/magnolia/books/2018/02/15/mississippi-books-photos-tell-story-wrongly-convicted-men/331625002/
Levon Brooks and Kennedy Brewer of Noxubee County had the prime of their lives taken from them. Billy Watkins/Clarion Ledger
Off and on for four years, photographer Isabelle Armand traveled from the deafening noise of New York City to the haunting quiet of east central Mississippi.
Armand was sad and angry that two men from Noxubee County — Levon Brooks and Kennedy Brewer — spent a combined three decades in prison for rapes and murders they didn’t commit.
She was inspired by their forgiving attitudes and their quests to make the most of what life they had left.
She was touched, too, by what she saw through her lens every time she took their picture: “Magic,” Armand says. “They had a very strong faith, and I kept thinking, ‘People don’t really know who Levon and Kennedy are or what they’ve been through.’ ”
Armand’s photographs will appear in her book — “Levon and Kennedy: Mississippi Innocence Project” — scheduled for release on March 27. Tucker Carrington, director of the George C. Cochran Innocence Project at the University of Mississippi School of Law, provided the text.
More: Levon Brooks: 'An extraordinary man' who wrongfully spent one-third of his life in prison
Carrington has also co-written a book with Radley Balko about the two men’s convictions — along with several other cases throughout the 1980s and ’90s — and the junk science that cost these men the prime of their lives. “The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist: A True Story of Injustice in the American South” is due out Feb. 27.
(Story continues below photo gallery)
Armand and Carrington wish their books could have been released earlier. Levon died Jan. 24 after a long battle with colon cancer. He was 58.
“Levon did get to see my book,” Armand says. “I’m so glad of that. He received a copy the same day I did — around Dec. 15. He told me he was taking it around (Macon) and showing it to everyone. I knew then he was proud of it.
“And that makes me even happier that the book exists. I’m glad Levon’s legacy and Kennedy’s legacy will always be there for people to see.”
Armand read an article about Levon and Kennedy in 2012, four years after their release from prison when DNA led authorities to a man who confessed to both murders.
“I was shocked that these men could be convicted by the testimony of two men who seemed to make a living testifying in murder cases,” Armand says, referring to Steven Hayne, Mississippi’s primary pathologist in the late 1980s and early ’90s, and dentist Michael West.“If you read this in a book of fiction, you would say there was no way it could happen.
"From the get-go, I was inspired to tell their story through photographs. But I didn’t know them and didn’t know if they would cooperate.”
Armand wrote to Carrington, whose work helped exonerate the two men, and asked for his help.
“I get requests like this all the time,” Carrington says. “But a lot of times the people are in it for themselves or they’re not very talented. But Isabelle sent along some of her work. She’s a fantastic photographer. And she was persistent.
“I talked to Kennedy and Levon about it, and they agreed to do it. I told Isabelle, ‘I will introduce you to them, but you have to make your own way.’ She came down (in 2013) and we drove to Macon and ate lunch with them at Levon’s favorite place — Trail Boss. Isabelle wound up staying for three weeks.”
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Armand recalls that first trip to see them: “We hit it off. We hung out a lot. And for me, it was love at first sight when it came to Mississippi and Levon and Kennedy and their families.
“I wanted to show people their lives, where they grew up, the places that meant a lot to them as children.”
Levon and Kennedy soon seemed to forget that Armand was always snapping pictures. They lived life and Armand captured it on film.
“Yes, film,” she says. “I wanted black and white photos because that’s the only way to capture depth of field, and I don't think you can get that as well with a digital camera.”
Armand took thousands of photos — more than 900 on her initial trip. She had to select 72 for the book.
1 final photo
Levon Brooks, left, and Kennedy Brewer of Noxubee County spent a combined three decades in prison for rapes and murders they did not commit. They were exonerated and released in 2008. Levon died of cancer on Jan. 24 of this year. From "Levon and Kennedy" © Isabelle Armand.
Near the end of her work, Armand realized there was one photo she hadn’t yet taken: Levon and Kennedy together, just the two of them.
“Those moments of taking that picture, which is on the cover, will stay with me forever,” she says. “We went to this little cafe of Levon’s. I wanted something very meaningful and I got it. A lot of people think they’re just looking at the camera, but to me they’re looking at the world.”
Armand hopes her book makes people “care a little more” and “helps raise awareness that innocent people — good people — are being sent to prison for no reason.”
Carrington’s book is more about the court process that led to their conviction. It focuses on Hayne and West and their frequent collaborations.
Levon and Kennedy were convicted primarily on West’s claim that their bite marks matched wounds found on the victims.
During a deposition in 2010, West told Tucker: “I don’t believe in bite-mark evidence anymore.”
“I could’ve fallen out of my chair,” Carrington says.
In 2010, the Innocence Project asked the Mississippi State Board of Medical Licensure to look at Hayne’s medical license. Hayne sued the Innocence Project for defamation of character. The case settled.
Kennedy and Levon sued Hayne and West but lost when it was ruled that the two had immunity for public policy reasons.
“We think this story has national relevance, and we hope the book sheds light on the problem that isn’t just in Mississippi but throughout our justice system,” Carrington says. “We need to know the entire story so that we can all do a better job.”
by: Bracey Harris
date: 2018-02-14
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2018/02/15/mississippi-raises-superintendent-standards/337919002/
A recent report from Education Weekly found the average top state education chief pay at $174,000. But these five states pay much higher than that. Dustin Barnes/The Clarion-Ledger
Legislative leaders in recent years have attempted to improve the state’s educational outcomes by requiring superintendents to be appointed and raising the standards to serve in the role.
A 2017 law mandates aspiring school chiefs have six years of classroom or administrative experience. Three of those years would have to be spent as a principal in a school with an A or B accountability rating, or in a school that has improved by one letter grade during the candidate’s tenure.
Those requirements seemed straightforward when the lawmakers approved the measure last year.
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But an attorney general’s opinion issued to the Kosciusko School Board shows a different interpretation. It concludes that a principal would have to serve in a school that maintained its improved rating for three years.
“To read this subsection as applying to a principal who was in a school that improved from a C rating to a B or A rating and then fell back to a C rating in less than three years would negate the statutory requirement that three of the six years be in a school with an increased accountability rating,” says the attorney general opinion that was issued in June.
Senate Education Chairman Gray Tollison, who authored the legislation outlining the new changes, said that wasn’t the law’s intent but avoided saying the opinion was wrong.
In more challenging districts, he said, those grades might be in flux.
A Senate bill addressing superintendent requirements didn’t survive last month’s committee deadline.
Tollison, however, has raised the possibility of the state Department of Education addressing the issue through regulations.
Rachel Canter, the executive director of Mississippi First, which focuses on education policy, has concerns that the interpretation could become a deterrent for potential school chiefs.
Under the attorney general’s interpretation, Canter explained, a principal who improved a school from an F to a C standing over the course of three years would still fall short of the law’s requirement. That means at a minimum, the principal would have to spend another two years at the school to meet the law’s requirements.
“You’ve basically told somebody taking a job that their current placement will be for at least five years, if not six,” Canter said. “That is a long time for people who are early on in their career.”
Mississippi First has supported a number of education reforms, including charter schools, in the state. And Canter acknowledged the need for qualified leaders.
Still she has concerns that the law could deter principals in high-performing schools from entering into turnaround work in struggling school systems because of the risk.
“As with any legislation, there are growing pains,” Canter said.
by: Anthony McDougle
date: 2018-02-13
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/02/14/octavia-spencer-buys-black-panther-screenings-pearl/339468002/
Chadwick Boseman stars as the ruler of Wakanda and its greatest hero in the Marvel superhero film 'Black Panther.' Marvel Studios
(Photo: USA Today Network)
It was exactly two weeks ago that Octavia Spencer, an Academy Award-winning actress, stated that she planned to buy out screening of the highly anticipated film 'Black Panther' in Mississippi.
Now, Spencer is paying in full. The actress took to Instagram on Wednesday to announce she would be buying out screening at the Cinemark Tinseltown in Pearl. Tate Taylor, a director and native of Mississippi, will be buying out screening at the Natchez Regal IV as well.
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octaviaspencerHey Jackson!!! As promised I have purchased screenings of Black Panther this weekend. If you know of families low on funds, please spread the word!Black Panther: Cinemark Pearl and XD 411 Riverwind Dr Pearl, MS 39208 2/17/18 Screen Times: 11am, 1pm, 2pm Small popcorn and small drink included for these screenings only. Also, Director Tate Taylor and Producer John Norris have purchased a screening in Natchez MS. Black Panther Natchez Regal IV 350 John R Junkin Dr Natxhez ms, 39120 2/17/18 12:30pm To get tickets in Natchez Contact Mayor Grennell’s office: 1-601-445-7555 All screenings are First come first served
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4 MONTHS AGO
Screen times will be Saturday at 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. at the Cinemark in Pearl. The promotion also includes a small popcorn and drink. The screen time for Natchez Regal is 12:30 p.m. All screenings are on a first-come, first-served basis.
Spencer said she decided to buy out the screenings in an effort to ensure that "all of our brown children can see themselves as a superhero.
by: Therese Apel
date: 2018-02-13
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/02/14/gang-bill-faces-criticism-black-caucus-other-organizations/338166002/
Federal, state and local officials address the gang presence in the Magnolia State. Therese Apel/ The Clarion-Ledger
(Photo: Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger)
At least a half dozen experts emphasized Wednesday at a Legislative Black Caucus at the Capitol their opposition to a gang bill working its way through the Mississippi Legislature.
Presenters from the American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi, the Southern Poverty Law Center, Families as Allies, the National Association for Advancement of Colored People, and the office of the State Public Defender took the mic one after the other to discuss what they see as shortfalls in Senate Bill 2868.
Among those shortfalls at the top of their list of concerns were fear that gang members could be prosecuted even if they commit no crime besides recruiting new members for their gangs and the potential for racial profiling.Added to that was a potential cost to the state from enhanced sentences of more than $1 billion.
The Senate passed the bill 35-14 last week, sending it to the House for further action.
ACLU Executive Director Jennifer Riley Collins said the ACLU believes the bill could increase tensions between police and the communities they serve. She said studies have found "gang-targeted civil injunction has actually been linked to an increase in violent crime."
Collins cited the Mississippi Office of Homeland Security's recent gang threat assessment and its five recommendations: Establishment of a standard validation form, additional gang training for law enforcement officers, the continuation of statewide intelligence meetings, establishment of a task force to study gang activity, and the examination of new legislation to strengthen current gang laws.
"The examination, not the proposal," she said, "to strengthen current gang laws, not to create new laws."
Collins asked the Legislature to follow the suggestions made by the study and said that the data set forth by the threat assessment does is not reliable.
Some of the arguments echoed those made against similar bills in past years, calling the language "overly broad," and arguing that it needs to be made crystal clear to keep overzealous police and prosecutors from rounding up groups of people for arbitrary reasons.
Another familiar argument was the idea that groups like sports teams or fraternities and sororities could be classified as gangs given the criteria that the bill lays out : a common name, slogan, identifying sign, symbol, tattoo or other physical marking; style or color of clothing or hairstyle; hand sign, hand gesture or finger position; or graffiti.
"So is a group of three or four friends that all have sleeve tattoos, is that included? Will that pull you up into this law and make it a crime to potentially get tattoos together?" asked ACLU Legal Director Joshua Tom.
"Hand gestures. What if you have four friends who all like to give the peace sign to each other? Are they covered?" he asked. "Graffiti is seen as a form of art, maybe not as big in Mississippi as other areas.... what if you have an artist that likes to do impressionistic styles of graffiti? Are they covered under this law?
One legislator questioned whether racial makeup would be a deciding factor. He posed the hypothetical situation that if members of the Jackson Academy baseball team were caught shoplifting they might not be charged as a gang while members of another baseball team might.
The bill states in Section 3 that sports teams are excluded: as are "any group of persons, associated in law or in fact, who are not engaged in criminal gang activity, to a sports team, or to a group who are associated through a legally created business or charitable entity created under Mississippi law, except for those instances where the State of Mississippi has proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the sports team, legally created business or charitable entity is a pretext for criminal gang activity."
Tom also said there are constitutional problems with SB 2868, detailing particularly issues with vagueness, free speech, right to intimate association, and due process.
Tom talked about how young people often join gangs for protection or camaraderie, and that all gang members are not necessarily involved in criminal activity, an assertion backed up by Joy Hogge, executive director of Families as Allies.
"It is possible that youths, particularly ones who have few ties to their families, could find relationships and comfort from people who are in gangs without engaging in criminal behavior themselves," she said. "Yet the language in this bill indicates that these same youths could still be charged with a crime. Illegal behavior, not relationships, should be the target for the charge."
Tom said it's problematic for free speech purposes to make it illegal to recruit minors into gangs because, "maybe you want to go do something legal. Maybe you want to go play X-Box. Maybe you want to go play basketball."
Gangs are involved in legal activities as well as illegal, he said.
"Gangs act as social groups, as peer networks as well as possibly engaging in illegal activity," Tom said.
"We don't think this legislation is something that is positive in our communities. We're looking for something that addresses criminal justice reform in a real way, that supports community, creates opportunities for employment and economic development," said Mississippi NAACP Executive Director Corey Wiggins. "Those are the types of things that we'd be very appreciative if those of you at this table would look into these types of opportunities."
Jody Owens, managing attorney at the Southern Poverty Law Center, said SB 2868 could cost the state. He said each 15-year sentence will cost taxpayers over $110,000, citing Mississippi Department of Corrections numbers at $41.51 per day per inmate.
He said based on those numbers and the fact there are believed to be 12,000 gang members incarcerated, the law could mean the state will spend more than $1 billion incarcerating gang members.
"When you use the term 'enhancement,' you need to be very careful what that means because you're enhancing a prison sentence," Owens said. "We can all agree we don't want drugs sold near our schools, we want to be careful about the crimes we commit near churches, we can agree about that. But we know the purpose of that it to protect the most vulnerable population among us."
He said the bill could "bankrupt the state and undermine the bipartisan efforts that have existed for years on behalf of the legislature."
State Public Defender Andre DeGruy cited his work studying data for House Bill 585, which designated that nonviolent offenders convicted on or after July 1, 2014, must serve a minimum 25 percent of their sentence and violent offenders must serve 50 percent.
"The 10-year fiscal note in 585, if it were attached to this bill, would be $1.35 billion," he said.
DeGruy cited the "limited data" in the gang threat assessment as saying that 79 percent of those identified as gang members released in 2017 had committed nonviolent crimes, which was 7 percent more than the general population.
"I don't think the data supports this because I don't think there's enough data, but it appears that gang involvement in Mississippi is going down," DeGruy said, adding that national statistics from the ACLU show that national gang membership is going down as well. "So we are coming in to address a problem that is getting better on its own."
Law enforcement studies, including the National Gang Report done by the FBI, dispute that.
"Street gangs continue to impact communities across the United States and do not show signs of decreasing membership or declining criminal activity," the National Gang Report reads. "According to survey respondents, street gang membership increased in 49 percent of jurisdictions over the past two years, stayed the same in 43 percent, and decreased in about eight percent of jurisdictions."
by: Anna Wolfe
date: 2018-01-04
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2018/02/14/inmate-says-mdoc-denied-him-treatment-even-reported-hepatitis-c-cases-doubled/1058250001/
Chad Spiers was diagnosed with hepatitis C by a Mississippi Department of Correction's medical vendor in April.
Since then, the inmate has formally requested treatment at least nine times, according to forms attached to the federal lawsuit he filed against prison officials in October.
"Please let me know something," he wrote in a formal grievance in May. "The longer I go without the cure the worse off my liver can get from the virus."
Spiers, housed at South Mississippi Correctional Institution in Leakesville, is one of 702 inmates statewide diagnosed in 2017 with hepatitis C, a liver infection commonly contracted in prisons that can lead to serious liver damage.
Chad Spiers, an inmate at South Mississippi Correctional Institution, says he is being denied medication to cure his hepatitis C.
(Photo: Special to Clarion Ledger)
This is up from the estimated 296 inmates with the infectious disease in 2016.
MDOC spokeswoman Grace Fisher said the higher number doesn't necessarily indicate the virus is spreading, but is the result of "a better tracking system."
Fisher said she could not comment on Spiers' case but also would not answer several follow-up questions regarding the department's treatment of hepatitis C, citing litigation.
1 percent of inmates get treatment
Of the 702 Mississippi inmates with hepatitis C, seven have been treated in the past year with direct-acting antiviral medications like Harvoni, one of the drugs Spiers requested, or Epclusia.
The prison's official hepatitis management policy does not require treatment for all infected inmates, but specifies it will provide treatment "when indicated." Fisher would not explain how MDOC determines which cases warrant treatment.
The rest of the 695 inmates with the disease, including Spiers, "are monitored in the chronic disease clinic," Fisher said. She would not elaborate on what that entails, but typically, this includes periodic testing to monitor the extent of the virus' damage to the liver.
"I don't want my son to die in prison," said Spiers' mom Catherine. "I keep thinking about him dying up there and I'm not going to be there for him."
Spiers, 39, was sentenced in 2015 to seven years in prison on charges of credit card fraud and nonresidential burglary. He's set to be released in 2022, but now, he questions whether he'll make it and what qualify of life he'll have if he does.
"I've had thoughts of suicide," Spiers wrote in a sworn affidavit Feb. 6. "If I'm not going to live to make it out of prison, then why not end it now?"
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in three inmates across the country have hepatitis C, though Mississippi reports that just over 3 percent of its inmates are infected.
The rates can vary because states use different methods to test and track the virus, according to FiveThirtyEight, a website that uses statistical analysis to tell stories about politics and economics.
At least 15 states use "opt out testing," meaning the prisons test every inmate for hepatitis C unless the inmate declines. Mississippi is not one of those.
MDOC tests for hepatitis C when the prison doctor decides it's necessary for an individual inmate, although a person can have the virus without noticeable symptoms for years.
CDC recommends hepatitis testing for people born between 1945 and 1965 and people who: inject drugs or have injected drugs, have HIV, received a blood transfusion or organ transplant before 1992, as well as other indicators.
Mandy Altman, correctional health program manager for the Hepatitis Education Project in Seattle, said the high concentration of hepatitis C in prisons actually presents an opportunity to root out an infectious disease in a controlled environment before it spreads, considering that 90 percent of inmates will be released.
"Prisoner health is public health," she said.
Cost prohibitive?
The medication that actually treats hepatitis C is less than 5years old and cures the virus at a rate of 95 percent, significantly higher than previous remedies.
But the cost of the 12-week treatment is roughly $84,000 per patient, for a total cost of $59 million to treat all infected inmates in Mississippi.
At least that's what the drug cost in 2014. Fisher said the current price "is not readily available" while Altman said one newly released drug comes with a significantly lower, $30,000 price tag.
"It doesn't mean they don't want to treat inmates, it just means they may not be able to," Altman said. "If they're not given money from the state, it's just not possible."
Difficulty affording the treatment is not unique to Mississippi prisons.
Since the first direct-acting antiviral was approved by the FDA in 2013, some states have failed to implement plans to utilize it — willfully, according to one judge.
In a victory for inmate advocates last November, a federal judge in Florida ordered the state to update its hepatitis C treatment policy and deliver the medication to more inmates.
U.S. District Judge Mark Walker said he understood how the expense could create a problem for prisons, but that's no excuse for acting "deliberately indifferent" to inmates' medical needs.
If the cure had been "released yesterday," Walker wrote, "this court would not expect (Florida Department of Corrections) to wave a magic wand and suddenly treat thousands of inmates overnight. But that is not the case. FDC has had since late 2013 to respond to this problem, and it has only just recently started doing what it should have done years ago."
The Florida Justice Institute is representing the hepatitis-positive inmates in their class action suit. Several other states are facing similar lawsuits.
Diagnoses and denials
Spiers claims he has been told conflicting information about which entity — MDOC or its medical vendor Centurion — can authorize treatment.
"MDOC and Centurion point fingers at each other about who is responsible for my health care. They waste time, and I continue to get sicker. I have bouts of nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, skin irritations, abdominal pain," he wrote.
In general, Spiers' story demonstrates poor communication from prison doctors to inmates about their own medical conditions.
Spiers said he took several tests in March, at which point a nurse told him his results were "normal." By April, he had been called back into the prison clinic and told he has hepatitis C, but with only slightly elevated enzyme levels — not high enough to warrant treatment.
"This effectively lets me get sick before you treat me. This is not the standard of care for Hep C treatment," he wrote in a formal grievance May 29 after his first request for treatment went ignored.
Altman said there's no reason to wait for severe damage before treating someone with hepatitis C, considering it prevents the possibility of spreading. Also, it's more expensive to treat someone after liver scarring has occurred.
In June, Spiers saw a doctor with Centurion, MDOC's contract health care provider, and was notified "his liver enzyme level was more than three times the normal level and his name should be submitted for treatment," according to his suit.
Centurion is owned by MHM Services and Centene Corp., the parent company of Magnolia Health, which also contracts with the Mississippi Division of Medicaid to run its managed care program. Florida also contracts with Centurion for prison health care.
Spiers also learned in June he had hepatitis A and B.
Hepatitis A, B and C are caused by different viruses and while each can begin as an acute infection affecting the liver, only B and C can become chronic. Hepatitis A is also much more easily transmitted and can be spread through contaminated food or water or close contact with an infected person or object. Hepatitis C is most often transmitted through blood, the result of sharing needles, while hepatitis B can be transmitted through blood and other bodily fluids, including through sex. Hepatitis C is the only one for which there is no vaccine.
Spiers alleged the doctor told him he would not receive treatment because he got a tattoo in prison and that "she said they would not spend $100,000 on my rule violation," he wrote.
In February, he wrote that his most recent test showed his enzyme levels had reached 269 — more than 10 times the average "normal" range.
Two inmates, including Spiers' cellmate, signed letters indicating they have seen Spiers vomiting, fatigued and believe he needs medical intervention.
Spiers' mom Catherine said her son spent time in prison in his early 20s, at which point she believes he could have contracted hepatitis C.
"I'm sure they knew," she said. "I think he's had it for a long time, they just didn't tell him."
A judge in Spiers' case dismissed claims against both the Mississippi Department of Corrections and MHM Services, saying the charges didn't apply to them. The case against Centurion and employees of Centurion and MDOC is ongoing.
Spiers is representing himself, each court filing handwritten on white printer paper.
'I constantly worry'
Hepatitis C is transmitted through blood, often spread between folks sharing needles.
Another place for potential exposure is in the prison barber shop. Hair clippers can scrape the scalp and draw blood, so they must be sterilized between uses.
"I worry about passing it to other inmates by using the hair clippers," Spiers wrote. "For this zone, we have one pair of clippers that any inmate can check out of the tower with his ID and use. There's no sanitizer for them."
Fisher contradicted this statement, saying the prisons have sterilization equipment and assigned inmate barbers tasked with sterilizing clippers.
"The state Health Department has not notified MDOC of any violations, as it relates to barber equipment," Fisher said.
Fisher would not answer follow-up questions about how MDOC prevents the spread of hepatitis.
"I'm in a cell for 22 hours a day during the week, and 24 hours on weekends," Spiers wrote. "I have a roommate. We are double racked in Unit 7 in what are one-man cells. I constantly worry about inadvertently passing Hepatitis B and C to my roommate. He has requested to be tested but it hasn't happened yet."
by: Therese Apel
date: 2018-02-12
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/02/13/man-arrested-mbn-second-time-2-weeks/335151002/
Health-care reporter Anna Wolfe talks with digital director Dustin Barnes about some of the confusion and exemptions involved with possible changes to how physicians can prescribe certain painkillers in the state. Wochit
(Photo: Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics)
A Jackson man believed to have sold opioids that led to drug overdoses in the Metro area has been arrested for the second time in as many weeks, according to the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics.
Kelvin Roy "Hot" Thompson, 59, was arrested on February 1 after MBN executed a search warrant at his house. Director John Dowdy said at the time that approximately 40 grams of suspected methamphetamine, approximately four grams of suspected heroin, two firearms, dozens of syringes and other paraphernalia commonly associated with drug distribution, as well as a dosage unit of Narcan.
More: Alleged heroin dealer arrested, linked to Metro-area overdoses
At that time, Thompson was charged with with possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute and possession of heroin with intent to distribute.
On Monday he was charged with conspiracy to sell heroin.
“Within days of his initial arrest, Hinds County authorities released Thompson on a $5,000 bond only to allow Thompson to return to his drug-trafficking operation. As a result of additional investigative efforts, MBN agents served arrest warrants late Monday night, again arresting Thompson and charging him with additional drug crimes,” Dowdy said.
Agents also arrested two women in the ongoing drug investigation, Dowdy said.
Rebecca L. Vanhuizen, 32, of 845 Meadow Lane in Byram, is charged with sale and conspiracy to sell heroin.
Shanti R. Nelson, 38, of 722 Westmont Drive, is charged with possession of heroin.
by: Therese Apel
date: 2018-02-11
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/02/12/cleveland-police-officer-shot-condition-unknown/331843002/
When breaking news happens, we want you to see it first hand. Thank you for trusting the Clarion Ledger. Wochit
A Cleveland police officer was shot late Monday, according to Police Chief Charles Bingham.
Bingham said he could confirm the officer had been shot, but would not give further details citing the ongoing investigation.
It's not officially clear when or where the shooting occurred, though local media reports say the shooting occurred on Beamon Drive.
"We had an officer shot this afternoon, that’s the only information I can give out right now," Bingham said.
A Facebook post from the Mississippi Association of Chiefs of Police said the officer is in surgery with non life threatening injuries.
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Mississippi Bureau of Investigations spokesman Warren Strain confirmed that investigators and the Crime Scene Unit are in Cleveland on the case.
The suspect was wounded and has been taken to a hospital in Memphis, according to Strain.
This is a developing story.
by: Therese Apel
date: 2018-02-11
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/02/12/woman-arrested-inmate-magic-markers/330738002/
When breaking news happens, we want you to see it first hand. Thank you for trusting the Clarion Ledger. Wochit
(Photo: Perry County Sheriff's Department)
A Perry County woman got creative with a bag of magic markers, and it landed her in jail.
According to Perry County Sheriff Mitch Nobles, Cathy Marie Clingan was charged with felony possession of a controlled substance and felony introduction of contraband into a jail after she tried to bring a bag of Magic Markers to an inmate and they were found to be full of drugs.
A dispatcher was inspecting the markers and noticed something was wrong with them. Upon opening them, she found that several were packed with marijuana and one was packed with crystal methamphetamine.
Clingan, 41, was arrested. During the booking process she admitted to deputies that she also had crystal meth in her possession.
Nobles said he's proud of his employees for being thorough.
"It was definitely well thought out and took time and effort to gut each of these markers out to make them look like they were untouched," he said. "I wasn't shocked — they'll try to smuggle things in any way they can. A lot of time they drop it off and the person gets away, but my employees didn't let her leave."
A bag of markers packed with drugs were confiscated from a woman who was trying to smuggle them to an inmate, Perry County authorities say.
(Photo: Perry County Sheriff's Department)
He also said it's one of the weirdest things he's seen someone use to smuggle in drugs.
"The only thing that I've seen anywhere close to this was a bottle of yellow shampoo and they had packed yellow balloons with marijuana and put them in the bottle," he said. "The yellow of the balloons was just a little off-color, and it stuck out a little."
The inmate who was the intended recipient of the markers was not charged.
"That's why we left his name out of it," Nobles said.
And the sheriff had a message for anyone who thinks they'd like to send drugs to their favorite inmate.
"My employees at the sheriff's department will do their job and nothing goes back there into our jail unless it's inspected first," he said. "And we'll prosecute to the fullest extent of the law."
by: Deborah Barfield Berry
date: 2018-02-11
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2018/02/12/trump-absence-means-black-lawmakers-now-celebrate-new-civil-rights-museum/324882002/
Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba and the NAACP hold a press conference instead of attending President Donald Trump's speech at the opening of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum. Annie Costabile
(Photo: Deborah Barfield Berry, USA TODAY)
WASHINGTON — Congressional black lawmakers, some who boycotted an earlier grand opening of the civil rights museum in Mississippi, will attend a “counter" celebration later this month now that President Trump has come and gone.
“It could be called a counter opening," said 2nd District Rep. Bennie Thompson. “But what we’re trying to say is the civil rights museum should not be highlighted by people who have no history in the civil rights movement, so we’re trying to legitimize the museum by bringing participants and supporters of civil rights who have a long-standing history of civil rights and not people who are there for the day and gone.’’
Thompson and others, including civil rights legend Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, civil rights groups and local activists boycotted the grand opening Dec. 9 after learning Trump would attend.
Instead, Thompson and Lewis will speak at a two-day event at the museum hosted by Friends of Mississippi Civil Rights. The weekend event, which kicks off Feb. 23, includes an awards gala Friday and a day-long program Saturday featuring a town hall and symposiums.
More: 'We gave so much': Reflections on Mississippi Civil Rights Museum
Other speakers will include Derrick Johnson, head of the National NAACP and until recently head of the Mississippi NAACP, and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker. Rep. Cedric Richmond of Louisiana, chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, has also been invited.
Derrick Johnson, head of the national NAACP, (right) chats with a guest at a reception Thursday in Washington, D.C. Johnson will be a speaker later this month at the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum.
(Photo: Deborah Barfield Berry, USA TODAY)
The state-of-the-art museum, which was years in the making, opened with much fanfare. The exhibits highlight the history of the civil rights movement in Mississippi, which was at the heart of efforts to register blacks to vote and dismantle Jim Crow.
Civil rights veterans say the museum is an important recognition of hard-fought efforts.
More: Myrlie Evers on Miss. Civil Rights Museum: 'I felt the bullets. I felt the tears.'
“Civil rights is a story that needs to be told and having someone that is the polar opposite of civil rights be the premiere focus of the opening of that museum — people just felt that it was an affront,'' Thompson said.
Republican Gov. Phil Bryant invited Trump to the grand opening of the museum and the Mississippi State History Museum saying the state should be proud the president was coming.
President Donald Trump tours the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum during its December opening before making scheduled remarks to a select crowd during his visit.
Trump toured the museum and praised the work of civil rights veterans, including Martin Luther King Jr. and Medgar Evers, a Mississippi NAACP field secretary who was shot and killed in the driveway of his Jackson home on June 12, 1963.
“Here we memorialize the brave men and women who struggled to sacrifice, and sacrifice so much, so that others might live in freedom," Trump said.
The White House called it "unfortunate'' that lawmakers refused to attend the opening.
“We think it’s unfortunate that these members of Congress wouldn’t join the president in honoring the incredible sacrifice civil rights leaders made to right the injustices in our history,'' Sarah Sanders, a White House spokeswoman, said then.
Johnson, who boycotted, said the December event was “usurped by Trump’s attempt to create a photo op for him.’’
“There’s a difference between a grand opening and honoring veterans of the civil rights movement,’’ he said. “This is about honoring the veterans and acknowledging the presence of the civil rights museum ... It’s just to say thank you.''
Thompson, Richmond and others, particularly black and Latino lawmakers, have clashed with Trump over policies they say aim to set back civil rights gains and roll back voting rights protections. They also complained Trump recently made derogatory remarks about African counties and Haiti.
Bryant, as well as former Mississippi governors, has been invited to attend the February program, said organizers. Bryant will be in Washington that weekend for the Republican Governors Association's winter meeting.
Carlos Moore, co-chairman of the Friends of Mississippi Civil Rights, said he and others in Mississippi had planned to attend the December opening but decided not to when Lewis and Thompson opted out.
Some protested outside the event.
“To me Donald Trump is the total opposite of everything that Dr. (Martin Luther) King and Mr. Lewis stood for…,’’ said Moore. “I didn’t believe his comments would be from the heart. I thought it would be a dog-and-pony show.’’
Moore said he posted a notice on his Facebook page saying activists should host their own celebration and “don’t let Trump rain on our parade.”
Clarion Ledger political editor Geoffrey Pender contributed to this report.
by: Associated Press
date: 2018-02-08
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/02/09/delta-correctional-facility-reopen-greenwood/323891002/
Download The Clarion-Ledger app for free on the Apple app store or Google Play. Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger
JACKSON — Mississippi's prison system announced Friday that it will reopen the Delta Correctional Facility in Greenwood this spring, mostly to house people who violate the terms of their probation or parole.
Corrections Commissioner Pelicia Hall says the department will consolidate what it calls technical violation centers, which are supposed to provide a low level of sanctions for a parolee, who, for example, flunks a drug test. The centers were created as part of an effort to keep violators from going back to prison for longer stints, reducing Mississippi's overall prison population.
Hall says the Corrections Department will house 300 technical violators in Greenwood. It will staff the prison using employees from the Greenwood Restitution Center, Washington County Community Work Center and Leflore County and Simpson County Technical Violation Centers. As a result, the Washington County and Simpson County facilities will close, while the Leflore and Greenwood centers will be based at Delta.
That will add 124 community work center inmates and 76 prisoners in the restitution program to the all-male inmate count at Delta.
Hall says closing the other locations will allow the department to shift most of the 65 employees needed to operate the prison, which has been closed since 2012. She says the department will need additional $2 million to cover the $6.2 million in operating costs. She also says the increased number of beds should cut waiting times for technical violators now stuck in county jails for a bed to open.
Women technical violators are housed at the Flowood Community Work Center.
"When Gov. Bryant appointed me in 2017, I pledged during my confirmation hearing that I would address concerns about the TVC program and provide meaningful rehabilitation to inmates," Hall said in a statement. "I believe that by using Delta as a TVC, we can do both."
The move will be a relief for Leflore County, which also houses its county jail at the site. The county has been paying $20,000 a month to maintain the 1,000-bed prison, which had been operated by what was formerly known as Corrections Corp. of America. The state closed the prison in 2012, citing surplus bed space.
The decision is bad news for Washington County, though, which will lose free inmate labor that had been provided by the local work center. The Delta Democrat-Times reports that Deputy Commissioner Christy Gutherz told the Greenville City Council Tuesday that the department is willing to let local governments still use inmate labor from the Greenwood facility, although it's 50 miles away. The Greenville building will revert to city ownership.
by: Anna Wolfe
date: 2018-02-08
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2018/02/09/politicking-opioid-crisis-ms-pulse/309030002/
Mississippi is on track to break the record of opioid-related deaths again this year, and officials are worried about what that means for the future of the Magnolia state.
(Photo: Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics)
While the medical community grapples with how to rethink prescribing habits in the wake of an undeniable opioid crisis, some major politicking has begun.
Everyone's got a different idea about how to address the epidemic. Perpetuated in part by over-prescribing doctors, the epidemic kills on average 174 Americans a day.
There's generally two approaches: 1) Go after the suppliers and prescribers individually to root out bad actors and 2) change the way all doctors are allowed to prescribe these addictive pills and require them to better identify when their patients have an addiction problem.
The latter has come with not only outrage and dismay from providers and patients, but some logistical issues as well. That's what the Mississippi State Medical Licensure Board has found over the last several months as it's tried to pass new regulations for licensed physicians.
Now, the Legislature is getting involved through a bill that just passed the Senate to create a state Opioid Crisis Commission — legislation already receiving pushback from the governor.
You may be asking yourself, "How is this different from the Governor's Opioid and Heroin Study Task Force convened last year and which presented its findings in August complete with 41 recommendations?"
Well.
Clarion Ledger reporter Anna Wolfe
The governor's task force was chaired by Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics Director John Dowdy, who primarily sees the effects of the opioid epidemic on the street and in jails. Dr. Randy Easterling, a member of the licensure board and an addiction specialist, served as vice chairman.
The new commission would be headed up by State Health Officer Dr. Mary Currier, who answers to the State Board of Health.
On the Board of Health are two members who have recently been accused of improper prescribing.
Board member Dr. Dwalia South allegedly wrote her name under nurse practitioner Brenda Shelton's old prescriptions to conceal the fact the nurse was writing them. MBN charged Shelton, who was not properly licensed, with prescription fraud.
Previous board chairman Dr. Luke Lampton received a six-month license suspension, which was stayed, after the licensure board discovered he had left several pre-signed blank prescriptions for his nurse to issue to Suboxone patients while he went out of town. Suboxone is used in the treatment of opioid dependence. He agreed to a consent order in exchange for the stayed suspension, meaning it did not take effect.
Gov. Phil Bryant added his voice to the issue Friday, saying through a statement from spokesman Clay Chandler that "any physician with a disciplinary issue involving prescriptions for controlled substances should recuse themselves from rule-making for other doctors."
Bryant's office also indicated the Senate bill's attempts could hamper the existing progress of the licensure board.
Chandler continued: "The Governor's Opioid and Heroin Task Force — made up of stakeholders across the medical, legal, law enforcement and recovery communities — has already made recommendations to address this critical issue. Regulatory boards charged with implementing these recommendations are close to finalizing many of them. That work should not be interrupted. The longer these proposals remain unimplemented, the more Mississippians will die. Gov. Bryant questions the need for an additional commission, was not consulted before enabling legislation was filed, and would adamantly oppose any effort to impede the progress already made in fighting this scourge."
Currier actually spoke before the licensure board at a recent hearing to raise concerns about the rules, which she said would drive more people to the street to use more dangerous substitutes like heroin or worse, fentanyl.
"We'll have more deaths," she said. "We'll have HIV and Hepatitis C out the wazoo."
"It's a public health crisis and it needs a public health solution," said Rep. Joel Bomgar, R-Madison, who has been researching opioid trends and has publicly cautioned the licensure board of the unintended consequences in its proposed regulations.
Sen. Terry Burton, R-Newton, who authored the legislation to create a new commission, said solving the opioid crisis will require legislation and input from legislators — just what many in the medical community were hoping to avoid. No lawmakers sat on the governor's task force.
"As far as solutions are concerned, we have a long way to go to deal with this crisis and make sure we don't create another one," Burton said.
Burton cited problems with the regulations proposed by the licensure board, saying, "I have received phone call after phone call after phone call ... from folks who have issues with particular regulations ... being too overbearing, too ominous."
Dealing with the opioid crisis at the Legislature has even overlapped with a hotly contested health care idea being pushed by libertarian-leaning lawmakers: the elimination of provider expansion regulations called the Certificate of Need. Sweeping legislation to do away with CONs failed earlier this session.
The primary provision in a bill by Sen. Sally Doty, R-Brookhaven, to address the opioid crisis would eliminate the requirement for chemical dependency treatment clinics to receive a Certificate of Need. Bomgar supports this legislation but said he knows it likely lacks political will behind it.
"Politics almost always messes up policy," Bomgar said.
by: Joshua Tom
date: 2018-02-06
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/opinion/columnists/2018/02/07/america-we-do-not-impose-guilt-association-but-house-bill-541-does/316035002/
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(Photo: Special to the Clarion Ledger)
The Mississippi House of Representatives is currently considering House Bill 541, titled “The Mississippi Anti-Gang Act.” HB 541 is rife with problems, all of which cannot be addressed in this editorial. Indeed, it is hard to know where to start in listing the myriad of public policy, constitutional and fairness issues in HB 541. The bill is so flawed, in fact, that the best path forward is to let it die. Since we can only hope for the best, however, I want to focus on one issue: how the bill violates a basic constitutional guarantee. HB 541 violates the fundamental, due process principle that civil or criminal sanctions cannot be imposed without “personal guilt.” In the United States, we do not impose guilt by association. HB 541 does.
The United States is a world leader in incarcerating people. Mississippi in turn is a leader in the United States for its incarceration rates, ranking fourth in the country. Indeed, the biggest driver of incarceration rates in the United States comes from state policy. When incarceration rates in our country started to explode in the 1970s, state prisons took the bulk of those locked up and that continues today. The “War on Drugs,” three-strikes laws, and mandatory minimums all helped drive these increases. If enacted HB 541 would continue in the same vein of these laws and further exacerbate our country’s mass incarceration problem.
More: Anti-gang bills pass out of committees in Senate and House
While it is in the legislature’s purview to continue to enact mass incarceration policies, however misguided and unjust they may be, any legislative action must comply with the United States Constitution. While preventing illegal gang activity is a compelling goal, we must ensure that even the worthiest goals comply with the Constitution.
HB 541 does not meet this basic constitutional floor because it imposes guilt by association.
While people do not have the right to associate for the purpose of wholly unlawful aims, associations with both legal and illegal goals are a different case. The U.S. Supreme Court has made clear that for the latter, a member cannot be held liable for the association’s illegal activities unless he or she participated in those activities with the specific intent to further the illegal aims. Membership alone in such an association is not enough for legal liability. Holding otherwise would be to impose guilt by association, something we do not do in America. The point is that people should not be sanctioned for the bad acts of others but only for their own bad acts.
Gangs fall within this latter category. In other words, it is a rare gang that engages exclusively in illegal behavior. Gangs may also act as peer groups and social networks, for example. In addition, according to gang experts, there are different levels of participation in a gang: a person may identify himself or herself with a gang for many reasons including recognition, protection or social purposes, none of which involve illegal activities. Accordingly, people may identify as a gang member, but never engage in illegal activity.
Therefore, simply being a member of a gang is not enough to expose someone to civil and criminal liability. The Constitution requires a further showing of that person’s involvement in illegal activity. Making it illegal to simply be a member of a gang penalizes a person for who they choose to associate with, and we do not do that in America.
HB 541 violates this constitutional principle because it imposes both civil and criminal liability for simply being a member of a gang.
Joshua Tom is the legal director of the ACLU of Mississippi.
by: Emily Wagster Pettus
date: 2018-02-06
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/02/07/state-could-set-penalties-luring-people-into-gangs/317479002/
In certain jurisdictions across the nation, gang violence counts up to 90 percent of violent crime. And Mississippi is no exception. Therese Apel/The Clarion-Ledger
(Photo: Justin Sellers/ The Clarion-Ledger)
JACKSON -- After hearing concerns about racial profiling, the Mississippi Senate voted Wednesday to set penalties for people who lure others into gang activities despite worries from black lawmakers who think the bill amounts to racial profiling.
Republican Sen. Brice Wiggins of Pascagoula said investigators are requesting the bill because they say gangs are a problem in many parts of the state, including inside prisons.
“We don’t want to admit that we have a problem that we do,” Wiggins said.
More: Anti-gang bills pass out of committees in Senate and House
If Senate Bill 2868 becomes law, luring a young person into gang activity would be a form of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. A violation would be punishable by up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.
Several black senators said they worry that African-Americans who are not in any kind of gang could be targeted for punishment.
The bill identifies gang members as at least three people involved in criminal activity who identify themselves by a common name, slogan, tattoo or other physical marking; a common style or color of clothing or hair; and a shared hand sign or gesture.
“My concern with that is within the black community, we have a tendency to utilize many of those features, and we are just everyday good folks. … It’s not an indication that we are in any kind of gang,” said Democratic Sen. Willie Simmons of Cleveland.
Wiggins replied that he would not ask fellow senators to pass the bill if he thought it would be used to unfairly target any group.
“The profiling is wrong,” Wiggins said. “The law enforcement I know don’t do that.”
Senators voted 35-14 to pass the bill, which goes to the House for more debate.
Another bill awaiting consideration in the House would require five to 15 additional years in prison for any proven gang member convicted of a felony. Prisoners couldn’t be released early from the extra sentence.
House Bill 541 also would designate any gang-related crime as a violent offense, meaning offenders would have to serve half of their sentences in prison before becoming eligible for parole, instead of a quarter of that time. Other provisions would bar sentence reductions for gang-related crimes.
by: Therese Apel
date: 2018-02-07
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/02/08/brookhaven-student-questioned-after-rumors-hit-list/321128002/
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Brookhaven police officers were stationed all over Brookhaven High School Thursday after callers told police that a student was coming to school with a gun.
Police Chief Kenny Collins said the phone calls started around 7 a.m. Thursday. There had also been rumors that there might be a "hit list," Collins said.
"We had officers there at every entry way to intercept them," he said.
The student's father came to school with him to check him in, and at that point he was taken to Brookhaven Police Department, Collins said. His mother accompanied him and they were interviewed by investigators.
The student did not have a gun, Collins said, and it appears he had been being bullied.
"It's all words right now," he said. "There's no hit list, nobody’s hurt, it's just people taking the rumor and running with it."
Collins said there's nothing to charge the student with at this point, and that any disciplinary measures will be up to the school district and the student's parents. He said, however, that the threat was taken seriously and police made sure that the school was in no danger.
The Brookhaven School District posted a statement on their Facebook on Thursday denying the rumors that the school was locked down.
"There were rumors of a possible incident at BHS this morning. All rumors are taken seriously, and the issue was investigated and addressed. The school was never on lockdown and no issue presented itself. If you ever have concerns, feel free to contact your school administrator as quickly as possible. The safety of our students is always a priority in the Brookhaven School District," the statement read.
Collins said the student's parents met with him and police, and they talked for over an hour.
"There was some bullying and he’s got a mouth on him already. So far it’s just a lot of talk," Collins said. "Kids get to saying things they don’t mean. Kids have short fuses, some of them, so when you’re bullying them they’re going to talk tough and they may or may not mean it, but you have to take every threat seriously."
app-facebook
Brookhaven School District
about 5 months ago
There were rumors of a possible incident at BHS this morning. All rumors are taken seriously, and the issue was investigated and addressed. The school was never on lockdown and no issue presented itself. If you ever have concerns, feel free to contact your school administrator as quickly as possible. The safety of our students is always a priority in the Brookhaven School District.
32
Comment
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by: Joshua Tom
date: 2018-02-06
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/opinion/columnists/2018/02/07/america-we-do-not-impose-guilt-association-but-house-bill-541-does/316035002/
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(Photo: Special to the Clarion Ledger)
The Mississippi House of Representatives is currently considering House Bill 541, titled “The Mississippi Anti-Gang Act.” HB 541 is rife with problems, all of which cannot be addressed in this editorial. Indeed, it is hard to know where to start in listing the myriad of public policy, constitutional and fairness issues in HB 541. The bill is so flawed, in fact, that the best path forward is to let it die. Since we can only hope for the best, however, I want to focus on one issue: how the bill violates a basic constitutional guarantee. HB 541 violates the fundamental, due process principle that civil or criminal sanctions cannot be imposed without “personal guilt.” In the United States, we do not impose guilt by association. HB 541 does.
The United States is a world leader in incarcerating people. Mississippi in turn is a leader in the United States for its incarceration rates, ranking fourth in the country. Indeed, the biggest driver of incarceration rates in the United States comes from state policy. When incarceration rates in our country started to explode in the 1970s, state prisons took the bulk of those locked up and that continues today. The “War on Drugs,” three-strikes laws, and mandatory minimums all helped drive these increases. If enacted HB 541 would continue in the same vein of these laws and further exacerbate our country’s mass incarceration problem.
More: Anti-gang bills pass out of committees in Senate and House
While it is in the legislature’s purview to continue to enact mass incarceration policies, however misguided and unjust they may be, any legislative action must comply with the United States Constitution. While preventing illegal gang activity is a compelling goal, we must ensure that even the worthiest goals comply with the Constitution.
HB 541 does not meet this basic constitutional floor because it imposes guilt by association.
While people do not have the right to associate for the purpose of wholly unlawful aims, associations with both legal and illegal goals are a different case. The U.S. Supreme Court has made clear that for the latter, a member cannot be held liable for the association’s illegal activities unless he or she participated in those activities with the specific intent to further the illegal aims. Membership alone in such an association is not enough for legal liability. Holding otherwise would be to impose guilt by association, something we do not do in America. The point is that people should not be sanctioned for the bad acts of others but only for their own bad acts.
Gangs fall within this latter category. In other words, it is a rare gang that engages exclusively in illegal behavior. Gangs may also act as peer groups and social networks, for example. In addition, according to gang experts, there are different levels of participation in a gang: a person may identify himself or herself with a gang for many reasons including recognition, protection or social purposes, none of which involve illegal activities. Accordingly, people may identify as a gang member, but never engage in illegal activity.
Therefore, simply being a member of a gang is not enough to expose someone to civil and criminal liability. The Constitution requires a further showing of that person’s involvement in illegal activity. Making it illegal to simply be a member of a gang penalizes a person for who they choose to associate with, and we do not do that in America.
HB 541 violates this constitutional principle because it imposes both civil and criminal liability for simply being a member of a gang.
Joshua Tom is the legal director of the ACLU of Mississippi.
by: Jimmie E. Gates
date: 2018-02-05
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2018/02/06/senate-passes-sexting-bill-minors/313440002/
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The Senate passed a bill Tuesday to allow minors convicted of sexting indecent images to face a less severe penalty and keep them from having to register as a sex offender.
Senate Judiciary B Chairman Hob Bryan, D-Amory, said the bill is directly aimed at minors.
Bryan said the way he understands it now, prosecutors' only option is to charge a minor under the child pornography law, which is a felony and requires registering as sex offender.
The Senate bill and a similar bill in the House would provide a lesser option for minors, who may be in a dating situation.
Youth Court judges asked for the bill, officials said.
Sen. Briggs Hopson, R-Vicksburg, said he has concerns about the hodgepodge of statutes dealing with minors.
"I have a grave concern with the statutes. They are all over the place," Hopson said. "If you are an 18-year-old dating a 15-year-old in high school, you can be charged with (statutory) rape."
Lawmakers said they don't believe a minor should be forced to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life for making a mistake in a dating situation where the relationship was consensual.
The Senate bill also would make it a felony if the offender is three years older than the other minor involved.
Hopson and others said the problem is often with parents who are unhappy with their child's relationship. Parents can demand criminal charges be filed, even though the relationship was consensual.
The sexting bills say, "No minor shall knowingly possess or receive an indecent visual image of another minor that has been produced, transmitted, disseminated, distributed or displayed through use of a computer or electronic communication device."
The bill also makes it a felony "if the perpetrator caused an indecent visual image to be produced, transmitted, disseminated, distributed or displayed through the use of force, extortion, blackmail, coercion, threats, or intimidation."
Adults possessing or distributing inappropriate images of minors would still be prosecuted under felony laws.
The bill will now go to the House. A technical amendment was added to the bill to ensure it has to go to conference and come back for another final vote in the Senate even if approved in the House.
by: Harold Gater
date: 2018-02-05
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/02/06/senatobia-police-misconduct-investigation/310362002/
Gov. Phil Bryant signed an executive order Monday requiring online sexual harassment training for state employees. Therese Apel/ The Clarion-Ledger
The Senatobia police chief says he didn't know about misconduct allegations until the Board of Aldermen fired one his officers.
Officer Arthur Avant was fired in December and is being investigated for misconduct by the Tate County Sheriff’s Office, WREG reported. The Senatobia Board of Aldermen in executive session fired Avant along with assistant chief Robert Brownlee. WREG reported that aldermen were given a letter from a “concerned parent” that accuses Avant of using his work with youth to gain the trust of young girls then take advantage of them. Avant was a court bailiff and D.A.R.E. officer where he taught at schools.
Previous story: Ex-Senatobia police officer accused of misconduct with underage girls, report says
Senatobia Police Chief Steve Holts said he learned about the investigation at the same time as the public. Chief Holts said Avant was a 20-year veteran of the department and his employment record shows only one personnel issue in 2010.
Three women have accused Avant of having inappropriate contact with them when they were under 18 years of age. One claimed he sent indecent pictures of himself to someone underage.
Chief Holts said in 2016, an former girlfriend of Avant came to the Senatobia Police Dept. to file a complaint on behalf of herself and possibly another person. She was told to fill out a form but Chief Holts said the woman never returned the form back or got back in touch with police.
Avant was recently hired as a deputy at the Tunica County Sheriff’s Dept., according to WREG. Tunica County Sheriff Calvin "KC" Hamp said he didn’t know Avant was being investigated by the Tate County Sheriff’s Dept. for misconduct when he hired him.
WREG asked Chief Holts why he didn’t tell Sheriff Hamp about the investigation. Chief Holts said he didn’t want to spread rumors since the investigation has not been completed. The Tunica County Sheriff’s Dept. will decide what to do when the investigation wraps up.
Chief Holts would not comment on whether the Board Of Alderman made the right decision to fire Avant. Chief Holts added he doesn’t have any information about the investigation or why Assistant Police Chief Robert Brownlee was fired at the same time as Avant.
A redacted letter to the Senatobia Board of Aldermen is shown in this photo.
by: Bracey Harris
date: 2018-02-05
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2018/02/06/senate-passes-bill-curb-12-m-child-services-deficit/310712002/
(Photo: File photo/The Clarion-Ledger)
Child Protection Services head Jess Dickinson discusses his agency budget deficit and the plan to wipe it out. Wochit
The Senate moved Tuesday to address a $12 million budget deficit at the Mississippi Department of Child Protective Services, by approving a measure to bring the agency back under the Mississippi Department of Human Services.
Senate Bill 2675 reverses the separation of the two agencies, which the state split two years ago in an effort to resolve the Olivia Y lawsuit which alleged that the state was failing to protect children in its foster care system.
That action, however, had unintended consequences.
Officials with CPS said the separation made it harder for the agency to secure federal funds.
More: $49M deficit, but Child Protection Services has a plan
And during a Jan. 9, 2018 Senate Appropriation Hearing, CPS Commissioner Jess H. Dickinson told lawmakers that the agency was facing a $38.9 million budget deficit.
Senate Appropriation Chair Buck Clarke, R-Hollandale, said the deficit — which was once projected to be as high as $52 million — has been reduced to $12 million.”
Several legislators have referred to the unintended consequences of the agencies separation, as an example, for the need to more thoroughly vet legislation.
“This bill is going to correct the colossal mistake we made last year by separating DHS and Child Protective Services?” asked Sen. Barbara Blackmon, D-Canton.
“It’s going to go a long way toward fixing that,” Clarke responded. “They all (CPS officials) believe this will take care of that. Making CPS a part of DHS again would allow the agency to draw down federal dollars.
Several senators questioned whether brining CPS back under DHS would violate the state’s settlement agreement.
Part of the agreement says the state would complete the creation and implementation of a fully functional child welfare agency, independent of, although housed within, DHS, no later than July 1, 2018.
Clarke said the legislation would not violate the settlement because CPS’ operations would remain independent.
The measure now heads to the House where it faces a Feb. 27 deadline to pass out of committee.
by: Geoff Pender
date: 2018-02-05
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2018/02/06/jackson-lawmakers-angered-moving-department-public-safety-rankin/312918002/
Poo poo, burp bags, liquor and Rep. Gary Chism's hair: Colorful quotes from the Mississippi Legislature as lawmakers wrangle bills and mangle metaphors. Dustin Barnes/Clarion Ledger
The House over protests from Jackson-area lawmakers passed a bill to allow the current Mississippi Highway Patrol headquarters to be leased to developers to help pay for the agency to move to Rankin County.
House Bill 1109, authored by House Public Property Chairman Tommy Weathersby, R-Florence, passed the House 83-32 on Tuesday. It would allow the Department of Finance and Administration to lease the current headquarters on Woodrow Wilson Avenue to developers, and use the lease money to pay off borrowing to build a new headquarters on state property near the new Mississippi Forensics Laboratory on Mississippi 475 South.
"I'm having a difficult time understanding why we're moving everything out of Jackson," said Rep. Alyce Clarke, D-Jackson.
More: Watchdog: State could save money using empty office space it owns instead of renting
Plans to move the Highway Patrol headquarters began several years back when lawmakers approved $3 million in planning funds. In 2016, the Legislature approved up to $30 million in borrowing for a new headquarters, but didn't provide funding to cover the debt. The new bill would use lease funds from the state property on Woodrow Wilson to pay for the new development.
Weathersby told skeptical Jackson area lawmakers the move would help Jackson, in part by removing tax-free state buildings and bringing private development that would be taxed.
"I've heard that for years from people in Jackson, we have all this state property that doesn't generate any tax revenue," Weathersby said.
The bill was held on a motion to reconsider by Rep. Kathy Sykes, D-Jackson. Sykes and others in the Jackson delegation were angered when the speaker pro tem failed to hear her request for a vote to require a "fiscal note," or estimate of how much the measure would cost or bring in.
by: Hugh Kellenberger
date: 2018-02-03
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/magnolia/entertainment/2018/02/04/did-morgan-freeman-eli-manning-have-best-super-bowl-commercial-night/305871002/
(Photo: Screen capture)
Two Mississippians went head-to-head in this year's Super Bowl off the field, with popular commercials.
Morgan Freeman showed up early in Super Bowl LII with an ad for Mt. Dew where he lip-synched to Missy Elliott's "Get Your Freek On." Freeman is a Delta native who owns a blues club in Clarksdale and is a frequently found courtside at Ole Miss men's basketball games.
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Then it was Eli Manning, the former Ole Miss quarterback and Oxford resident, playing the Patrick Swayze to Odell Beckham Jr.'s Jennifer Grey in a spot for the NFL.
Both were terrific and among the very best commercials of the night. But we ask you: which was your favorite?
There's no wrong answer, but for the record, this writer is #TeamMorgan because he had Peter Dinklage co-starring, and you can't beat Tyrion Lannister.
by: Jimmie E. Gates
date: 2018-02-01
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/opinion/columnists/2018/02/02/bomb-threats-schools-kindle-debate-terrorism-vs-freedom-speech/301016002/
Stephanie Elder with Sound Mental Health offers advice for parents when it comes to talk with kids about serious topics, like school threats.
(Photo: File photo/The Clarion-Ledger)
It's no play thing to call in or transmit a bomb threat in any form.
This week, there was a bomb threat at Raymond High School. It’s common for such threats to be made.
Last month, four juveniles were taken into custody in Rankin County following alleged social media threats to a public and private school. And last year, there were multiple bomb threats made at a business in Greenwood and a bomb threat at Jackson State University.
Although most such threats turn out to be false alarms, they have a disruptive impact, often leading to schools or buildings being evacuated and bomb- sniffing dogs brought in to search for explosive devices.
It can be sheer panic for parents when there is report of a bomb threat at their child's school. With the rash of school shootings, any threat of violence must be taken seriously.
Mississippi doesn’t have a terroristic threat law, but there is a debate in the Legislature on whether a law is needed.
There is federal law, but Mississippi Homeland Security is asking for a state law. A bill has been passed in the House, and action is awaiting in the Senate on its version of the bill.
The proposed Mississippi law mirrors portions of the federal law. If passed, the maximum penalty for violation of the state law would be 10 years in prison. Federal law allows longer sentences in certain felony cases.
The proposed Mississippi law says a person commits the offense of making a terroristic threat when the person threatens to commit a crime of violence or other act dangerous to human life or threatens to burn or damage property if the person has the intent to:
Intimidate or coerce a civilian population; influence the policy of a unit of government by intimidation or coercion; or affect the conduct of a unit of government, educational institution, business or segment of the civilian population by intimidation or coercion or cause a reaction to the threat by an official or volunteer agency organized to deal with emergencies.
It further says it would be a crime to impair or interrupt public communications, public transportation, public water, gas, power supply or other public service; or place the public or a substantial group of the public in fear of serious bodily injury.
State Sen. Chris McDaniel, R-Ellisville, said his concern with the proposed bill is it could chill free speech. He said he understands freedom of speech only goes so far, but he said some individuals may say something heated in a situation but never have any intention to carry it out.
Sen. Briggs Hopson, R-Vicksburg, said it's like the old saying "you don't cry fire in a crowded theater."
Hopson said the goal of such threats is to disrupt normal activities.
Language was changed in the Senate bill to add that it may be a defense to a prosecution under the bill that at the time the defendant made the terroristic threat, the defendant didn't have the intent to actually commit the specified offense or did not communicate a time or precise manner of execution.
The bill also says a person may not be convicted on the uncorroborated testimony of the party to whom the threat is communicated.
I don't know for certain whether the law is needed, but it can't hurt. We need to send the message that it's serious when you make any kind of threat. In most cases, it's probably a teen with no intention of carrying out an act, but just the fear alone it creates is enough for these cases to be prosecuted.
by: Anthony McDougle
date: 2018-01-31
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/02/01/habitual-offender-gets-25-years-burglary/1087135001/
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A hefty sentence was handed down to a habitual offender for breaking into an elderly man's home in Ridgeland.
According to Madison and Rankin County District Attorney Michael Guest, the culprit, Tarrius Donte Moore, of Jackson was sentenced to 25 years after pleading guilty in a burglary case Jan. 12. Due to his status as a habitual offender, he must serve out the entirety of his sentence without the possibility of parole, probation or early release.
The crime took place in June 2017, Guest said. Ridgeland officers responded to a call about a house burglary at a 70-year-old man's home. The victim said he saw Moore kicking open the back door and shouted at him, which led to Moore fleeing the scene.
Upon scanning the area, officers spotted Moore and gave chase. Moore eventually complied with the officers' demand that he surrender and was placed under arrest. Once detained at the Ridgeland Police Department, the suspect admitted he broke into the victim's home in search of prescribed drugs and money.
Moore was also on probation at the time he committed this offense, and has at least seven prior felony convictions, according to the district attorney's office. He was previously convicted of burglary, assault, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
by: Harold Gater
date: 2018-01-31
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/02/01/ex-senatobia-police-officer-accused-misconduct-underage-girls-report-says/1087114001/
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No reason was given when officer Arthur Avant was terminated from the Senatobia Police Dept. in December. A Memphis TV station believes it has discovered the cause.
WREG says allegations of questionable behavior with underage girls may have led to the firing as well as an active investigation.
The Senatobia Board of Aldermen in executive session fired Avant along with assistant chief Robert Brownlee. WREG uncovered a document from that meeting that may answer why they were fired.
Aldermen were given a letter from a “concerned parent” that accuses Avant of using his work with youth to gain the trust of young girls then take advantage of them.
WREG said the Tate County Sheriff's Dept. confirmed there is an active investigation. Investigators say women have come forward alleging misconduct by Avant when they were minors. Avant has not been charged with a crime.
Avant began a new job at the Tunica County Sheriff’s Department on January 22.
A redacted letter to the Senatobia Board of Aldermen is shown in this photo.
by: Bracey Harris
date: 2018-01-31
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2018/02/01/bill-make-mental-health-courts-statewide/1087175001/
This alternative program may be the answer to the lingering question of how to help those in the criminal justice system suffering from mental health problems. Keri Hensley/USA TODAY NETWORK Wochit
More defendants diagnosed with a mental illness might have access to alternatives to incarceration under legislation passed by the House on Thursday.
House Bill 419 sponsored by Rep. Becky Currie, R-Brookhaven, expands the pilot mental health program established by the Legislature last year. Mississippi has 22 Circuit Court districts. Six of those districts—the second, third, eighth, 12th, 17th and 20th — are eligible for the program under the current law. The Rivers McGraw Act, named in honor of an Ole Miss student who committed suicide in the wake of an arrest for DUI, set up a pilot diversion program modeled after the state’s Drug Courts.
Rep. Jason White, R-West, carried the measure on the House floor.
"The judge has the final say as to whether or not a person would qualify," he said.
White told representatives that no funding has been dedicated to the proposal, but said funds could come later as lawmakers begin budget work. The bulk of the court’s costs, he said, will likely be paid by participants.
Mississippi has come under scrutiny from the U.S. Department of Justice for failing to provide community-based health services for mentally ill adults.
And one goal of Currie’s legislation is to “reduce the inappropriate institutionalization of people with mental illnesses.”
Rep. Chuck Young, D-Meridian, questioned whether the state is providing sufficient support to make this vision happen.
“I like the program,” he said. “I like the concept of the program. With the drastic cuts, we’ve had with mental health, where are these people going?”
Although the legislation is a step forward for mental health, eligibility is limited.
When Rep. Adrienne Wooten, D-Ridgeland, asked whether the bill would be retroactive, White responded no, saying the measure represented “baby steps.”
The House agreed to a non-controversial calendar Thursday. The step is taken as a way to quickly pass bills that are unlikely to draw pushback.
Other legislation passed Thursday include a measure allowing the University of Mississippi Medical Center to remove 7,000 bodies buried on campus, a proposal to charge the state Department of Agriculture with inspecting honey and a measure allowing 4-H clubs to stage livestock shows at no cost.
The bills now head to the Senate. Both chambers face a Feb. 9 deadline to pass legislation originating in their own house.
by: Therese Apel
date: 2018-01-31
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/02/01/alleged-heroin-dealer-arrested-linked-metro-area-overdoses/1088204001/
Mississippi is on track to break the record of opioid-related deaths again this year, and officials are worried about what that means for the future of the Magnolia state.
(Photo: Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics)
A man accused of distributing heroin that led to a number of drug overdoses in the metro area has been arrested, according to the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics.
Kelvin Roy “Hot” Thompson, 59, of 722 Westmont Drive, was arrested following the execution of a search warrant at his residence Wednesday night, MBN Director John Dowdy said. Thompson is, according to Dowdy, "a fairly significant heroin dealer."
"We have pretty good evidence that he is connected to multiple drug overdoses including heroin and fentanyl overdose deaths," Dowdy said.
Agents seized around 40 grams of suspected methamphetamine, approximately four grams of suspected heroin, two guns, as well as an assortment of paraphernalia commonly associated with drug distribution, including dozens of syringes.
A dosage unit of Narcan was found in the home, Dowdy said. It's unclear why Thompson had it.
"We have no indication that he had it for self protection," Dowdy said. "We also do not have any evidence at this point that he was distributing Narcan with the heroin."
Thompson is charged with possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute and possession of heroin with intent to distribute. The investigation is ongoing and at this point it's not clear if there will be additional suspects or additional charges. Dowdy said it will be investigated to go "as high up the chain as we can."
In many such cases, the drugs have been shown to be coming from outside the state.
"If somebody is out there dealing heroin and fentanyl and we can link up an overdose death to that dealer, we will be asking our prosecutors for the maximum charge to include manslaughter, or we will be referring those cases to the feds," Dowdy said.
More: Judge: Stop the legal fights and curb the opioid epidemic
Thompson was transported to the Hinds County Detention Center, where he is held pending an initial court appearance.
"The bottom line is that the reason we were able to identify this individual and take him into custody is because of downright good police work from the agents of the Bureau of Narcotics," Dowdy said.
Mississippi Highway Patrol and the Ridgeland and Richland police departments assisted in the investigation.
by: Sarah Fowler
date: 2018-01-31
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/02/01/shouldnt-have-prove-im-human-being/1070648001/
Gov. Phil Bryant on Monday signed into law a measure that would prevent local governments and universities enacting policies that would limit enforcement of and cooperation with federal immigration laws and enforcement. Geoff Pender/The Clarion-Ledger
Abigail Piña Mandujano wants people to see her for who she is, not the label that has defined her since she was a child.
"Non US Citizen."
Abigail will immediately tell you she has a habit of taking in stray dogs. She could talk about her love for animals for hours but she has a fondness for dogs that are hungry or hurt.
She sheepishly admits to the number of dogs she's taken in — eight, so far, but that number could grow if she passes a hungry dog wandering the streets. She can't help herself.
If she's not chasing down strays or working her full-time job as a dental assistant, the 22-year-old Blue Springs resident spends the majority of her free time with her family or her boyfriend of four years.
Boxer Rebellion is her favorite band with Guns N' Roses and The Eagles tied for second place. She'll argue the unpopular opinion that Hawaiian pizza is the best pizza.
But last week, a local cashier didn't see Abigail's bubbly personality or know about her dream of finishing her degree in biochemistry. Instead, she saw the bright red lettering on Abigail's driver's license: "Non US Citizen."
Abigail said she went to a major retailer in Blue Springs to exchange an item. But, after seeing Abigail's driver's license, repeatedly demanded additional forms of identification and began asking if she was "here legally." Frustrated and hurt, Abigail left the store.
After the experience with the cashier, Abigail was rattled. She took to Facebook to share her story in an attempt to humanize herself to those who only see her immigration status.
"I’m obviously not welcomed here," the post read, in part. "But I don’t belong in my country either. Every where I go I will always be foreigner. A stranger to the place I was born and a stranger to the place I call home. I could spend the rest of my life here, and I’d still carry around the label of a NON-US CITIZEN."
"There's a stigma of foreigners and immigrants, that we're here to invade," she said Wednesday. "That's the kind of attitude you get on a daily basis if you speak a different language. I don’t think my story was any different but I did want people to know they’re not alone."
Abigail was 4 years old when her mother fled Mexico City with her and illegally crossed the border into the United States. Pre-9/11, before a crackdown on those entering the country, Abigail's mother came into the U.S. with a fake ID. Abigail was sneaked in by her mother's friend; who pretended Abigail was her own child and a legal U.S. citizen.
They joined Abigail's father in Colorado before the family moved to New Albany. There, they welcomed Abigail's sister, now 13. While the youngest member of the Piña Mandujano family was a documented U.S. citizen, the other three were not.
Then, during Abigail's senior year of high school in 2012, she was granted protection under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.
DACA, a program enacted under former President Barack Obama, does not grant citizenship. Instead, it allows undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children to live and work here without fear of deportation. Those protected under DACA are known as “Dreamers.” DACA was a compromise after Congress failed to pass the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (Dream) Act, which would have allowed these young people the chance of permanent legal residency.
Abigail's DACA status is valid until October 2019.
She's had to drop out of college because she can't afford the tuition. Those with DACA status can't receive federal financial aid and money gets tight. Still, Abigail is undeterred. She's starting school again in the summer.
"It's hard sometimes, but I wouldn't ever say it's been impossible," she said.
The most "frustrating" thing, however, has been dealing with her feelings of being an outsider.
"I think the whole entire community of immigrants that live here, in the town that I come from, we live in the shadows even if we’re here legally," she said. "It’s hard to get away from the name 'illegal' or 'criminal' that we've been stamped with. It doesn't matter how much English you know, or how well integrated you are into the American culture. People will still look at you like you don't belong here.
"So many people are against me and say they don't want me here. You hear comments, especially if you're speaking in a different language, of 'You look Mexican.' I don't feel like I should have to but they don't give me a chance to prove I'm a human being."
The Rev. Michael O'Brien, who has worked with countless immigrants in Mississippi, said feeling like an outsider is common among the documented and undocumented.
"Just because a person has received DACA does not mean that they're going to feel in any way safe," said O'Brien, pastor of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Canton. "Whether they have DACA or don't have DACA the reality is our Hispanic community is being singled out just for being Hispanic.
"The lack of compassion in America is hurting our reputation everywhere possible. It's so contrary to being Southern. One of the greatest virtues of Mississippi is when you walk into a place and feel that hospitality, it's genuine. Except for someone who is an immigrant."
Verónica López with Hispanic Youth Adult Ministry with the Catholic Diocese of Jackson works with Hispanic adults 18 years and older. Many, like Abigail, feel unwelcome even though they've lived in the United States since they were children.
"'I'm here and this is my home, I've lived here most of my life but yet 'I'm not 100 percent part of this country yet,'. I hear that all the time, especially now because of what's happening with the government and not knowing what Congress will do."
The feeling of acceptance largely depends on the community in which they live, López said. While there were many negative comments on Abigail's Facebook, Lopez wanted her and others like her to know they're welcome here and they're not alone.
"This is her home, she's lived her more than half of her life and other people feel the same way."
López said she believes many native born citizens believe immigrants need to assimilate into American culture. She disagrees.
"t's not about assimilating, it's about integrating," she said. "That's where people are from, and they bring out the best of the best. By integrating with other cultures, other traditions, we can only be a better society."
Abigail said her parents have consulted multiple attorneys about becoming U.S. citizens, but, for that to happen, the process requires they must first go back to Mexico. With a 13-year-old daughter, that's a move they can't make right now.
"They can't just up and leave because they have a child here," Abigail said.
The family fled extreme poverty in Mexico City and, while life has been better in the United States, their undocumented status has made life difficult.
"It's’ hard for them," she said of her parents. "They can't get a house because they can't get a mortgage because they don’t have a Social Security number. They pay for everything in cash. It's been hard to make any progress, but, I will say this, we are so lucky and fortunate that my parents have worked as hard as they have to provide what we do have."
Shared over 8,000 times, Abigail's Facebook post has garnered both support and negative attention. Many, she said, have questioned why her parents brought her here without documentation and blamed them for her circumstances. Abigail is quick to point out that she's not a victim and doesn't blame her parents. In fact, she said, she's grateful.
"They didn't know anyone, they had no material possessions," she said. "They didn't have anything, they didn't know any English. To leave all of their family behind, their jobs and all they’ve ever known just so they could take me out of poverty and to afford food, things that we could never afford in Mexico, we can have here.
"I've never starved a day in my life and have clothes on my back and shoes on my feet. There was no way where I could have been able to graduate high school in Mexico in the situation we were living in."
by: Harold Gater
date: 2018-01-31
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/entertainment/2018/02/01/octavia-spencer-mississippi-black-panther-movie-buyout/1086334001/
Stars from Marvel's highly-anticipated "Black Panther" pounced on Los Angeles Monday night for its world premiere. Chadwick Boseman and the cast explain why the movie is part of a powerful cultural movement. (Jan. 30) AP
(Photo: USA Today Network)
Octavia Spencer wants children of color to see a superhero that looks like them.
The Academy Award-winning actress announced Wednesday on Instagram that she plans to buy out a movie theatre in Mississippi, where she will be when the film opens, to offer screenings to underserved communities, Entertainment Weekly reported.
“I will be in MS when this movie opens. I think I will buy out a theatre in an underserved community there to ensure that all our brown children can see themselves as a superhero. I will let you know where and when Mississippi," Spencer wrote.
Spencer previously bought out screenings in low-income neighborhoods in Los Angeles for the motion picture 'Hidden Figures' which was nominated for three Oscars.
Marvel Studios' 'Black Panther' opens in theaters on Feb. 16.
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octaviaspencerI will be in MS when this movie opens. I think I will buy out a theatre in an underserved community there to ensure that all our brown children can see themselves as a superhero. I will let you know where and when Mississippi. Stay tuned. #KingsAndQueensWillRise #blackpanthermovie
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by: Justin Vicory
date: 2018-01-28
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/01/29/mayor-lumumba-mounts-defense-against-sanctuary-city-accusation/1075831001/
Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Thomas Homan said he believes politicians in "sanctuary cities" should be arrested and charged with crimes. Wochit
Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba refuted allegations from the the Department of Justice that the city is violating federal immigration policy and stood behind a city ordinance at the heart of the dispute.
Last week the DOJ demanded all documents involving Jackson's immigration policy, marking an elevation of the department's campaign under Attorney General Jeff Sessions to go after so-called sanctuary cities and federal funding.
The DOJ says the documents could show whether Jackson is unlawfully restricting information sharing by its law enforcement officers with federal immigration authorities, which it says would be in violation of federal immigration law.
Previously, acting Assistant Attorney General Alan Hanson pointed to Section 86-194 of the city's code of ordinances, which states that solicitation of immigration status by Jackson police officers is prohibited. Section 86-193, for example, prohibits "bias-based policing" by police officers on the basis of appearance, ethnicity and immigration status, among other factors.
Monday, Lumumba countered that since the police department doesn't collect immigration information from residents, the city doesn't have any documents to turn over to the DOJ.
"The Department of Justice can't have what we don't have," he said. "Our police officers will investigate but also protect the rights of everyone, whether legal or undocumented. Since we don't collect that information, well, there's nothing for us to turn over. Since there's nothing to turn over, no laws have been broken."
However, the mayor drew a line in the sand between residents that have been detained and those that haven't. Information gleamed from detained residents in "typical" law enforcement investigations is shared with federal authorities, Lumumba said.
"If anyone is accused of a crime, you have to get background information. That's typical of law enforcement investigations," he said.
The mayor said it would be dangerous for the city to solicit the immigration status of its residents, and in doing so put a stop to residents' willingness to contact law enforcement.
"If people don't feel like they're safe, or they lack the same kind of protection as any one of us, they look for alternative ways to be safe, leading to organized crime and unreported crime," Lumumba said.
The DOJ warned the city in a letter that failure to cooperate may result in sanctions, restrictions of the city's access to grant funds, a possible audit and designation as a DOJ High Risk grantee.
Lumumba added he believed the issue of sanctuary cities would likely be raised again by state legislators this session. Rep. Mark Baker, R-Brandon, said in November he was considering adding teeth to a state sanctuary bill that could block Jackson's ability to get state grants.
More: State Legislature could follow DOJ's lead and withhold grants, funding to Jackson
"The Department fully anticipates your complete cooperation in this matter. Should you fail to respond in a complete and timely manner, the Department will subpoena these documents," DOJ Office of Justice Programs Director Jon Adler said in the letter.
The letter requires a response from the city by Feb. 23.
by: Justin Vicory
date: 2018-01-29
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/01/30/pot-possession-penalties-may-become-lower-jackson/1067744001/
There's an average of one marijuana possession arrest every 55 seconds. Video provided by Newsy Newslook
The Jackson City Council voted Tuesday to reduce penalties for marijuana possession in the city.
Council members unanimously supported an amendment to a city ordinance that will reduce penalties for the possession of 30 grams or less of marijuana.
The amendment will also reduce fines to $100 and prohibit jail time for the offense.
Councilman De'Keither Stamps, who drafted the amendment, said he wants to reduce punishment that "unfairly stigmatizes the offender" and put an "undue burden on the city in regards to jail costs."
"I join Councilman Stamps in support of this measure," Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said.
"We have to take an aggressive — dare I say 'radical' — approach not just to the law but how we impose penalties. We have to make sure they are commensurate with the crime."
Stamps called the amendment a first step in dealing with "a system that turns a user into a criminal."
Lumumba and Stamps said they would lead an education outreach effort on the ordinance change.
Stamps offered the change at the city's Jan. 30 council meeting. He said online polls of his ward's constituents have shown overwhelming support for the measure.
Councilman Kenneth Sokes wasn't present for the vote, although he expressed support for the ordinance amendment in a previous meeting.
Council Vice President Melvin Priester Jr. made a point to note, while he's in support of decriminalizing marijuana, he stands against the use of the drug.
"I think we have to be careful here. We may support this for a number of reasons, but I want to make it very clear I do not support the use of marijuana by people under 21. It's still illegal," he said.
More: Jackson lifts residency requirement for police, fire personnel
The amendment is similar to city ordinances in New Orleans and Memphis that have decriminalized marijuana possession as several areas of the country have legalized or made marijuana available for medicinal use.
More: What does an illegal marijuana farm look like?
Jennifer Riley-Collins, executive director of the ACLU of Mississippi, commended Stamp's proposal when it was first announced, saying small-scale marijuana possession laws are often unequally enforced. She referenced a study her organization did that concluded African Americans are arrested up to four times as often as white Americans for low-level marijuana possession despite statistics showing roughly equal use.
by: Therese Apel
date: 2018-01-30
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/01/31/family-woman-killed-jpd-officers-wants-accountability/1082440001/
502 Bad Gateway
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Police responded to a call of someone running another vehicle off the road. After they pulled her over, police say Crystaline Barnes tried to escape, driving her car towards them, before they fired shots. Wochit
On the day Crystaline Barnes died in a hail of police bullets, she had gone to do laundry, family members said.
The mother of two small children had recently gotten a new job — her second job, according to her cousin, Dwayne "Chris" Hamilton.
Hamilton said the honors student at Jackson State University had also just gotten a new apartment and was purchasing a second car. She was making a life for herself and her children, ages 2 and 5, on the morning she was killed in an officer-involved shooting on Fernwood Road over the weekend.
"She was smart and was a great mother and a great friend," Hamilton said. "She helped people any time they needed it. She was really close to her friends, and all her friends really loved her."
Jackson Police Department reports say at 7:30 a.m. Saturday,officers had been responding to a call of a vehicle running another car off the road. They pulled Barnes' over.
"After stopping the suspect vehicle and requesting an additional unit for assistance, the vehicle pulls away," the news release on the incident reads.
According to police reports, after stopping, Barnes turned the car around to escape the responding unit. She then allegedly began driving backward toward an officer who had gotten out of the car.
The officer fired shots, but was able to get out of the way before Barnes' car hit a patrol car. According to police, Barnes then began driving forward again, toward the first officer, who also fired shots.
Barnes' car came to rest against a utility pole just off the road. She was dead at the age of 21.
Coroner Sharon Grisham-Stewart said she's not willing to release how many times Barnes was shot yet because she hasn't had a chance to speak with the family.
Nobody has been able to say what Barnes' state of mind was, or what might have transpired in the moments before the fatal chain of events was set into motion.
Barnes had been put in the Pre-Trial Diversion Program in 2016 after being charged in a 2014 house burglary at age 17. It is unclear if she was still under any kind of court supervision related to that. Court records also show some minor traffic violations for which she still had outstanding fines, but according to Justice Court personnel, they would not have caused her to have warrants in her name until they went to collections, which they had not.
"This is a tragedy, a real tragedy, and nobody wins in this situation. I want to assure the family and I want to assure the public that this investigation will be fair and unbiased and thorough and complete," said Jackson Interim Police Chief Anthony Moore after saying he had spoken with Barnes' mother. "The facts and circumstances of this case will be revealed, and we want the criminal justice process to unfold as swiftly and justly as possible in this case."
The Hinds County district attorney's office is also involved, Moore said. There will be a routine internal affairs investigation as well as a criminal investigation to find out if officers not only followed the law, but also followed department protocol.
But there were no body camera or dash camera videos. The only officers there were the ones who fired the shots. Some bystanders got video after the shooting as officers worked the crime scene, but there's no known visual record of what transpired.
Hamilton, who had just graduated with a bachelor's in criminal justice, says that's not okay with him or with the rest of Barnes' family. None of this is.
"The funeral will be a closed casket," he said. "I can only imagine with the number of rounds lodged into her vehicle and her body, I’m assuming it’s not good to see her like that."
She was unarmed, Hamilton said, and shouldn't have been shot regardless of whether police considered the vehicle a weapon or not.
"They have our citizens believing that this girl gave them probable cause to launch over 20-something rounds of ammunition into the woman’s car," Hamilton said.
What led to the events that night is unclear, as is whether Barnes' car was the one that had run another vehicle off the road. Hamilton holds that whatever was going on with his cousin, it's clear that when the police became involved, she was afraid.
"We all have two sides to us, agreeable and disagreeable, but her agreeable side was positive," he said. "If she was trying to get away it’s because she felt threatened, if she was trying to get out of the situation, it’s because she didn’t want to be in the situation she was in."
Hamilton also takes issue with the amount of time it took for police to investigate the scene.
"Nobody reached out to the family, nobody said come to the scene," he said. "It's like she’s there alone with no family and no friends, just there in that car for hours.
"She was a great person, a hardworking person, came from nothing to something, put herself and her children in a better situation. Wasn’t violent, didn’t deserve to be gunned down like that, it’s awful. There has to be some answers and not only are we seeking answers, we’re seeking justice."
Hamilton, who calls police officers "suspected killers," said the events need to be used to impose more responsibility on police, but also to teach young people about making better decisions.
"This needs to bond us, rather than separate us," he said.
In the meantime, he also has a list of demands for JPD.
"Remake the whole crime scene, do a reenactment. Where were you when you shot this gun, the whole thing," he said. "I think internal affairs should get involved and the (Mississippi Bureau of Investigation) should be involved, and it should be immediately. We demand that the bureau get involved, internal affairs get involved, the chief, the mayor, the government, and the president get involved. This has got to stop one way or another."
by: Justin Vicory
date: 2018-01-28
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/01/29/mayor-lumumba-mounts-defense-against-sanctuary-city-accusation/1075831001/
Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Thomas Homan said he believes politicians in "sanctuary cities" should be arrested and charged with crimes. Wochit
Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba refuted allegations from the the Department of Justice that the city is violating federal immigration policy and stood behind a city ordinance at the heart of the dispute.
Last week the DOJ demanded all documents involving Jackson's immigration policy, marking an elevation of the department's campaign under Attorney General Jeff Sessions to go after so-called sanctuary cities and federal funding.
The DOJ says the documents could show whether Jackson is unlawfully restricting information sharing by its law enforcement officers with federal immigration authorities, which it says would be in violation of federal immigration law.
Previously, acting Assistant Attorney General Alan Hanson pointed to Section 86-194 of the city's code of ordinances, which states that solicitation of immigration status by Jackson police officers is prohibited. Section 86-193, for example, prohibits "bias-based policing" by police officers on the basis of appearance, ethnicity and immigration status, among other factors.
Monday, Lumumba countered that since the police department doesn't collect immigration information from residents, the city doesn't have any documents to turn over to the DOJ.
"The Department of Justice can't have what we don't have," he said. "Our police officers will investigate but also protect the rights of everyone, whether legal or undocumented. Since we don't collect that information, well, there's nothing for us to turn over. Since there's nothing to turn over, no laws have been broken."
However, the mayor drew a line in the sand between residents that have been detained and those that haven't. Information gleamed from detained residents in "typical" law enforcement investigations is shared with federal authorities, Lumumba said.
"If anyone is accused of a crime, you have to get background information. That's typical of law enforcement investigations," he said.
The mayor said it would be dangerous for the city to solicit the immigration status of its residents, and in doing so put a stop to residents' willingness to contact law enforcement.
"If people don't feel like they're safe, or they lack the same kind of protection as any one of us, they look for alternative ways to be safe, leading to organized crime and unreported crime," Lumumba said.
The DOJ warned the city in a letter that failure to cooperate may result in sanctions, restrictions of the city's access to grant funds, a possible audit and designation as a DOJ High Risk grantee.
Lumumba added he believed the issue of sanctuary cities would likely be raised again by state legislators this session. Rep. Mark Baker, R-Brandon, said in November he was considering adding teeth to a state sanctuary bill that could block Jackson's ability to get state grants.
More: State Legislature could follow DOJ's lead and withhold grants, funding to Jackson
"The Department fully anticipates your complete cooperation in this matter. Should you fail to respond in a complete and timely manner, the Department will subpoena these documents," DOJ Office of Justice Programs Director Jon Adler said in the letter.
The letter requires a response from the city by Feb. 23.
by: Jimmie E. Gates
date: 2018-01-30
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2018/01/31/sexting-bills-provide-loophole-keep-minors-registering-sex-offenders/1082395001/
It'll soon be harder to find news from the Clarion Ledger on Facebook. Here's a step-by-step guide to help ensure you'll keep getting the latest Mississippi news in your feed. Wochit
Minors convicted of sexting indecent images will no longer face a felony or have to register as a sex offender under a proposed law.
Both House and Senate committees have passed bills creating the "delinquent act of sexting," which would be prosecuted in youth court.
Rep. Nick Bain, D-Corinth, author of House Bill 1467, said it would keep allow a minor offender from having to register for the rest of his or her life as a sex offender. Current law makes the crime a felony, requiring registering as a sex offender.
Senate Bill 2803, authored by Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson, is similar to the House version.
Youth Court judges asked for the bill, officials said.
Sen. Briggs Hopson, R-Vicksburg, said he has concerns about the hodgepodge of statutes dealing with minors.
"I have a grave concern with the statutes. They are all over the place," Hopson said. "If you are an 18-year-old dating a 15-year-old in high school, you can be charged with (statutory) rape."
The Senate bill also would make it a felony if the offender is three years older than the other minor involved.
Hopson and others said the problem is often with parents who are unhappy with a relationship in which their child demanding criminal charges being filed, even though the relationship was consensual.
The sexting bills say, "No minor shall knowingly possess or receive an indecent visual image of another minor that has been produced, transmitted, disseminated, distributed or displayed through use of a computer or electronic communication device."
The bill also makes it a felony "if the perpetrator caused an indecent visual image to be produced, transmitted, disseminated, distributed or displayed through the use of force, extortion, blackmail, coercion, threats, or intimidation."
Adults possessing or distributing inappropriate images of minors would still be prosecuted under felony laws.
by: Charlie Mitchell
date: 2018-01-29
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/opinion/columnists/2018/01/30/big-business-has-state-prisons-wants-schools-too/1078505001/
Download The Clarion-Ledger app for free on the Apple app store or Google Play. Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger
(Photo: Special to The Clarion-Ledger)
OXFORD — Lobbyists have been around as long as there have been lawmaking bodies. Once they were seeking favorable rules and regulations for the private economy. Today, more and more, lobbyists are seeking customers.
Federal and state governments — including Mississippi — spend billions every year with private enterprise, increasingly handing off jobs traditionally done by government. “Contracting out” keeps expanding. This state’s lawmakers are rallying behind the banner of “school choice” as the next big step.
Some observers hail the trend; others are more cautious. Either way, the trend is real: Where government sees obstacles, entrepreneurs see opportunity.
Take food service in the state’s network of 22 public and private prisons for example. A recent Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Committee review shows Mississippi’s provider, a multinational corporation, being paid $34 million per year.
More: Will voucher bills give private schools state aid with no accountability to taxpayers?
More: Funding plan eases problems for lawmakers, not schools
The noble idea is to save taxpayer funds. Shedding responsibility as a side benefit. Today, if a lawmaker is being told prison food is bad, the lawmaker can shift the blame to Aramark, the food contractor.
The company has a compelling story. It traces its roots to 1932 Los Angeles where founder
Davre Davidson sold food while driving around in a Dodge automobile. Today, Aramark operates in 21 countries, has 270,000 employees and a stock price that risen during the past five years from $23 per share to $46. Aramark, which charges a measly $3 per day per adult prisoner, is prosperous.
This year, immediately after the House passed legislation to change the way Mississippi’s public schools are funded, legislation was introduced to expand existing school choice options. The idea is touted as increasing opportunities for parents to make sure their children, especially impaired or at-risk children, are enrolled in the best possible schools. Often the alternative schools are charter schools, and legislation allows the dollars that would have gone to the local public school to follow students into the new classroom.
In the ideal vision, a charter school evokes local control, dedicated teachers, modern, well-lit facilities, good discipline and a caring cadre of parents, administrators and other supporters totally focused on excellence. Some charter schools fit that description to a T. But most charter school enterprises are multinational corporations. They may aim for excellence, but they have to answer to stockholders, too.
Mississippi lawmakers would do well to engage in more research. Michigan has had charter schools for 25 years. It’s the national leader with about 80 percent of all schools operating under charters. Also, most New Orleans schools became charter schools in the aftermath of Katrina.
The perfect solution to underperforming schools? Mississippi put its toe in the water for charter schools in 2010, and already results are mixed.
Two years ago, The New York Times reported this: “Michigan leapt at the promise of charter schools, betting big that choice and competition would improve public schools. It got competition, and chaos.”
Back to the PEER report on Aramark. It certainly isn’t an indictment, but consider the nature of the flaws that were noted:
• Aramark is not providing the staffing levels required by the contract and, in some locations, subbing out work and consolidating positions.
• Aramark is using its own training process as opposed to the specified MDOC training for interacting with inmates.
• Under the contract each meal must meet acceptable nutritional standards, but there is no external review of whether the requirement is being met.
• While most kitchens passed inspection, one was closed by the Mississippi Department of Health and there was a five-month period during which MDOC did not have records for another.
See? Each of those indicates an emphasis on income at the expense of service.
It’s great to see so many parents committed to seeking the best possible learning situation for their children, but there’s every reason to be cautious.
An example from Florida, where state law requires charter schools to be non-profit but they operate under a for-profit parent, shows how bollixed some of the financing becomes. There, PolitiFact reported last year, “The charter-school solution was originally touted as a way to give families — particular those in low-income areas — another option for schooling. Critics say too many taxpayer dollars have been shifted to the private companies that run charter schools to the detriment of traditional public schools.”
Mississippi lawmakers appear determined to turn over more and more control of public schools. In so doing, they may happily wash their hands. But will schools be better?
The record shows Mississippi is late to the party. Many states have grabbed onto “choice” as a panacea and, billions of dollars later, found themselves no better off.
Charlie Mitchell is a Mississippi journalist and contributing columnist. Write to him at cmitchell43@yahoo.com.
by: Harold Gater
date: 2018-01-26
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/01/27/woman-killed-officer-involved-shooting/1072062001/
A Florida man is facing attempted murder charges after dragging a police officer with his car before leading authorities on a high-speed chase. (Dec 20) AP
A woman was killed in Jackson Saturday morning when she was shot after hitting a patrol car and attempting to run over officers, according to the Jackson Police Department.
Responding to reports of a vehicle that forced another motorist off the road, an officer stopped the suspect vehicle around 7:30 a.m., JPD spokesman Sgt. Roderick Holmes said.
JPD says after stopping the vehicle driven by Crystalline Barnes, 21, the officer requested an additional unit for assistance. Barnes then attempted to leave the scene. She made a u-turn to evade the other responding officer, then later stopped and began driving in reverse toward the officer who had exited the patrol vehicle. The officer fired into the vehicle before jumping out of the way and Barnes' vehicle collided with the patrol vehicle.
More: Man found dead at bottom of pool in Ridgeland
Barnes drove forward again toward the initial officer who also fired into the vehicle, JPD said. Barnes' vehicle then collided with a utility pole. It remains unclear what led to the her actions.
As a part of standard procedure, both officers were placed on administrative leave with pay. Two separate investigations, both internal and criminal, will take place in order to determine whether any department polices or any laws have been violated.
by: Jimmie E. Gates
date: 2018-01-25
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/opinion/columnists/2018/01/26/why-we-must-continue-invest-criminal-justice-system/1069415001/
Download The Clarion-Ledger app for free on the Apple app store or Google Play. Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger
(Photo: File photo/The Clarion-Ledger)
Recently, I was talking to a neighbor who told me about a young man with a history of criminal activity making a change in his life.
The neighbor said the young man had gotten a job and started a family.
He said the young man told him he was tired of the life he had been leading and decided he wanted to make a change.
That brings me to House Bill 585 that was passed in 2014 to reform the state’s criminal justice system. At the time, Mississippi had the second highest incarceration rate in the nation, following only Louisiana.
More: Prison population in Mississippi heading up, despite reforms
House Bill 585 was a good bill for the state. It was nonpartisan legislation. It was studied for a long time, and most of those involved in the criminal justice system had a hand in crafting the bill.
The goal was to stem the tide of the revolving prison door for inmates and reduce the prison population.
A criminal justice reform task force concluded there were more effective and less expensive ways to hold lower-level, nonviolent offenders accountable while protecting public safety than strictly sending them to prison.
The reform measure has reaped some benefits, including lowering the number of inmates in custody.
The Pew Charitable Trusts, which helped the state craft the criminal justice reform package, said this week that since the reform measures became law, the state’s prison population dropped by 10 percent while the number of violent offenders in prison increased by 13 percent.
Pew said fewer people on probation are committing new crimes.
But in the last year or so, the state’s prison population has begun to creep back up. Mississippi had dropped from second in the nation in per capita incarceration rate after HB 585 to fifth, but in the latest report, the state is third in the nation in incarceration of inmates per capita.
Some attribute the recent spike to judges sending inmates back to prison for technical violations instead of technical violation centers, which were created under the prison reform legislation as an alternative.
When we talk about technical violations, we aren't talking about the inmate committing a new crime; it might be the inmate didn't show up for a meeting or violated some other rule.
We all understand the need to be tough on criminals, and I agree with that sentiment, but if we can keep inmates from returning to prison after getting out, it will help our society and save taxpayers some money.
I know some with a criminal background will never change their ways, but there are those in society who may have made a mistake or two and want to turn their lives around and become productive members of society. We must help them to do that.
We need solid reentry programs to work with inmates to provide them skills to survive on the outside.
With no job skills to live on the outside, you can imagine that a former inmate might return to a life of crime.
State lawmakers did a great thing in reforming the criminal justice system, but if money saved from fewer inmates in custody isn't reinvested to help paroled inmates or those on probation from returning to the system, the reforms could become less significant over time.
Yes, there are fewer inmates in custody than before the reforms, but with the recent rise in inmates, we could be seeing a lessening of the reform measures and that would be a shame.
The state must invest in successful reentry programs and in more drug court programs if we are to realize the more than $260 million over 10 years savings envisioned by HB 585.
by: Chokwe Antar Lumumba
date: 2018-01-25
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/opinion/columnists/2018/01/26/jackson-committed-contracting-jackson-and-minority-businesses-lumumba/1067175001/
Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba gives his thoughts on working with Gov. Phil Bryant on an alternative for the Jackson Public Schools system. Wochit
(Photo: Justin Vicory/Clarion Ledger)
There has been a great deal of discussion lately about the city’s Equal Business Opportunity policy and whether it serves minority subcontractors adequately.
This administration has firmly and repeatedly stated its commitment to building the participation of Jacksonians and minorities in our contracting processes to a level that is indicative of Jackson’s demographic makeup, with the intention and purpose of building a prosperous economy that benefits all of our citizens.
To that end, we have been clear that our objective and stated goal is to ultimately achieve 60 percent boots on ground being Jacksonians and 50 percent of the sub-contracting make up being minority firms. This goal far exceeds prior and current standards for minority participation, not only in the city of Jackson but nationwide.
We firmly believe that ethics and public health are the drivers of our municipal leadership eco system, which means that we believe in creating policies and procedures that allow us to fully and efficiently serve Jacksonians. This also means that we have to engage in thorough and complete reviews of existing policies and procedures so those that are not serving the interests of Jacksonians, those policies and procedures that may be self-serving, exploitative and enabling can be revised and/or augmented to help us meet our stated objectives. Our current EBO policy is one such policy.
Subcontractors often find themselves operating in environments where majority firms take advantage of loopholes and willfully fail to operate in good faith. Additionally, we are acutely aware that there is a dearth of minority firms with the capacity to take on the jobs which the city needs them to perform. Some privileged minority firms also choose not to support the mission and objectives of our minority contracting processes and do not genuinely support one another.
The city of Jackson must follow the law in its efforts to increase minority participation. We will do all we can to ensure that our minority businesses have the support and resources they need to build their capacity and successfully seek city contracts.
Please note that placing the city in a legally compromising position in an effort to increase minority participation will never be an option. Allowing minority firms that choose to make easy dollars and operate as “pass throughs” is not an option either.
We will transform the EBO policy of this city for the benefit of its citizens and for the benefit of minority and majority firms that are sincere about ushering in principled economic development and hiring Jacksonians. We will also ensure fairness and openness are practiced across all city departments.
Chokwe Antar Lumumba is mayor of Jackson.
by: Associated Press
date: 2018-01-25
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/01/26/wrongfully-convicted-mississippi-man-dies-10-years-after-prison-release/1070253001/
The Innocence Project at the University of Virginia School of Law was formed in 2008 in an effort to assist those who have been wrongly convicted. By Brad Zinn/The News Leader
(Photo: Rogelio V. Solis, File Photo/AP)
A Mississippi man who spent 16 years in prison for crimes he didn’t commit has died after an extended illness, a decade after being released.
Levon Brooks died Wednesday at his home in Columbus, Mississippi. He was 58. His widow, Dinah Brooks, said he was diagnosed with colon cancer five years ago.
Brooks was convicted in 1992 and sentenced to life in prison for the 1990 rape and killing of Courtney Smith, the 3-year-old daughter of his former girlfriend. The conviction was partly based on testimony from Dr. Michael West, a forensic dentist who came under intense criticism for his testimony in criminal cases.
Brooks was released from prison in February 2008 after DNA evidence pointed to another man, who confessed. At an exoneration hearing the next month, the prosecutor apologized to Brooks.
“I can’t give you your life back, but I want you to know I believed in what I was doing. For whatever part I played in your prosecution, I’m truly sorry,” said Forrest Allgood, who was district attorney at the time.
Attorneys for the Innocence Project, based in New York, began looking into Brooks’ case as they were challenging the conviction of Kennedy Brewer in a similar killing of another young girl in the same small community in Noxubee County, Mississippi. Because Brewer was on death row, he was entitled to attorneys and appeals. Brooks was not on death row and did not have the same right to post-conviction appeals.
“At some point, being locked away and isolated without any organization to turn to, he basically came to accept the cruel fate that life had inflicted upon him of a life sentence in prison,” Vanessa Potkin, the Innocence Project attorney who took on Brooks’ case, told The Associated Press on Thursday.
During Brooks’ trial, West testified that bite marks on the victim’s body were caused by Brooks. Mississippi pathologist Steven Hayne initially identified the bite marks during his autopsy of the girl, but defense attorneys in the case said the marks couldn’t have been caused by human teeth because they occurred after the child had drowned in the creek where her body was discarded.
Potkin said DNA evidence gathered in the Brewer case pointed to another man who lived in Noxubee County and had been a suspect in the case in which Brooks was convicted. She said that man confessed to killing both girls, which helped clear Brooks and Brewer. Brewer was released on bail in 2007 and exonerated in 2008, after serving 13 years in prison.
Dinah Brooks said she and Levon Brooks met after he was released from prison, and they married in 2016. She said he was outgoing, loved to be around people and loved to hunt and fish. She said he read the Bible daily and was not bitter about his imprisonment.
“He didn’t have any animosity,” Dinah Brooks said. “He didn’t have any hatred.”
Potkin, the Innocence Project’s director of post-conviction litigation, described Brooks as an intuitive, loving person. Speaking of his case, she said: “It also is a reminder there are many more innocent people in prison than we will ever know because they have given up because they are isolated because they don’t have access to anyone to help them.”
Levon Brooks (2nd from left) and Kennedy Brewer (2nd from right) celebrate outside the Noxubee County Courthouse in Macon Friday morning with their lawyers from New-York based Innocence Project. Far left is Vanessa Potkin, far right is Peter Neufeld.
by: Associated Press
date: 2018-01-24
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/01/25/mississippi-woman-kidnapping/1067030001/
PASCAGOULA, Miss. — A Mississippi woman believed to have ties to a street gang has been sentenced to 23 years in prison for her involvement in a 2015 kidnapping.
News outlets report 30-year-old Sherry Lynn Emile was sentenced Tuesday on one charge each of kidnapping and conspiracy to commit kidnapping. Emile pleaded guilty to both in December.
The Sun Herald reports Emile and six others were charged with kidnapping a 30-year-old woman on July 24, 2015, and holding her bound with duct tape at a drug house in St. Martin.
All seven defendants prosecuted in connection to the crime are believed to have ties to the Simon City Royals street gang and have pleaded guilty.
One defendant was sentenced to 22 years in prison in July. Five others still await sentencing.
by: Associated Press
date: 2018-01-24
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/01/25/mississippi-immigrant-smuggling-consp/1067232001/
(Photo: Harrison County Detention Center)
GULFPORT, Miss. — Federal prosecutors in Mississippi say a 37-year-old Mexican man has pleaded guilty to conspiring to smuggle immigrants into the United States illegally.
U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst and Joseph Banco, chief Border Patrol agent in the New Orleans sector, said in a news release that Luis Enrique Moran-Vargaz could get up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine when sentenced April 23.
They say a coastal Mississippi officer stopped him for speeding Nov. 28 in Gautier (GOH-shay), and found six passengers with Mexican identification in a truck designed to hold five people.
Moran-Vargaz said he was paid to transport them from Texas, and knew they had come into the country illegally.
He and the six passengers all were arrested. Moran-Vargaz pleaded guilty Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Sul Ozerden.
by: Jerry Mitchell
date: 2018-01-25
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/01/26/opioid-epidemic-litigation-dan-polster/1014046001/
The country is in the midst of an opioid epidemic. Did the FDA play a role in how we got here? Ayrika Whitney/USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee
The federal judge overseeing about 200 lawsuits against opioid makers would rather curb the opioid epidemic than referee the litigation.
“About 150 Americans are going to die today, just today, while we’re meeting,” U.S. District Judge Dan Polster of Cleveland, Ohio, told the parties earlier this month. “And in my humble opinion, everyone shares some of the responsibility, and no one has done enough to abate it.”
He sees no value in depositions and trials, he said. “People aren’t interested in figuring out the answer to interesting legal questions like pre-emption and learning intermediary, or unraveling complicated conspiracy theories.”
Instead, “my objective is to do something meaningful to abate this crisis and to do it in 2018,” the judge said. “I’m confident we can do something to dramatically reduce the number of opioids that are being disseminated, manufactured and distributed. Just dramatically reduce the quantity and make sure that the pills that are manufactured and distributed go to the right people and no one else.”
Opioid litigation, which started as a trickle, reached a flood last year when about 250 cities, counties and states sued opioid makers, wholesalers, distributors and marketers.
The lawsuits accuse the companies of misleading health care professionals and the public by marketing opioids as rarely addictive and a safe substitute for non-addictive pain medications, such as ibuprofen.
The companies deny the claims and say litigation should be halted until the Food and Drug Administration-ordered studies on the long-term risks and benefits of opioids are completed.
Experts say the sheer number of opioid lawsuits could lead some companies to settle.
"The litigation costs must be killing them," said Richard Ausness, a professor at the University of Kentucky College of Law. "The problem is that a settlement with some plaintiffs will only cause more plaintiffs to sue."
Richard Ausness, a professor at the University of Kentucky College of Law, has written about the opioids litigation.
Only a global settlement could prevent this, he said. "I am not sure that this would be feasible, although the Florida Legislature did it in connection with lawsuits against gun manufacturers."
Bloomberg has reported that Purdue Pharma, whose drug OxyContin jump-started the opioid epidemic, is proposing a global settlement in an attempt to end litigation. Purdue would not comment.
A new wave of litigation from Detroit and other Michigan cities and counties accuses companies of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, a law created to fight the mob and organized crime.
The litigation alleges Purdue and other opioid makers “pushed highly addictive, dangerous opioids, falsely representing to doctors that patients would only rarely succumb to drug addiction.”
“We are deeply troubled by the opioid crisis, and we are dedicated to being part of the solution,” Purdue responded in a statement. “We vigorously deny these allegations and look forward to the opportunity to present our defense.”
Paul Hanly, whose New York City law firm, Simmons Hanly Conroy, is involved in 150 lawsuits, said governments “are learning that litigation may be the only avenue for them to recover some of the massive increased expenses related to the epidemic,” including the costs connected to emergency medical services, mental health, the judicial system, law enforcement, child services and rehabilitation.
Paul Hanly and his New York City law firm, Simmons Hanly Conroy, represent many of those suing opioid makers and others.
With each new lawsuit, governments that have not sued are “taking a hard look at their rights and their obligations to their taxpayers,” he said.
Some hospitals are suing, too.
Hospital officials say they have been forced to treat patients for opioid addiction and overdoses as well as babies born dependent on opioids — treatment that is often lengthy and uncompensated.
In the latest wrinkle, several West Virginia cities have filed litigation against the Joint Commission, which accredits and certifies health care organizations and programs in the United States, alleging the nonprofit spread “misinformation” to health care professionals about the risks of opioid addiction.
In 2001, the commission began requiring hospitals to assess all patients for pain on a scale of 1 to 10, which some said caused more doctors to prescribe opioids.
Purdue gave the commission a grant to produce a pain assessment and management manual, which told health care providers, “There is no evidence that addiction is a significant issue when persons are given opioids for pain control.”
Commission officials have denied that change encouraged doctors to prescribe more opioids, blaming drug trafficking as well as diversion and abuse by individuals.
Earlier this month, the commission released new pain management standards, which require hospitals to have leaders responsible for “pain management and safe opioid prescribing.” Those hospitals also must identify high-risk patients and make prescription drug monitoring programs available to those prescribing opioids.
In addition to litigation, congressional investigations are underway, examining such questions as how drug wholesalers sold more than 780 million painkiller pills in six years to a single pharmacy in Kermit, West Virginia, where fewer than 400 people live.
Every state attorney general has either filed a lawsuit against opioid makers or is involved in investigating whether these drugmakers misled health care providers about the addictiveness to opioids. Their offices have issued subpoenas for records from those companies.
On Oct. 26 — the same day President Donald Trump declared that the opioid epidemic was a public health emergency — Justice Department officials announced the arrest of John Kapoor, the founder of Insys Therapeutics.
They accused him of using kickbacks to get doctors to prescribe Subsys, a fentanyl spray for cancer patients suffering from excruciating pain, to patients who didn’t have cancer.
Ausness, who has written about the opioids litigation, said the growing problem of overdose deaths and the publicity surrounding them “may be increasing public concern and thereby putting pressure on state and local officials to do something about it.
“Lawsuits, as presently underwritten by personal injury lawyers, are a cheap response and, if successful, may provide some extra funding for drug treatment programs at the state and local level.”
He believes personal injury lawyers are hoping for a repeat of the litigation against cigarette makers, which ended with a $206 billion settlement in 1998.
Ausness pointed out that “compliance with safety standards is only evidence that the product is not defective. It is not conclusive; however, some states have enacted laws that create a presumption that prescription drugs that are approved by the FDA are not defective.”
Those types of claims usually apply to warnings and design claims, he said. (The label for OxyContin declared, “ 'Addiction’ to opioids legitimately used in the management of pain is very rare.”)
He doubts that FDA approval would provide much protection against fraud claims or negligent marketing claims based on failure to monitor distributors and retail sellers.
He also doubts any lawsuit against the FDA, which approved the drugs, would succeed because the drug approval process falls “within the ‘discretionary function’ exception to the Federal Tort Claims Act, which insulates decisions by federal officials that involve elements of judgment or choice.”
by: Therese Apel
date: 2018-01-23
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/01/24/poor-crime-reporting-could-cost-mostmississippi-law-enforcement-agencies-could-lose-federal-funding/1013214001/
Because only 113 of more than 300 law enforcement agencies even report crime to the FBI, and only five are using a system that records important details like specifics on drugs, gangs, and a victim's relationship to the suspect, we're missing out on important information. And we could lose money because of it. Therese Apel/ Clarion Ledger
(Photo: Therese Apel/ The Clarion-Ledger)
In the dead of night, two intruders break into a house.
While one is stealing something from another room, the second one shoots and kills the homeowner, steals his car and leaves his accomplice behind.
The homeowner is a drug dealer and a foot soldier for a local gang, and is the ex-husband of one of the suspects. The other suspect is her new boyfriend, a member of a rival gang.
Under the Uniform Crime Reporting system — a summary-based reporting system most Mississippi law enforcement agencies use to report crimes — what is at least a domestic situation, a drug and gang-related incident, a home invasion, a homicide and an auto theft, would be classified simply as one thing: a homicide.
The FBI has designated a system known as the National Incident Based Reporting System to take its place around the country.
And in less than three years, those that don't, which right now includes all but a handful in Mississippi, could lose federal law enforcement grants that pay for equipment and other resources.
More: Argument over woman ends in fatal shooting, Jackson police say
NIBRS classifies crimes in a much clearer way, detailing important factors that cannot be recorded by the summary-based reporting system. That system has seven "Type 1" crimes, and an incident is classified by the most severe crime in the incident.
Incident-based reporting, as is used by NIBRS, has 52 offense categories and can take up to 10 offenses per incident.
"So now instead of looking at 'we have a murder,' you’re looking at a criminal incident, all the pieces connected," said Byram Police Chief Luke Thompson. "The relationship between those two offenders is recorded, as well as the relationship between the offenders and victim. It shows that Suspect 1 is responsible for the burglary, Suspect 2 is responsible for the other crimes."
It puts the drug, gang, human trafficking and domestic aspects on the books, and statewide, the statistics on that crime and others like it are clear. That incident is recorded as a domestic violence incident, a drug-related homicide, and a gang-related homicide. It also can categorize which drugs and gangs are involved.
"The NIBRS produces more detailed, accurate and meaningful statistics because data are collected on when and where crime occurs, what form it takes, and the characteristics of its victims and perpetrators," said FBI Criminal Justice Information Services spokeswoman Holly Morris.
"If you had all that, you’d have a much more robust picture of the crime problem," said Christopher Freeze, FBI Jackson Field Office special agent in charge. "The primary benefit is a better understanding of the true crime problem in the state of Mississippi which will allow not only the state but also the local and to some extent the federal law enforcement to know the best way to place resources."
To some, more important than the clearer picture is the impact on the pocketbook of what right now could be almost every law enforcement agency in the state. House Bill 1040, authored by Rep. Timmy Ladner, R-Poplarville, looks to make it mandatory for Mississippi agencies to switch to NIBRS.
Losing federal funds
According to the FBI, if things continue as they're going now, all but the five Mississippi law enforcement agencies that are using NIBRS and a few more in training for it could lose federal funding if they don't change over to the incident-based system by Jan. 1, 2021.
To some agencies, that's a grant for bullet-resistant vests. It might be an overtime grant, a grant for equipment, money to put towards safe streets programs, counter drug programs, homeland security programs. The list goes on.
Gulfport, Biloxi and Byram police departments and Harrison County and Adams County sheriff's departments are the only agencies using NIBRS. A few others are in the training and certification process.
Currently 113 Mississippi agencies — out of 82 sheriff's departments and more than 225 municipal police departments — even report their crime statistics to the FBI, which becomes evident during the release of the Uniform Crime Report, which comes out twice a year.
More: 2 suspects on the loose, 1 in custody after chase that injures deputy, 3rd suspect
To add to that, Mississippi is the only state in the nation that does not have a sole-source reporting system. Other states report to one agency that sends the statewide stats to the FBI.
According to information sent to the Clarion Ledger by Criminal Justice Information Services, "if the FBI does not receive crime data from a state, there could be a large impact on the state's (and local agencies within the state) ability to obtain a number of federal awards, either because of a failure to meet the basic eligibility requirements or through an inability to demonstrate need based on crime statistics."
Therefore, to report only partial data reflects only a partial need, officials said, and grant money is affected.
"With limited resources at the federal level, the government needs to put its money where it’s most needed and with this info, a better NIBRs, the DOJ will have a better understanding of which localities need more funding.
That's where a detailed picture of crime statistics can aid the state financially.
The big picture
Even going through regional or state-level organizations and agencies such as the Mississippi Association of Gang Investigators, the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, or any number of domestic violence organizations, a big picture still can't be seen when it comes to where, when and how crimes that fall under their purview are occurring.
The ground-level statistics are lacking.
In the gang crime discussion, some lawmakers and even law enforcement officials deny the existence and proliferation of the criminal organizations because nobody in their agency or jurisdiction is keeping statistics. While some agencies keep records of gang validations, other agencies are even discouraged from doing it. In the 2016 UCR Report, less than 10 percent of police agencies in Mississippi even chose to answer the gang questions, according to MAGI's Daniel Dunlap.
"It’s because in many cases they’re just not collecting the data," Dunlap said. "And if they do, people don’t like to move into neighborhoods if they have a gang problem. If you deny the existence of gangs, you keep your property values up."
MAGI officials, who gather their intelligence from networks of gang investigators and informants, say gangs are operating in every county in the state. A study released Tuesday by the Mississippi Analysis and Information Center shows the proliferation of gangs around the state, but is still not a complete picture.
On the domestic violence front, because each incident has to be reported in a secondary program called Report Beam, some of the incidents are being written up as "disturbances" or something equally benign to keep from having to do the extra paperwork. Thompson said he can name 70 domestic violence victims in his city who are not being served by a domestic violence shelter or program because he uses NIBRS.
"From the shelter’s perspectives, they know who they’re serving and those demographics, but I know who they’re not serving. There are 70 to be serviced that would help them justify money, and most of that is grant money. If you don’t know who you’re not servicing, how do you account for them?" Thompson said. "And that's just in my city."
David McDowell of the Mississippi Coalition Against Domestic Violence, said his agency keeps what statistics they have on domestic violence homicides from media reports.
"It’s the fault of the UCR and it's why NIBRS is such a step up. Under UCR, capital murder is the highest crime and there’s no reason to list anything else," McDowell said. "There is no way that more information about domestic violence from a statistical perspective is a bad thing. The MCADV is incredibly interested and willing to help in whatever way we can to advocate and educate on why NIBRS is so important for learning exactly how to end so many forms of violence, especially domestic violence and sexual assault."
With the war on opioids, most statistics come from the point of prescription and then from overdose data, but there isn't a uniform way to see the movement of the drugs in between. Once again, the accounting is left to the various methods of individual agencies.
"There are some departments that are not reporting those drug-related arrests," Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics Director John Dowdy said. "The way that the reporting is set up under the current system, there is no way to identify what drugs are involved with a particular arrest."
In the near future, NIBRS also would allow for information to be passed on offenders statewide, and as such to act as something of a statewide information repository, Thompson said. If the couple in the intruders breaking into the house scenario ran to another area of the state, if the agencies are NIBRS compliant, there would be an instant understanding for participating law enforcement of who they were and what they were capable of.
Cost and workload
Nationwide, 39 states are using NIBRS. The main reason agencies give for not switching over, Morris said, is budgetary constraints. Officials say switching to compliant software and training can cost precious dollars in already tight local law enforcement budgets. The cost is dependent upon which report management software they choose, but most software being used now is compatible and simply needs to be set up to run NIBRS reporting. Vendors also often have financing available, Thompson said.
Freeze said it's worth exploring all avenues such as grants that could be available to fund the program, as well as making sure the current records program being used by an agency isn't already compatible, which is actually the case with many programs being used for summary-based reporting.
"Look, if we can show a cost savings of you having a better understanding of where your crime problem is, I think NIBRS pays for itself by allowing us to better understand what’s taking place. It’s not that we just want to know statistically what the crimes are, we want to be able to mitigate those crimes," Freeze said.
An accounting of how much money comes to state or local agencies in Mississippi from the Department of Justice was not immediately available from the Department of Public Safety, the Division of Public Safety Planning, or the DOJ.
More: State Legislature could follow DOJ's lead and withhold grants, funding to Jackson
But for starters, Sen. Thad Cochran's office said $28.2 million comes in various grants to law enforcement in the state, by their accounting, and the Department of Health's Office Against Interpersonal Violence, which deals with domestic violence victims, received $24 million in federal funds.
It is not clear at this point how much of that money would be at risk, said Cochran's spokesman, Chris Gallegos. The DOJ has said they aren't able to say right now which, if not all, specific grants may or may not be affected.
There will be a few more steps on reports, Thompson said, but he also stressed the importance of the information sharing.
"It may be a few more checkboxes and drop-down menus, because it’s additional data that has to be collected, but it’s not necessarily any more work," he said. "It’s just like anything else: Do we want to be professional police officers and do professional police work or just be report takers? Will this cause more work for the officer on the street? I think that’s relative. I don’t foresee that it does."
by: Therese Apel
date: 2018-01-23
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/01/24/state-intelligence-center-releases-hard-gang-figures-threat-assessment/1059763001/
A study by the Fusion Center released Tuesday shows gang activity is rampant in the state. Therese Apel/ Clarion Ledger
(Photo: Justin Sellers/ The Clarion-Ledger)
Within a two-year period, more than 400 juvenile gang members passed through the Hinds County Youth Court, according to a study released late Tuesday by the Mississippi Analysis and Information Center.
Some people have downplayed the existence of gang activity within the state, but the new study contradicts those assertions in hard facts.
As of Dec. 14, 62 percent of the Mississippi Department of Corrections' 19,150 inmates, or roughly 11,873, have been identified as active gang members.
In 2017, 773 Gangster Disciples, 416 Simon City Royals, and 195 Vice Lords were released from MDOC facilities.
Gangster Disciples released from MDOC in 2017 were serving time on these crimes.
The same study shows all 82 counties in Mississippi have gang activity. It tracks Mississippi's three largest criminal organizations — the Gangster Disciples, the Vice Lords and the Simon City Royals — as a piece of the picture of gang activity in the state. But there are still an unknown number of other gangs on the streets in every county, according to officials with the Mississippi Analysis and Information Center, better known as the Fusion Center.
Six law enforcement agencies in the state also have confirmed contact with members of the international criminal gang Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) in their jurisdictions.
A full copy of the study obtained by the Clarion Ledger details one investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration's Jackson office initiated in 2014 that resulted in the 2016 arrests of 41 Gangster Disciples members. Those included the leader of the Jackson Gangster Disciples, six Vice Lords and two members of a Mexican cartel. The investigation also revealed direct connections to the Sinaloa Cartel and the New Generation Jalisco cartel.
Simon City Royals released from MDOC in 2017 were serving time on these crimes.
The Fusion Center operates under a Department of Homeland Security federal grant and is a centralized location for the gathering, analysis and sharing of intelligence from local, state, tribal and federal resources.
More: Just a few Mississippi cases identified by the Fusion Center to be connected to gangs
The Fusion Center's Gang Threat Assessment has brought to light some staggering numbers, and the picture is still not complete. Of Mississippi's more than 330 law enforcement agencies, 125 submitted data on gang activity in their jurisdictions.
The data collected identified the 46 most prevalent gangs operating inside the state and linked members of each to violent crime, drug sales and human trafficking among other crimes.
"This list is not exhaustive," the study reads in reference to the 46 groups. They were gathered by asking 71 law enforcement agencies that attended various law enforcement conventions and meetings through the Mississippi Association of Gang Investigators and the Fusion Center to identify the top four gang organizations they run across in their areas. Those 46 listed were compiled from those submissions. But it does not account for the smaller groups — the neighborhood cliques and the hybrid groups in so many areas.
"The formation of neighborhood cliques and hybrid gangs contributes to the large variation of gang subsets within the state," the assessment reads. "MDOC identified 38 additional gangs validated within their facilities and law enforcement identified 43 additional gangs as most prevalent within their jurisdictions.
Some authorities have pointed to members of nationally-known gangs working together as evidence that gangs are no longer a factor, but the Fusion Center points out in the study that one of the most prevalent hybrid gangs in the state is the Sipp Mobb, which is primarily a mixture of Gangster Disciples and Vice Lords. In Lauderdale County, BM3 is a mixture of Gangster Disciples, Black Gangster Disciples and several Crip sets.
Vice Lords released from MDOC in 2017 were serving time on these crimes.
A large amount of information came through MDOC and the courts systems. Because Mississippi has not had a standard clearinghouse for gang information, researchers involved in building the threat assessment turned to convictions of proven gang members to count numbers in some cases.
MDOC data shows all 82 counties are represented in their gang information. To those familiar with gang movements around the state, the top five counties with gang members incarcerated in MDOC facilities were not surprising: Harrison County with 1,047, Hinds with 961, Lauderdale with 558, Forrest with 540 and Rankin with 487.
Ninety female inmates have been identified as gang members, including 28 Simon City Royals, 22 Gangster Disciples and eight Vice Lords.
Other data came through the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force, the FBI and the National Gang Intelligence Center.
Gangs have been able to remain fairly low profile because many elected officials and even some law enforcement agencies discourage discussion of them, officials say. MAGI officials said some law enforcement officers have told them they are told not to ask questions or keep records of gang members in their areas.
More: Gang wars: Officials say resources needed to fight gangs
What that means is that while the study by the Fusion Center is the most inclusive to date, it is still only a partial picture of the gang activity inside the state of Mississippi.
The study suggests examination of proposed gang legislation to strengthen laws against gang activity, as well as establishing a working task force comprised of law enforcement, corrections personnel, Youth Court officials and other vested parties to share information and intelligence.
It also suggests standardizing criteria to validate gang members as well as additional gang training for law enforcement and corrections officers.
GANGS
In addition to other active gangs listed by law enforcement as Mississippi's predominant gang threats (not an exhaustive list of all gangs in the state):
Surenos, Crips, East Side Crips, 74 Hoover Crips, Rolling 60 Crips, 4 Corner Hustlers (4CH), Bloods, Delta Riders, Piro, Sons of Silence, Aryan Brotherhood, P Stones, Banditos, Dixie Renegades, Anybody can Get it (ABG), 300Block, 400Block, 40Block, 600Block, 700Block, BM3, Fort Bayou Click, Galloping Gooses, Goon Squad, Green Mob, Grove Side Hot Boyz, Mexican Mafia, Muny Gang, Orange Grove, Outcast, Puppets, Sipp Mobb, Uptown, Black Gangster Disciples, Black Disciples, Mafia Insane Vice Lords, Insane Vice Lords, Imperial Insane Vice Lords, Pistoleros, Cherry Park Boys, CCP/Birdgang.
Snapshot of some current jail numbers on the top 3 gangs:
The DeSoto County Adult Detention Center:
The Hinds County Detention Center:
The Rankin County Adult Detention Center:
The Harrison County Adult Detention Center:
by: Justin Vicory
date: 2018-01-23
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/01/24/doj-steps-up-efforts-undermine-jacksons-immigration-policy/1062010001/
Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Thomas Homan said he believes politicians in "sanctuary cities" should be arrested and charged with crimes. Wochit
(Photo: File Photo/The Clarion-Ledger)
The Department of Justice is demanding all documents involving Jackson's immigration policy, marking an elevation of the department's campaign under Attorney General Jeff Sessions to go after so-called sanctuary cities and federal funding.
On Wednesday, the DOJ's Office of Justice Programs and Bureau of Justice Assistance sent its second letter to Jackson, this time demanding all city documents "reflecting any orders, directives, instructions, or guidance" to law enforcement employees, as well as communications with the DOJ, Department of Homeland Security, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The DOJ says the documents could show whether Jackson is unlawfully restricting information sharing by its law enforcement officers with federal immigration authorities, which it says would be in violation of federal immigration law.
Related: State Legislature could follow DOJ's lead and withhold grants, funding to Jackson
It warns the city that failure to cooperate may result in sanctions, restrictions of the city's access to grant funds, a possible audit and designation as a DOJ High Risk grantee.
The letter, which was sent to 23 cities and counties across the country, also states that failure to respond in a timely manner will be subject to a DOJ subpoena.
The DOJ previously sent letters to 29 cities and counties it had determined to have so-called sanctuary city policies in place, which prevent law enforcement from asking the immigration status of a subject. The department previously addressed former Mayor Tony Yarber.
"(The) Department remains concerned that your jurisdiction's laws, policies, or practices may violate section 1373, or at a minimum, that they may be interpreted or applied in a manner inconsistent with 1373," the letter reads.
Section 1373 of federal immigration law addresses the exchange of information regarding citizenship and immigration status.
Acting Assistant Attorney General Alan Hanson pointed to Section 86-194 of the city's code of ordinances, which states that solicitation of immigration status by Jackson police officers is prohibited. Section 86-193, for example, prohibits "bias-based policing" by police officers on the basis of appearance, ethnicity and immigration status, among other factors.
Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba has vowed to keep the ordinance, arguing DOJ's policy would undermine public safety.
Rep. Mark Baker, R-Brandon, meanwhile said he was considering adding teeth to a state sanctuary bill that could block Jackson's ability to get state grants.
"The department fully anticipates your complete cooperation in this matter. Should you fail to respond in a complete and timely manner, the department will subpoena these documents," said Jon Adler, director of the Bureau of Justice Assistance at the DOJ.
The letter requires a response from the city by Feb. 23.
by: The Clarion-Ledger
date: 2018-01-23
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/journeytojustice/2018/01/24/stanley-nelson-shows-his-new-documentary-thursday-jsu/1063015001/
Emmy-winning filmmaker Stanley Nelson will be present when Jackson State University and Mississippi Public Broadcasting show his new documentary, “Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and Universities.”
Stanley Nelson's new documentary, "Tell Them We Are Rising," tells the story of the nation's historically black colleges and universities.
(Photo: Special to the Clarion Ledger)
The film can be seen at 3 p.m. Thursday at the Mississippi e-Center@JSU, 1230 Raymond Road in Jackson.
The screening will be followed by a reception and a Q&A session with Nelson, who has directed and produced more than a dozen documentaries, including “The Murder of Emmett Till,” “Freedom Summer” and “Freedom Riders.”
Stanley Nelson, director, writer and producer of "Tell Them We Are Rising" is speaking Thursday at the Mississippi e-Center@JSU.
(Photo: Special to the Democrat)
His new documentary details Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) became havens for “black intellectuals, artists and revolutionaries.”
The institutions went on to nurture “some of the most influential Americans of our time – from Booker T. Washington to Martin Luther King Jr., W.E.B. Du Bois to Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison to Oprah Winfrey, Alice Walker to Spike Lee to Common.”
The event is being co-hosted by JSU's Department of Journalism and Media Studies.
Those attending must register online by going here.
For additional information, call 601-432-6298.
by: The Clarion-Ledger
date: 2018-01-23
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/01/24/jpd-hinds-behavioral-health-services-host-crisis-intervention-training/1063540001/
Learn some quick facts about depression and see how the signs can manifest differently in men, women and children. Daniel Finney / The Register
When officers are in the line of duty, it is imperative they be prepared for any and every situation that could arise.
With that in mind, the Jackson Police Department and Hinds Behavioral Health Services, along with other members of the law enforcement and mental health services community are partnering to host the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) for Law Enforcement training program.
The course, which lasts a week, is intended to give law enforcement the tools needed to better resolve crisis situations and improve responses when dealing with individuals suffering from mental illness.
Some of the goals of the program are to decrease the need for lethal force and to reduce the amount of arrests of persons with mental illness while ensuring they get the help they need.
The CIT training program started on Monday and will end Friday with the graduation of its attendees. The graduation will be at 3:30 p.m. in the large conference room of Hinds Behavioral Health Services, located at 3450 Highway 80 West, in Jackson. Graduation will be open to the public.
by: Jimmie E. Gates
date: 2018-01-17
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2018/01/18/mississippi-receives-b-human-trafficking-laws/1043786001/
Gov. Bryant says human trafficking is a problem in Mississippi. Video by Jimmie E. Gates
Mississippi improves to a B on the latest report on states' human trafficking laws, but some on the frontline to stop human sex trafficking say more needs to be done when it comes to helping victims on the street level.
Mississippi has improved from a D five years ago to a B, which is a good score, said Sarah Bendtsen of Shared Hope International,
The Vancouver, Washington-based group strives to prevent the conditions that foster sex trafficking, restore victims of sex slavery and bring justice to vulnerable women and children.
The national nonprofit provides an annual state report card on human trafficking laws.
Mississippi passed a law in 2013 dealing with human trafficking. In 2015, Gov. Phil Bryant appointed a human trafficking task force to research and make recommendations on combating trafficking.
Bendtsen said although the state has a good score, it could be better if human trafficking training for law enforcement were mandatory.
"It is critical to receive trafficking training," Bendtsen said.
Human trafficking training is voluntarily taught at the Mississippi Law Enforcement Training Academy, but there is no law mandating such training across the state for law enforcement.
Bendtsen said it is critical for law enforcement to be trained to identify cases of human trafficking.
As an example, in some cases, a minor female will be arrested and prosecuted for prostitution when she is actually a victim of human trafficking, said Sandy Middleton of the Center for Violence Prevention.
The center operates the state's only shelter and program for human trafficking victims. The Tower provides trauma-informed, mid- to long-term care for victims and will work to achieve victim safety, recovery and restoration. But it serves adults only. There is no specialized program for child victims.
Pearl Assistant Police Chief Dean Scott, a member of the Central Mississippi Human Trafficking Task Force, said that often minors on the run from a bad situation at home will engage in what he termed survival sex in exchange for basic needs.
Scott said more needs to be done to help those on the frontline to deal with victims of human trafficking. He said funds and other mandates stop at the department and executive level and never reach the street level where help is needed.
He said it can be difficult to get someone from Child Protective Services to come out when called to investigate a potential case of child sex trafficking at certain motels in the Jackson area.
In his case, Scott said the safest thing is to place a minor in juvenile detention than to leave them at the scene if there is no place to get them help.
Rep. Andy Gipson, R-Braxton, asked at a meeting Wednesday where the parents are in such cases.
Scott and others say many times parents or some family member are the ones trafficking children, often to obtain drugs.
Gipson, chairman of the House Judiciary B Committee, said he is open to his committee discussing any change in law to make the state's human trafficking laws more effective.
Middleton said the system is broken when it comes to investigating human trafficking. There are conflicts in laws as to where to report human trafficking cases and who should investigate.
"It needs to be investigated by law enforcement, not private groups," Middleton said.
Red Flags for Human Trafficking:
• Not free to leave or come and go.
• Under 18 and providing commercial sex acts.
• In commercial sex industry and pimp or madam.
• Unpaid, paid very little, or paid only through tips.
• Not in control of his or her money, and/or has no financial records, or bank account.
• Works excessively long or unusual hours.
• Not allowed breaks, suffers unusual restrictions at work.
• Overcrowded, substandard living conditions..
Teen victims
Common red flags for teen victims include: significantly older boyfriend, travel with an older male, not a guardian, chronic runaway, multiple delinquency charges, homelessness and substance abuse.
by: Becky Vaughn-Furlow
date: 2018-01-19
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/01/20/how-avoid-procrastination-workplace/1044229001/
Procrastination be gone. You can do it! Here's how you can finally conquer your task list. Buzz60
(Photo: Special to The Clarion-Ledger)
Delaying, postponing or putting off something in the workplace, especially an important task requiring immediate attention, is the cause of many problems for businesses.
There are various reasons for procrastination, including:
• It may be something unpleasant.
• It may be a boring task.
• You just don’t want to do it.
• You are lazy.
• It may be inconvenient.
• There is external stress.
• The task is overwhelming.
• There’s a lack of motivation.
• You have no discipline.
More from Becky: Nobody's perfect, on the job or in life
Procrastination is not only an unhealthy habit but is a complex behavior with any number of causes. People for the most part don’t want to or do not plan to procrastinate but they find themselves caught up in this bad habit. The actions or lack thereof can be summarized as:
• Promising what you can’t deliver.
• Being unrealistic.
• Lacking planning.
• No follow through or follow up.
• Over promising and under delivering.
• Little or no motivation.
• Listening to the wrong people.
• Getting caught up in a mob mentality.
• Slowness to respond.
• Lacking engagement.
Here are some strategies for overcoming procrastination.
Begin with the task. Dedicate the first few minutes after going to work to tackle the tough obligations rather than doing minor tasks.
Define the timing. Schedule important tasks in non-negotiable time segments. Set realistic times for projects to be completed.
Become more self-aware. Be aware of your procrastination process and lack of focus. Acknowledging the problem is the first step to overcoming this bad habit.
Eliminate temptations and distractions. This takes effort and energy. Eliminate problematic distractions that deter you from the work to be done.
Let go of perfectionism. Don’t allow any perfectionistic tendencies to make you think the task at hand is harder than it actually is. Don’t let the task intimidate you. Allow for mistakes that will inevitably occur and work toward solutions.
Organize your tasks. Organization is the enemy of procrastination. Learn to prioritize the work to be done.
If you are a manager of others, delegating tasks and holding employees accountable for the completion of their work is necessary to be effective. Assigning tasks and projects to individuals or to teams is the recipe for effectiveness. Providing support to employees and making easy access to resources in addition to fostering a culture of meeting expectations will assist staff members in conquering the bad habit of procrastination. Managers who delay decision making lose the faith of their employees who will find ways to work around an indecisive manager. It deteriorates team effectiveness.
Workplace demotivation and lack of engagement are the root causes of good intentions not being developed into actionable plans. Forbes has reported:
• 48 percent of employees worldwide don’t like their jobs.
• 80-plus percent of U.S. workers feel stressed at the office.
• 30 percent of workers feel engaged and inspired in their careers.
• 18 percent are actively engaged in their work (present on the job but hating every minute of it).
Those statistics are sobering. No wonder good intentions, even when they exist, are not carried out. Roy Vaden, corporate trainer, points to research that shows individual employees admit to wasting 2 hours a day on non-work tasks. Add up all the wasted time of your team and you will realize how much could have been accomplished if employees actually performed credible work while being paid to do their job.
Disengagement occurs because of micro-management, insecurity on the job, lack of leadership, poor communications, boredom, lack of challenging work, lack of differentiation between poor performers and outstanding performers, and more.
Procrastination is an expensive and visible cost to businesses that is difficult to measure but surely making a negative impact. It hurts individuals and companies. It often requires psychological therapy to bring the employee around to a path of managing their time, and their lives, and bringing the behavior under control. Combating procrastination results in more productive employees and more successful businesses. Don’t put off until tomorrow what can and should be done today.
by: Associated Press
date: 2018-01-20
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2018/01/21/watchdog-group-finds-errors-mississippi-prison-food-service/1052366001/
Download The Clarion-Ledger app for free on the Apple app store or Google Play. Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger
A private company is not meeting all the obligations under a food service contract with Mississippi prisons.
That is the finding of a legislative watchdog group that looked at the work provided by Aramark. Since in July 2016, the company has done food preparation and delivery for 22 prisons and regional jails in the state.
In a report dated Dec. 18 and publicly released last week, the legislative PEER Committee said the company has fallen short of staffing obligations and has not provided the type of training specified under the state contract.
More: Prison population in Mississippi heading up, despite reforms
The report also found that the Mississippi Department of Corrections could save money by participating in a USDA food distribution program, which it hasn't done since 2006.
PEER is the Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review.
by: Associated Press
date: 2018-01-18
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/01/19/re-trial-jessica-chambers-murder/1047925001/
BATESVILLE — The re-trial of a man charged with killing a Mississippi woman by setting her on fire has been set.
Panola County District Attorney John Champion said Thursday that the second trial in the death of 19-year-old Jessica Chambers has been scheduled for June 11 in Batesville.
Quinton Tellis has pleaded not guilty to capital murder. His trial in October ended in a hung jury and a mistrial.
Prosecutors said Tellis set Chambers and her car on fire in a rural back road in Courtland, Mississippi, on the night of Dec. 6, 2014. Firefighters found a smoldering Chambers walking near the car.
She had third-degree burns on most of her body when she died at a hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, about 60 miles (95 kilometers) north of Courtland.
by: Bracey Harris
date: 2018-01-18
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2018/01/19/mississippi-student-data-accessed-testing-vendor-breach/1050068001/
Top lawmakers are gearing up to change how the state pays for education. Wochit
Mississippi education officials were unable to say Friday how many students’ personal information might have been obtained in the wake of a data breach at Questar, one of the state’s testing vendors.
The Mississippi Department of Education said in a statement Friday that an unauthorized user accessed the information of two districts and three schools in the state. The release did not name the districts affected. The department said it does not share Social Security numbers or addresses with the vendor.
New York was also affected by the data breach. The Associated Press reported that names, identification numbers, grade levels and teachers’ names of 52 students in five of that’s state schools were among the inappropriately accessed data.
Questar provides state subject assessments in English language arts, mathematics, Algebra I and English II for the state.
In 2015, the state Board of Education awarded the Minnesota-based company a nearly $111 million contract to stretch over 10 years.
Questar was awarded an additional $2.2 million contract in June after another vendor, the Pearson company, incorrectly scored nearly 1,000 history assessments.
MDE said the vendor has not provided additional details.
State Superintendent of Educaiton Carey Wright has notified the state attorney general’s office of the breach.
“We take seriously the protection of student information, and any violation of privacy is absolutely unacceptable. We are actively pursuing immediate corrective action from Questar,” she said.
by: Associated Press
date: 2018-01-20
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2018/01/21/watchdog-group-finds-errors-mississippi-prison-food-service/1052366001/
Download The Clarion-Ledger app for free on the Apple app store or Google Play. Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger
A private company is not meeting all the obligations under a food service contract with Mississippi prisons.
That is the finding of a legislative watchdog group that looked at the work provided by Aramark. Since in July 2016, the company has done food preparation and delivery for 22 prisons and regional jails in the state.
In a report dated Dec. 18 and publicly released last week, the legislative PEER Committee said the company has fallen short of staffing obligations and has not provided the type of training specified under the state contract.
More: Prison population in Mississippi heading up, despite reforms
The report also found that the Mississippi Department of Corrections could save money by participating in a USDA food distribution program, which it hasn't done since 2006.
PEER is the Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review.
by: Jimmie E. Gates
date: 2018-01-21
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/01/22/international-child-custody-dispute-mississippi/1054448001/
Download The Clarion-Ledger app for free on the Apple app store or Google Play. Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger
(Photo: File photo/The Clarion-Ledger)
An international custody dispute is playing out in federal court in Jackson.
Robert and Rachel Hinkel, who were married in 2003, have two sons, ages 13 and 9. In September 2015, Robert Hinkel moved to Japan. Two months later, Rachel and the children moved to Japan.
The couple had been living in Japan until Nov. 30 when Rachel is alleged to have brought the children back to the United States.
Now, Robert Hinkel has filed a petition in court in Jackson seeking to have the children returned to Japan and for a court there to decide custody. The petition was filed last week. Rachel Hinkel couldn't be reached for comment.
“Prior to that (Nov. 30), the only time the children weren’t in Japan was during a seven- to eight-week period during the summer of 2017, and approximately four days in Singapore in September,” Robert Hinkel said in his petition to have the children returned to Japan.
The petition isn’t intended to seek legal custody, care and control and physical possession of the children. It says the purpose is to obtain a return of the children to Japan as opposed to returning them to Robert Hinkel.
But Hinkel is requesting a temporary order giving him sole custody of the children for the purpose of returning them to Japan where the Japanese court can adjudicate the parties’ respective claims and rights to custody.
“Rachel’s wrongful removal and retention of the parties’ minor children has significantly interrupted the relationship between Robert and the children, and has caused immediate and irreparable harm to Robert and the children,” Hinkel’s petition says.
The petition, filed under the Hague Convention and the International Child Abduction Remedies Act, said Rachel has wrongfully retained the children in the United States.
The petition doesn’t say specifically where the children are in the United States, but said they are in the jurisdiction of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi.
The petition asks a federal judge to direct Rachel to appear before the court and have the children with her and for her to show cause why the children shouldn’t be delivered to Robert and or an officer of the United States secretary of state for the purpose to returning them to Japan.
The petition also seeeks a court order requiring Rachel to pay her husband’s travel expenses, legal costs and fees.
Hinkel’s attorney, David Bridges of Ridgeland, filed the petition on behalf of Robert Hinkel. Bridges said Monday he expects there to be an expedited hearing in the case.
"Our position is that the children have been habitual residents of Japan," Bridges said.
Bridges said it's not to say who should win the case, but it is clear in law that the children should be returned to Japan and decision made there on custody.
The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves.
by: Anna Wolfe
date: 2018-01-22
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2018/01/23/mental-health-task-force-reconsiders-closed-meeting-policy/1058253001/
Download The Clarion-Ledger app for free on the Apple app store or Google Play. Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger
(Photo: Rogelio V. Solis, File photo/AP)
The Mississippi Mental Health Task Force, which was convened by Attorney General Jim Hood and has been meeting out of public view since October, has reconsidered its position on closed meetings.
The attorney general had originally given task force members the option to have meetings open to the news media and a majority voted in favor of closed meetings.
The task force is made up of representatives from more than 30 agencies, many that serve folks with mental illnesses. The group includes health care professionals, judges, law enforcement officers, academics and advocates, as well as lawmakers Rep. Chris Bell, D-Jackson, Rep. Becky Currie, R-Brookhaven, Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory, and Rep. Bryant Clark, D-Pickens.
The Clarion Ledger wrote in December that its reporter had been barred from attending the task force's Dec. 6 meeting. The paper subsequently filed a complaint with the Mississippi Ethics Commission.
The attorney general's spokeswoman, Margaret Morgan, claimed in December the group is not subject to the Open Meetings Act because it is not drafting legislation or policy, only recommendations. Morgan also said sunshine laws don't apply because the task force wasn't created through statute and the attorney general's office isn't considered a public body where meetings are concerned.
On Dec. 19, Hood sent a new poll to task force members, and a majority voted to include members of the media.
"Some task force members are not willing to speak to due to the restrictions from their employers. However, we will provide a separate space for interviews of any Mental Health Task Force members that are willing to speak with members of the media," states a Jan. 23 email from Hood to members.
Hood's office is defending the state in a lawsuit the U.S. Department of Justice filed against Mississippi in 2016 for its delivery of mental health services. The state is accused of having too great a reliance on institutional versus community-based care. The Mississippi Mental Health Task Force is meeting to discuss multidisciplinary solutions to the state's mental health system.
On Jan. 19, Hood's office responded to the Clarion Ledger's ethics complaint and argued that the attorney general is not subject to open meetings because "neither the Attorney General himself nor the Office of the Attorney General is a public body under Open Meetings Act."
The Mental Health Task Force's next meeting is Jan. 25.
by: Geoff Pender
date: 2018-01-22
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2018/01/23/free-community-college-tech-fields-house-passes-bill/1059309001/
State Workforce Investment Board chairman Jay Moon talks about integrating technology and workforce development at the Conference on Technology Innovation in Jackson. Video by Clay Chandler.
(Photo: Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger)
The House overwhelmingly passed a bill — pushed by Gov. Phil Bryant — to cover tuition for any Mississippian to go community college for vocational-technical studies.
The Mississippi Career-Tech Scholars Program, including funding of $7 million, passed the House 111-2 after brief debate.
House Bill 405, which now heads to the Senate, would cover any legal state resident accepted to a community college in a vocational-technical field, provided they maintain at least a 2.0 grade point average. It would cover any tuition cost after the student has exhausted all other federal, state and institutional aid available to them.
"This is consistent with community colleges all over the nation," said Rep. Greg Holloway, D-Hazlehurst. He said the costs in many cases would only be a few hundred dollars per student because they are already eligible for other assistance and this program would just cover the remainder. He said it would cover only tuition, not books or room and board or other expenses.
More than two dozen Mississippi counties already provide similar tuition-gap coverage for high school students going directly into community colleges.
Rep. Greg Holloway (Photo: File Photo/The Clarion-Ledger)
Bryant had called on lawmakers to pass the measure in the name of workforce development and included it in his budget recommendation.
"Our community colleges are the center of workforce development," Bryant said in his recent state-of-the-state. "... We can do more to help our community colleges bridge the skills gap that exists today ... We must increase our workforce and we must do it now."
The bill was authored by House Universities and Colleges Chairman Nolan Mettetal, R-Sardis, with Vice Chairman Holloway handling its passage. Only Reps. Joel Bomgar, R-Madison, and Dana Criswell, R-Olive Branch, voted against it.
Although he voted for the bill, Rep. Mark Baker, R-Brandon, raised questions about it, including why it wouldn't apply to students in academic fields and why the grade requirement was only 2.0.
"For students that have only a 2.0 average?" Baker said. "That's not a scholarship. That's a grant program for anyone going to community college, right?"
Holloway said: "You can graduate MSU with a degree in organic chemistry with a 2.0 ... When you call an electrician or a plumber to stop a faucet from running, do you ask them if they have a 2.0 before you let them stop the faucet from running? ... Sometimes you can have a 2.0 and have a whole lot of common sense."
by: Ronald Fraser
date: 2018-01-15
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/opinion/columnists/2018/01/16/county-prosecutors-play-major-role-mass-incarcerations/1036711001/
The Trump administration is calling for tougher charges and longer prison time for criminals. Accoring to a United States Department of Justice memo, the administration wants to return to strict enforcement of mandatory minimum-sentencing rules. Attorney General Jeff Sessions reversed course from the previous Obama administration, telling the nation's 94 U.S. attorneys in a letter to "charge and pursue the most serious, readily provable offense." In recent years, there has been growing bipartisan interest in Congress that states and the courts should reevaluate lengthy prison terms because of the nations mass incarceration problem. Wochit
For the first time since 1972, the number of people behind bars in American prisons and jails in 2015 declined slightly to 2.2 million, down from 2.4 million in 2010. That’s the good news.
Fordham Law School professor John F. Pfaff, however, warns in his new book, “Locked In: The True Causes of Mass Incarceration and How to Achieve Real Reform,” that continued decline in prison populations will not come easily.
While he credits a decrease in the number of people in prison for drug crimes for the recent inmate decline, Pfaff stresses that “focusing on drugs will only work in the short run.”
He argues that the drug war, contrary to popular belief, is not the primary cause of prison growth. “About 200,000 people in state prisons and another 100,000 in federal institutions are serving time for drug crimes ... Freeing every single person who is in a state prison on a drug charge would only cut state prison populations back to where they were in 1996-1997, well into the ‘mass incarceration’ period.” That reduction would be a big improvement, but it does not go far enough.
Ronald Fraser (Photo: Special to the Clarion Ledger)
If ending the drug war will not, by itself, end mass incarceration, what will? We first need to acknowledge that mass incarceration is primarily a state and local, not federal, challenge. The burden is mainly on state and local officials to put into place reforms restricting the growth of prison and jail admissions.
The real culprit behind our out-of-control prison populations is our 2,000-plus out-of-control state and local prosecutors — including county prosecuting attorneys in Mississippi — who are able to coerce plea bargains and avoid trials in more than 95 percent of all cases they decide to prosecute.
“Prosecutors,” Pfaff tells us, “have been and remain the engines driving mass incarceration. Acting with wide discretion and little oversight, they are largely responsible for the staggering rise in admissions since the early 1990s ... (and) ... no major piece of state-level reform legislation has directly challenged prosecutorial power.”
Pfaff suggests a number of needed changes while admitting they are a hard sell.
• Toughen the defense. Too few public defenders and other counsel for the indigent are available to properly represent defendants. Ensuring that all persons charged with a crime are well-defended will level the legal playing field somewhat and limit the wide discretion prosecutors now enjoy in handling cases.
• Better data. There is too little available data to allow the public to meaningfully assess the performance of prosecutors. Are prosecutors, for example, using pleas when a dismissal is warranted or offering weak pleas to avoid an acquittal? These, and many more questions, need answers.
• Appoint prosecutors. In all but three states (Alaska, Connecticut and New Jersey), prosecutors are elected to office. How can voters cast informed ballots in the absence of public information concerning the performance of incumbent prosecutors running for reelection. Appointing prosecutors will both add professional accountability and lessen pressures on prosecutors to cater to suburban voters calling for aggressive prosecution of inner-city crimes — often with adverse impacts on targeted neighborhoods.
• Guidance. Well-designed state guidelines are needed to restrain decisions that drive up prison admissions. Such guidelines could inform prosecutors when they ought to press charges and risk sending the defendant to prison, or diverting the accused to probationary treatment, or other options. New Jersey alone has imposed such guidelines on prosecutors.
Ultimately ending mass incarceration will depend on a cultural shift in America to an alternate view of how we, as a society, deal with crime. Instead of branding persons convicted of a crime — even a violent crime — with an ever-lasting “offender” stigma. Pfaff suggests states experiment with pilot programs seeking a better set of options, including graduated-release programs and early release for inmates over the age of 40 or who have served more than 15 years of a sentence.
“By showing the transitory nature of violent behavior, and by showing released people not acting like they did when they were younger,” Pfaff hopes that,”graduated release programs could subtly shift the public’s attitude about the permanence of violence.”
The author ends on this hopeful note: “The movement against mass incarceration had no option but to start where it did, focusing on drugs and other non-violent crimes.” But he maintains it is time to move on to the harder cases, and the time to start making that move is now.
Ronald Fraser writes on public policy issues for the DKT Liberty Projeclt, a Washington-based civil liberties organization. Contact him at fraserr@erols.com.
by: Myrlie Evers
date: 2018-01-16
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/opinion/columnists/2018/01/17/myrlie-evers-racism-united-states-under-donald-trump/1037117001/
Myrlie Evers, the widow of slain civil rights activist Medgar Evers, talks about her emotions fifty years after her husband was assassinated, and about her part in the inauguration of President Barack Obama. (June 11) AP
While this nation spent Monday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I spent the day wiping away tears.
Weeping for a nation that I still believe in.
Weeping for a nation that has traded its dream of a colorblind society for one that is simply blind.
Weeping for a nation where racism, once believed dead, has begun to bud and bloom.
My late husband, Medgar Evers, knew Dr. King well. They both worked tirelessly to end the Jim Crow laws that barred African-Americans from restaurants, restrooms and voting booths.
That work made them targets of derision and hate.
My husband, who fought the Nazis in Normandy, welcomed the day that President John F. Kennedy made his first civil rights speech, saying the nation “will not be fully free until all its citizens are free. … The heart of the question is … whether we are going to treat our fellow Americans as we want to be treated.”
Story continues below gallery.
If an American with dark skin “cannot enjoy the full and free life which all of us want,” the president said, “then who among us would be content to have the color of his skin changed and stand in his place?”
Hours after that June 11, 1963, speech, hate stole the life of my husband as he arrived outside our home in Jackson.
I still felt numb when Dr. King and other civil rights leaders arrived for my husband’s funeral. Afterward, thousands marched in the streets, declaring, “After Medgar, no more fear.”
In the years that followed, I became close friends with Betty Shabazz and Coretta Scott King, all of us sharing the painful legacy of “the widows of.”
More: Trump a racist? Oh, give me a break!
We talked of our children, our families, our late husbands and the dreams we still clutched for the nation of our birth.
President Trump on Jan. 12 praised Dr. King for “standing up for the self-evident truth Americans hold so dear, that no matter the color of our skin, or the place of our birth we are all created equal by God.”
I believe these words, and I would have welcomed them, if not for the president reportedly disparaging non-white nations with a hateful vulgarity, letting us know that our place of birth does matter to him.
I was born in Mississippi, where a new civil rights museum has been built to honor those male and female, young and old, black and white, who brought change to this state and indeed this nation.
As I toured that museum and gazed at photographs of those in the civil rights movement, I felt the blows. I felt the cries. I felt the horror.
And as my tears overwhelmed me, I sensed the hope that dwelled in the hearts of these heroes. On Dec. 9, the president visited that museum, and afterward, he addressed me by my first name, instead of “Mrs. Evers.”
That moment disturbed me since I had not given him permission to call me by my first name. My husband and so many others spent their lives fighting for the right to be treated with dignity and respect.
That moment transported me back to the days of Jim Crow when whites refused to use courtesy titles toward African-Americans, such as “Mr.” or “Mrs.” Instead, whites called us by our first names or, worse, yelled out, “Boy” or “Girl.”
That moment transported me back to the days of Jim Crow when my husband investigated the murder of Emmett Till and so many others, prompting the Ku Klux Klan to place his name on a “death list.”
That moment transported me back to that night when I ran outside and saw him writhing on our driveway, his white shirt soaked in blood.
Although dark forces are surrounding us again today, I still believe in hope, not hate. I still believe in courage, not cowardice. I still believe in the values that Medgar Evers lived and died for. As my 85th birthday nears, I am more determined than ever to see that those values persist — values that continue to make this nation great.
Myrlie Evers is the founder of the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Institute.
by: Sid Salter
date: 2018-01-16
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/opinion/columnists/2018/01/17/killens-death-closes-shameful-chapter-mississippis-history/1040589001/
Download The Clarion-Ledger app for free on the Apple app store or Google Play. Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger
(Photo: Special to The Clarion-Ledger)
STARKVILLE – There was a generation of Mississippians who not only were unapologetic for their involvement in violent institutional racism enforced by fear and mob rule, but were likewise rather proud of their notorious reputations earned in pursuit of those misguided and dangerous goals.
That’s the cold, ominous persona I remember being projected by a Ku Klux Klansman that I regularly encountered on the streets and in the grocery stores aisles of my hometown of Philadelphia.
One of the really fine things about the recent opening of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum in Jackson is that the murders of Andrew Goodman, James Earl Chaney, and Michael Schwerner will never be forgotten.
Future generations of Mississippians will in perpetuity have a chance to learn the hard but necessary lessons that it took far too many in our state far too long to learn — that American civil rights are supposed to freely and organically extend to all men and women regardless their race, color, creed, religion, or national origin.
Schwerner, Goodman and Chaney were murdered in Neshoba County on June 21, 1964, by members of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. The trio was detained subsequent to their attempts to investigate of the burning of an African American church in the county and later shot to death on an isolated rural road.
A massive FBI investigation into the murders of the three produced 21 arrests, 18 indictments and seven convictions on federal charges of conspiracy to violate the civil rights of the slain trio by men linked to the Klan.
But despite those 1967 conspiracy convictions, none of the men implicated in the Neshoba murders ever faced the scrutiny of a state court grand jury considering murder charges against them — not until Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood and Neshoba County District Attorney Mark Duncan in 2005 took a state murder case to trial against ordained Baptist minister and sawmill operator Edgar Ray “Preacher” Killen — the reputed “kleagle” or local organizer for the KKK in Neshoba County.
Killen received a mistrial in the 1967 case, but in 2005 was convicted on three counts of manslaughter and sentenced to three 20-year terms in the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. His conviction in Neshoba County came 41 years to the day after Schwerner, Goodman and Chaney were murdered.
Four days short of his 93rd birthday, Killen died in prison at Parchman last week on Jan. 11. Duncan is now a circuit judge in Mississippi’s Eighth District, which encompasses Neshoba County. Hood is still the state’s attorney general and many believe the odds-on favorite — if he wants the job — as the Democratic nominee for Mississippi governor in the 2019 general election.
In 2016, the federal and state law enforcement community announced the official closing of the “Mississippi Burning” case – citing the fact that the passage of more than a half-century had left no credible investigative leads to follow and that death had claimed virtually every potential defendant from the original list of federal indictments. Was true justice ever rendered in the 1964 Neshoba County civil rights murders? No.
But originally, federal prosecutors fought the fight as far as Mississippians would help them carry it in the political and social climate of the 1960s. In 2005, Mississippians and Neshoba Countians were ready to exorcise the Klan demons from the county’s psyche and sought justice free of federal urgings.
Edgar Ray Killen was a powerful symbol of Klan lawlessness in our state and the lack of political and social will to confront that lawlessness at the time it occurred. His conviction, unlikely as it was in the twilight of his life at the age of 79, was just as powerful a symbol of how far the state had come in a half-century.
While full justice was eluded in the 1964 Neshoba County case, racism in less violent but no less injurious forms remains an evil in some circles in Mississippi. The passing of “Preacher” Killen signals that perhaps it’s time to move forward from these old atrocities and engage and confront the new and evolving ones.
Sid Salter is a contributing columnist. Contact him at sidsalter@sidsalter.com.
by: Christina Dent
date: 2018-01-17
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/opinion/columnists/2018/01/18/pregnant-moms-addicted-drugs-need-help-not-jail/1044279001/
Download The Clarion-Ledger app for free on the Apple app store or Google Play. Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger
(Photo: Special to The Clarion-Ledger)
When we became a foster family three years ago, I was certain of at least one thing: mothers who used drugs while they were pregnant should have their babies taken away. I had never met any of these moms before but I couldn’t conceive how anyone who loved their child could expose them to drugs. Certainly our home would be a better place for their baby, I thought. Ironically, it was fostering a baby exposed to drugs and meeting his mom that made me question our punitive approach to pregnant women struggling with addiction. I’m convinced now that arresting these moms, or categorically putting their babies in foster care without further investigation, is not reducing harm. It’s making things worse for these children.
In November, Nikki Cox-Musgrove from Pearl was sentenced to 15 years in prison for obtaining a controlled substance by fraud and exposing her unborn child to opioids. Her addiction, which led to doctor shopping and using while pregnant, was treated by our laws as criminal activity instead of the serious health crisis it was. And that difference just took a child’s mother away for 15 years.
The best case scenario for babies is that their moms aren’t using drugs. But if they are using, even while pregnant, then our best approach for reducing harm to the child is to help them and get them into treatment immediately. Instead, we use threats of criminal punishment, which only pushes moms AWAY from prenatal care that could reduce harm. How can we expect these moms to seek help when they’re seeing mugshots of moms just like them, on statewide news stories, being imprisoned? That’s terrifying. We can’t terrify and traumatize people out of addiction. We’ve tried that for decades, and it has failed spectacularly while leaving millions of destroyed lives in its wake.
Sometimes when pregnant mothers use drugs, their babies are born dependent on those drugs. The New York Times reported in July that hospitals in Kentucky and New Hampshire are trying a new approach with these newborns, with promising results. Instead of taking dependent babies away from their moms at birth, they’re keeping them together in low-stimulation private rooms and teaching moms how to comfort, nurture, and bond with their babies. They’ve found that surrounding moms and babies with this kind of compassionate support has significantly reduced the number of newborns who need any drugs after they’re born to taper their dependence. We may be separating these babies from the medicine they need most, their mom.
I’ll never forget bringing one of our newborn foster sons to his first visit with his mom and watching her sprint across the parking lot to my van and cover him with kisses. Over time I saw that she was a mom just like me, whose love for her son was as deep as my love for my own sons, even though she couldn’t beat her addiction while she was pregnant. Drug addiction does not equal a lack of love. It is a complex health crisis, and should be handled by doctors and therapists, not the criminal justice system.
Our goal should be reducing harm to babies and reducing harm to parents. Who benefits from Nikki in prison for 15 years? She doesn’t. Her child doesn’t. The taxpayers don’t. Moms like her are driven further from help. And when our policies destabilize families that are already vulnerable, the broader community suffers too. If this was justice by law, then our laws are unjust and we must demand change.
by: Rochelle Riley
date: 2018-01-17
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/opinion/columnists/2018/01/18/trump-rips-father-his-family-because-he-can-shame-america-letting-him/1044558001/
Download The Clarion-Ledger app for free on the Apple app store or Google Play. Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger
(Photo: Regina H. Boone, Detroit Free Press)
The word isn’t deported. The word is exiled. No, the word is sentenced.
Jorge Garcia came to America as a child. He has lived in America for three decades, has worked and paid taxes and spent more than $125,000 trying to become a citizen like his wife and children. But America, the land of the free and home of the brave, the country that has welcomed immigrants since its inception, told him that he must go to Mexico — the land of his birth, but not the land of his life.
He stood at Detroit Metro Airport on the holiday that honors Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., watched over by Immigration and Customs Enforcement guards and angry supporters, and said goodbye as his 15-year-old daughter sobbed on his shoulder and his wife cried out his name. His son had few words. Jorge Garcia wasn't going home. He was being sentenced to prison in a foreign country away from family and friends. I couldn’t read Niraj Warikoo’s story about him without shedding tears.
Who could?
We know who could: the unfeeling elected officials who are in haste to make America their America: a place where Norwegians are welcome but Haitians aren’t, a place that tears children from their parents’ arms and parents from their crying children.
Jorge Garcia had never even had a traffic ticket. But Donald Trump has convinced Americans — you know, the ones who think they’re perfect, who think their children are perfect and whose idea of perfection doesn’t include diversity — that foreigners are bad for our country. So people like Jorge Garcia become victims.
Trump, who said last week that America should want immigrants from places like Norway rather than Haiti, has made his bigotry against immigrants known. And no case makes the heartbreaking truth clearer than this one.
Garcia, a 39-year-old landscaper who hasn’t lived in Mexico since he was 10, was brought to this country by an undocumented relative. He was deported simply because he was a target of bigoted policies hastily drawn. Now, his family will suffer while some people will cheer.
Garcia may be barred from entering the U.S. for at least 10 years, his wife told the Free Press.
That is the same as a prison sentence. And Jorge Garcia was Trumped to make a point.
Shame on us.
Shame on an America that would allow what the Republican Party and its leader are doing to the very fabric of our country.
How was Garcia able to remain in America so long? He had faced numerous court orders of removal since 2009, but President Barack Obama’s administration granted stays. The Obama administration knew the difference between a hardworking landscaper and a rapist or thug, a label Trump draped on most undocumented immigrants.
The Trump administration’s immigration crackdown acknowledges no such difference, treating hardworking family men like criminals. Oh, and who’s stepping in to take the landscaping job Garcia had, the one that some will claim belongs to someone Trump prefers? Perhaps a Norwegian who isn’t a professor or writer? I want to see the line for that job.
There have been many victims of the GOP’s bigoted push to make America look and be more like most of them: white, male, with money:
Poor people without health care.
Immigrants from countries that aren’t Norway.
Women.
Shame on us for allowing it to continue.
On the day America celebrated King, whose fight for people of all colors and economic levels got him killed, Trump kicked a family man out of his country to prove a point. And the GOP stood by and watched, or, in some cases, applauded.
They took a man from his family, his children, his American life, so they could say they did.
Diego Bonesatti, legal services director for Michigan United, one of the many agencies that is fighting to bring Garcia back home, said it best: "This is his home. This is the place he knows.”
Jorge Garcia just received a prison sentence, plain and simple, from people who should be ashamed, but who know no shame, from some who may go to prison themselves if there is any justice left in America by the time Trump tears it to shreds.
And as the fight to bring Jorge Garcia back home continues, America should weep.
Rochelle Riley is a columnist for the Detroit Free Press, where this piece first appeared.
by: Therese Apel
date: 2018-01-17
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/01/18/former-tchula-chief-levels-misconduct-accusations-yazoo-city-police-department/1013788001/
Tchula Police Chief Kenneth Hampton talks about his unique brand of policing in Tchula, Miss. Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger
(Photo: Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger)
Kenneth Hampton, known nationwide when he was Tchula's police chief for his no-nonsense social media approach, walked into a Yazoo City Council executive session a little over a week ago, hat in hand.
He had a summary of events leading to his termination as a Yazoo City police officer to present to the board, including some situations that, on their face, seemed to need attention.
Hampton said he simply wanted a chance to answer questions and get some answers, but was told the board wouldn't entertain either.
Since making local, state and national headlines for his hard-charging way of approaching the law, Hampton's life has been about navigating the politics of small town policing.
In Tchula, where he resigned under pressure as chief last year, has a population of less than 2,000; Yazoo City has a little over 11,000 residents.
Ron Sampson in 2010 photo
Hampton's navigation through small town policing also put him in the direct path of Yazoo City Police Chief Ron Sampson, who left Jackson Police Department a few years ago after a career fraught with accusations of sexual harassment and discrimination and an investigation that led to his demotion.
But Sampson's past would have no bearing on Hampton's future.
Despite a body camera recording, shared with the Clarion Ledger, of many of the incidents he reported to the mayor and Board of Aldermen, Hampton found himself answering the door to two fellow officers, sent by Sampson to hand him his walking papers and gather his gun and badge. When he asked them what was going on, Hampton said they responded, "The chief has us on some bulls--t."
Sampson has not returned calls and messages seeking comment.
Hampton said he went inside the house to get his badge and gun, and when he came back out, one officer was positioned off the porch and the other at the corner of the house in a police tactic often used when someone is suspected of being dangerous.
Hampton lays out his case
One situation Hampton said he brought to the board involved a night when former Yazoo City police officer Kenny Lewis had been in a verbal argument with his ex-wife about providing a Thanksgiving turkey for their children.
The fight had started at Lewis' ex-wife's house. Lewis then followed her vehicle when she left the house. The fight never became physical, according to Hampton's report, and ended a few streets over.
Hampton said Sampson told him over the phone that Lewis had kicked in the door. But when he arrived at the home, he said the door was not damaged, there was no evidence it had been kicked in and there was no evidence of domestic violence. Hampton said he went out of his way to document the situation in his report.
Lewis, a Yazoo City police officer for over 10 years, had no complaints on his record before Sampson was hired as chief in August. He said he believes two things put him on city leaders' bad list. One was when he told Sampson he could not, in his capacity working for the state fire marshal's office, close down a business the chief suspected of being a "club." Lewis told the chief a city fire marshal would have to take that action.
The chief didn't seem to like that, he said. He said authorities also didn't seem like his response to local allegations made about Mayor Diane Delaware.
"When this mayor got elected, several people had come to me and told me that she’s been riding in the city vehicle drunk," he said. "I made the statement that I hope I don’t catch her because I’m going to lock her up."
His comment allegedly made its back to the mayor, the officers said.
Asked about his statement, Delaware laughed and said, "Oh, my gosh. No comment."
Delaware also denied any personal issues with Lewis.
What happened the night of Lewis' argument with his ex-wife, however, has raised questions when Hampton said Sampson insisted, despite the evidence, that he arrest Lewis on a domestic violence charge.
"I told the chief that he didn't understand the totality of the situation, and I couldn't charge him with domestic violence because the incident did not fit the criteria for the charge and it wouldn't stick," Hampton said in his report to the aldermen. "Chief Sampson stated, 'Oh, you can make any charge stick.'"
Hampton said he went on to tell Sampson he was not going to sign his name to a false affidavit. He said Sampson replied, "I said lock his ass up and charge him with domestic violence and I better see the report on my desk in the morning."
Instead, Lewis was issued a ticket for running a stop sign during the course of the incident. When Hampton asked Sampson if he had read the report, Sampson allegedly told him he had disobeyed a direct order. Hampton said he told Sampson he believed the order to be unlawful and couldn't follow it in good conscience.
Hampton said Sampson told him, “You’ve got me out here looking like a fool," because he had called the mayor to tell her Lewis had been locked up.
Lewis was fired months before Hampton in much the same manner. He said Sampson had sent officers to deliver the news, but since they contacted him before coming, he was able to meet them somewhere instead of having it happen at his house in front of his family and neighbors.
Hampton's termination letter stated he was fired for "repeated documented violations of the established Rules, Regulations and General Orders and your failure to conform through the process of progressive discipline dating back to Jan. 15, 2015," but that he wasn't told any specific instances.
Lewis said his termination letter was equally vague.
But Alderman Jack Varner said, at least in Hampton's case, Sampson laid out a long list of reasons Hampton was fired.
"He wouldn’t follow orders time after time, the chief documented time after time to the board," Varner said.
Hampton said he was never apprised of those incidents. He said he asked for his personnel file and found things in it he was unaware of, including a report that alleged he was under investigation for a burglary.
"There’s a lot of things that Hampton's not aware of," Varner said when asked if the board had discussed the allegations in Hampton's file with him.
Hampton said he had been to the mayor in person, contacted her by email and provided her with videos of problems he perceived within the department. When asked about it, Delaware said, "I talked to Kenny a lot. I don't remember a specific instance."
Varner referred to Hampton as "a smartass."
"He didn’t do his job, he was not a satisfactory officer, he was smart with the people, and didn’t fit our police department," Varner said.
Why them?
Hampton and Lewis say they feel they were targeted because they followed the rules rather than orders that ventured outside the lines.
Alderman Aubrey Brent agreed. He described Hampton as "aggressive" and "respectable," yet "gung ho." He said Hampton would not do favors, no matter who an offender knew.
"He knew the law and he did his job. When you do your job, people are going to talk about you," he said.
Brent, who has called multiple times for Sampson's firing, said Sampson was not forthcoming when he was hired about situations during his tenure at Jackson Police Department. Sampson was investigated and demoted on charges of misusing a Fuelman card and accused by female officers of sexual harassment and discrimination. Brent said he learned about those things after Sampson was hired and was told by multiple people to Google his name.
"My main issue was the non-transparency in the hiring of this man with the board. He interviewed well with his knowledge of the law, but he didn’t tell us about his personal issues," Brent said. "I’m saying to myself, 'This guy didn’t tell us any of this, and he should have put this on the table even if he was innocent.'"
Media reports from 2008 show Sampson was demoted to commander from deputy chief after an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint was filed by JPD Officer Wanda Camel and Sgt. Amy Barlow.
The complaint forms, which were given to WLBT at the time, described an incident in which Sampson allegedly told Camel to meet him behind Calloway High School in January 2008 and then directed her to "get rid of those white _ _," which referred to some white officers working off-duty security at an apartment complex.
The complaint stated those remarks were particularly directed at Barlow. Sampson did not know that Camel had her cellphone in her pocket with the line open and that Barlow was listening.
The report also states Sampson told Camel to "give him some." When Camel asked what he meant, Camel said Sampson clarified that he wanted sex, but "did not use that word."
A letter from the women's attorney, Ed Flechas, alleged Sampson was believed to have been "under the influence of an intoxicating liquor at this time due to the strong odor of alcohol emanating from deputy chief Sampson's person and vehicle."
Barlow reported the incident to internal affairs the next day. According to Flechas, Barlow and Camel passed polygraph tests on the situation, but Sampson did not.
Sampson left JPD to work for the Hinds County Sheriff's Department as a deputy chief in 2013. In 2015, then-Mayor Johnny DuPree nominated him for Hattiesburg police chief, but the City Council rejected the nomination.
WDAM-TV published a letter from Hattiesburg's chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police to the City Council members in which officers voiced concerns about Sampson "due to his integrity and work ethic."
"The references for the said characteristics have been found to be credible and leads the HFOP to believe that this candidate does not possess the qualities or qualifications desired in a leader that will fully restore the Hattiesburg Police Department," Lt. Allen Murray wrote.
Brent said he would not have voted to terminate Hampton had he been at the meeting that day because of the personal issues between Hampton and Sampson, but that he believes some of the chief's orders were "not proper."
When asked if she had ever been told Sampson was giving orders that could be improper, Delaware said, "I know of no such situation."
Brent said a female officer told him she was being harassed by a superior, an accusation corroborated by other officers.
"I told (Sampson) I wanted him to investigate that officer because the city doesn’t need a lawsuit," Brent said.
Hampton referred to that officer in the list of grievances he gave the board: "I have been personally told by both Sampson and the detective to write the female officer up on any and every thing that would look negative in her personnel file. Even though the incident took place at the workplace and was witnessed by fellow officers, no suspension or termination was suggested by the command staff or the city's board of Mayor and Aldermen."
Brent also said he has taken issue with Sampson's secrecy and for his allegedly telling his officers not to talk to the aldermen. He said he had heard Sampson remark in a board meeting that he answers "only to the mayor."
Under Yazoo City's charter, the mayor and the aldermen, who are all elected, carry the same powers, Varner said. While the mayor runs the meetings, her vote counts the same as the other four aldermen.
"The board does not run the police department, we pay the chief to do it," Varner said.
But in 2016, Ward 3 Alderman Gregory Robertson asked then-Police Chief Jeff Curtis for information the chief didn't feel comfortable releasing. The mayor and board voted 3-2 to suspend him without pay and require him to attend a conflict resolution class, citing the reason as "insubordination to an alderman."
Curtis, who ended up resigning, told the local paper, "I received no letters, no legal documents, no written formality" about his suspension.
Varner maintains any current problems with the department fall directly at Hampton's feet.
"We have no problems in our police department," he said. "We terminated him, he was insubordinate. That’s all I’ve got to say. Bye."
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by: Jimmie E. Gates
date: 2018-01-17
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2018/01/18/mississippi-receives-b-human-trafficking-laws/1043786001/
Gov. Bryant says human trafficking is a problem in Mississippi. Video by Jimmie E. Gates
Mississippi improves to a B on the latest report on states' human trafficking laws, but some on the frontline to stop human sex trafficking say more needs to be done when it comes to helping victims on the street level.
Mississippi has improved from a D five years ago to a B, which is a good score, said Sarah Bendtsen of Shared Hope International,
The Vancouver, Washington-based group strives to prevent the conditions that foster sex trafficking, restore victims of sex slavery and bring justice to vulnerable women and children.
The national nonprofit provides an annual state report card on human trafficking laws.
Mississippi passed a law in 2013 dealing with human trafficking. In 2015, Gov. Phil Bryant appointed a human trafficking task force to research and make recommendations on combating trafficking.
Bendtsen said although the state has a good score, it could be better if human trafficking training for law enforcement were mandatory.
"It is critical to receive trafficking training," Bendtsen said.
Human trafficking training is voluntarily taught at the Mississippi Law Enforcement Training Academy, but there is no law mandating such training across the state for law enforcement.
Bendtsen said it is critical for law enforcement to be trained to identify cases of human trafficking.
As an example, in some cases, a minor female will be arrested and prosecuted for prostitution when she is actually a victim of human trafficking, said Sandy Middleton of the Center for Violence Prevention.
The center operates the state's only shelter and program for human trafficking victims. The Tower provides trauma-informed, mid- to long-term care for victims and will work to achieve victim safety, recovery and restoration. But it serves adults only. There is no specialized program for child victims.
Pearl Assistant Police Chief Dean Scott, a member of the Central Mississippi Human Trafficking Task Force, said that often minors on the run from a bad situation at home will engage in what he termed survival sex in exchange for basic needs.
Scott said more needs to be done to help those on the frontline to deal with victims of human trafficking. He said funds and other mandates stop at the department and executive level and never reach the street level where help is needed.
He said it can be difficult to get someone from Child Protective Services to come out when called to investigate a potential case of child sex trafficking at certain motels in the Jackson area.
In his case, Scott said the safest thing is to place a minor in juvenile detention than to leave them at the scene if there is no place to get them help.
Rep. Andy Gipson, R-Braxton, asked at a meeting Wednesday where the parents are in such cases.
Scott and others say many times parents or some family member are the ones trafficking children, often to obtain drugs.
Gipson, chairman of the House Judiciary B Committee, said he is open to his committee discussing any change in law to make the state's human trafficking laws more effective.
Middleton said the system is broken when it comes to investigating human trafficking. There are conflicts in laws as to where to report human trafficking cases and who should investigate.
"It needs to be investigated by law enforcement, not private groups," Middleton said.
Red Flags for Human Trafficking:
• Not free to leave or come and go.
• Under 18 and providing commercial sex acts.
• In commercial sex industry and pimp or madam.
• Unpaid, paid very little, or paid only through tips.
• Not in control of his or her money, and/or has no financial records, or bank account.
• Works excessively long or unusual hours.
• Not allowed breaks, suffers unusual restrictions at work.
• Overcrowded, substandard living conditions..
Teen victims
Common red flags for teen victims include: significantly older boyfriend, travel with an older male, not a guardian, chronic runaway, multiple delinquency charges, homelessness and substance abuse.
by: Billy Watkins
date: 2018-01-17
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/magnolia/2018/01/18/jackson-church-addiction-ministry-more-than-drugs-alcohol/1042544001/
Central Community Church of God in Jackson, Mississippi, has an addiction ministry to help those in recovery, says The Rev. Calvin D. Waddy, Jr. Billy Watkins/Clarion Ledger
It doesn’t take long to find someone who needs addiction recovery.
“Just look in the mirror,” says the Rev. Calvin D. Waddy Jr. of Central Community Church of God in west Jackson. “When we hear the word ‘recovery,’ we automatically think about drugs, alcohol or gambling. But everyone — and I do mean everyone — needs recovery of some sort.
“It might be recovery from an addiction to food, social media, sex, work, shopping, grief, television, hoarding. No one is exempt. We all have things that overpower us and things that control us that we need help with.”
That is why Waddy started an addiction ministry at his church last February with the help of Tamritha “Tami” Dean, 49, of Jackson.
She understands addiction all too well.
Dean was sexually abused at age 9. She began using drugs and alcohol as a teenager.
“I figured when I got ready to go to college I could quit using with no problem,” she says. “That didn’t work out. I wanted to fit in with my peers, and I went beyond the call of duty.”
Dean’s mother sent her to rehab five times.
“Before going back in for the fifth time, I really didn’t even want to use — but I did, anyway,” Dean says. “After that fifth one, I wanted to quit.
“What I finally realized was that I wasn’t in rehab just for alcohol and drugs. It was the abuse that triggered all of my bad decisions. That was the root of it. I had never come to grips with the abuse, and it controlled me.
“I was raised in the church. I had tried to make deals with God — ‘I’ll do this if you’ll do that.’ But I never kept up my end of it. I figured God wouldn’t listen to me anymore.
“But I learned in the Bible that he would, that he’s bigger than any problem we can have. That’s the only way someone is going to get clean, break their habits and remain clean — through God and Jesus Christ.”
She's been clean since September 1993.
More: 2017 In Review: Features reporter Billy Watkins' favorite story
Celebrating recovery
The recovery meetings at Central Community, located at 2305 St. Charles St., begin at 6:30 p.m. every Tuesday. They are free and open to anyone. They include a meal and last no longer than two hours.
“We don’t preach and we don’t try to ‘fix’ everybody,” says Waddy, 53. “We aren’t diagnosing you. You will diagnose yourself. And we don’t judge. But we will help show you how to break whatever cycle of habit you’re in.”
Waddy has wanted to start a recovery program since he became pastor at Central Community eight years ago.
“The one thing I wanted different about my recovery program was to have God and his son Jesus Christ at the forefront of it," he says. "The others say they are ‘spiritually based’ and I understand that they don’t want to offend anyone or exclude anyone. Neither do we.
“But when someone is battling addiction, they are doing so because they are separated from God. In our program, recovery helps you reconnect with the maker of the universe. And then God will put people in your path to help with your recovery every day.”
Central Community offers an eight-week program called Hurts, Habits and Hangups. It is based on Celebrate Recovery, a national program based in Lake Forest, California, at Saddleback Church. The program was started 26 years ago.
Celebrate Recovery is described on its website as “a biblical and balanced program that helps us overcome our hurts, hang-ups, and habits. It is based on the actual words of Jesus rather than psychological theory.”
Thousands of churches nationwide offer Celebrate Recovery, including Christ United Methodist Church and Southside Baptist Church in Jackson, and The Ridge Church in Clinton.
“People from Christ United have visited us once, and we have visited them,” Waddy says. “We plan to make a connection (with Southside and The Ridge) at some point.”
More: Jackson doctor caused woman's opioid addiction, lawsuit claims
Waddy and about 10 members of Central Community are in training to offer the entire Celebrate Recovery program, which will include children, teens, veterans returning from war, mentally challenged individuals and those who are incarcerated.
Waddy’s plan turned into action in 2014 when he met Dean — now the Celebrate Recovery team leader — at a health conference in Meridian.
“I had known about Celebrate Recovery for nearly 20 years, but it really hit home when Tami mentioned it during her presentation,” Waddy says. “I made a beeline for her as soon as it was over.”
Waddy is leading the men’s recovery instructors; Dean leads the women’s.
In February 2017, they met with John Baker, the founder of Celebrate Recovery, at a seminar in Austin, Texas.
“We’ve been undergoing their training program ever since,” Waddy says. “It’s a 12-step plan. The men (instructors) are at Step 6. Because of Tami’s experience, the women are at Step 9. We hope to have it completed by October of this year.”
More: Sex cases put spotlight on sex addiction, but is it real?
Central Community opened its eight-week program soon after meeting Baker “because we felt equipped to handle that,” Waddy explains.
More than a dozen people signed up when the program was launched. More have followed.
“We hope this is the beginning of something important in our community,” Waddy says. “I know it’s needed because it’s been on my heart for a long time.”
Central Community Church of God is participating in Jubilee 2018, happening Friday night and Saturday.
What it is: An annual conference to unite individuals, churches, nonprofits and government agencies to strategically meet the needs of the poor in Jackson. Topics will include addiction, mass incarceration, education, immigration, homelessness, mental health, economic development, domestic violence, child and family services and more. Keynote speaker is the Rev. Matthew J. Watts of Grace Bible Church in Charleston, West Virginia.
What time: 6:30-8:30 p.m. Friday, keynote speaker and panel discussion; 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday, sessions and workshops.
Where: Dr. Billy Kim International Center at Belhaven University, 1500 Peachtree St., Jackson
Cost/how to sign up: $45 (or $30 for young professionals) at jubileejxn.org.
by: Jimmie E. Gates
date: 2018-01-15
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2018/01/16/bill-would-stop-old-10-year-old-felonies-being-used-states-three-strike-laws/1035969001/
Download The Clarion-Ledger app for free on the Apple app store or Google Play. Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger
(Photo: DanHenson1, Getty Images/iStockphoto)
A rock of cocaine or stealing a pickup can get a person sentenced to life in prison as a habitual offender if one of the prior convictions was for a crime of violence.
Bills filed in the state Senate could change that. They would prohibit using a felony more than 10 years old to sentence a person as a habitual offender and require a jury to decide if the individual should spend the rest of his life in prison under the state's three-strike laws.
Senate Bill 2269 filed by Sen. Derrick Simmons, D-Greenville, would prevent a prior felony conviction from being used for sentencing if more than 10 years elapsed between the date of completion of the sentence imposed and the date of the commission of the new offense or offenses.
(Photo: Special to The Clarion-Ledger)
A second bill from Simmons, Senate Bill 2257, would require a jury instead of a judge to decide if a defendant would be sentenced to life in prison as a habitual offender. And his third bill, Senate Bill 2256, would stipulate that the two prior felonies had to be crimes of violence to warrant life in prison as a habitual offender.
If passed, the bills would take effect July 1.
Under the jury sentencing bill, if the jury declines to sentence the defendant to life imprisonment, a judge would set the penalty at the maximum term of imprisonment for the current offense.
Under the measure, the prosecution and defense could waive the jury requirement.
Among considerations before sentencing a person as a habitual offender would be:
Nature of offense: If the offense was especially heinous, atrocious or cruel.
Public Intimidation or coercion: If the offense was committed to intimidate or coerce a civilian population.
Seriousness of prior offense: The nature or seriousness of any prior offenses, including whether another person was harmed and the degree of harm.
Current offense: The nature and seriousness of the current offense, including whether another person was harmed and the degree of harm.
Age: The age of the defendant at present.
Time between offenses: The amount of time between separate prior offenses and between any prior offenses and the current offense.
"This three-strikes law is one of the broadest and one of the harshest such laws in the United States," Simmons has said. "No one would receive a mandatory life sentence for siphoning gasoline or possessing a small amount of cocaine."
In a case out Pontotoc County, Patricia Brown received a life sentence without parole as a habitual offender after one rock of cocaine, worth about $20, fell out of her pocket in the presence of law enforcement.
Now almost a decade after her life sentence, Brown's current attorney, Jim Waide of Tupelo, is asking the state Supreme Court to send the case back to circuit court for re-sentencing or alternatively for a new trial by a jury on whether she should get a life sentence.
Brown, now 54, was sentenced under the three-strikes law, referred to as the "big habitual offender" law, which leads to life without parole.
Mississippi's three-strikes law requires that one of the two previous crimes be one of violence.
In Brown's case, she was an accessory to an armed robbery. Former Lee County Circuit Judge Frank Russell, who died in August, had found that Brown "was not in possession of the firearm used in the robbery and was not physically present in the store at the time." The judge said the enhanced portion of the armed robbery law shouldn't be used in her case.
The Supreme Court has not ruled on Brown's motion.
In another case, Charlie Blount, also known as Charlie Blunt, of Jackson is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for stealing a pickup.
Also, Johnny Coleman of Rankin County was sentenced to life without parole for being a peeping Tom.
by: Jimmie E. Gates
date: 2018-01-15
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2018/01/16/bill-would-stop-old-10-year-old-felonies-being-used-states-three-strike-laws/1035969001/
Download The Clarion-Ledger app for free on the Apple app store or Google Play. Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger
(Photo: DanHenson1, Getty Images/iStockphoto)
A rock of cocaine or stealing a pickup can get a person sentenced to life in prison as a habitual offender if one of the prior convictions was for a crime of violence.
Bills filed in the state Senate could change that. They would prohibit using a felony more than 10 years old to sentence a person as a habitual offender and require a jury to decide if the individual should spend the rest of his life in prison under the state's three-strike laws.
Senate Bill 2269 filed by Sen. Derrick Simmons, D-Greenville, would prevent a prior felony conviction from being used for sentencing if more than 10 years elapsed between the date of completion of the sentence imposed and the date of the commission of the new offense or offenses.
(Photo: Special to The Clarion-Ledger)
A second bill from Simmons, Senate Bill 2257, would require a jury instead of a judge to decide if a defendant would be sentenced to life in prison as a habitual offender. And his third bill, Senate Bill 2256, would stipulate that the two prior felonies had to be crimes of violence to warrant life in prison as a habitual offender.
If passed, the bills would take effect July 1.
Under the jury sentencing bill, if the jury declines to sentence the defendant to life imprisonment, a judge would set the penalty at the maximum term of imprisonment for the current offense.
Under the measure, the prosecution and defense could waive the jury requirement.
Among considerations before sentencing a person as a habitual offender would be:
Nature of offense: If the offense was especially heinous, atrocious or cruel.
Public Intimidation or coercion: If the offense was committed to intimidate or coerce a civilian population.
Seriousness of prior offense: The nature or seriousness of any prior offenses, including whether another person was harmed and the degree of harm.
Current offense: The nature and seriousness of the current offense, including whether another person was harmed and the degree of harm.
Age: The age of the defendant at present.
Time between offenses: The amount of time between separate prior offenses and between any prior offenses and the current offense.
"This three-strikes law is one of the broadest and one of the harshest such laws in the United States," Simmons has said. "No one would receive a mandatory life sentence for siphoning gasoline or possessing a small amount of cocaine."
In a case out Pontotoc County, Patricia Brown received a life sentence without parole as a habitual offender after one rock of cocaine, worth about $20, fell out of her pocket in the presence of law enforcement.
Now almost a decade after her life sentence, Brown's current attorney, Jim Waide of Tupelo, is asking the state Supreme Court to send the case back to circuit court for re-sentencing or alternatively for a new trial by a jury on whether she should get a life sentence.
Brown, now 54, was sentenced under the three-strikes law, referred to as the "big habitual offender" law, which leads to life without parole.
Mississippi's three-strikes law requires that one of the two previous crimes be one of violence.
In Brown's case, she was an accessory to an armed robbery. Former Lee County Circuit Judge Frank Russell, who died in August, had found that Brown "was not in possession of the firearm used in the robbery and was not physically present in the store at the time." The judge said the enhanced portion of the armed robbery law shouldn't be used in her case.
The Supreme Court has not ruled on Brown's motion.
In another case, Charlie Blount, also known as Charlie Blunt, of Jackson is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for stealing a pickup.
Also, Johnny Coleman of Rankin County was sentenced to life without parole for being a peeping Tom.
by: Steven Ward
date: 2018-01-15
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/magnolia/entertainment/2018/01/16/concerts-live-music-better-than-ezra-frontman-plays-hal-and-mals-wrote-sugarland-howie-day/1012996001/
Download The Clarion-Ledger app for free on the Apple app store or Google Play. Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger
(Photo: Jeremy Cowart/Special to Clarion Ledger)
Even though alternative pop rockers Better Than Ezra don't record and tour as much as they did in the 1990s, band leader, singer and guitarist Kevin Griffin has never stopped writing songs.
Those songs continue to be the lifeblood of Griffin's career and his contribution to an adult life dedicated to artistic creativity.
Griffin has produced, written and co-written albums and songs that have sold in excess of 30 million copies.
Remember Sugarland's 2010 No. 1 country single, "Stuck Like Glue"? How about Howie Day's 2005 No. 1 hit "Collide"?
Both songs were co-written by Griffin, the fruits of a collaborative creative spirit that informs most of his work today.
"With the band, you record an album and then go on tour. Album and tour. This creative outlet — writing songs with other people — keeps me fresh. I'm the veteran now working with younger people," Griffin, 49, said by telephone recently from Los Angeles.
Griffin will be in Jackson Friday night at Hal and Mal's for his first solo show in the city.
"We played in Jackson all the time with Better Than Ezra. This is going to be different," Griffin said.
Griffin, armed with an acoustic guitar and Better Than Ezra's drummer, Michael Jerome, on percussion, promises "a fun, rocking, silly good time" with Better Than Ezra songs, songs he has written for other artists and covers.
"And some conversation and back-and-forth with the audience. It won't be a serious, intimate, singer-songwriter kind of thing," said Griffin, who has been playing solo shows for about three years now.
Born in Atlanta and raised in Monroe, La., Griffin formed Better Than Ezra at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, where he was studying English.
The band's first gig was in 1988 at Murphy's Bar in Baton Rouge, a longtime popular LSU student hangout. Following years of shows at fraternity houses, house parties and clubs, the band recorded an album on an independent label in 1993. A major label, Elektra, re-released the album, "Deluxe," in 1995 after radio stations started spinning the band's single, "Good." "Good" went No. 1 on the modern rock radio charts almost immediately, and the album went platinum by the end of 1995.
The band continued to rule the charts with top 10 songs, including "King of New Orleans," from their follow-up 1996 album, "Friction Baby," which eventually went gold.
Griffin said Better Than Ezra still tours and records, but he sees his main mission today as a songwriter who does some production work.
Speaking of Better Than Ezra, who is that Ezra guy anyway?
The band has never officially revealed whom the band was named after. There have been rumors and stories about a line from Ernest Hemingway's "A Movable Feast" or another band named Ezra they were competing against in a Battle of the Bands contest.
"Nope. We are holding on to that info," Griffin said, laughing.
"Maybe, if we're inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, we can talk about that."
If you go
Who: Kevin Griffin, singer/guitarist/songwriter of Better Than Ezra
When: Jan. 19, doors at 6 p.m., show at 7:30
Where: Hal and Mal's, 200 Commerce St., Jackson
Tickets: $25 at Ticketmaster or Hal and Mal's. Call 601-948-0888 for more information.
by: Associated Press
date: 2018-01-14
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/01/15/mississippi-inmate-buttocks-injection-killing-has-died/1034807001/
Download The Clarion-Ledger app for free on the Apple app store or Google Play. Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger
A Mississippi inmate convicted in 2014 of the death of a Georgia woman through illicit silicone buttocks injections has died.
The Mississippi Department of Corrections said in a statement Monday that an autopsy will be conducted on the remains of Tracy Lynn Garner , who died Sunday. She was 58 and had served less than 3 ½ years of a life sentence.
Garner was convicted by a jury of depraved heart murder in the death of Karima Gordon, an Atlanta area resident who died eight days after receiving the injections in Jackson in 2012. Depraved heart murder is a killing caused by reckless disregard for human life.
Also read: Estranged boyfriend charged with capital murder in shooting inside Starkville Walmart
Prosecutors said Gordon was referred to Garner by Natasha Stewart, an adult entertainer known as Pebbelz Da Model. Stewart was convicted of manslaughter in Garner's death and received a seven-year sentence.
Authorities initially identified Garner as a man, Morris Garner, after the arrest. Her attorney subsequently said Garner was born male and had sex reassignment surgery.
Angelina Barber, Gordon's best friend who traveled with her to Jackson, testified during Gordon's trial that she decided not to receive injections after meeting Garner. Barber testified that she and Gordon were led to believe Garner was a nurse. A nursing home administrator testified Garner had been a cook at a nursing home where she wore scrubs.
Garner was taken from Central Mississippi Correctional Facility to a hospital in Jackson, where she was pronounced dead Sunday morning. The Department of Corrections did not elaborate on the circumstances surrounding the inmate's death.
by: Emily Wagster Pettus
date: 2018-01-13
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2018/01/15/budget-increase-sought-amid-popularity-museums/1032250001/
State leaders and civil rights veterans celebrated the opening of Two Mississippi Museums and the state's 200th anniversary of statehood. Justin Sellers/Clarion Ledger
The Mississippi Department of Archives and History receives a small slice of the state budget. But, with two new museums already gaining international attention, the department plays a large role in shaping the public perception of the state.
The Museum of Mississippi History and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, two entities under a single roof, opened with a public celebration Dec. 9, the eve of the bicentennial of statehood.
About 10,000 people toured the museums the first weekend. Another 25,000 or so visited during the subsequent three weeks in December. Hundreds of groups, including many from schools, are on the schedule for the next few months at the museums, which are near the state Capitol in downtown Jackson.
Katie Blount, the department's executive director, is asking the Legislature for a budget increase for fiscal year 2019, which begins July 1.
"In good faith with the Legislature, we had requested funding for only a skeleton staff for FY2018 — the minimum number of people that would allow us to open the museums and welcome the public," Blount said Wednesday in a letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee chairman. "Because of the tremendous public response, the staff is already stretched too thin, particularly at the front desk."
Mississippi's current state budget is about $6 billion. That covers big-ticket items such as public education and Medicaid. It also covers smaller agencies such as the Department of Archives and History, which is receiving about $8.6 million.
The overall state budget for the coming year is expected to be slightly smaller than $6 billion. Archives and History is requesting just over $9.7 million.
Like other state agency directors, Blount said she is trying to retain employees who could make more money by going to private sector jobs. She described the Archives and History staff as "smart, passionate, dedicated people."
The department is not relying on state support alone. It raised millions of dollars in private contributions to supplement the state money to build the museums. The W.K. Kellogg Foundation contributed $2.3 million to help fund construction, and its director, LaJune Montgomery Tabron, announced at the museums' opening that the foundation is providing $1 million to help school groups pay for students to visit the museums.
The Kellogg Foundation provided free admission to the general public to the two museums Saturday, Jan. 13, through Tuesday, Jan. 16. This coincides with the holiday on Monday observing the birthday of Rev. Martin Luther King. The day after King day is what the foundation last year started calling the National Day of Racial Healing.
More: Analysis: Myrlie Evers' thoughtful speech sets tone for 2 museums
"The museums tell powerful stories about our state's past and how the racial hierarchies in Mississippi in particular have impacted everything from our education system to our economy," Rhea Williams-Bishop, director of Mississippi programming for the Kellogg Foundation, said in a news release. "The National Day of Racial Healing helps us come together and develop a shared understanding of our history, as an important step in healing and moving us toward a stronger future for our children."
Senators who listened to Blount's budget request during an Appropriations subcommittee meeting last week seemed open to the request for more money, though the hard budget decisions are still more than two months away. They asked several questions about the two history museums.
"I see this as being a big draw for the foreseeable future," said Republican Sen. Briggs Hopson of Vicksburg.
Blount said employees from other divisions within the Department of Archives and History have been working in the museums to keep up with public demand.
"The museums are absolutely the highest priority," Blount said.
by: Associated Press
date: 2018-01-12
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/01/13/federal-judge-mississippi-recovering-heart-attack/1031586001/
(Photo: photos.com)
OXFORD — A federal judge in north Mississippi is recovering from a heart attack.
The Oxford Eagle reports U.S. District Judge Michael P. Mills was released Friday from Baptist Memorial Hospital-North Mississippi.
A federal court news release said the 61-year-old Mills had a heart attack earlier in the week, and surgery might be needed as doctors assess his health.
The court is postponing Mills' court cases for the next three weeks. The court says he will return to work "as soon as he has clearance to do so from his doctors."
Mills is one of five federal district judges in the northern Mississippi. He served in the Mississippi House from 1984 to 1995 and on the Mississippi Supreme Court from 1995 to 2001. He became a federal judge in October 2001.
by: Jerry Mitchell
date: 2018-01-12
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2018/01/13/prison-population-mississippi-heading-up-despite-reforms/1029755001/
Crossroads Ministries in Madison County gives hope to women who have left prison.
Just four years after reforms aimed at reducing the number of Mississippians behind bars, the state’s prison population is marching upward.
And most of the thousands filling Mississippi prisons are the result of revocations of those on probation or parole. More than 80 percent of those revocations have been for technical violations.
Circuit Judge Prentiss Harrell of Purvis said such technical violations may involve something as simple as a person missing a meeting with a probation officer or failing to pay a fine. It also may be for being out of the residence, missing curfew or testing positive on a urine screen.
Yet many of these violators languish in local jails or go back to prison, said Harrell, who chairs the Corrections and Criminal Justice Oversight Task Force. “It’s become a revolving door.”
Pelicia Hall (Photo: Special to the Clarion Ledger)
Corrections Commissioner Pelicia Hall wants to reopen the shuttered 1,000-bed Delta Correctional Facility to take in these technical violators. The Mississippi Department of Corrections has less than 200 beds available for them — 147 for men and 50 for women.
That idea has drawn the support of both Harrell and House Corrections Committee Chairman Bill Kinkade, R-Byhalia.
That may take care of one problem. But there are others: Fewer inmates are being paroled; there’s been an increase in offenders sent to prison for drug possession; and there aren’t enough probation officers.
“The pay is pitiful,” Harrell said of probation officers.
In Mississippi, salaries for these officers start at $30,648 — far less than the national average of $47,000.
Impetus for reform
By 2013, the state’s average prison population rose to 22,237, and the state Parole Board worked on the problem.
A year later, the Legislature passed House Bill 585, aimed at reforming the criminal justice system and reducing the prison population.
In the wake of reforms, the crime rate fell nearly 5 percent, much of it because of decreases in property crime (27 percent) and drug offenses (23 percent), according to the task force report.
And, coupled with the work of the Parole Board, the prison population declined to 17,900.
That decrease helped Mississippi, which puts more people in prison per capita than China or Russia, fall from the second worst state in incarceration rates to fifth place.
The development was a welcome relief, but the prison population has begun to shoot back upward, reaching 19,102 last year.
State Rep. Andy Gipson, chairman of the House Judiciary B Committee and a member of the House Appropriations Committee, said he would like to see the Legislature fund the technical violators’ program to “keep Mississippi safer — and to save money, too.”
U.S. District Judge Keith Starrett, who chairs the Mississippi Reentry Council, believes some of what the state has saved must be invested into reentry and similar programs to make a real difference.
That is what Georgia has done, he said.
The prison population there was skyrocketing toward 60,000 by 2016. Because of reforms, the population has fallen to less than 53,000, the jail backlog has almost been eliminated, and the number of those entering prison has been reduced by nearly 4,000 a year, according to the report by the Georgia Council on Criminal Justice Reform.
Georgia has reinvested $47 million of the estimated $264 million in savings into accountability courts, vocational and on-the-job training, reentry programs and substance abuse treatment facilities and programs, “prioritizing incarceration for those whose crimes truly warrant it,” the report says.
For its part, Mississippi has realized an estimated $40 million in savings, according to a new report by the Corrections and Criminal Justice Oversight Task Force.
But rather than reinvesting, all of the savings have gone back into the state’s general fund.
Buy-in to reforms
Both the task force and the Reentry Council have pushed to expand drug courts and mental-health courts in the state.
More than 3,000 offenders receive mental health treatment. Three-fourths of Mississippians behind bars suffer from an alcohol or drug problem or both.
In addition to that, there are up to 350 offenders who are eligible for parole but can’t be released because they have no homes or family to go to.
The same HB 585 that brought reforms also took away parole for those convicted of house burglary, adding to the prison population.
Although judges have the option of authorizing parole, many aren’t.
“Of the roughly 19,000 inmates in prison, 12,000 are not eligible for parole,” said Steve Pickett, chairman of the state Parole Board.
Between 2011 and 2016, the number of parole hearings nearly doubled to 10,237.
But the number of hearings fell last year to 8,703. The board granted parole to 5,969 of those.
About half of those paroled are being monitored by both parole officers and GPS monitoring.
Starrett said the Reentry Council tried to work with the Department of Corrections on a pilot reentry program in Hattiesburg, but the program fell apart.
“It is apparent to me that the Department of Corrections has very little interest in developing a pilot program with the Reentry Council, and I am recommending that we withdraw any proposal to cooperate in developing such a program,” he wrote in a Jan. 5 email. “If the Department of Corrections has any desire in the future to work with the Council then it should come to us with a proposal. I do not expect that to be forthcoming.”
Hall said there were problems with the program and that she only recently became aware of the Reentry Council's rejection.
The Department of Corrections is committed to ensure that reentry programs are available, she said. "The administration understands all too well that in order for reentry to be successful, it must begin as soon as an offender is sentenced and enters prison, not when the offender is released back to the community."
Soldier On provides 30 hours of classroom work each week focusing on life skills, including employment and career development training for incarcerated veterans at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Pearl.
Despite limited funds, she said some reentry programs are underway. Those include: Soldier On, which serves veterans behind bars; Thinking for a Change, a behavior modification program; Pre-Release, which is aimed at addressing education, employment and life skill needs; and partnerships with employers willing to give offenders a second chance.
She pledged that in spite of the "current budget crisis," she will "continue our agency’s efforts to create more taxpayers instead of tax burdens."
In order to bring reform, Mississippi leaders need to decide “who we’re mad at and who we’re afraid of," Hall said.
by: Erick Erickson
date: 2018-01-11
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/opinion/columnists/2018/01/12/consensus-d-c-let-dreamers-stay/1027721001/
Top House Democrat Nancy Pelosi says an immigration working group is just "five white guys." Pelosi's talking about a group of lawmakers that's blessed by President Trump to find a deal to protect 'Dreamers'. (Jan. 11) AP
(Photo: Submitted photo)
Prior to President Obama implementing the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, he said he had no constitutional authority to act. He did it anyway and also a similar program for the parents of those children. DACA children, often called Dreamers, are illegal aliens. Their parents brought them to this country, often as children, and they know no other home.
Since President Bush first brought up the subject in 2005, Congress has been grappling with what to do with illegal immigrants and their children. Neither side has wanted to finalize a solution. Republicans could not in 2005 because they had no consensus on what to do. Democrats, when they controlled everything in 2009, could have done something, but they preferred to let the issue fester, believing it would help them politically. They focused on screwing up the American health care system instead.
Congress is now considering a proposal to deal with the issue. President Trump cancelled the DACA program, telling Congress it had to deal with the issue. A liberal judge in San Francisco has ordered the president to continue the program. No credible legal scholar thinks a judge has the power to do that. There are well settled constitutional principles that a future president is not bound by the executive actions of his predecessors. But liberals are going to advance their agenda however they can.
Back in Washington, where decisions must actually be made, a "Gang of Six" has formed. This bipartisan gang intends to give Dreamers citizenship, let their parents stay without citizenship, increase border security and alter the visa lottery program. The president wants to break chain migration, and the details are still sketchy regarding whether that will actually happen. Chain migration, a term you will hear more about, is an immigration scheme in the United States where whole families can immigrate here. It used to be that children of adults could come. Then, the parents of parents could come. The other children of the parents' parents could come. Their kids could come. Soon, entire family trees were moving here, having not rooted here.
Part of Washington's problem is that legislators, lobbyists and congressional staffers feel compelled to complicate everything. Why do something in 10 pages when 1,000 will work? Why do something in 1,000 pages that 2,000 could more thoroughly complicate? The result of this is an increasingly complex government, increased power in the hands of bureaucrats, and richer lobbyists. Meanwhile, both the legislator and the citizen have a harder time figuring out what is going on.
There is a real consensus in Washington to let Dreamers stay in the country. So let them. Take that issue off the table. We can deal with citizenship later and whether they should be required to serve in the military or get a college degree. We can let the several states decide per state whether to let Dreamers qualify for state benefits. Congress does not need to address those issues right now. Just take deportation off the table.
There are several factors at work making this issue a mess. The first is political. Both parties believe Hispanic voters are up for grabs and, in the Age of Trump, Democrats have a lot of evidence that these voters will go their way. They want citizenship for Dreamers and their parents immediately so they can get new voters. Republicans, on the other hand, are slow walking that issue for some of the same electoral issues.
Another issue is incentives. If we do not secure the border, how likely we are to get a flood of people coming across the border where we have to deal with this again? It seems if we have an insecure border (and we do), people will come claiming to qualify. And who is to tell them no?
The consensus in Washington is to let the Dreamers stay. The GOP would be wise to take that off the table. But Washington will leave no complication off the table. There must be fight for the cameras. So we may still be arguing about this a decade from now.
Erick Erickson is a nationally syndicated columnist and conservative commentator.
by: Therese Apel
date: 2018-01-10
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/01/11/cocaine-worth-700-k-confiscated-coast-inspection-stop/1025404001/
It's not about a type of person or vehicle or a time of day, they say. It's about watching a person's body language. Therese Apel/ The Clarion-Ledger
A Freightliner tractor and van trailer stopped in Hancock County by the Mississippi Department of Transportation on Tuesday turned out to be carrying $700,000 worth of cocaine, officials said.
At approximately 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, MDOT enforcement officers stopped the trailer eastbound on Interstate 10 for a fuel, weight, safety and paperwork inspection. The trailer, which was loaded with detergents and soap, was bound from Laredo, Texas, to West Palm Beach, Florida.
As part of the inspection, officers opened the trailer for verification of the load as described in shipping papers and to ensure proper load securement. During the inspection, they saw three bundles near the rear of the trailer — two wrapped in gray duct tape, and one wrapped in clear plastic. None of the other merchandise was similarly wrapped.
The bundles contained approximately 30 kilograms of cocaine with an estimated street value of $700,000, officials said.
The driver, Barrios Pedro, 46, of Laredo, was charged with possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver and is awaiting arraignment in the Hancock County Jail.
“I am very proud of our officers’ efforts to protect the public,” said Southern Transportation District Commissioner Tom King. “Their dedicated work continues to make our neighborhoods and state safer by keeping drugs like these from reaching the streets.”
The investigation of the source and destination of the cocaine is being conducted by the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics and MDOT Enforcement. The Hancock County Sheriff’s Department assisted with the preliminary investigation. The tractor and trailer was impounded pending the results of the investigation.
“As evidenced by this significant seizure, MDOT enforcement officers are aware illegal drugs, other contraband and even human trafficking victims are often transported in commercial vehicles,” King said. “We must continue to be vigilant for this type activity that will impact the safety of the public.”
by: Geoff Pender
date: 2018-01-10
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2018/01/11/reeves-names-new-senate-chairs-accountability-elections-judiciary-others/1024525001/
Rep. Richard Bennett of Long Beach has been named the new chairman of the House Education Committee Geoff Pender
(Photo: Special to the Clarion Ledger)
Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves on Thursday named new Senate committee chairmen and members, a move necessitated by several resignations and special elections last year and the "domino effect" of filling vacant chairmanships.
One move was somewhat surprising: Reeves appointed freshman-term lawmaker Sen. Kevin Blackwell, R-Southaven,to chair the Elections Committee. But although a freshman, Blackwell has extensive elections experience, including having been a two-term chairman of the DeSoto County Republican Party."
Sen. Sally Doty, R-Brookhaven (Photo: File photo/The Clarion-Ledger)
Sen. Sally Doty, R-Brookhaven, who has been serving as Elections chairwoman, will take the chair of the Energy Committee.
Other assignments and moves include:
Sen. Briggs Hopson III, R-Vicksburg, has been named Senate Judiciary A chairman.
► Sen. Briggs Hopson III, R-Vicksburg, will become chairman of the powerful Judiciary A Committee. He has been serving as chairman of Energy.
► Sen. Philip Moran, R-Kiln, will continue as chairman of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, and was named a member of Ports and Marine Resources and Appropriations committees.
► Sen. Mike Seymour, R-Vancleave, also a freshman-term lawmaker, was named chairman of the Executive Contingency Fund Committee, a committee that seldom meets.
► Newly elected Sen. Neil Whaley, R-Potts Camp, was appointed a member of the Executive Contingency Fund, County Affairs, Constitution, Judiciary B, Municipalities, Universities and Colleges, Wildlife, Finance and Forestry committees.
► Newly elected Sen. Joel Carter, R-Biloxi, was appointed vice chairman of the Tourism Committee and a member of Judiciary A, Judiciary B, Corrections, Energy, Environmental Protection, Finance and Transportation committees.
“These appointments reflect the issues that are important in the home districts of these senators, and I appreciate their service in the Senate and to their communities,” Reeves said in a statement.
by: Jerry Mitchell
date: 2017-12-09
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/journeytojustice/2018/01/11/mississippi-civil-rights-museum-history-museum-free-jan-13-16/1024001001/
State leaders and civil rights veterans celebrated the opening of Two Mississippi Museums and the state's 200th anniversary of statehood. Justin Sellers/Clarion Ledger
If you haven't visited the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum and the History of Mississippi Museum, you can attend Saturday through Tuesday, free of charge.
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation is sponsoring the free weekend in honor of the National Day of Healing.
The museums are open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on both Saturday, Monday and Tuesday. On Sunday, the museums are open 1 to 5 p.m.
Civil rights activist and widow of civil rights leader Medgar Evers, Myrlie Evers speaks at the grand opening ceremony. She said if the state can rise to the occasion, then "the rest of the country should be able to do the same thing."
(Photo: Rogelio V. Solis, AP)
After touring the two museums, Myrlie Evers, the widow of slain NAACP leader Medgar Evers, said she felt she had "a better understanding of the state of Mississippi. And I thought I knew the state of my birth.
"Going through the museum of my history, I wept. Because I felt the blows. I felt the bullets. I felt the tears. I felt the cries. But I also sensed the hope that dwelled in the hearts of all of those people."
by: Jimmie E. Gates
date: 2018-01-09
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2018/01/10/k-9-officers-injured-line-duty-transported-ambulance/1016457001/
The United States Police Canine Association had its yearly certification and competition in Pearl over the weekend. See how the dogs and their handlers interact. Therese Apel/ The Clarion-Ledger
K-9 dogs are often on the front line in the war on drugs and help law enforcement to sniff out other crime. Now a bill in the Legislature would allow K-9s injured in the line of duty to be transported by emergency medical technicians.
The bill, filed by Rep. Jay Hughes, D-Oxford, said any law enforcement dog used by a police enforcement or governing agency of a county or municipality injured or wounded in the line of work would be eligible for transport.
Hughes said he was asked by some law enforcement and ambulance drivers to file the bill.
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For K-9 handlers, the dogs are just like their partners, Hughes said.
Hughes said state law doesn't allow for the transport of K-9 dogs in an ambulance. "This would only be used in rare occasions," he said.
"In addition to providing emergency medical services and transportation to human personnel, an emergency medical technician may transport a law enforcement dog injured in the line of duty to a veterinary clinic or similar facility if there are no persons requiring medical attention or transport at the time," House Bill 386 says.
Pearl Police Detective Chris Picou, a K-9 handler, said he was unfamiliar with the bill. He said that nine out of 10 times if a K-9 is hurt or injured, the handler will immediately put his dog in the vehicle and transport the dog to a veterinarian.
"He (K-9) would bleed out before a human," Picou said.
Picou said he isn't opposed to the bill but questioned the need for it.
"We all get trained in first aid," Picou said of K-9 handlers.
Hughes said a K-9 is almost like family to a handler.
Last year, K-9 Boy was laid to rest by Richland police. Law enforcement officers, firefighters, family, friends and community members gathered to say Godspeed to K9 Boy. There were few dry eyes.
Boy was a 15-year-old Belgian Malinois who had spent 13 years on Richland Police Department's force. The decorated drug dog was playing in the yard with his handler's 4-year-old daughter when he collapsed and died.
Hughes bill was double referred to the House Judiciary B Committee and the Health and Human Services Committee. Often sending a bill to two committees kills it.The first deadline for bills to reported out of committee is Jan. 30.
If the bill passes, it would take effect July 1.
by: Therese Apel
date: 2018-01-09
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/01/10/police-pursuit-robbery-suspect-tunica-gunfire/1022480001/
When breaking news happens, we want you to see it first hand. Thank you for trusting the Clarion Ledger. Wochit
An armed robbery and ensuing car chase that began in Greenville ended with officers and a suspect exchanging gunfire at the intersection of U.S. 61 south and Mississippi 4 in Tunica County.
Police were dispatched to Southern Bancorp on Mississippi 1 South around 1:40 p.m. in reference to an armed robbery.
Witnesses at the bank said a man entered the building, brandished a handgun and demanded money. After taking an undisclosed amount of money, he fled the scene on foot.
Investigators identified the suspect's vehicle as a maroon Chevrolet SUV. The Cleveland Police Department contacted Greenville's police department to notify them of a pursuit of a similar vehicle.
Cleveland police's pursuit ended at the intersection in Tunica County, where officers had put out stop sticks to disable the suspect's vehicle. The suspect then bailed out of the car and opened fire on police, according to Mississippi Bureau of Investigation spokesman Warren Strain.
Strain said the suspect was wounded after exchanging gunfire with officers. The suspect has been taken to a Memphis hospital, where his condition is currently unknown.
His identity has not been released at this time.
No injuries were reported during the robbery, and no officers were harmed during the shooting. The investigation is ongoing.
by: Jimmie E. Gates
date: 2017-10-25
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2018/01/09/mississippi-governor-takes-page-trump-playbook/1016343001/
Gov. Phil Bryant and Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves at Hobnob 2017. Jimmie E. Gates
Gov. Phil Bryant said he got a break-a-leg call of encouragement from President Trump before he gave his seventh Mississippi State of the State address on Tuesday evening.
Bryant then went on to give a wide-ranging speech with a theme that could have come from the Trump playbook: Critics and media are all wrong — he and Mississippi legislative leaders have made many great accomplishments in recent years.
"I realize that, to many of us here tonight, and to those watching and listening, there seem to be two Mississippis occupying the same time and space," Bryant said. "The proverbial critics would have you believe that one is a declining state whose people are suffering mightily ... Fortunately, the other Mississippi is filled with progress."
Bryant invoked Theodore Roosevelt: "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points our how the strong man stumbles ... The credit belongs to the man — or may I add, the woman — in the arena."
Some highlights from Bryant's seventh, and second-to-last State of the State:
Unemployment at historic low
"Twice last year, the unemployment rate in Mississippi fell to 4.9 percent and was 4.8 percent in November," Bryant said. "That's the lowest since unemployment levels began to be recorded in 1979.
More: Text of Bryant's State-of-the-State Address
More: Democratic response to Bryant's State-of-the-State Address
Jobs, investments created
"We have added more than 60,000 jobs and billions of dollars of foreign and domestic investment in Mississippi industry," Bryant said. "... As Ronald Reagan once said, the best social program is a job ... Today we have 40,000 jobs looking for people."
"These and so many other projects and expansions are proof that when government creates a tax and regulatory climate that encourages growth — and then gets out of the way so the private sector can harness its innovative character — our economy thrives ...."
Education 'better than ever'
"Our educational system, though far from perfect, is clearly better than it has ever been before," Bryant said. "For the first time in Mississippi's history, more than 90 percent of our third-graders have passed their reading exam, and our high school graduation rate has risen above 80 percent."
Bryant also noted the Legislature under his watch passed a teacher pay raise, charter schools, early learning expansion, required superintendents be appointed rather than elected and improved how schools deal with dyslexia.
Bryant asked lawmakers to restore funding for Jobs for Mississippi Graduates, which funds "the state's only dropout prevention program."
Bryant also said, "It should be no surprise to anyone that I am a strong supporter of updating the adequate education funding formula" and called on lawmakers to "expand school choice for certain categories of children."
Health care an 'economic driver'
Bryant said that because of the newly expanded medical school at the University of Mississippi Medical Center and other measures, "we are well on our way to achieving our goal of adding 1,000 new physicians by 2025.
"The medical profession as an economic driver has become a reality in Mississippi," Bryant said. Physicians today are responsible for over 51,000 jobs and have a total economic output of over $8 billion annually ... The medical corridor I have long hoped to to establish is becoming a reality. It stretches from the Medical Mall in Jackson to new clinics, medical specialty centers and even medical device manufacturers located just across the river in Rankin County."
Bryant said he would like to move the Department of Public Safety headquarters from the medical corridor to Rankin County, and that he wants to hold off on moving Medicaid eligibility operations from Medicaid to the Department of Human Services after Medicaid's director recently resigned.
Bryant said Mississippians "are our own worst enemy" with obesity, substance abuse and sexually transmitted diseases and wants to find ways to "prevent poor health care from getting worse" and save taxpayers money on Medicaid spending.
Opioid solution 'not easy, popular'
Bryant praised the work of his Governor's Opioid and Heroin Task Force and DPS Commissioner Marshall Fisher and Bureau of Narcotics Director John Dowdy and called their policy and regulation recommendations restricting prescriptions "courageous and compassionate."
"The path toward a solution was not easy, nor was it popular in some instances," Bryant said, of pending regulations that have brought widespread criticism from doctors.
And while Bryant's speech made clear his disdain for most state media, he gave kudos to Clarion Ledger reporter Therese Apel, who he said stands "as an example of a journalist who has made a difference."
"At the risk of affecting her status among her co-workers in the media, I want to take the opportunity to recognize a reporter who has done an outstanding job informing us of all of the horrific events resulting from opioid and illegal drug related criminal activity."
Bicentennial, Trump and museums
Bryant reveled in the state's Bicentennial celebration last year and opening of the Mississippi History and Civil Rights museums, which garnered a visit from Trump.
"I am told some 20 million people watched the president's tour and remarks that day at the Civil Rights Museum," Bryant said. "It seemed the entire world was watching as Mississippi told our own story ... Mississippians of every color and persuasion came together ... There was no effort to conceal the transgressions of the past ... But, it all lies in a museum — put away, we hope never to be witnessed again.
"... We peered into Mississippi's soul, and saw that it was cleansed of any deceit or malice."
by: Sam R. Hall
date: 2018-01-08
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2018/01/09/tate-reeves-jim-hood-close-race-according-millsaps-college-poll/1018330001/
Download The Clarion-Ledger app for free on the Apple app store or Google Play. Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger
(Photo: Photos by Rogelio V. Solis/AP)
A potential race for governor between Republican Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves and Democrat Attorney General Jim Hood has no clear winner and nearly 20 percent of voters are undecided, according to a new poll from Millsaps College.
Millsaps College partnered with Chism Strategies for its second annual state of the state survey, which was released on the day Gov. Phil Bryant will give the State of the State address to the Legislature. Chism Strategies is a Democratic polling firm that also works with non-partisan groups and businesses.
The poll also shows voters’ views on the direction of the state falls along partisan lines, while only half of independents believe Mississippi is on the right track. In fact, about the only thing a large majority of Mississippians seem to agree on is a shared lack of support for lawmakers.
In the hypothetical governor’s race, Reeves is leading with 44.7 percent compared to Hood with 37.5 percent. The poll shows 17.8 percent are undecided.
While the race is nearly two years out, Reeves’ lead is much narrower than would be expected for the presumptive GOP frontrunner against a possible Democratic opponent. The reason is as much reflective of Hood’s political strength — rare for a Democrat in Mississippi — as it is of any dissatisfaction with Reeves.
That said, Reeves’ support among Republicans (77 percent) is not a strong as Hood’s is among Democrats (84.5 percent), nor does Reeves enjoy the same amount of crossover. Hood enjoys support from 10.5 percent of Republicans surveyed, compared to only 5.5 percent of Democrats who support Reeves. Too, 12.5 percent of Republicans say they are unsure, compared to just 7.4 percent of Democrats.
State of the state
Overall, 41.7 percent of respondents said the state was headed in the right direction, compared to 36.3 percent who said it was headed in the wrong direction. The other 22 percent said they were unsure in which direction Mississippi was headed.
The ideological split over the direction of the state was pretty stark. Republicans largely see Mississippi headed in the right direction, 64-16 percent. In almost a mirror image, Democrats view the state as headed in the wrong direction, 63-14 percent.
Independents, however, are split, with 50 percent having a positive outlook and 25 percent seeing it heading in the wrong direction. Another 25 percent were unsure.
The Legislature seems to be the biggest loser in the poll, with only a 26.3 percent approval rating and 38.2 percent disapproving. Another 35.5 percent of those polled were unsure what to think of the Legislature. Republicans had only a slightly higher opinion of lawmakers than did Democrats. Of GOP respondents, 33.2 percent approved of the Legislature’s job performance, 27.6 percent disapproved and 39.2 percent were unsure. For Democrats, only 15.7 percent approved while 49.2 percent disapproved and 35.1 percent were unsure.
Fixing roads and bridges (23.4 percent) was the top priority out of a list of eight possible responses. Making health care more affordable (20.8) and more funding for public schools (19.3) were a close second and third.
Other issues polled showed:
• State lottery: 68.8 percent support, 22.8 percent oppose, 8.4 percent unsure. Asked how they would prioritize using funds generated from a state lottery, 50.6 percent said public education would be the top choice. Fixing roads and bridges was second at 28.6 percent. Nothing else polled in double digits.
• Raising gasoline tax to pay for infrastructure repairs: 38 percent support, 50 percent oppose, 12 percent unsure.
• How to choose school boards: 68.5 percent elected, 10.4 percent appointed, 13.5 percent would let it vary district to district, 7.6 percent unsure
Approval ratings
The poll did not seek approval ratings for Bryant, Reeves or Hood. Nathan Schrader, director of communications for Millsaps, said they chose not to include these three because their approval ratings were polled in September.
Here’s a quick rundown of the approval ratings of those the poll did test:
• Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann: 53.4 percent approve, 18.7 percent disapprove, 27.9 percent unsure. Hosemann is expected to run for lieutenant governor, with his name also being mentioned for a possible gubernatorial run.
• Treasurer Lynn Fitch: 42.4 percent approve, 23.1 percent disapprove, 34.5 percent unsure. Fitch’s name has been mentioned as a possible candidate for the third congressional district seat being vacated by U.S. Rep. Gregg Harper. She’s also been mentioned as a possible candidate for attorney general in 2019.
• Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley: 31.2 percent approve, 21.3 percent disapprove, 47.5 percent unsure. Presley is the only Democrat polled. He represents only the northern third of the state. Some have mentioned him as a possible candidate for governor or lieutenant governor in 2019, though it’s hard to see him run against Hood in a gubernatorial primary.
The poll was conducted Dec. 15-19, surveyed 578 voters and has a margin of error of 4.08 percent. It was weighted to reflect 2015 general election turnout for age, race, gender and party affiliation.
by: Associated Press
date: 2018-01-08
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/01/09/tupelo-police-remove-state-flag/1017186001/
U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-MS, reiterates his stance that the Mississippi state flag should be put in a museum and replaced with a more unifying banner for the state. Geoff Pender/The Clarion-Ledger
TUPELO – The Confederate-themed Mississippi flag is being removed from display outside a city’s police building.
Tupelo Mayor Jason Shelton issued an executive order Tuesday taking down the flag, which includes a Confederate battle emblem, about a week after it started flying.
Three flagpoles stand outside the police building in a predominantly black neighborhood. From the time the building opened in late 2016, one pole flew a state bicentennial banner, which does not include the Confederate symbol that critics see as racist.
The bicentennial was in 2017. With the beginning of a new year, the state flag last week replaced the bicentennial banner outside the police headquarters. The two African-American members of the city council oppose the state flag.
Mississippi’s population is about 38 percent black, and Shelton, a white Democrat, said the flag “is not representative of all of the people of the state.”
Shelton said he will ask the Republican-majority Tupelo City Council to consider a resolution asking state lawmakers to change the flag. Legislators in recent years have not acted on bills that would either remove the Confederate emblem from the flag or financially punish universities that don’t fly it.
"The Shumpert family applauds Mayor Jason Shelton for removing the flag of white supremacy from the flag pole at the new police department in Tupelo," Grenada-based attorney Carlos Moore said.
Moore sued the city of Tupelo on behalf of the family of Antwun Shumpert in 2016 after Shumpert was shot and killed by a Tupelo police department officer. Moore also made headlines last year for attempting to sue the state of Mississippi over the Confederate canton in the state flag.
The Confederate symbol has been on the Mississippi flag since 1894, and voters chose to keep it in a 2001 election. Republican Gov. Phil Bryant has said that if the flag design is to be reconsidered, it should be done in another statewide election and not by a vote of the Legislature.
Several Mississippi cities and counties and all eight of the state’s public universities have stopped flying the state flag because critics say the Confederate symbol does not properly represent a diverse state. Many have removed the flag since the June 2015 slayings of nine black worshippers at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, by a white man who had posed for photos with the rebel flag.
The Tupelo city flag is replacing the Mississippi flag outside the police building. The other two poles continue to fly the American flag and the police department flag.
by: Sarah Fowler
date: 2017-12-09
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/01/05/district-attorney-michael-guest-running-congress-replace-gregg-harper-ms-03/1008400001/
Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant, U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, U.S. Rep. Gregg Harper and other state dignitaries meet with President Donald Trump as he visits the state to mark the opening of its civil rights museum. Geoff Pender/Clarion Ledger
(Photo: Special to Clarion Ledger)
Michael Guest, district attorney for Madison and Rankin counties, has filed to run for the 3rd Congressional District seat U.S. Rep. Gregg Harper is leaving at the end of his term.
Guest has long been considered an up-and-comer in state GOP politics, and many political observers have for years expected him to seek higher state or federal office. Guest said he believes he has a record of making Madison and Rankin counties "a safer place ... and a better place to live, worship and raise a family" and hopes voters will look at that record.
"It's something I have been thinking for some time, that if a congressional seat ever became vacant, I would consider it," Guest said Friday. "... Instead of being in a courtroom fighting for victims of crime, I would like to take that same skill set to Washington, D.C., and fight for the people of Mississippi in the halls of Congress."
Guest said some issues he'd like to focus on in Congress include opioid addiction and deaths, immigration laws, infrastructure needs and military funding.
"Immigration is an issue that needs to be addressed," Guest said. "We need immigration laws and policy that are uniform nationwide ... We have great infrastructure needs, roads and bridges, water and sewer. This recent weather has shown the problems here in the metro.
"I am a strong proponent of making sure the military is properly funded," Guest said. "We need to make sure our men and women willing to go into harm's way have the equipment and training they need to do their job and return home safely."
Harper announced Thursday he would not seek a sixth term this year, citing family considerations and saying he doesn't believe a seat in Congress should be a lifelong career.
Numerous state and local politicians appear to be considering a run for the open seat.
More: Who will run for #MS03 to replace Gregg Harper in Congress?
by: Yolanda Jones
date: 2018-01-07
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/01/08/horn-lake-officer-involved-shooting-horn-lake/1012412001/
Authorities are investigating an officer-involved shooting in Horn Lake on Monday, Jan. 8, 2018. Yolanda Jones / Commercial Appeal
(Photo: Yolanda Jones/ The Commercial Appeal)
A man who authorities say was wanted in connection with three weekend ATM robberies was shot and killed Monday by Horn Lake police when he attempted to rob an on-duty officer at the same bank machine where the other robberies occurred.
The shooting occurred shortly before 5 a.m. on Windchase and Goodman Road in Horn Lake, said DeSoto County District Attorney John Champion during a 10:30 a.m. press conference at his Hernando office.
Champion said a Horn Lake investigator in plain clothes pulled up to the ATM around 4:50 a.m. on a “hunch” when he was approached by an armed man.
“There were other officers conducting surveillance for him and they immediately radioed to him that his vehicle was being approached by a man with a handgun,” Champion said. “The officer identified himself at which time the subject ran from the bank to a vehicle.“
The man rammed the police vehicles in the parking lot. He then got on Goodman Road headed east when he spun out of control on the rain-slick street, Champion said.
“One of the officer’s vehicles hit the car. At this point the subject pulled out a pistol and fired a shot at officers,” Champion said. “The officers returned fire, killing the subject.”
Three officers fired at the suspect, but Champion said he could not release their names because it is an ongoing investigation. None of the officers were injured.
The investigation is being led by agents with the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, Champion said.
He said they have not yet identified the man shot and killed by police.
“He does match the description and the vehicle that he was in matches the description of the car in the three robberies that occurred Friday, Saturday and Sunday,” Champion said. “We do believe it is the same subject.”
The car the man was driving was a Chevrolet Impala with Georgia tags.
“It is fairly obvious the subject was not from around here," Champion said. “There were multiple suitcases in the vehicle.“
Around 9 a.m. the black Impala that had damage to the driver’s side and the front and rear bumper was towed from the scene on Goodman Road.
Champion said the car was taken to Batesville where investigators would process it.
“This was a classic example of an officer taking a hunch and putting his life on the line because, according to what officers said, he was approaching the vehicle that the officer was in armed and the surveillance officers could in fact see a firearm as he had it pointed toward the officer in the vehicle,” Champion said.
Authorities investigating an officer-involved shooting in Horn Lake on Monday morning, Jan. 8, 2018. The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is on the scene.
(Photo: Yolanda Jone, Commercial Appeal)
by: Therese Apel
date: 2018-01-01
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/01/02/mdoc-official-arrested-domestic-violence/998093001/
Domestic violence strikes more than 10 million Americans. One in four women and one in seven men are victims of that violence in their lifetimes. The Clarion-Ledger
(Photo: Miss. Dept. of Corrections)
A Mississippi Department of Corrections official is on leave after he was arrested on a domestic violence charge in Pearl early Tuesday, officials said.
Community Corrections Director Todd King was charged with domestic violence early Tuesday morning after police were called to his home twice, according to the Pearl Police Department.
PPD Spokesman Brian McGairty said officers were called to King's residence Monday evening and there had been no physical fight, just a verbal disagreement. Both parties agreed to separate and neither wished to sign charges, he said. At that point, officers did not see any evidence that anything had taken place.
Around midnight officers were called back to the residence at which point King was arrested for domestic violence.
"Based on the affidavit there wasn't any type of actual striking, but there was an attempt or a threat toward the victim, who was his wife, and that's what constituted the arrest," McGairty said.
MDOC officials said King is on leave pending a review. The agency provided no further information.
According to police, there was evidence at the scene the second time that there was some kind of threat toward the victim.
King was charged and a judge was contacted and bond was set, McGairty said. King posted bond and was released. A no-contact order was also put in place.
by: Associated Press
date: 2018-01-02
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/01/03/mississippi-gay-marriage-law-affects-southern-miss-baseball/1000684001/
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HATTIESBURG, Miss. – College baseball is affected by a Mississippi law that lets government clerks or private business people cite their own religious beliefs to deny services to same-sex couples.
The Sun Herald reports the University of Southern Mississippi was supposed to play three games in Hattiesburg in late February against Stony Brook University. The games were canceled because New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo banned all non-essential state travel to Mississippi after Republican Gov. Phil Bryant signed the law in 2016.
More: Court denies rehearing, clears Mississippi HB 1523 to take effect
Instead of playing in Hattiesburg Feb. 23-25, Southern Miss will play in a tournament at Stephen F. Austin University in Nacogdoches, Texas.
The law that could limit same-sex marriage took effect in October 2017 amid a series of legal challenges. It remains on appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
by: Sarah Fowler
date: 2018-01-02
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/01/03/mississippi-blood-supply-crisis-level/1000210001/
Two research teams each found a way to create blood stem cells that can be programmed to match patients' blood types. Video provided by Newsy Newslook
(Photo: Mississippi Blood Services/Special to The Clarion-Ledger)
Editor's note: The time of the blood drive has been updated. It will be from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. in front of Clarion Ledger in downtown Jackson. Donors are eligible to win a $1,000 Visa gift card.
Shelves at Mississippi Blood Services are empty.
The organization declared a crisis level Wednesday after donors dropped 25 percent in December.
"We need 250 to 300 units a day to meet the minimum needs of a hospital and we just do't have that. When I say our shelves are empty, our shelves are empty," said Emily Austin, Mississippi Blood Services marketing and communications manager.
"We don't use the word 'crisis' lightly, so when we hit the panic button, we are seriously in trouble."
A 25 percent decrease equates to a shortage of 1,000 units. One unit of blood can impact three patients.
"Being 1,000 units short, that's approximately 3,000 patients that we can't reach," Austin said. "Typically, when we don't have the product we reach out to our blood partners (in other states), but they don't have it either."
In addition to the decrease in donors, Mississippi Blood Services reached an "extreme shortage" this summer from which it has not fully recovered, Austin said.
"The holidays hit, and it just keeps getting worse," she said.
The organization normally sees a decrease during the holiday season, but the weather and flu season had more of an impact than usual.
"Typically during the holidays, we see a decrease in donors so that's no surprise. However, this year it was beyond a decease, it was a significant decrease," she said.
When the blood supply has reached a crisis supply in years past, Austin said, hospitals begin cancelling elective surgeries "and save everything they can for emergencies."
Ruth Cummins with public affairs for the University of Mississippi Medical Center said UMMC is not cancelling elective surgeries. "All of our blood needs are being met," she said.
Baptist Health System in Jackson is current on its blood supply, but spokesman Robby Channell acknowledged supplies typically dip during the holidays and encouraged people to donate blood.
To help increase its supply, Mississippi Blood Services is asking people to donate whole blood or platelets and companies or organizations to host blood drives.
"We really need everyone to step up and come out," Austin said. "Everybody that is healthy and able to, we desperately need you to come donate."
Blood drive
The Clarion Ledger is hosting a community blood drive Thursday from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Donors are eligible to win a $1,000 Visa gift card.
by: Robin Fitzgerald
date: 2018-01-02
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/01/03/hancock-county-deputy-who-accidentally-shot-himself-dies/1001329001/
An investigation by The Associated Press and the USA TODAY Network finds that accidental shootings involving minors occur more often than government data show.
A Hancock County deputy who accidentally shot himself while cleaning a gun at his Bayside Park home has died, Sheriff Ricky Adam said.
Adam identified him Wednesday as Deputy John Schmidt, 65, a veteran law enforcement officer and educator who had been hired as a part-time deputy on Dec. 18.
Schmidt died of a gunshot wound to the chest, Adam said in a news release.
Sheriff’s officials had confirmed the shooting Tuesday night but had not identified the Schmidt by name or as a deputy.
More: Mississippi staged death suspect may be in Louisiana, official says
First responders were called to his home on West Newtown Street about 6:15 p.m. Tuesday.
An American Medical Response ambulance crew drove him to Hancock Medical Center, and a Flight Care helicopter flew him to the University Medical Center in New Orleans, Adam said.
Initial investigation shows he was cleaning a personal firearm when the gun discharged, Adam said.
Schmidt was a veteran officer with the New Orleans Police Department and the Madison Police Department.
He also was a retired educator, having taught at Archbishop Rummel High School for 38 years, Adam said.
Schmidt had joined the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department a little more than two weeks ago and was working to get reserve certification, the sheriff said.
Robin Fitzgerald: 228-896-2307, @robincrimenews
by: Geoff Pender
date: 2018-01-03
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2018/01/04/who-could-replace-gregg-harper-congress-2018-election/1005347001/
Download The Clarion-Ledger app for free on the Apple app store or Google Play. Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger
With U.S. Rep. Gregg Harper announcing he will not seek re-election in this year's midterm congressional elections, the list of possible candidates is forming quickly.
Here is a list of confirmed and possible candidates for the 3rd Congressional District, which is considered to be a safe Republican seat, plus rumored candidates who have said they will not run. We will update this list with new names and information about each candidate and their decisions.
Last update: Tuesday, Feb. 6
Confirmed
Michael Guest. Guest, a Republican, on Jan. 5 became the first candidate to qualify for the race. The third-term district attorney for Rankin and Madison counties is known for being a media-savvy elected official. His name has been mentioned as a possible candidate for statewide offices in the past. Harper’s daughter, Maggie, and his former campaign manager, Stanley Shows, have joined Guest’s campaign.
Whit Hughes. Hughes, a Republican, qualified to run Jan. 17. He is president of the Baptist Health Foundation and chief development officer of Baptist Health Systems. The Republican is a former deputy director of the Mississippi Development Authority under Gov. Haley Barbour. He was also part of the Mississippi State basketball team that went to the 1996 Final Four, which may sound trivial but isn't. If nothing else, it shows the deep connections he has to Bully Bloc, the powerful MSU fundraising PAC.
Perry Parker. The Covington County businessman qualified Jan. 17 to run in the Republican primary. Parker has owned Sanford Investment since 1994, working with financial market investment portfolios. His campaign manager said he was unavailable for comment at the time of his filing.
Sally Doty. The second-term Brookhaven lawmaker qualified Jan. 22 for the GOP primary. Doty chairs the Senate Elections Committee. Doty was a leading proponent of the divorce reform bill that passed during the last session. She played a key role in passing campaign finance reform last year, too, but killed House efforts to include early voting and online voter registration.
Possible
Michael Evans. Evans, a second-term state representative from Kemper County, is the first Democrat whose name surfaced as a possible candidate. He is little known outside his district, but he has ties within the state's firefighter ranks and among poultry farmers.
Joey Kilgore. Kilgore is a chancery judge in Neshoba County. The Philadelphia native took the bench in 2010. He is a Republican.
Jason McNeel. The Madison County resident is president of Craft Coswell, a commercial and residential flooring business based out of Ridgeland. He reportedly has talked with politicos about the race.
William E. Shirley Jr. (added 1/10) Shirley is a Republican state representative from Quitman, who has served in the District 84 seat for Clarke, Jasper and Newton counties since 2012. Shirley is the owner of The Family Fish Camp restaurant. He's known as a conservative lawmaker and made news recently for repeated efforts to strip state funding from any universities that don't fly the state flag.
Katherine B. Tate. Tate is an "advocate for educational choice" and an education consultant. She is a former teacher and school administrator. The Tupelo native now lives in Jackson and is a Republican.
Mitch Tyner. The Jackson attorney first entered the political arena when he unsuccessfully challenged then-Gov. Haley Barbour in the 2003 Republican primary. Tyner also represented state Sen. Chris McDaniel in challenging the outcome of the 2014 Republican primary for U.S. Senate, which McDaniel lost to U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran in a runoff. Tyner qualified to run for the central district seat on the Public Service Commission, but he dropped out of the race just before the qualifying deadline to avoid a contested GOP primary.
Not running
The following possible candidates have confirmed they will not run:
• State Rep. Andy Gipson, R-Braxton
• Rhonda Keenum, lobbyist and political consultant
• Gerard Gibert, Madison businessman
• State Treasurer Lynn Fitch
• State Sen. Josh Harkins, R-Flowood
• Agriculture Commissioner Cindy Hyde-Smith
• Rep. Mark Baker, R-Brandon
by: Jimmie E. Gates
date: 2018-01-03
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2018/01/04/house-bill-would-separate-mlk-and-robert-e-lee-holiday/1003439001/
A group of area residents, lead by Jackson Ward 6 Councilman Tyrone Hendrix, cleaned areas of south Jackson in honor of the message of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Joe Ellis/The Clarion-Ledger
A House bill would separate the state holiday for slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
The bill by Rep. Kabir Karriem, D-Columbus, would keep the third Monday of January as the state holiday for King's birthday. It would move Lee's holiday to the fourth Monday of January.
"It's always the right time to do the right thing and I think separating the holidays is long overdue," Karriem said. "Both men had impacts on history, but I don't think it serves the public well in this country to honor both men on the same day."
Karriem said King was a martyr for progress in this country and deserves to have his own day. Alabama and Mississippi are the only remaining states with a dual holiday for King and Lee, Karriem said.
State Rep. Kabir Karriem, D-Columbus (Photo: Special to The Clarion-Ledger)
MLK Day is a federal holiday. In 1987, Mississippi created a law to honor King on that day, but it falls on the same day Mississippi set aside to honor Lee, the man who commanded the Confederate States Army during the Civil War.
The state has had a Robert E. Lee holiday since 1910. The holiday, which is celebrated the third Monday of January, coincides this year with King's actual birthday of Jan. 15. King was assassinated in 1968.
Sen. Derrick Simmons, D-Greenville, said he supports Karriem's legislation and that he and Sen. Sollie Norwood, D-Jackson, will introduce a similar bill in the Senate. Simmons, the Senate Democratic Caucus chairman, said King and Lee stood for totally opposite things in this country.
"It's really offensive to honor Martin Luther King Jr. and what he stood for with what Robert E. Lee stood for," Simmons said.
A day of service during the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
Karriem said he hopes the Legislature will give the bill full consideration. Most people celebrates the holiday in King's honor with a day of service.
The bill has been filed with the clerk's office, but a bill number hadn't been assigned late Thursday.
by: Deborah Barfield Berry
date: 2018-01-03
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2018/01/04/harper-wont-seek-re-election/1003955001/
Mississippi U.S. Rep. Greg Harper asks for prayers and unity following a shooting at a congressional baseball practice Wednesday. Wochit
(Photo: Deborah Barfield Berry, USA TODAY)
Longtime Republican U.S. Rep. Gregg Harper will not seek a sixth term this year because of family considerations and because he never planned for it to be a career.
"(Family) is one aspect of it, but I never intended to make this a career and 10 years is really a long time to serve," Harper said in an interview with The Clarion-Ledger on Thursday. "It's been the most incredible experience ... I wouldn't trade it for anything, but I never planned to spend my entire life up here."
Haper said he and his wife, Sidney, "did not make this decision lightly."
More: Who will replace U.S. Rep. Gregg Harper in Congress?
"We really had been considering and contemplating this for two years," Harper said.
He said politics in Washington have been tough in recent years, but that wasn't a driver of his decision.
"Certainly a lot of frustration goes along with serving in Washington, D.C., but there are a great group of members I serve with up here, and I have a really great staff," Harper said. "... It was intended for people to be a citizen legislator for a period of time and not stay there ... Of course, I have a grandbaby coming in July, and having more control over my schedule is really appealing, too."
Harper, an attorney, said he's not sure what he will do after he finishes out the final year of his term.
Harper, 61, has served in Mississippi's 3rd Congressional District that includes parts of the Metro Area since 2009, when he replaced former Rep. Chip Pickering. He was up for re-election this year, with a March qualifying deadline for the race and thus far had not appeared to face a serious challenger.
Harper has been considered a rising star in the GOP House leadership. He is the highest-ranking member of the Mississippi U.S. House delegation and the only member to hold a full committee chairmanship, leading the Committee on House Administration, a post to which Speaker of the House Paul Ryan appointed him in 2016. As chair of the CHA, Harper oversees federal elections and any disputes over them, the Capitol and House and Senate buildings, Capitol Police and the Library of Congress and Smithsonian museums.
More: Harper, others aim to help people with disabilities get jobs
More recently, Harper was named chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. The subcommittee conducts investigations and provides oversight on telecommunications, consumer protection, food and drug safety, public health and research, energy policy, interstate and foreign policy and any other matters under the jurisdiction of the full committee.
As chairman of the House Administration Committee, Harper has had a high profile role in discussions about addressing sexual harassment concerns on Capitol Hill. Harper’s committee has held several hearings on the topic and pushed to made anti-sexual harassment training mandatory.
Harper had also been considered a likely successor to U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran, should he retire or not seek re-election.
Cochran on Thursday issued a statement calling Harper "a good friend who has represented our state well."
"Gregg Harper has been a hardworking and dedicated congressman and it has been a pleasure to work with him," Cochran said.
Gov. Phil Bryant thanked Harper for his friendship and service to the state.
"His dedication has made our state stronger, and I wish him and his wonderful family the best upon his retirement," Bryant said.
State GOP Chairman Lucien Smith thanked Harper for his service and said, "I look forward to working with his successor to advance conservative policies at the national level."
Already by Thursday afternoon, some Republican names were surfacing as potential candidates for Harper's seat — which would be expected to remain in the red column — including: Michael Guest, district attorney for Madison and Rankin counties; state Treasurer Lynn Fitch; state Agriculture Commissioner Cindy Hyde-Smith; state Reps. Mark Baker and Andy Gipson; state Sens. Sally Doty and Josh Harkins; Neshoba County Chancery Judge Joey Kilgore and Ridgeland businessman Gerard Gibert.
Harper thanked his family for its support in a written statement:
"Serving as a member of the United States House of Representatives has been the highest privilege and honor of my life. The opportunity to serve the people of the 3rd District, our state, and our country is something that my wife, Sidney, and I will never forget. We have been contemplating for almost two years when it would be our time not to run again, and after spending time over Christmas and New Year’s with my family, we made the very difficult decision to say that 10 years will be long enough. I never intended for this to be a career, and it will soon be time for another conservative citizen legislator to represent us. I will work hard over the final 12 months of my term this year, but I will not seek re-election for a sixth term.
"As many of you know, our son Livingston, now 28 years old, has been a driving force in our lives. We have watched him, in spite of his special needs, overcome obstacles and succeed. Livingston, you are our inspiration!
"Our precious daughter, Maggie, who was in the 11th grade when we first ran for office in 2008, has been amazing and worked as hard as anyone I’ve ever seen. Now, we rejoice that she, and our son-in-law, Brett, are expecting their first child.
"To my wife, Sidney, who has done all the heavy lifting for our family and of course, for me, thank you, and I could not have done this without you.
"Finally, we humbly thank God that He has guided us through this entire journey and we trust Him with our future. Proverbs 3:5-6 says it best for our family.
"I will truly miss serving in Congress, but I look forward to the years ahead as I continue to work on policy issues that matter, and I hope to spend more time in Mississippi. I have been blessed to have the best staff that any Member could ever have. I have also enjoyed serving with an incredible group of Members who care deeply about their districts and our country. I believe that America’s greatest days are yet to come.
"May our great God continue to bless each and every one of you. Thank you for your encouragement, your support and your prayers.”
by: Therese Apel
date: 2017-12-30
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2017/12/31/byram-officer-shoots-wounds-man-who-allegedly-rammed-police-car-walmart/993557001/
When breaking news happens, we want you to see it first hand. Thank you for trusting the Clarion Ledger. Wochit
A Jackson man is hospitalized with multiple gunshot wounds after he was shot by an officer responding to a shoplifting call in Byram Sunday.
The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is handling the investigation, which is routine in the case of an officer-involved shooting, said Byram Police Chief Luke Thompson.
MBI spokesman Warren Strain said the incident occurred at 8:55 a.m. in the Walmart parking lot. The officer was not injured and the suspect, 23-year-old Geremia Levuaghn Grant, has injuries that are not life-threatening, Strain said.
Thompson said the officer, whom he only identified as a veteran of the force, answered a call of a shoplifter at Walmart. The officer approached Grant and the two exchanged words. Then Grant, he said, fled to his vehicle which was blocked by the officer's cruiser.
Thompson said the incident was recorded on multiple security cameras. He said the suspect rammed the police car and another vehicle, which put the officer's life in "imminent danger." The officer fired shots, striking the suspect, who fled the scene in the car.
A pursuit followed the shooting, Thompson said. It ended on Oak Hill Drive near Watkins Drive, and Grant was taken from the scene in an ambulance to the University of Mississippi Medical Center. He was able to speak both to the ambulance crew and once he got to the hospital, Thompson said.
The officer has minor injuries, but "physically he is OK," Thompson said. He will undergo a routine evaluation to check for his fitness for duty. He has served with Byram and another department in his career, the chief said.
by: Jimmie E. Gates
date: 2017-12-30
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2017/12/31/lawmakers-review-ways-make-publics-identifiable-data-state-hands-more-secure/984516001/
Identity theft is in the spotlight even more now after the huge Equifax data breach. Here are some key steps to keep you banking information, Social Security information and other personal information private. Stephanie Dickrell, sdickrell@stcloudtimes.com
Records belonging to the Department of Human Services that contained such items as official birth certificates, bank account statements and Social Security cards were found scattered along a roadway in Hancock County in 2016.
After failing to notify patients of a potential data breach in 2013, the University of Mississippi Medical Center agreed in 2016 to pay a $2.75 million penalty to the civil rights division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
A recent report by the state legislative watchdog committee for Performance Expenditure and Evaluation Review concluded rules and regulations of several state agencies contain gaps in security procedures, increasing the probability of a breach of confidentiality of personal identifiable information.
That has led lawmakers in the state Senate to try to come up with uniform procedures for handling and disposing of personal data.
Pre-legislative session logo
"We don't have a standard, uniform procedure," said Senate Pro-tem Terry Burton, R-Newton, who is spearheading the legislative effort along with Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson. "We don't even know if we have uniform procedure for information we don't need anymore."
Burton said through legislation or guidelines from the Department of Information Technology Services, the state needs a uniform policy on what to store, how long to store it, what the Department of Archives and History needs the state to store for perpetuity, what can be destroyed and the manner of proper disposal.
With hacking of records, especially electronic records, the state must ensure personal identifiable information is secure, Burton said.
Blount said some lawmakers, PEER Committee members, Archive and History and Information Technology Services held an initial meeting in early December to discuss the issue.
"We took as our starting point the PEER report on what needs to be done to protect our citizens' private data," Blount said.
PEER reviewed the effectiveness of current policies regarding the management of confidential data collected by state agencies and their affiliates to determine whether personally identifiable information is being handled in a manner that best protects state residents. The conclusion was that it wasn't.
More: PEER Committee: Personally identifiable data in state hands may not be secure
Burton said the agencies' records he was most concerned about were those of the Department of Revenue and health agencies including Department of Mental Health, Department of Health and UMMC.
UMMC paid the penalty as part a settlement agreement between the medical center and the federal government's Office for Civil Rights following an investigation into alleged violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, known as HIPAA. The investigation stemmed from the theft of an intensive care unit laptop that created a potential data breach that could have affected 10,000 patients.
UMMC notified the Office of Civil Rights about the potential breach two months after the theft and conducted an internal investigation that found an ICU visitor likely had taken the computer.
However, UMMC's policies regarding the protection of confidential health information were lacking, according to a review conducted by OCR. Health information could be accessed using a generic username and password, and the medical center failed to notify the patients whose data was at risk.
According to the investigation, UMMC failed to prevent and correct security violations and didn't have safeguards to restrict unauthorized users from accessing patient records at every workstation.
In the Hancock County records case, the Department of Human Services identified a defunct community action agency, Gulf Coast Community Action Agency, as the responsible party for the personal data scattered along a roadway. The agency had lost its federal funding and closed after concerns arose about policy issues and improper management of funds.
DHS provided the Gulf Coast agency with a close-out agreement indicating procedures for returning DHS property, including confidential files containing personally identifiable information. The agency reported to DHS in April 2016 that it had officially completed all close-out procedures.
However, after the Hancock County incident, DHS learned the agency had failed to comply and complete all provisions of its close-out agreement and had improperly retained some confidential records.
The Legislature requires state agencies to use more uniform practices and agreements when sharing personally identifiable information with third parties to minimize potential gaps that could lead to breaches in data.
PEER recommended agencies should be required to ensure that personally identifiable information covered by a Department of Archives and History-approved retention schedule be retained, destroyed or sanitized in the appropriate manner, including having an agency representative physically inspect any location or device to ensure compliance, and the agency should document it for its records.
"The Legislature is driving this effort and will prescribe its timetable," said David Pilcher, director of the Archives and History's records services division. "We will continue to work with them, PEER staff, the Department of Information Technology Services, and anyone else they include to produce any legislation and/or policies they feel necessary to address the report's recommendations. We appreciate having a seat at the table and will do everything we can to help agencies and officials deal with records containing personally identifiable information."
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by: Jimmie E. Gates
date: 2017-12-30
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2018/01/01/understaffed-mdoc-hopes-avoid-further-budget-reductions/951834001/
House Speaker Philip Gunn and Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves vow to continue cuts to state government's size and spending. Geoff Pender
The Mississippi Department of Corrections is still hamstrung by lack of corrections officers and guards, largely because of low pay, that has led recently to the closing of some units at the South Mississippi Correctional Institution.
"Seeking better wages for our employees, who are among the lowest paid in the country, will always be a priority of my administration," MDOC Commissioner Pelicia Hall said in a statement.
However, Hall knows it will be a tough sell to get lawmakers to approve more money for additional pay raises.
In early 2016, the starting pay for a correctional officer was $22,639 a year and $26,459 for a parole/probation officer.
The Legislature allowed MDOC to raise pay for officers and guards in 2016 that increased the starting pay to about $24,903 a year for guard trainees and $30,648 for parole and probation officer trainees. But the pay increase didn't alleviate the shortage.
Nationally, the average starting pay for guards is more than $32,000 a year. Salaries for parole and probation officers vary, but the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in 2016 that the average annual salary was $47,000.
"We are continually analyzing ways/areas to streamline expenditures, but there are no other areas available to reduce costs at this time," Hall said. "We have some serious staffing issues and some serious capital improvement needs that must be addressed in order to operate safely and securely."
Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Pelicia Hall.
As of Dec. 1, MDOC had 1,175 correctional officers for Community Corrections, which includes the community work centers and the three state prisons — Central Mississippi Correctional Facility, Mississippi State Penitentiary and South Mississippi Correctional Institution — and 566 vacancies. The total inmate population as of Dec. 4 was 20,873 and 33,411 were on probation or parole.
Hall said MDOC would like to use any cost savings to reinvest in employees and rehabilitation of inmates.
"We are appreciative of the pay raise lawmakers approved in 2016. However, in light of the state’s revenues, my administration is focused on how to do the best we can with the money provided to us," Hall said.
Pre-legislative session logo (Photo: Aliya Mood|ISA Network)
Following passage of the comprehensive criminal justice reform legislation known as House Bill 585 in 2014, MDOC has reduced its expenditures by about $40 million since FY 2014, she said.
"That reduction, however, has not totally eliminated the cost associated with incarceration," Hall said. "The cost once expended for incarceration is now transferred to community corrections for supervision and programming, albeit at a lower rate. Further reductions in our budget will jeopardize the department’s ability to provide programs, hire and retain additional staff, and ultimately carry out our public safety mission."
A severe staffing shortage prompted MDOC in October to close some units at the South Mississippi Correctional Institution in Leakesville and move about 400 inmates elsewhere in the prison system.
"We likely will have to close some other units," Hall said at the time. "This is a necessary measure to address public safety concerns. We believe it is best for the safety of our staff and inmates. We also hope this is temporary because we want to fill all vacancies. We are aggressively recruiting."
At a time when the starting salary is not as attractive as some other jobs that pay more but are far less dangerous, MDOC has attempted to put in place more stringent requirements to become a correctional officer, including better education and requiring applicants to pass a polygraph exam during pre-employment screening.
Senate Corrections Chairman Sampson Jackson, D-Preston, said he will push in the Corrections Committee for additional money for raises. He said raises seemed to have helped MDOC maintain more parole and probation officers. He said at one point there were 90 vacancies, but that number was down to 30 in June.
Jackson said he didn't have vacancy figures on correctional officers yet.
When asked about the chances of pay raises for guards and probation officers with state's budget woes, Jackson said he didn't know, but said it is a matter of safety that MDOC have adequate security.
Jackson said he will be meeting with Hall soon after the legislative session begins on Tuesday.
Other corrections issue to come before the 2018 Legislature:
Criminal justice reform
Jackson said there will be a continued push to carry out the reforms under HB 585.
The comprehensive criminal justice reform package, aimed at protecting public safety, reigned in corrections costs and restored clarity to Mississippi's criminal sentencing guidelines.
The reforms included such things as more discretionary leeway for judges to determine sentences and alternatives to prison. It expanded the use of drug courts, which have been shown to reduce recidivism. The new law also focuses increased penalties for those dealing larger amounts of drugs while lowering sentences for possession or trafficking of small amounts.
Since passage of HB 585, Mississippi went from second in the nation in imprisonment rate to fifth.
Under the legislation, sentencing reforms diverted certain drug and property offenders, including shoplifting, drug possession and certain sales, and other low-level crimes, to prison alternatives.
The goal also was diversion of technical violators of supervision to treatment-oriented Technical Violation Centers, saving approximately 1,400 prison beds. However, some officials say some judges are still sending a lot of offenders back to prison after a violation instead of an alternative program.
The goal of HB 585 is to avert growth in the state's prison population and save the state an estimated $264 million over 10 years.
Parolees
House Bill 1033, vetoed last session by Gov. Phil Bryant, is set to be revived and reworked.
That bill would have allowed paroled inmates to schedule online interviews with probation officers so they wouldn't have to miss work. It had other features. But Bryant said a typo in the final legislation would have allowed habitual offenders to serve only 25 percent of their sentence before being eligible for parole. That is why he said he vetoed the legislation.
Expected issues
House Judiciary B Chairman Andy Gipson, R-Braxton, said some of the items his committee will tackle include:
• A Mississippi Street Gang Act to combat criminal gang activity.
• Legislation to require any inmate being released by MDOC on Earned Release Supervision to be reviewed by the Parole Board prior to release.
• Establishment of a consistent procedure to address sexual assault on the campus of any Mississippi college/university.
• Technical amendments to address various enhanced concealed carry issues.
• Legislation to close a loophole and prohibit registered sex offenders from loitering within 500 feet of any playground, ballpark or similar facility where children are present.
MDOC by the numbers
20,873 — Total inmate population as of Dec. 4.
33,411 — Inmates on probation or paroled as of Dec. 4.
1,175 — Total number of correctional officers as of Dec. 1 at community work centers, State Penitentiary at Parchman, Central Mississippi Correctional Facility and South Mississippi Correctional Institution.
566 — Shortage of correctional officers at community work centers and three state prisons.
400 — Inmates transferred from South Mississippi Correctional Institution when units were closed due to staffing shortages.
$24,903 vs. $32,000 — Starting annual pay for correctional officers in Mississippi vs. the national average.
$30,648 vs. $47,000 — Starting annual pay for probation officers in Mississippi vs. the national average.
by: Geoff Pender
date: 2017-12-31
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2018/01/02/lawmakers-convene-18-session-look-issues/984487001/
The complexities of Medicaid often contribute to the confusion of the program. Here, we break down some of the numbers for Mississippi Medicaid. Dustin Barnes/The Clarion-Ledger
Lawmakers convene the 133rd regular session of the Mississippi Legislature at noon on Tuesday, with the session scheduled to run through April 1.
Here's a look at some of the major issues legislators are expected to tackle this session:
The budget, cuts
Setting a roughly $6 billion state budget is lawmakers’ main responsibility for the session. Their deadline to set one is March 26.
Initial projections are that revenue for the coming year’s budget will be about $76 million, or 1.3 percent less than the current year. Also, legislative leaders vow to abide by the “2 percent set aside” rule and spend only 98 percent of revenue, increasing the state’s rainy day fund and other reserves.
After two previous years of substantial cuts, many state agency leaders will be lobbying lawmakers hard not to cut their agencies or programs further.
“You are going to see Republicans continuing to work to shrink the size of government and pass a balanced budget,” Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves said.
Medicaid
The state-federal health program that covers one in four Mississippians — mostly children — legally sunsets in 2018, and lawmakers are expected to consider many changes as they reauthorize the program.
Lawmakers are expected to re-examine and debate the managed care contracts with private companies and whether they are providing the savings promised and look at issues such as the number of doctor visits or prescriptions allowed patients. They are also expected to debate moving eligibility oversight to the Department of Human Services.
The agency has also requested an extra $47 million be added to its current-year $920 million budget to cover costs through June 30.
David Dzielak resigned as Medicaid director just weeks before the start of the session. Gov. Phil Bryant appointed his deputy chief of staff, Drew Snyder, as interim director.
More: Balancing preventative health, budget crunching, politics in the 2018 legislative session
Education formula rewrite
Lawmakers are expected to tackle a long-discussed rewrite of the state’s adequate education funding formula. GOP leaders have for years complained that the Mississippi Adequate Education Program funding formula, which has been fully funded only twice since it was passed in 1997, sets unrealistic spending goals and allows too much spending on administration as opposed to instruction.
Legislative leaders in 2016 hired a consultant to come up with a rewrite plan, but last year couldn't get consensus among the GOP caucus on a new formula. The consultant's recommendations include measures that could reduce state funding for some affluent districts and require local taxpayers to foot more of the bill.
Crafting a final formula and selling it to a majority of lawmakers will be a difficult task. And this comes just weeks after the abrupt resignation of House Education Chairman John Moore, R-Brandon, amid allegations of sexual harassment.
School choice
A continued push for “school choice” is likely this legislative session, with Gov. Phil Bryant and the legislative leadership expected to support it. Bryant has proposed expanding the state’s special needs voucher program by $10 million. The program allows parents of special needs children to use public money for private education. Opponents say the program siphons money from an already strapped public education system.
Bryant said: “School choice empowers parents to choose a school they feel best meets their child’s needs. That empowerment should not be limited to those with means. Every parent, regardless of ZIP code or income, deserves educational opportunities for their children.”
State lottery
A state lottery — a controversial issue for decades — is expected to be at least debated this session, after a special House study commission worked during the off season and will present its findings of pros and cons.
Bryant has voiced support for a state lottery. But Reeves and House Speaker Philip Gunn have both voiced opposition. It is expected, if brought to a full vote in the Legislature, to pass as public and legislative support for a lottery grows.
Roads and bridges
Finding more money for road and bridge work — a controversial issue for the last couple of years in the current no-new-tax environment — is expected to come up again, with local governments lobbying hard for more infrastructure funding as well, saying lack of state funds forces them to increase local taxes.
The infrastructure funding issue is expected again to drive ancillary debates on internet sales taxes, tax diversion rates to cities, and whether to raise fuel taxes.
Mental health reform
Facing a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit over its delivery of mental health care, Mississippi is looking to divert more funding to community services as opposed to those provided in institutions. An in-depth Clarion Ledger report on the state's attempts to move services to the community found the state spent roughly 38 percent of its mental health dollars last year on the Community Mental Health Centers.
The state Department of Mental Health plans to divert $10 million — $8 million for crisis services, $2 million for the individuals with intellectual disabilities waiver — from its institutional budgets to the community mental health centers in 2019.
That percentage is expected to increase with the department's plan to divert $10 million — $8 million for crisis services, $2 million for the individuals with intellectual disabilities waiver — from its institutional budgets to the community centers in 2019. To do this, the Department of Mental Health, which suffered significant cuts last year, is asking that lawmakers spare the agency from cuts this year.
Lawmakers are looking for other ways to improve the state’s mental health system. Rep. Becky Currie, R-Brookhaven, plans again to introduce a bill to create mental health courts, to divert people with mental illness from the criminal justice system into treatment.
More: Mental health progress: Mississippi's slow-moving transition to the community
Domestic violence, divorce reform
Lawmakers are expected again to debate divorce law reform and other measures to reduce domestic violence and related issues.
Last year after much debate, lawmakers passed a measure that allows judges to grant a divorce for “spousal domestic abuse” based on testimony of the victim spouse.
But Mississippi and South Dakota remain the only two states without a unilateral no-fault divorce ground. An investigative report by The Clarion-Ledger last year showed how Mississippi divorce laws, little changed over 100 years, trap spouses and children in abusive situations and financial limbo. One spouse who does not want a divorce or wants it only on his or her terms can hold up finalizing one for years — in some cases a decade or more.
State Sen. Sally Doty, R-Brookhaven, the Mississippi Coalition Against Domestic Violence and others are vowing to continue to push this year for divorce law and other reforms to combat domestic violence.
Contract reform, reverse auctions
Local government leaders are asking lawmakers to revisit a “reverse-auction” mandate for purchasing commodities that kicks in this month.
House and Senate Accountability, Efficiency and Transparency Chairmen Jerry Turner and John Polk have successfully pushed through sweeping changes in government purchasing and spending the last few years and vow to push for more this session. The reforms are aimed at saving taxpayers millions and reducing cronyism and corruption in government contracting and spending.
Nurse practitioners
Mississippi’s nurse practitioners are advocating they be allowed to practice without the oversight of physicians, as is the practice in 22 other states plus Washington, D.C. They say the move could help address access to care shortages in Mississippi, particularly in rural areas.
Nurse practitioners practice medical procedures on a cadavers at Global Training Institute, an advanced simulation laboratory in Canton, on Friday, July 21, 2017.
However, physicians, including those in the state and American Medical Association, are expected to oppose this move in the Legislature. They say there is no substitute for the advanced education and training that doctors receive.
Agencies, boards and commissions
Bryant has again called for a check on state government bureaucracy spending as he has to little avail since 2012. In his budget recommendation, he’s calling for a “shared services model” for many small government agencies, boards and commissions. He suggests they share back-office operations such as accounting, budgeting, payroll, grants and procurement. Reeves has pledged support for the move.
Mississippi state Capitol (Photo: File photo/The Clarion-Ledger)
by: The Clarion-Ledger
date: 2018-01-01
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/01/02/new-coalition-aims-eliminate-digital-divide-rural-mississippi/998046001/
Download The Clarion-Ledger app for free on the Apple app store or Google Play. Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger
Rallying around a plan to eliminate the digital divide by 2022, a diverse group of community leaders, rural advocates and top innovators today announced the national launch of Connect Americans Now and the formation of local partnerships in Mississippi. The new alliance will work with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and other policymakers to ensure that there is sufficient unlicensed low band spectrum in every market in the country to enable broadband connectivity.
“All Americans — regardless of where they live — deserve access to high-speed internet,” Richard T. Cullen, executive director of Connect Americans Now, said in a news release. “Without a broadband connection, millions of students struggle to keep up with their assignments, Americans in rural areas are unable to fully utilize telemedicine, farmers are denied the promise of precision agriculture and businesses are unable to tap into the world of online commerce. Congress and the FCC must stand with rural America by allowing internet service providers to deliver broadband via white spaces spectrum.”
“It’s critical to expand broadband access, especially for the millions of rural Americans who are on the wrong side of the digital divide,” Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant said in the release. “I applaud Connect Americans Now’s efforts to extend high-speed access to the internet in rural America and urge the FCC to reserve white space channels in the U.S. market to better enable access to broadband internet.”
CAN’s founding partners include Microsoft, ACT: The App Association, the National Rural Education Association, the Schools, Health and Library Broadband Coalition, the Wisconsin Economic Development Association, Alaska Communications, Axiom, the Mid-Atlantic Broadcasting Communities Corporation, the American Pain Relief Institute, HTS Ag, and others. As a part of the initial launch, CAN is forming partnerships across rural America to educate stakeholders about the opportunities available via long-range, wireless broadband over TV white spaces. They also are spearheading an advocacy campaign in Washington, D.C., where FCC regulators have the authority to make sufficient unlicensed spectrum available in each market for high-speed internet.
“A reliable and cost-effective broadband connection will change the lives of millions of Americans who live each day without this basic necessity,” Tad Deriso, president & CEO of Mid-Atlantic Broadband Communities Corp. said in the release. “Through our pilot project with Microsoft, we have witnessed the transformative effect that providing broadband via TV white spaces brings to rural families who otherwise could not obtain internet service, and hope that the FCC will embrace the potential of Connect Americans Now’s plan to close the digital divide.”
by: Therese Apel
date: 2018-01-01
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2018/01/02/mdoc-official-arrested-domestic-violence/998093001/
Domestic violence strikes more than 10 million Americans. One in four women and one in seven men are victims of that violence in their lifetimes. The Clarion-Ledger
(Photo: Miss. Dept. of Corrections)
A Mississippi Department of Corrections official is on leave after he was arrested on a domestic violence charge in Pearl early Tuesday, officials said.
Community Corrections Director Todd King was charged with domestic violence early Tuesday morning after police were called to his home twice, according to the Pearl Police Department.
PPD Spokesman Brian McGairty said officers were called to King's residence Monday evening and there had been no physical fight, just a verbal disagreement. Both parties agreed to separate and neither wished to sign charges, he said. At that point, officers did not see any evidence that anything had taken place.
Around midnight officers were called back to the residence at which point King was arrested for domestic violence.
"Based on the affidavit there wasn't any type of actual striking, but there was an attempt or a threat toward the victim, who was his wife, and that's what constituted the arrest," McGairty said.
MDOC officials said King is on leave pending a review. The agency provided no further information.
According to police, there was evidence at the scene the second time that there was some kind of threat toward the victim.
King was charged and a judge was contacted and bond was set, McGairty said. King posted bond and was released. A no-contact order was also put in place.
by: Jimmie E. Gates
date: 2017-12-28
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/opinion/columnists/2017/12/29/gates-stopping-brain-drain/987183001/
Population loss means fewer resources for rural school districts. But chiefs of small town school houses say they're here to stay. Wochit
(Photo: File photo/The Clarion-Ledger)
The other day I was reading emails when I came across one from a young woman living in the Mississippi Delta who said she hates the state because there isn’t anything to do here.
I could've responded by borrowing a phase from WLBT-Channel 3’s Walt Grayson: “‘Get out and look around Mississippi.”
Surely, there are things to do in Mississippi, such as visiting the Delta Blues Museum, the Grammy Museum, Ground Zero in Clarksdale, exploring our many parks and camp sites and cultural attractions.
But instead of trying to alter this young woman's beliefs, I was able to understand her frustration. I don’t know her situation or anything else about her other than what she said in the email. She said she had read a column I wrote recently about our state, referring to the two images of Mississippi. The column talked about how there has been the tale of two Mississippis for as long as I have been alive, that we have those who want to see the state progress, but others who want to preserve the Mississippi of old with all its warts.
Apparently a lot of the younger generation still see limited opportunities in this state, and there are still more people leaving Mississippi than moving here. A story last week by the Associated Press reported that for the third year in a row, the Census Bureau estimates more people left the state than moved here.
More: Exiting Mississippi: Census finds state again loses people
Mississippi lost approximately 8,000 residents to migration from July 2016 to July 2017. The migration of people from the state has slowed over the years, but it continues, and that is a problem.
We must make Mississippi a place young professionals want to make their home and provide opportunities for all of our citizens whether they live in the Mississippi Delta, the Jackson metro area, the Gulf Coast, Meridian or Vicksburg or any other area of the state.
Politicians too often take a myopic view of things, getting caught up in partisan politics, and not working on the big picture of making this state an oasis for all of us, especially the younger generation.
I see some hope with some young professionals choosing to make Mississippi their home.
Recently, however, Higher Education Commissioner Glenn Boyce said during a luncheon sponsored by the Stennis Institute of Government and the Capitol press corps, that a state College Board report found 40 percent of the graduates from the state’s public universities had left Mississippi five years after their graduation.
Boyce said it is critical to the state’s economic vitality to reverse the trend. His observation is on point. In Mississippi since the 2008 recession, the state is lagging behind other areas in economic growth.
Mississippi's economy is growing at a slow pace and has struggled to gain momentum since the Great Recession, State Economist Darrin Webb told the Joint Legislative Budget Committee in November.
Although Webb didn't attribute the state's lackluster economic growth to residents leaving the state, it can be surmised that out migration plays a part in the lack of revenue coming into the state's coffers.
State leaders have been advocating for workforce development programs to teach skills to those looking for jobs. Gov. Phil Bryant and others have said jobs are available in the state, but we don't have the skilled workforce to qualify for those jobs.
We need workforce development for those not looking to enter higher education, but we need to work to make it easier for those who want to continue their education. We have seen cuts in education programs and at the same time, higher tuition and fees at our colleges and universities, which are making it more difficult for students to afford an education.
Lawmakers and other state leaders need to put their collective minds together to stop this state's brain drain and make our state a place where young people see hope for a better quality of life.
by: Getty Israel
date: 2017-12-29
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/opinion/columnists/2017/12/31/public-health-professionals-undervalued-underutilized-mississippi/988587001/
Department of Public Health and Social Services Division of Environmental Health Administrator Marilou Scroggs explains a typical day of a health inspector. Jerick Sablan/PDN
(Photo: Special to The Clarion-Ledger)
Considering a degree in public health? Think again. If you’re not a clinician, it is nearly impossible to earn a living as a public health professional in Mississippi and most Southern states, which invest heavily in clinical care but a miniscule amount in disease and injury prevention.
Currently, there are 60,000 public health students enrolled in the U.S. Clinicians make up a growing number of students who obtain a Master of Public Health degree. In 2016, 30 percent, 31 percent and 23 percent of MPH graduates at Yale University, Columbia University, and the Mailman School of Public health, respectively, reported working in a clinical setting.
Nurses and physicians are in great demand and can find a plethora of opportunities anywhere in the country; so the MPH is worth the investment. However, I strongly doubt the MPH adds much value for the MPH graduate who is not a clinician. In fact, the job numbers do not indicate a demand comparable to the number of public health students, especially those who do not work in clinical settings
It’s difficult to determine a realistic number of nonclinical positions in the U.S. because the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics does not classify the public health profession as an occupation.
In 2016 the bureau rejected recommendations to “better represent public health occupations, such as listing Health Educators and Community Health under a new major group titled ‘public health occupations’ rather than in the major group ... Community and Social Service Occupations. The Standard Occupational Classification Policy Committee did not accept these recommendations based on Classification Principle 2, which states that occupations are classified based on work performed.”
The community and social service occupations category includes social workers, substance abuse and marriage and family therapists, behavioral, rehabilitation and school/career counselors, probation officers, religious workers, community health workers and health educators. Employment of these occupations is projected to grow 14 percent from 2016 to 2026, but primarily in health care.
Health care and social assistance occupations accounted for 81 percent of the positions. Only 10 percent and 25 percent were in nonprofit and government agencies, respectively, which is typically where nonclinical public health professionals, e.g. health educators and program specialists, are employed.
Merely 0.4 percent of health managers worked in government and the nonprofit sector, and no growth is projected in 2024. Conversely, almost 20 percent worked in health care organizations where employment is expected to grow by at least 10 percent in 2024, suggesting that most of the health management positions are being filled by licensed clinicians.
In 2014, there were 61,000 health educator positions, which is projected to increase by 7.5 percent. The positions are predominantly found in the District of Columbia, Alaska, Georgia, Wyoming and Maryland, primarily because of the federal government’s presence. The bulk of the positions appear to be in clinical settings. The bureau does not distinguish between clinical health educators and community health educators, but it does list industries with the highest levels of employment.
Approximately 31 percent of health educators were employed in the health care and social assistance sectors, which are projected to employ 36 percent in 2024. Ambulatory health care services and hospitals accounted for nearly 23 percent of these clinical positions and are projected to account for 28 percent in 2024. In contrast, nonprofit and religious organizations employed only 4 percent and 2 percent, respectively. Approximately 14 percent were employed in government agencies, primarily state and local. Health education positions in nonclinical settings are projected to grow by .5 percent.
The certified diabetes educator makes up a considerable portion of health education positions, but community health educators are prohibited from becoming a CDE as only licensed clinicians, including clinical psychologist, pharmacists and social workers are eligible even though community health educators specialize in chronic disease prevention.
Additionally, I assessed over 6,000 job posts on public health boards. Approximately 80 percent targeted nurses and physicians. An insignificant amount of employers required or preferred a certification in health education. Although the MPH degree was primarily preferred, it was not required by most employers. In fact, most required a bachelor’s degree. Less than 1 percent was in Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas, or Tennessee. Also, a significant number of positions that were nonclinical in scope required a licensed nurse or social worker.
Mississippi has one of the highest concentrations of nursing jobs, and it is among the top-paying states for physicians. Conversely, it is has some of the lowest levels of health educators, community health workers and public health program administrators, which explains its high levels of reoccurring health disparities and premature mortality associated with preventable diseases and injuries.
Clearly, the state is exclusively vested in clinical care; therefore, anyone — who is not a clinician —planning to pursue a public health degree should think again or be prepared to take that MPH degree to the East Coast where it has some value.
Getty Israel of Jackson has a Master of Public Health Care degree and is an advocate and author.
by: Star Parker
date: 2017-12-26
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/opinion/columnists/2017/12/27/trump-gets-real-un/984886001/
(Photo: Special to The Clarion-Ledger)
Following the U.N. General Assembly vote condemning the United States' recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and Ambassador Nikki Haley's bold speech to that body following the vote, Haley has announced that the 2018 budget for the U.N. will be cut by $285 million.
According to the Council on Foreign Relations, the United States contributed $10 billion to the U.N. in 2016, about 25 percent of its total budget.
So $285 million is not a game-changing sum. But this is a significant step to put the U.N. — and the world — on notice that President Donald Trump means what he says. "We will no longer let the generosity of the American people be taken advantage of or remain unchecked," said Haley.
More: A tax bill about growth, not envy
One hundred and twenty eight nations in the General Assembly voted to condemn and annul the U.S. decision on Jerusalem and only nine voted to support the United States.
As Haley pointed out, this vote had implications beyond this one, albeit critically important, issue. It was about American values, the coincidence of American values with the United States' support of Israel, and a reassessment of the United States' role in the U.N.
The United States and Israel stand for the "ideals of human freedom and dignity that the United Nations is supposed to be about," said Ambassador Haley.
Looking at the particular realities of the U.N., it's hard to see coincidence between these American values and what is going on there.
Freedom House in Washington, D.C., issues an annual report in which it reports on the state of freedom in 193 nations around the world. Each nation is evaluated in terms of political rights and civil liberties, and then is given a score. According to this score, nations are then broken out into three categories -- free, partially free and not free.
Of the 128 nations that voted this week against the United States move on Jerusalem, only 55, or 43 percent, are rated by Freedom House as free. The rest have serious problems regarding political rights and/or civil liberties in their country.
The U.N. operates on very strange logic. That somehow a democracy of unfree countries voting — one vote for each country — produces a result that has something to do with the value of freedom.
It's somewhat akin to trial by jury where most of the jurors are convicted criminals.
What, after all, can be the meaning of despotic nations like North Korea, Cuba, Syria, Iran and Venezuela voting to express their opinion of the legitimacy of the United States recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital?
Adding further irony, Israel is rated by Freedom House as one of the freest nations in the world. In the Middle East/North Africa region, there are two nations out of 18 that are free. One is Israel. Yet, Israel is regularly condemned by the U.N., whereas the 16 despotic regimes in that region get no attention.
Why should the United States continue to be the largest contributor to the U.N. for what Haley called the "dubious distinction" of being disrespected and having its values flouted?
A few days before the U.N. vote, Trump gave a speech at the Reagan Building in Washington defining his National Security Strategy. He stated that "a nation that is not certain of its values cannot summon the will to defend them."
As we enter the new year, Americans should feel pride and optimism that, at last, it appears we have an American administration that is certain of our values -- human freedom and dignity as stated by Nikki Haley -- and is ready to boldly demonstrate the "will to defend" these values.
It's about time the United States is getting real about the United Nations. President Trump should get high-fives for his leadership.
Star Parker is an author and president of CURE, Center for Urban Renewal and Education.
by: Jan Swoope
date: 2017-12-26
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2017/12/27/dignity-dead-grassroots-effort-clean-up-cemetery/986038001/
New England bases company Monument Conservation Collaborative works to restore damaged headstone in historic St. Michael’s Cemetery.
(Photo: Luisa Porter, The Commercial Dispatch)
COLUMBUS - Crumbling brick pillars at Greenlawn Memorial Park cemetery in east Columbus show the wear and tear of time. The tangle of brush that covered them not long ago, however, is gone. Flat headstones that had sunk in the ground, swallowed by crabgrass and dirt, are being discovered — and some raised. They are once again visible, honoring loved ones buried beneath them. Choked walkways are passable, dead trees have been removed and at least some records seemingly lost, are being reconstructed.
Thanks to a small band of volunteers, Greenlawn Memorial Park on Highway 69 South is finally getting some attention and care it has done without for far too long. The faithful show up with chainsaws, mowers, shovels and wheelbarrows, responding to a call first sent out by Darwin and Lee Ann Turk on Facebook in October. That’s when the Turks visited the gravesites of some of Lee Ann’s relatives. Dismayed at the state of the small cemetery, Darwin went back to tidy up the overgrown family plots, but he realized he couldn’t stop at that.
“There were gravestones that had slid down into the ground, and crabgrass had entangled almost every grave out there,” the former U.S. Marine said. Trees and brambles had encroached unchecked and a round garden feature with brick columns supporting stone Bibles had greatly deteriorated.
“It was just a mess out there,” Lee Ann Turk said. “Darwin told me, ‘I can’t leave it like this. I’m not supposed to leave it like this. Get on that Facebook watch page and see if we can get some help ‘cause we can’t do it by ourselves.’”
That’s how the reclamation of Greenlawn began. It has since involved organized work days, phone calls to city officials, online appeals for information and a certain amount of detective work, especially on findagrave and ancestry websites.
In this Dec. 2, 2017 photo, volunteer Nathan Strickland, background, hauls away brush after answering a call put out on Facebook by Darwin and Lee Ann Turk of Columbus, for volunteers to help clean up Columbus' Greenlawn Memorial Park cemetery in east Columbus, Miss. Progress of their efforts to clean up this neglected property can be tracked on the cemetery Facebook page.
“We have found close to 130 graves, but we know there are some indentions where we think people are buried with no stone,” Lee Ann said. “We’re using metal detectors to try and pick up anything we can; that’s how we found a lot of stones.”
Among those interred are more than 20 military veterans, and even an Alaskan gold miner. How he came to be buried there is just one of many unanswered questions.
Caleb Pounders of Lowndes Funeral Home has done some exhaustive research into Greenlawn’s past.
“Best I can tell, the cemetery started in 1955,” said Pounders. Owners of the corporation that established it never lived in Mississippi. For reasons not fully known, it appears perpetual care and maintenance ceased at the cemetery some time between 1975 and 1985 or 1986. The corporation no longer exists. Greenlawn, in essence, was abandoned. Several families, however, still hold deeds to plots they purchased and have the right to lay their loved ones to rest there if they wish. Except for occasional mowing by the city, upkeep is left to surviving family, if there is any.
Actual ownership of the 17-acre cemetery property appears to be in limbo.
“It’s just a shame: It could be a very nice cemetery,” said Pounders, who continues to communicate with people at the state level about Greenlawn’s future. Any path forward is complicated by strict laws and regulations.
“I’m trying to do something so we can make sure it’s taken care of,” the funeral director said.
Sandra Clemmons Custard and her husband, Kenneth Custard, are among volunteers working toward Greenlawn’s restoration. Sandra has grandparents and other family buried there. Her father, before he passed away, spent many an hour trying to keep their graves from being overtaken by nature.
“My daddy was 91 when he died, but when he was in his late 80s and was able, bless him, he used to go down there with an old kaiser blade and weedeater,” she said. “He tried so hard, and he went to his grave worried that the cemetery had not been kept up.”
Custard and her father conducted courthouse research of their own before he died, trying to determine who should be held accountable for maintaining Greenlawn. She has given copies of any documents her family has to Pounders. The Custards have also invested sweat equity, including taking a metal detector to locate sunken headstones. (Pounders’ research indicates an early regulation that Greenlawn markers had to include bronze.)
“We were able to find a few markers,” she said. “Some we found, we’d take a rod to stick down in the ground to see if there was a marker there. We found one that had sunken about 2 or 3 feet in the ground.”
The sinking, Pounders indicated, is at least partially due to ground settling.
“It was just a pitiful shame the shape that cemetery was in,” said Custard. (The improvement) never would have gotten off the ground if the Turks hadn’t put forth their effort.”
Other volunteers have responded to the call, like Janice Wood and her husband, David Wood, of New Hope. They have no personal connection to the cemetery, but saw the Turks and others working there one day and decided to pitch in. David brought out a tractor to help level ground and reset stones.
After Christina Chunn learned of the project, she urged her 14-year-old son, Hunter, and his friends in Civil Air Patrol to help on a workday. The group for 12- to 18-year-olds is an auxiliary of the Air Force.
“We helped clean up an overgrown forest area, hauled limbs down to the curb and filled in some holes near grave sites,” Hunter said. “You could barely read the names on some of the graves. There are a lot of veterans (buried there). It’s a nice cemetery that deserves to be cleaned up.”
Other unselfish acts have surfaced. Burns Dirt Construction donated a load of dirt. American Legion Post 69 provided flags for gravesites on Veterans Day.
Families like Pam Bullock’s are grateful. Her grandparents and other family members are interred at Greenlawn.
“For almost 30 years, my mother and aunt fought the earth themselves, to make sure it didn’t cover their parents’ graves,” the Columbus woman said. When she saw the cemetery after volunteers had made headway, “We almost started crying, it looked so good.”
“If it wasn’t for everyone who’s helped, we couldn’t have handled it, but we still need help,” Lee Ann Turk said.
Darwin Turk continues to check on the cemetery almost every day. The sight of poinsettias on several of the graves lifts him up as he considers an ongoing list of goals, a wish list of sorts. He’d like to see some type of border fence up, perhaps a decorative link-chain which he thinks was there before. He’d like to get a flag pole erected, and he and Lee Ann hope there is a brickmason in the community who might donate time to repair brickwork. There is still an overgrown wooded area that needs attention, too.
“This might be my last hoorah,” said Darwin, who remains committed to Greenlawn. He and his wife have taken it on as a mission, Pam Bullock said.
“And all of us are absolutely thrilled,” she added. “We can’t say thank you enough.”
by: Geoff Pender
date: 2017-12-27
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2017/12/28/2017-review-political-editor-geoff-penders-favorite-story/974122001/
Mississippi and South Dakota are the last two states in the Union without a unilateral “no-fault” divorce provision. In practice, this allows one spouse to hold up a divorce — sometimes for years — a common occurrence in Mississippi. Dustin Barnes/The Clarion-Ledger
Clarion Ledger reporters, photographers and editors spent countless hours documenting hundreds of important, emotional or just plain weird stories in 2017.
As the year rolls to a close, we asked each journalist to select their favorite work of 2017 and explain its significance to them. Some were critical reporting that prompted change in the community. Others were heartwarming moments they were honored to witness. Still others were just a fun experience.
Here is political editor Geoff Pender's favorite story of 2017:
We looked at an issue that hasn’t gotten much attention in years: Mississippi’s antiquated divorce laws. Our investigation showed how our laws and process contribute to the vicious cycle of domestic abuse by trapping spouses in marriages, sometimes for many years. Some reform was passed in the 2017 session, but some lawmakers are vowing to push for more in 2018.
by: Therese Apel
date: 2017-12-27
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2017/12/28/2017-review-breaking-news-reporter-therese-apels-favorite-story/974295001/
TyLon Pittman saw some videos about the Grinch stealing Christmas and he did what you're supposed to do when someone's stealing things: He called 911. Therese Apel/ Clarion Ledger
Clarion Ledger reporters, photographers and editors spent countless hours documenting hundreds of important, emotional or just plain weird stories in 2017.
As the year rolls to a close, we asked each journalist to select their favorite work of 2017 and explain its significance to them. Some were critical reporting that prompted change in the community. Others were heartwarming moments they were honored to witness. Still others were just a fun experience.
Here is breaking news reporter Therese Apel's favorite story of 2017:
While I have had stories that had a lot more hard news impact and it has been a big year for breaking news, I think this recent story was my favorite because of the purity of a child’s faith in all things Christmas and the courage of his heart in trying to save it from being destroyed. Interacting with TyLon and his family was such a fun experience and watching the wonder on his face as he put “the Grinch” in that holding cell was priceless. Byram Police Department’s willingness to step up and make it a magical experience for him brings tears to my eyes. And it’s worth mentioning that the feedback on it was 99.9% positive, which tells me that we all see something of ourselves in that child, and we love him for it.
by: Sarah Fowler
date: 2017-12-27
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2017/12/28/2017-review-community-advocate-reporter-sarah-fowlers-favorite-story/974068001/
Domestic violence strikes more than 10 million Americans. One in four women and one in seven men are victims of that violence in their lifetimes. The Clarion-Ledger
Clarion Ledger reporters, photographers and editors spent countless hours documenting hundreds of important, emotional or just plain weird stories in 2017.
As the year rolls to a close, we asked each journalist to select their favorite work of 2017 and explain its significance to them. Some were critical reporting that prompted change in the community. Others were heartwarming moments they were honored to witness. Still others were just a fun experience.
Here is community advocate reporter Sarah Fowler's favorite story of 2017:
In the span of three weeks, six women were killed in Mississippi. At least five of those women were believed to be killed by a man they were romantically linked to. It seemed like an epidemic. I had to help. This article was my way of giving those women a voice, of making sure they weren't forgotten.
by: Associated Press
date: 2017-12-27
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2017/12/28/warren-county-inmate-fight-block-lockdown/986802001/
VICKSBURG, Miss. – A filmed assault on an inmate put part of a Mississippi jail on lockdown.
News outlets report that Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace says a fight among inmates took place Wednesday afternoon and resulted in one cell block being put on lockdown.
More: 5 wounded by gunfire at Vicksburg restaurant and lounge
A video originally posted to Snapchat shows the inmate being pulled out of a cell by other inmates and then being punched and kicked. Pace says he will not identify the assaulted inmate until the investigation is complete.
Authorities are investigating both the assault and how the cellphone used to record it made its way into the jail, which could result in a felony charge.
Pace says it's too early to tell who will face additional charges.
The attacked inmate was treated and released back into custody.
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by:
date: 2017-12-27
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2017/12/28/first-responder-communication-network-finally-gets-green-light/987939001/
Download The Clarion-Ledger app for free on the Apple app store or Google Play. Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger
Gov.Phil Bryant approved Thursday a buildout plan to deliver a wireless broadband network to the state's public safety community.
In a public-private partnership with the First Responder Network Authority, the first nationwide broadband network for emergency responders, AT&T will build, operate and maintain a secure wireless broadband communications network for Mississippi's public safety community at no cost to the state.
"I've determined this is the best deal with the least amount of risk for taxpayers," Bryant said. "It will provide our first responders with the tools they need to keep Mississippians safe."
Mississippi created a statewide wireless network for all levels of government after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. State agencies and local governments could not easily communicate with electric lines and cell towers damaged following the deadly storm.
First Responder Network Authority, or FirstNet, will expand Mississippi's statewide emergency communications system for first responders to also provide data. A fireman entering a burning building, for example, would be able to get information on the building's layout.
More: Marine plane crash recovery: What first responders went through
FirstNet will connect first responder subscribers to the information they need when handling day-to-day operations, responding to emergencies and supporting large events like the Mississippi State Fair.
The Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 created the First Responder Network Authority as an independent authority within the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications & Information Administration to provide emergency responders with the first nationwide, high-speed, broadband network dedicated to public safety.
The First Responder Network Authority has been working with the states’ Wireless Communication Commission to meet the state's communications needs, including expanding rural coverage beyond what is currently available from commercial carriers, providing quick access to deployable network assets and offering services at competitive prices.
Bryant’s decision comes nearly three years after U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker publicly rebuked federal telecommunications officials at a hearing for abandoning their investment in a broadband project in the state. Officials with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration had suspended a $70 million grant to Mississippi in 2012 to help build the network after laws changed and the federal government set about to create a national interoperable broadband public safety network. That national effort derailed the work and plans of Mississippi, which was one of seven recipients in 2010 of a Broadband Technology Opportunity grant.
NTIA officials said at the time that the state's plan was short on details and on assurances it would meet grant requirements and deadlines.
Then a year ago, Mississippi gained access to a new $33 million Broadband Technology Opportunity Project to be used to beef up coordination among emergency responders statewide. Approval of the grant ended years of negotiations among federal agencies, Mississippi's U.S. senators, state officials and others to improve the state's emergency communications capabilities in data sharing.
"Public safety across the Magnolia state will gain access to the broadband network specifically built to meet the demands of their mission, Mike Poth, CEO of First Responder Network Authority, said Thursday “They will gain access to the coverage, speed and connectivity needed to power the most advanced life-saving tools."
At the same time, FirstNet is expected to drive infrastructure investments and create jobs across the state and create life-saving tools for public safety, including apps, specialized devices and Internet of Things technologies. It also carries the potential for future integration with NextGen 911 networks, an initiative aimed at updating the 9-1-1 service infrastructure in the United States and Canada from analog to digital to improve public emergency communications services, and Smart Cities' infrastructure in which technology is used to connect components to improve qualilty of life and support growing populations.
by: Tyler Carter
date: 2017-12-27
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2017/12/28/moss-point-police-officers-help-out-family-after-grinch-steals-christmas/988359001/
Download The Clarion-Ledger app for free on the Apple app store or Google Play. Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger
(Photo: Special to the Clarion Ledger)
MOSS POINT - Imagine spending your hard-earned money on Christmas gifts, only to learn your home had been broken into. This was the reality Krystal Logan faced on Christmas Eve.
But after a Grinch literally stole Christmas from the Logan household, four officers with the Moss Point Police Department's A-shift took matters into their own hands to bring a little cheer to a family in need.
While heading back home from a trip, Logan received a call from the MPPD alerting her that her house alarm had been triggered. When officers arrived, they found the door had been kicked in.
More: To save Christmas, boy calls 911 on the Grinch
After officers walked through and cleared the house, they began to assess the damage. The robber had taken all the Christmas gifts Logan had purchased for her 12-year-old son, except for one that was placed behind the Christmas tree out of sight.
While she was en route back to her home, officers told Logan the entire living room had been cleaned out. She had to break the news to her son, but said his response made her feel a little better.
"Besides the obvious, Christmas is about the kids," Logan said. "I didn't want my son to come home to nothing. I told him that I would replace the gifts, but that it would be after Christmas. He told me he did not want me to buy them twice."
Officers with the MPPD pose for a pictures with Krystal Logan and her 12-year-old son.
(Photo: Special to the Clarion Ledger)
"He was too busy thinking about me -- that's just the type of kid he is," Logan said.
He wasn't the only one thinking selflessly.
"We found out the mother was coming back into town later that night and it would have been too late to recoup all that had been taken, so me and the other officers decided to put some money together to purchase those gifts," said Officer Caleb Vick.
"The grandmother told us what the items were, we spoke with our supervisor who gave us the go-ahead and even pitched in some money, and we went out, purchased and wrapped the gifts," said Vick. "We then wrapped and put them under the tree, so when she returned, she was completely surprised."
"I was devastated about what happened so imagine when I came home and saw presents under the tree," Logan said. "These officers were still working and took money out of their own pockets to make sure my son had a Christmas. He loved everything."
This experience touched both groups equally. Vick said he hopes this situation is one that builds and instills trust of police officers within the community.
"With the bad rap law enforcement gets these days, a small gesture such as this one will build some type of trust in the community -- that's how we are looking at it," Vick said.
"I'm just very thankful and grateful they did this and took time out of their day to do it," Logan said. "This was a very hurtful experience, but I am glad that there are people like them around that have a heart to do things like this."
As for the whereabouts of the Grinch, the investigation into his or her whereabouts is ongoing.
by:
date: 2017-12-27
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2017/12/28/first-responder-communication-network-finally-gets-green-light/987939001/
Download The Clarion-Ledger app for free on the Apple app store or Google Play. Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger
Gov.Phil Bryant approved Thursday a buildout plan to deliver a wireless broadband network to the state's public safety community.
In a public-private partnership with the First Responder Network Authority, the first nationwide broadband network for emergency responders, AT&T will build, operate and maintain a secure wireless broadband communications network for Mississippi's public safety community at no cost to the state.
"I've determined this is the best deal with the least amount of risk for taxpayers," Bryant said. "It will provide our first responders with the tools they need to keep Mississippians safe."
Mississippi created a statewide wireless network for all levels of government after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. State agencies and local governments could not easily communicate with electric lines and cell towers damaged following the deadly storm.
First Responder Network Authority, or FirstNet, will expand Mississippi's statewide emergency communications system for first responders to also provide data. A fireman entering a burning building, for example, would be able to get information on the building's layout.
More: Marine plane crash recovery: What first responders went through
FirstNet will connect first responder subscribers to the information they need when handling day-to-day operations, responding to emergencies and supporting large events like the Mississippi State Fair.
The Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 created the First Responder Network Authority as an independent authority within the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications & Information Administration to provide emergency responders with the first nationwide, high-speed, broadband network dedicated to public safety.
The First Responder Network Authority has been working with the states’ Wireless Communication Commission to meet the state's communications needs, including expanding rural coverage beyond what is currently available from commercial carriers, providing quick access to deployable network assets and offering services at competitive prices.
Bryant’s decision comes nearly three years after U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker publicly rebuked federal telecommunications officials at a hearing for abandoning their investment in a broadband project in the state. Officials with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration had suspended a $70 million grant to Mississippi in 2012 to help build the network after laws changed and the federal government set about to create a national interoperable broadband public safety network. That national effort derailed the work and plans of Mississippi, which was one of seven recipients in 2010 of a Broadband Technology Opportunity grant.
NTIA officials said at the time that the state's plan was short on details and on assurances it would meet grant requirements and deadlines.
Then a year ago, Mississippi gained access to a new $33 million Broadband Technology Opportunity Project to be used to beef up coordination among emergency responders statewide. Approval of the grant ended years of negotiations among federal agencies, Mississippi's U.S. senators, state officials and others to improve the state's emergency communications capabilities in data sharing.
"Public safety across the Magnolia state will gain access to the broadband network specifically built to meet the demands of their mission, Mike Poth, CEO of First Responder Network Authority, said Thursday “They will gain access to the coverage, speed and connectivity needed to power the most advanced life-saving tools."
At the same time, FirstNet is expected to drive infrastructure investments and create jobs across the state and create life-saving tools for public safety, including apps, specialized devices and Internet of Things technologies. It also carries the potential for future integration with NextGen 911 networks, an initiative aimed at updating the 9-1-1 service infrastructure in the United States and Canada from analog to digital to improve public emergency communications services, and Smart Cities' infrastructure in which technology is used to connect components to improve qualilty of life and support growing populations.
by: Duvalier Malone
date: 2017-12-25
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/opinion/columnists/2017/12/26/renewed-hope-alabama-special-us-senate-election/981655001/
Alabama Sen. Doug Jones said after his unexpected win in a historically Red state that people want officials to come together and find “common ground” on the issues they care about. (Dec. 13) AP
(Photo: Special to The Clarion--Ledger)
Democrat Doug Jones defeated Republican Roy Moore in a bitterly fought special U.S. Senate election in Alabama on Dec. 12. This defeat was one of the most unlikely upsets in recent election history. I must admit I had no hope of a Jones victory.
As a young boy born and raised in Mississippi and living in Mississippi until my late 20s, I had lost faith and hope of being able to break barriers. I must say the victory for Jones has given me a renewed hope for my home state of Mississippi and the South.
Change is always discussed and planned during an election year. It allows us an opportunity to lay our views and values on the table to ensure our voices are heard in the democratic process. The people of Alabama rejected status quo and refused to play politics. They reclaimed their seat at the political table of power by sending a more progressive candidate to Washington, D.C.
While the rest of the country is erupting in action by using the power of the vote to elect more progressive officials, it seems apathy has gripped a large portion of Mississippi. Where Mississippians once led the movement for change, it looks as if we have now become content and reliant upon others.
In my journey for change, I must admit I had become weary and tired, and the journey seemed hopeless at times. When we see injustices in our communities, we need to step up and speak truth to power. We can no longer rely on others to keep speaking and doing the work of the community. We are all responsible to use our circles of influence to initiate change. We must see the plight of Mississippi as “our” responsibility.
This is a historic time, and we must join the rest of the world in progress.
We have the highest poverty rate in the entire country. Our educational systems are failing. Mississippi is the only state with the Confederate emblem on its flag. Mississippi's House Bill 1523 bill discriminates against the LGBTQ community. There is still no justice for Emmett Till, a 16-year-old African-American male kidnapped and slain in 1955. There is still a dire need for racial reconciliation .
It's time to ask ourselves: Why is this? Why does it take Mississippi so long to move more progressively? The blame for this, as well as other issues, rests squarely on the shoulders of Mississippians and citizens in the Deep South. Mississippi’s educational system is suffering because of a lack of funding. Many Mississippi school systems are at risk for a state takeover. Many corporations are now even refusing to do business in the state — all because of the decisions made by politicians whom you elected or enabled to be elected by not voting.
We must call for our political leaders to create initiatives and programs aimed at improving our communities, creating jobs and enabling our children to receive a quality education. If the political leaders can't guarantee any of these things, then we must "vote them out." It is time for all Mississippians to accept change and stand with the rest of the world. The only way we can fix these problems that we face is not to be afraid to buck the norms and make bold, radical decisions in our voting booths.
We can’t depend on those who are not residents of Mississippi to lead the state forward. They can help, but for the state to make progress, we must take the reins. We can’t lead from behind. Mississippians have to be the face of the change.
I’m asking Mississippians at all levels to get involved. It doesn’t matter if you’re a coach or a mentor, Mississippi needs your help. If you are in a position of leadership within the faith-based community, we need you. It is time to move forward with action. It starts with getting people registered to vote and engaged in their community. We must be willing to spread the message of progress and community.
Duvalier Malone, a Mississippi native, is a Washington, D.C.-based motivational speaker, political consultant and community activist.
by: Justin Vicory
date: 2017-12-20
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2017/12/21/state-legal-center-aids-poor-gets-450-000-grant/974434001/
Download The Clarion-Ledger app for free on the Apple app store or Google Play. Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger
The Mississippi Bar Foundation has awarded a $450,000 grant to a center devoted to providing legal aid to the poor.
The grant will be used to provide foreclosure defense, housing counseling and education and outreach services to actual and potential victims of foreclosure within the Mississippi Center for Legal Service's 43-county service area.
The grant was awarded under the 2018 Bank of America Settlement Funds Grant Program.
"The grant will be a tremendous asset in helping to keep persons in their home and in providing counseling and education to other individuals and families to help them avoid pitfalls that could lead to foreclosure," center Executive Director Sam H. Buchanan Jr. said in a news release.
The state Supreme Court established the Interest on Lawyers' Trust Accounts program as a source of funding to provide legal aid to the poor, public education programs and administrative justice. The IOLTA program received the Bank of American settlement funds to assist in the foreclosure crisis.
"We are extremely grateful to the Bar Foundation for administering the grant and distributing funds to us as we fulfill our commitment to helping the less fortunate and providing access to justice for all," Buchanan said.
For more information on the Bar Foundation, visit www.msbar.org.
by: Justin Vicory
date: 2017-12-20
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2017/12/21/red-light-cameras-get-green-light-jackson/966120001/
American Traffic Solutions compiled a mashup of the top worst red light fails. USA TODAY NETWORK
Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba hopes a picture is worth a thousand words.
In remarks to the City Council on Monday, the mayor pressed hard for a return to 2009, when the city had red light cameras at major intersections in the city.
"This is right outside our walls here," the mayor said, as the picture of an overturned vehicle at Pascagoula and State streets appeared on the council TV monitors.
"These images don't show the most gruesome nature of these things," Lumumba continued, " but we continue to have fatalities. Having cameras at intersections, there's an economic benefit, but this is really a public safety issue."
The mayor said he believes the installation of the cameras — which monitor the running of red lights — will reduce serious traffic accidents and fatalities in Jackson, the most populated city in the state with the highest number of traffic fatalities.
The issue is among one of the mayor's top legislative agenda items for the state Legislature in the upcoming year.
The mayor also cited another important factor: The Jackson Police Department is stretched thin, making the use of cameras a way to monitor busy traffic intersections without having to pull resources away from other policing concerns.
Chief Lee Vance, who favors cameras, said they will serve as a deterrent to reckless driving at major intersections if the public knows they're being recorded.
The cameras would record once triggered by the motion of a vehicle running a red light. The camera would capture the vehicle's license plate information and a ticket would be dispatched to the owner.
But while the mayor and chief say the cameras will reduce accidents and traffic fatalities in the city, others question the accuracy of red light cameras and are skeptical that cameras could become an economic crutch for the city to boost revenue.
A return to 2009
Having red light cameras would be a return to 2009 for the city, when Jackson had 16 cameras set up at eight intersections. JPD reported at the time that cameras reduced accidents at the intersections by an average of 68 percent.
Traffic cameras mounted at Pearl Street and State Street in Jackson in 2009 were designed to photograph vehicles running the red light at the intersection.
During a one-month test period, the JPD sent out 7,300 warning letters to drivers informing them they had been caught by photo enforcement, according to a previous Clarion Ledger story.
Some 1,700 drivers got tickets, while an additional 2,000 tickets were being processed. The fines were $75 for the first two offenses, and then $150 for a third offense.
The cameras even caught law enforcement officers. Chief Deputy Dwayne Thomas said 150 law enforcement vehicles had been photographed running red lights. He said the violators were from every branch of law enforcement in the area, including state, city, county and university.
But House Bill 1568 put the kibosh on the use of red light cameras, mandating that any county or municipality "using automated recording equipment or system shall remove the equipment or system before Oct. 1, 2009."
Studies
The U.S. National Library of Medicine conducted 28 studies that measured the effect of red light cameras on crashes. All 28 found a lower number of crashes in the camera areas after implementation of the program.
"Measures aimed at reducing traffic speed are considered essential to preventing road injuries; the use of speed cameras is one such measure," the Library of Medicine concluded.
A 2007 USA Today article cited two studies that are often used in support of red light cameras.
In one, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that violations in Philadelphia dropped by 36 percent after yellow lights were extended to give drivers more warning before a red light. After red light cameras were added, the study found that remaining violations dropped by 96 percent.
In another study, Old Dominion University researchers found that violations more than tripled one year after cameras were removed from four intersections in Virginia Beach.
Roadblocks
Critics of the use of red light cameras point to other factors.
One problem was the number of motorists who said they were not driving the targeted vehicle at the time. Almost 650 people contested the tickets during the short span the city was operating the cameras, according to a previous Clarion Ledger story. Some of the challengers said that somebody else was driving their vehicle. Others didn't know they were supposed to stop before turning right at the red light.
JPD Sgt. Roderick Holmes suggested positioning cameras to not just capture a picture of the vehicle's license plate, but also the driver.
A bigger issue was where the money went. In February 2008, Jackson signed a three-year deal with American Traffic Solutions, an Arizona-based company that provided the camera equipment and monitored the video.
During the camera use period, the city paid more than half of its revenue to American Traffic Solutions. City officials picked the group, although later said they were unaware using the company could mean $20,000 to $30,000 in lost revenue when compared with at least two other companies. American Traffic Solutions could not provide a projection of the amount of revenue the city could receive annually, Josh Weiss, a company spokesman said at the time.
Critics also say having cameras could lead city government to lean too heavily on revenue from red light violations. Some worry measures could be taken to trap motorists by reducing the amount of time a yellow light is displayed.
Between $500,000 to $600,000 in fines were collected at the time, Robert Walker, the then chief administrative officer for the city, told the Clarion Ledger.
Moving forward
In response to concerns, Lumumba said Gov. Phil Bryant offered some suggestions on moving forward on the red light camera issue when the two last visited.
The next step is for the mayor and city lobbyist Quincy Mukoro to sit down with city attorneys and the Police Department to get their input. They will present a final draft to the City Council, then try to find a legislative sponsor to support the authorization of red light cameras in the city.
Mukoro said he is hopeful the city can put together language in the legislation that makes camera use specific to Jackson and cities with a population of 100,000 residents or more, and also address other previous concerns. He said cameras are one way to deal with a hot topic issue for many Jackson residents.
"I think that if people are really concerned about crime, especially with the limited resources the department has, that you need to push for this," Mukoro said.
by: Associated Press
date: 2017-12-20
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2017/12/21/fbi-found-bay-st-louis-police-chief-committed-47-000-fraud/975125001/
Download The Clarion-Ledger app for free on the Apple app store or Google Play. Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger
BAY ST. LOUIS – A Mississippi mayor says the FBI has confirmed that a police chief who killed himself after being suspended last year had committed the crimes he was accused of.
Bay St. Louis Mayor Mike Favre told The Sun Herald on Wednesday that the FBI found that Chief Mike De Nardo defrauded the city of $47,000 over two years and illegally sold firearms twice.
A bonding company had insured De Nardo in his official capacity for $50,000, and the city will file a claim against that insurance, he said.
De Nardo was suspended was suspended because investigators were looking into an anonymous tip that he’d sold city weapons for personal gain and had put his wife on the payroll for work she didn’t do. Favre said the FBI did not hold De Nardo’s wife accountable, and found that he alone committed the payroll fraud.
He shot himself Sept. 8, 2016, in the police department parking lot, after being relieved of his duties.
Officials have said he told authorities that he’d bring city-owned guns from his car, but grabbed a police rifle from the trunk and shot himself.
The Hancock County Sheriff’s Department temporarily took on supervision of the police department and assisted the FBI in the investigation.
Favre said the FBI notified the city in a meeting four to six weeks ago, but did not provide a written report. The mayor updated the City Council Tuesday night.
by: Bill Moak
date: 2017-12-21
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2017/12/22/dna-test-kits-consider-privacy-implications/969862001/
Mick Lewis from Blast from the Past Genealogy Research shares tips on how you can discover your own ancestry.
Human beings have an insatiable desire to know our heritage. In the past, the best tools to determine our genetic heritage came through family Bibles, scribbled family trees, and stories handed down from generation to generation. Serious genealogists could do a better job, but it was still largely an inexact science. And if there were gaps in our family histories, it was nearly impossible to fill them in.
In the Moak family, a distant cousin published an extensive genealogy nearly 60 years ago, helping spark my interest in the topic.
More from Moak: More Americans are carrying mortgages into retirement
But with the discovery of the structure of DNA in the 1950s, and the later mapping of the human genome, family genealogists suddenly had new tools available. Now, using a small swab of saliva or cheek scraping, you could find out (broadly, in most cases) where your ancestors came from. Entrepreneurs seized on the technology, and we started hearing about services which could give you a picture of your genetic heritage. Now, ads for services such as AncestryDNA, 23andMe, MyHeritage and others have garnered millions of dollars from consumers eager to fill in the gaps in their family histories.
Typically, consumers pay from $99 to $200, and get a report showing groups and regions from which their ancestors probably originated. A typical report will give you a percentage of the DNA associated with known ethic groups, along with a map showing where those people probably lived. Earlier this month, PC Magazine reviewed five test companies (23andMe, AncestryDNA, National Geographic Genographic Project, HomeDNA and MyHeritage DNA). Their comprehensive report gives a good snapshot of the different services provided. Some have been offering extended services; for example, showing your relative risk for diseases with known genetic markers.
Moak: Wondering how much to tip during the holidays? Here's some tips
DNA testing has, of course, yielded many promising possibilities in addition to the commercial ones. Some genetic diseases can now be spotted and possibly even prevented. But with all the promise has also come many fears. Some have raised the specter, for example, that insurance companies and drug companies would be interested in information that a person carries genes for deadly (and expensive) diseases. Others have voiced darker fears, for example, that babies with “desirable” traits could be chosen in favor of others with less-desirable genetic potential, possibly leading to a sort of genetic apartheid.
A more present concern, though, is privacy. In a recent blog post, Federal Trade Commission attorney Lesley Fair advised consumers to be wary about how well this potentially valuable information is being protected. “The data can be very enlightening personally,” Fair noted, but a major concern for consumers should be who else could have access to information about your heritage and your health. If you’re thinking about buying an at-home DNA test kit, you owe it to yourself — and to family members who could be affected — to investigate the options thoroughly.”
Fair urges consumers to comparison-shop services to see how they intend to protect your information. “Scrutinize each company’s website for details about what they do with your personal data,” she urges. “Rather than just clicking ‘I accept,’ take the time to understand how your health, genetic, and other sensitive information will be used and shared. Hold off on buying a kit until you have a clear picture of the company’s practices.”
And in this era of ever-bigger breaches of computer systems with sensitive data (this summer’s blockbuster Equifax breach is just the latest), it’s important to recognize the risks. These companies don’t just collect your DNA; they also collect payment and demographic information about you that could potentially be valuable to thieves.
So, shop carefully, monitor your credit, and be ready to report problems. Fair urges consumers who have experienced problems or concerns about genetic testing companies to report them to the FTC; she noted the agency has already acted against companies they accused of failing to protect their customers’ privacy. To file a complaint, visit https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/#crnt.
by: Therese Apel
date: 2017-12-24
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2017/12/25/argument-over-sagging-pants-fighting-leads-shooting-death-authorities-say/980583001/
Download The Clarion-Ledger app for free on the Apple app store or Google Play. Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger
Authorities say an argument over sagging pants and fighting took the life of a Hinds County club patron early Christmas morning.
The Hinds County Sheriff's Office said Marvin Ross, the owner of "Evelyn's Place," a nightclub near Utica, shot and killed 33-year-old Alonzo Brown just after midnight Christmas Day.
Ross told deputies he turned the music off and asked some of the patrons to "pull up their pants and stop fighting."
Brown allegedly became angry, pulled a gun and fired shots at Ross. Ross grabbed his weapon and shot Brown twice, the sheriff's office said.
Brown was transported to a local hospital where he later died. No other injuries were reported, the sheriff's office said.
by: Mac Gordon
date: 2017-12-21
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/opinion/columnists/2017/12/22/democrats-who-could-make-u-s-senate-run-mississippi/977223001/
Senator Elect Doug Jones talks about Roy Moore's effect in Jones' win, as he holds a day after the election press conference in Birmingham, Ala. on Wednesday December 13, 2017. (Mickey Welsh / Montgomery Advertiser) Mickey Welsh / Advertiser
Democrats from the Mason-Dixie Line to the Gulf Stream waters are taking heart in the party's capture of a U.S. Senate seat in Alabama, where former prosecutor Doug Jones' victory over Republican Roy Moore was generally considered a political upset.
Moore's supporters didn't seem to care that he had been widely accused of deviant sexual behavior. President Donald Trump risked heavy political capital in backing Moore — after earlier favoring interim Sen. Luther Strange against Moore in the Republican primary. That made it a double-whammy loss for Trump in the special election for the seat formerly held by current U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
"This election, coupled with historic wins in Virginia and Louisiana, tells us folks are hearing the Democrats' message throughout the South and want reasonable voices to lead," said Mississippi Democratic Party chairman Bobby Moak, one day after Jones' win.
That was a clear message to voters — and potential candidates — that he believes Democrats could gain ground in solid-red Republican Mississippi in upcoming elections.
The mid-term elections for Congress are in 2018. All four members of the U.S. House of Representatives — Democrat Bennie Thompson and Republicans Trent Kelly, Gregg Harper and Steven Palazzo — from Mississippi would normally be considered sure-bets to win reelection.
We'll see after the recent results were posted in Alabama, a state with almost 2 million more people than Mississippi. While Alabama's population is similar to ours in many aspects, including political persuasion, Mississippi's voting-age ranks are 37 percent black, 12 points higher than in Alabama, and black voters usually favor Democratic candidates.
One possibility for gains by Mississippi Democrats in Congress could come if the state's senior senator, Thad Cochran, is forced to give up his seat due to recent illness, as has been widely speculated. Cochran, who just turned 80, is chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. That position itself would seem to dictate that Cochran should try to hold on until his term is up in 2020, as no state would ordinarily even chance giving away such a prime holding.
If Cochran could no longer hold up to the rigors of the Senate and resigned, Gov. Phil Bryant would appoint someone to fill the seat in the interim — as Strange did in Alabama — until a special election could be held. That's how Mississippi's junior senator, Roger Wicker, first got to the Senate. Then-Gov. Haley Barbour named Wicker to fill the unexpired term of Trent Lott, who resigned in 2007 to become a Washington lobbyist. Wicker then won a special election in 2008 and a full term in 2012. He's up again in 2018, and no doubt state Democrats are casting loving eyes at his seat.
Mississippi Democrats could select from a solid corps of political golden-agers to seek Cochran's seat in a possible special election (or Wicker's in the regular election): former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, who lost to Wicker 65 percent to 35 percent in 2008; former state Attorney General Mike Moore, who has stubbornly abstained from politics since leaving office in 2004; former Gov. Ray Mabus, ousted from that office by Republican Kirk Fordice in 1991 (and the Obama administration's Navy secretary); or former Secretary of State Dick Molpus, defeated in Fordice's 1995 reelection bid.
Based on the recent Alabama election in which a well-known candidate, Jones, won office and the prevailing anti-Trump winds nationwide, any member of that quartet seemingly could make a strong bid for the Cochran seat, should it become vacant.
Or state Democrats might choose from a field of younger candidates like current Mississippi Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley of Nettleton, Oxford Mayor Robyn Tannehill or current state Reps. David Blount of Jackson, Jeramey Anderson of Escatawpa, Jay Hughes of Oxford or Derrick Simmons of Greenville. They represent a new-age quartet of Mississippi politicians who probably could attract a strong, mixed coalition statewide — and the needed campaign funds from the upsurgent national Democrat Party.
What of current state Attorney General Jim Hood? Democrats seem to be saving him for the governor's race in 2019.
Mac Gordon is a retired Mississippi newspaper editor and reporter who lives part-time in McComb. He can be reached at macmarygordon@gmail.com.
(Photo: Special to The Clarion-Ledger)
by: Justin Vicory
date: 2017-12-16
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2017/12/18/local-city-county-leaders-favor-legislation-kicks-back-cash-control/923481001/
Jackson metro-area leaders support legislation that kicks back more dollars and more local control to cities and counties as the 2018 legislative session nears.
Area mayors stand with the Mississippi Municipal League that advocates legislation beneficial to cities.
MML's first key legislative priority is a familiar one, a push to increase the diversion of sales tax from the state to municipalities from 18.5 to 20.5 percent. The additional revenue specifically would be allocated for improvements to water, sewer or street infrastructure, which municipalities say are among their top concerns.
MML has pushed this bill the past couple of sessions and has come up empty, but the bill continues to gain support, Executive Director Shari Veazey said.
"It might be tough, but we have a lot of rank-and-file members in support of this. The biggest issue for them, for cities and towns, no matter how big or small, is infrastructure," she said.
From 1979 to 1992, the Department of Revenue gave 20.5 percent of sales tax diversions back to cities. In the early '90s, the state decreased that amount to 18.5 percent, where it has remained. Since then, the cost to cities for basic infrastructure maintenance has risen 10 to 15 percent, Veazey said.
The bill that died last year would have pulled close to $42 million from the state's general fund. A phased-in approach — which is included in this year's proposal — might be more palatable.
Veazey is optimistic even with Gov. Phil Bryant's recent budget recommendation that is $32 million, or .05 percent less than budgeted for the current year.
The MML is also pushing for legislation that would allow the Department of Revenue to tap into state income tax returns to collect outstanding debts. House Bill 683, or the Local Government Debt Collection Setoff Act, would allow the DOR to collect debt from an individual's state income tax returns, a similar method to how the state deals with unpaid child support payments.
In larger Mississippi cities, the legislation would mean millions of dollars in recouped collections. The bill is similar to recently passed versions in Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. The state would get a 50 percent assessment on every fine, making it attractive to legislators, Veazey said.
"When someone breaks the law and they don't pay the fine, there's not a lot of recourse for the city. And the citizens that don't pay their fines, honestly, they realize nothing is going to happen to them," she said.
Municipalities and county governments also have specific requests for the 2018 Legislature, which convenes Jan. 2.
Jackson, (pop. 168,149)
Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba and his administration may have gotten a late start on submitting their legislative priorities, but he said his team has been intentionally deliberate.
Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba gives details on his administration's legislative agenda for the upcoming session.
To the surprise of some of his staunchest supporters, Lumumba secured an agreement with the governor to avert the state Board of Education's recommended takeover of the Jackson Public Schools. They devised a strategy with the Kellogg Foundation to keep the district in local control.
It remains to be seen if the cooperation between the mayor and Bryant translates to the city's legislative agenda.
The city — through its lobbyist — has compiled a list of legislative priorities in addition to MML's suggestions, which the council recently agreed to.
The MML is waiting for DOR's projections on how much additional revenue would be funneled back to cities if the increased sales tax diversion bill were to pass. Veazey said the department's 2016 diversion tax estimates would be comparable to what cities would see in revenue for 2017. Based on those numbers, Jackson would see about $34 million in additional revenue.
The city also will ask for $2.5 million in bond funding to go toward upgrading Smith Park.
Smith Park is one of the oldest parks in the United States that is still continuously used and remains the only undeveloped square from the original 1822 plan for Mississippi's capital.
A renovation proposal for the park from last year labeled it an "eyesore," and included improvements such as a new stage, trees, tables and benches, sidewalks and light poles.
Friends of Smith Park is advocating for a major renovation to the downtown Jackson park. Shown is an artist's rendering of what the rejuvenated space could look like.
"It's not just for the aesthetic appeal — which is important — but for its usefulness. We're thinking of having concerts there or movies," Lumumba said of the park.
The mayor plans to broaden the scope of the 1 percent sales tax to include "sin" taxes on tobacco and liquor purchases. The original tax was amended after the fact to exclude these items. The mayor said he wants to reincorporate them as an attempt to make up for declining retail sales.
The city also is lobbying to have red light cameras in place to monitor traffic and catch traffic offenders. Former Gov. Haley Barbour signed House Bill 1568 in 2009, which banned the use of cameras to catch motorists running red lights. The city favors a bill that reinstates the cameras at eight intersections around the city.
The City Council also showed interest in the creation of community improvement districts across the city, which would have the power to organize and levy assessments for specific neighborhood and district projects.
Ridgeland, (pop. 24,483)
Mayor Gene McGee said he supports "local option" legislation that takes the tourism and sales tax authority from the state and places it in the hands of cities. It should be Ridgeland's prerogative to raise revenue through tax increases, not the state's, McGee said.
(Photo: Special to the Clarion Ledger)
"I think it just makes sense for cities to be able to determine their own fate. This could work if you wanted to build a fire station or a library. There's really no need for the state to make those kind of decisions," he said.
Like the MML, the mayor also is in favor of legislation that would garnish the state income tax return of individuals with outstanding fines to the city.
It would be a win-win for the state, McGee suggested, since the state would get half of all recovered money. The city has about $7 million in uncollected fines, the mayor said.
He said he also supports an increased sales tax diversion back to cities, but isn't holding out hope the legislation gets passed because of state budget cuts.
If the diversion bill were to pass, Ridgeland would see close to $14 million in additional annual revenue.
Pearl, (pop. 26,485)
Pearl Mayor Jake Windham (Photo: Justin Vicory)
Pearl Mayor Jake Windham supports an increase in municipal sales tax diversion. He also supports "local option" legislation that allows cities to tack on tax increases without legislative approval. For the time being, Windham said the city is considering legislation that would increase the city’s hotel and motel tax, up as much as 3 percent if possible. It’s at 2 percent now.
If the diversion bill passes, Pearl would see about $10.4 million in additional annual revenue.
Brandon, (pop. 23,826)
In August, Brandon city officials raised property taxes and utility rates across the board. Mayor Butch Lee said the Legislature's anti-tax philosophy has trickled down to cities and towns across the state, who are struggling to pay for infrastructure and basic services.
Brandon Mayor Butch Lee (Photo: Special to The Clarion-Ledger)
In addition to supporting MML's push to increase sales tax diversions to cities by up to 2 percent, Lee also supports any legislation on a possible internet tax and raising the gasoline tax.
Under the diversion bill, Brandon would see close to $5.5 million in additional annual revenue.
Clinton, (pop. 25,211)
Clinton's Board of Aldermen recently unanimously passed resolutions that seek to increase the city's sales and tourism tax by 1 percent each. Now the Legislature will consider the city's requests and, if it approves the resolutions, the city will put the matter up for a vote on the November general election ballot.
(Photo: City of Clinton website)
Mayor Phil Fisher says the city needs the additional revenue for infrastructure projects and economic development. The sales tax revenue, for example, would provide funding for specific public works projects such as the widening to four lanes of Arrow Drive, which is often congested because it is near four schools, the mayor said.
Under the diversion, Clinton would see close to $5 million in additional annual revenue.
Madison, (pop. 26,031)
In arguing for the increase in sales tax diversion from the state, Madison Mayor Mary Hawkins Butler says municipalities should be prioritized over out-of-state companies since cities bring in a large share of sales tax for the state.
(Photo: File photo/Special to The Clarion-Ledger)
"Whatever extra revenue we have coming in will be used to attract more sales tax dollars. That's a given unlike much of the investment the state puts into getting companies to come to Mississippi," Hawkins Butler said.
The diversion bill would mean more than $6.8 million in additional annual revenue for Madison.
Mississippi Association of Supervisors
The Mississippi Association of Supervisors, the counties' equivalent of the MML, lobbies for legislation that benefits the state's 82 counties.
Steve Gray, the director of governmental affairs for the Mississippi Association of Supervisors, said supervisors overwhelmingly support raising the gasoline tax or having it indexed. They’ll support any legislation that does either, he said.
"This is something that every county I've talked to has serious concerns about. Some of these roads and bridges are in terrible shape, and to be frank, are quite dangerous," Gray said.
MAS is also lobbying for full reimbursement of the Homestead Exemption from the DOR, which counties haven’t gotten in years, Gray says.
The MAS is supporting legislation that increases 911 funding to counties. Gray said the switch from landline phones to cellphones has incurred additional expenses since the funding program began.
He also is requesting the state again fund the Rural Fire Truck Acquisition Assistance Program, which the Legislature has axed in previous sessions. The fund goes a long way to pay for modern-day pumper trucks, which can cost up to $200,000.
Hinds County, (pop. 242,891)
Hinds County Supervisor Peggy Calhoun said the county will be requesting additional funding from the state for the Byram-Clinton corridor project. The requested $12 million would be used to improve an existing wastewater plant in Jackson or for the construction of a new plant in Hinds County.
The county also wants funds to build a medical facility to assist Hinds County Detention Center inmates with mental health care issues. As part of its request, Calhoun said the county will be asking the state to allow inmates to continue to get Medicaid coverage if they are diagnosed as having mental health issues.
Calhoun also said the county plans to meet with the secretary of state’s office on getting authority to go into Jackson and clean up or demolish blighted properties. She says there’s no cooperation between the city and county on this and many other issues.
Madison County, (pop. 103,465)
Madison County has experienced growth of more than 22 percent the last two years, resulting in congestion on county roads. Supervisors have OK'd millions of dollars in road-widening projects in the hope the Legislature, in turn, will help fund interchange projects that will connect to I-55. District 2 Supervisor Trey Baxter said he is optimistic about state funding.
"We've followed all the guidelines they've laid out for us, and it's something we need badly. So far our representatives have been very positive, so we're hopeful," he said.
Agenda boardroom minutes show the board has recently applied for several state grants from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality and state Department of Health, among other state agencies. These projects will depend on the Legislature issuing a bond bill, which it did not do last year in part because it passed the largest tax cut in state history.
Rankin County, (pop. 149,039)
Rankin County Supervisor Jared Morrison said the county favors many of the Mississippi Association of Supervisor's key agenda items, including additional 911 funding and the refunding of programs that provide financial assistance to rural fire departments.
"Whatever help we can get for some of our rural fire departments really makes a difference in the fire rating we get. Even a small change to the rating can double insurance premiums," he said.
Morrison said he is a staunch advocate of increased funding for MDOT's Local System Bridge and Road programs. He said he supports a fuel tax increase and legislation that would allocate additional funding for county transportation needs. He views a proposed state lottery favorably if proceeds would help with infrastructure.
The county is also dead set against a controversial bidding process that will become law Jan. 1, commonly referred to as reverse auction, that allows vendors to make initial bids, see where they stand, then continue for a period to lower their prices and try to undercut competitors.
"I don't like it. A lot of times the lowest bid isn't your best bid," Morrison said.
The board will also likely request that the Legislature allow the Rankin County Sheriff's Department to use radar on county roads.
by: Kathryn Eastburn
date: 2017-12-17
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2017/12/18/man-jailed-4-years-without-trial-mississippi/959751001/
(Photo: Kathryn Eastburn /The Commonwealth via AP)
Download The Clarion-Ledger app for free on the Apple app store or Google Play. Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger
GREENWOOD — When he was 14, Dequariann Pilcher was accused of firing a gun in Sam Leach Park in Greenwood. That was in June 2011.
When he was 16, between March and September 2013, Dequariann, who was known as "D," was charged by police in a number of aggravated assaults and a murder.
By the time he was 17, he had been arraigned and jailed for seven counts of aggravated assault and one count of murder in the shooting death of Torrey Shaffer.
Since then, Pilcher has remained in the Leflore County Jail for four years without a trial.
The primary delay in his case, and in hundreds of others around Mississippi, was awaiting a court-ordered competency evaluation to stand trial.
To stand trial, generally within 270 days of indictment according to Mississippi Supreme Court procedures for a criminal trial, Dequariann Pilcher first had to be found mentally competent.
Dequariann's grandmother, Betty Pilcher, who got custody of him when he was 2 and raised him, said everyone knew "D'' was "slow."
When Pilcher was charged as an adult at age 16, he was identified in a story in the Commonwealth as an eighth-grader at Greenwood Middle School.
Betty Pilcher, in a family history taken for the purposes of evaluating his mental health, told his attorney in 2014 that Dequariann had a history of emotional instability, psychotic diagnoses, attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder and mental retardation and had been classified for special education classes in school.
More: Mental health more than a math problem for Mississippi: MS Pulse
Dequariann's attorney at the time, Whit Mounger, filed a motion requesting mental examination, evaluation and possible treatment for his client. Mounger said he'd "found it difficult to consult with his client, in part because of the aforesaid condition," and didn't feel he could adequately defend him without a full competency evaluation.
G.S. Macvaugh III, a forensic psychologist from Greenville, performed the first evaluation of Dequariann Pilcher for the courts. Macvaugh measured Pilcher's IQ at 57. (An IQ score of 80 is generally considered to be a measure of normal intellectual ability.)
Dequariann scored 68 percent on basic legal concepts he needed to understand in order to be found competent to stand trial. He scored 33 percent in the skills needed to assist in his defense.
Macvaugh said Dequariann was taking no medication at the time, though Betty Pilcher said he had been taking Abilify, a drug used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, before he was incarcerated. According to her, Dequariann was "too scared" to take the drug in jail because he had once experienced a seizure while taking it.
Macvaugh's evaluation concluded: "(Pilcher) lacks sufficient present ability to consult with his attorneys with a reasonable degree of rational understanding in the preparation of a defense, and he also lacks a factual as well as rational understanding of the nature and object of the legal proceedings against him."
In this Dec. 7, 2017 photo, Betty Pilcher, grandmother of Dequariann Pilcher, awaits word on whether her grandson's case will go to trial, in Greenwood, Miss. He has been in the Leflore County Jail for four years.
(Photo: Kathryn Eastburn /The Commonwealth via AP)
Consulting that report, Circuit Judge Richard Smith agreed in March 2015, a year after Pilcher entered the county jail, that Pilcher was incompetent to stand trial.
Smith ordered that "the Defendant undergo a mental evaluation and, if deemed necessary and appropriate, admission and treatment at the Mississippi State Hospital at Whitfield or as directed, by such other competent psychiatrist that may be selected or allowed by the court."
The judge's order, dated March 10, 2015, went on to say that a written report on Dequariann's progress should be submitted to the court within 65 days of the evaluation and every four months thereafter during the time that he was being evaluated and/or treated.
He was 18, and instead of being evaluated or treated, he remained in custody of the sheriff in the Leflore County Jail for two more years, awaiting evaluation at the State Hospital.
Trial delays while defendants await competency evaluations in Mississippi are not unusual — and the problem has grown more critical in recent years as the number of forensic beds available at the State Hospital has decreased to 15 because of state budget cuts.
In Dequariann Pilcher's case, during the time the judge ordered his evaluation at Whitfield until the time he actually went there, continuances were granted at least 10 times between April 21, 2015, and August 22, 2017. In each case, the reason stated by the judge was that the mental evaluation was not completed.
At the end of August 2017, Dequariann Pilcher was finally admitted to Whitfield. He was 20 years old.
During the time he had spent in jail, his grandmother said, she tried to visit him about once a month but often wasn't allowed to see him because he was "in the hole." She was referring to solitary confinement at the jail, usually a punishment for a behavioral infringement.
However, the evaluation by doctors at the state hospital said Pilcher's jail record indicated no behavioral problems.
Pilcher was reportedly on no medication and had received no treatment during the years he awaited evaluation. But the evaluation report said "he exhibited no signs of mental illness, was familiar with legal concepts and was able to rationally discuss his legal situation" after two weeks at Whitfield.
Doctors spent one hour and five minutes evaluating him. In short, they concluded he was better.
His IQ measured 71 this time — within the borderline range of intellectual ability but also within the borderline range of intellectual disability. Doctors Thomas V. Record and Reb McMichael, who signed the evaluation report, said they believed the new IQ measurement was more accurate than Dr. Macvaugh's score of 57 and that Dequariann admitted not trying hard enough on the first test.
He was found to be neither psychotic nor depressed and was found to have "little to no impairment in all domains related to his competence to proceed legally."
According to the report, he "participated in a court-competence restoration group" but said he was "already familiar with the concept being taught."
The doctors unanimously concluded that Dequariann was competent to stand trial. Assistant District Attorney Tim Jones said Pilcher has been found to be "restored to competency."
"It's not a measure of intellectual ability," Jones said. "Some people come in who know nothing about the system. Sometimes being restored means they've received more medication; for some it's simply educating them about what the process is, who the players are, and determining whether they can communicate with their lawyers, whether they understand what's going on. All of that goes into a determination of competency to stand trial."
Jones said that the problem of trial delay for competency evaluations — like the problem of an understaffed crime lab, which also frequently delays trials — has to do with the number of cases and the lack of people qualified to perform these evaluations.
"It takes a while to get them to the state hospital, and there's only a couple of individuals in this area who can do those evaluations," he said.
Mississippi's Department of Mental Health (DMH) is trying to interest psychologists and psychiatrists around the state in becoming certified as evaluators or deemed by a judge as qualified to make a competency assessment. A training session held in August served as a general orientation, introducing practitioners to the idea.
Mississippi State Hospital's Forensic Services, headed by McMichael, hope to make pre-trial competence evaluations more readily available by training interested psychologists and psychiatrists to become qualified evaluators available to courts to perform jail-based services, according to a DMH press release. Those services at this time are available only in Hinds and Madison counties through a pilot program, according to DMH Director of Communication Adam Moore.
Moore said it's not yet clear what judges will think of the idea. He said the pilot program in Hinds and Madison counties is aimed at the restoration aspect of the evaluation process. In other words, the psychologists and psychiatrists doing jail-based work there are working with inmates who have already been declared incompetent but were found restorable or able to be restored to competency.
But in the case of people with an Intellectual or Development Disability (IDD), those persons generally "would not be able to be restored to competency," Moore said.
In none of the evaluations of Dequariann Pilcher has he been classified as a person with an IDD. According to his grandmother, he flunked second grade over and over and over because he couldn't read.
According to the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, such a disability originates before the age of 18 and is characterized by limitations in intellectual functioning and in adaptive behavior.
Intellectual function or intelligence is most often measured by an IQ test, and generally a score of around 70 or as high as 75 indicates a limitation in intellectual functioning.
Adaptive behavior is defined as "the collection of conceptual, social and practical skills that are learned and performed by people in their everyday lives," such as language and literacy, interpersonal skills and practical skills.
Before he was incarcerated, Dequariann Pilcher exhibited distinct limitations in both.
Assistant District Attorney Jones said an omnibus hearing is scheduled in Smith's court in January and the case of Dequariann Pilcher will be raised at that time. He said an omnibus hearing includes cases "that are not quite ripe for trial, where the discovery is not right or parties need to settle any outstanding motions."
Once the defense and the prosecution are satisfied that everything pre-trial has been completed, the judge will set a trial date.
Jones said he doesn't plan to file any more motions in the Pilcher case. Discovery is complete on it, and "it's just a matter of whether the defense has any other motions they're going to file," he said.
Wallie Stuckey, defense attorney for Dequariann Pilcher, said the defense does not intend to file any further motions.
That means if all goes as expected in the January omnibus hearing, trial for Pilcher could be set as early as the judge's next session or February.
Betty Pilcher has mixed feelings about that possibility.
She has openly expressed her belief in her grandson's innocence in the murder charge, and she says police failed to consider any other possible suspects once they arrested Dequariann.
"He's being railroaded," she said.
Betty Pilcher cites signed affidavits by two eyewitnesses who were in the car with Torrey Shaffer when he was hit by the bullet that killed him.
Both state that they were told by police to look through a book of suspects and were instructed "to pick number five (5).
"Although I picked number five (5) because the police told me too, but the truth is ... when I was in the car, with my cousin, when we got shot, I did not see anyone," said both affidavits, signed by two brothers who were cousins of Torrey Shaffer.
Betty said she saw Dequariann about three weeks ago and "he was sad.
"Sometimes I get in there and he says, 'Mama, you can go.'"
She points to a picture of him at about age 10, hanging high in the living room above an ornate piece of furniture.
"He was a good boy," she said. "He's got a birthday coming up on January 24.
"He'll be 21."
by: Jeff Amy
date: 2017-12-18
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2017/12/19/judge-tosses-mississippi-lawsuit-claiming-police-brutality/967467001/
(Photo: Susan Broadbridge/Hattiesburg American)
Download The Clarion-Ledger app for free on the Apple app store or Google Play. Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger
JACKSON. – A judge has dismissed a federal lawsuit accusing two Mississippi police officers of false arrest and police brutality.
U.S. District Judge Keith Starrett issued a ruling Monday, writing that a family had failed to prove that two Hattiesburg police officers used excessive force during a domestic disturbance call in April 2013.
George Wade Jr. and the estate of his late father, George Wade Sr., sued last year, seeking money damages. They didn’t say how much they wanted.
They claimed officers Demetrius Breland and Narottam Holden acted improperly in arresting the two men, saying they broke the younger man’s leg and beat the older man “unmercifully.”
The officers say both men fought with them and they used only the force necessary to arrest them.
A lawyer for Wade Sr., a former law enforcement officer, wrote in court papers that the older man tried to intervene when he saw police knock his son to the ground. After Breland pepper sprayed the father, they had a scuffle inside the family home.
“The uncontroverted evidence shows that Wade Sr. was actively resisting arrest and that the officers engaged him with nothing but open-handed strikes, eventually grappling him to the ground and placing him in handcuffs,” Starrett wrote. “Under these circumstances, the force employed by Breland was not excessive or objectively unreasonable.”
The judge made a similar ruling regarding the younger man’s claims, saying Breland only knocked George Wade Jr. to the ground when he believed Wade Jr. was trying to resist him. Starrett said George Wade Jr.’s testimony was never submitted into evidence, meaning he couldn’t consider it against the officers’ statements.
Starrett also ruled out claims of false arrest, noting both men were initially convicted in municipal court. A higher court overturned George Wade Jr.’s conviction, while his father died before an appeal could be decided.
Claims against the city and the officers in their official capacities were dismissed in March.
A lawyer for the Wades didn’t immediately respond Tuesday to an email seeking comment.
by: Kathryn Eastburn
date: 2017-12-17
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2017/12/18/man-jailed-4-years-without-trial-mississippi/959751001/
(Photo: Kathryn Eastburn /The Commonwealth via AP)
Download The Clarion-Ledger app for free on the Apple app store or Google Play. Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger
GREENWOOD — When he was 14, Dequariann Pilcher was accused of firing a gun in Sam Leach Park in Greenwood. That was in June 2011.
When he was 16, between March and September 2013, Dequariann, who was known as "D," was charged by police in a number of aggravated assaults and a murder.
By the time he was 17, he had been arraigned and jailed for seven counts of aggravated assault and one count of murder in the shooting death of Torrey Shaffer.
Since then, Pilcher has remained in the Leflore County Jail for four years without a trial.
The primary delay in his case, and in hundreds of others around Mississippi, was awaiting a court-ordered competency evaluation to stand trial.
To stand trial, generally within 270 days of indictment according to Mississippi Supreme Court procedures for a criminal trial, Dequariann Pilcher first had to be found mentally competent.
Dequariann's grandmother, Betty Pilcher, who got custody of him when he was 2 and raised him, said everyone knew "D'' was "slow."
When Pilcher was charged as an adult at age 16, he was identified in a story in the Commonwealth as an eighth-grader at Greenwood Middle School.
Betty Pilcher, in a family history taken for the purposes of evaluating his mental health, told his attorney in 2014 that Dequariann had a history of emotional instability, psychotic diagnoses, attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder and mental retardation and had been classified for special education classes in school.
More: Mental health more than a math problem for Mississippi: MS Pulse
Dequariann's attorney at the time, Whit Mounger, filed a motion requesting mental examination, evaluation and possible treatment for his client. Mounger said he'd "found it difficult to consult with his client, in part because of the aforesaid condition," and didn't feel he could adequately defend him without a full competency evaluation.
G.S. Macvaugh III, a forensic psychologist from Greenville, performed the first evaluation of Dequariann Pilcher for the courts. Macvaugh measured Pilcher's IQ at 57. (An IQ score of 80 is generally considered to be a measure of normal intellectual ability.)
Dequariann scored 68 percent on basic legal concepts he needed to understand in order to be found competent to stand trial. He scored 33 percent in the skills needed to assist in his defense.
Macvaugh said Dequariann was taking no medication at the time, though Betty Pilcher said he had been taking Abilify, a drug used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, before he was incarcerated. According to her, Dequariann was "too scared" to take the drug in jail because he had once experienced a seizure while taking it.
Macvaugh's evaluation concluded: "(Pilcher) lacks sufficient present ability to consult with his attorneys with a reasonable degree of rational understanding in the preparation of a defense, and he also lacks a factual as well as rational understanding of the nature and object of the legal proceedings against him."
In this Dec. 7, 2017 photo, Betty Pilcher, grandmother of Dequariann Pilcher, awaits word on whether her grandson's case will go to trial, in Greenwood, Miss. He has been in the Leflore County Jail for four years.
(Photo: Kathryn Eastburn /The Commonwealth via AP)
Consulting that report, Circuit Judge Richard Smith agreed in March 2015, a year after Pilcher entered the county jail, that Pilcher was incompetent to stand trial.
Smith ordered that "the Defendant undergo a mental evaluation and, if deemed necessary and appropriate, admission and treatment at the Mississippi State Hospital at Whitfield or as directed, by such other competent psychiatrist that may be selected or allowed by the court."
The judge's order, dated March 10, 2015, went on to say that a written report on Dequariann's progress should be submitted to the court within 65 days of the evaluation and every four months thereafter during the time that he was being evaluated and/or treated.
He was 18, and instead of being evaluated or treated, he remained in custody of the sheriff in the Leflore County Jail for two more years, awaiting evaluation at the State Hospital.
Trial delays while defendants await competency evaluations in Mississippi are not unusual — and the problem has grown more critical in recent years as the number of forensic beds available at the State Hospital has decreased to 15 because of state budget cuts.
In Dequariann Pilcher's case, during the time the judge ordered his evaluation at Whitfield until the time he actually went there, continuances were granted at least 10 times between April 21, 2015, and August 22, 2017. In each case, the reason stated by the judge was that the mental evaluation was not completed.
At the end of August 2017, Dequariann Pilcher was finally admitted to Whitfield. He was 20 years old.
During the time he had spent in jail, his grandmother said, she tried to visit him about once a month but often wasn't allowed to see him because he was "in the hole." She was referring to solitary confinement at the jail, usually a punishment for a behavioral infringement.
However, the evaluation by doctors at the state hospital said Pilcher's jail record indicated no behavioral problems.
Pilcher was reportedly on no medication and had received no treatment during the years he awaited evaluation. But the evaluation report said "he exhibited no signs of mental illness, was familiar with legal concepts and was able to rationally discuss his legal situation" after two weeks at Whitfield.
Doctors spent one hour and five minutes evaluating him. In short, they concluded he was better.
His IQ measured 71 this time — within the borderline range of intellectual ability but also within the borderline range of intellectual disability. Doctors Thomas V. Record and Reb McMichael, who signed the evaluation report, said they believed the new IQ measurement was more accurate than Dr. Macvaugh's score of 57 and that Dequariann admitted not trying hard enough on the first test.
He was found to be neither psychotic nor depressed and was found to have "little to no impairment in all domains related to his competence to proceed legally."
According to the report, he "participated in a court-competence restoration group" but said he was "already familiar with the concept being taught."
The doctors unanimously concluded that Dequariann was competent to stand trial. Assistant District Attorney Tim Jones said Pilcher has been found to be "restored to competency."
"It's not a measure of intellectual ability," Jones said. "Some people come in who know nothing about the system. Sometimes being restored means they've received more medication; for some it's simply educating them about what the process is, who the players are, and determining whether they can communicate with their lawyers, whether they understand what's going on. All of that goes into a determination of competency to stand trial."
Jones said that the problem of trial delay for competency evaluations — like the problem of an understaffed crime lab, which also frequently delays trials — has to do with the number of cases and the lack of people qualified to perform these evaluations.
"It takes a while to get them to the state hospital, and there's only a couple of individuals in this area who can do those evaluations," he said.
Mississippi's Department of Mental Health (DMH) is trying to interest psychologists and psychiatrists around the state in becoming certified as evaluators or deemed by a judge as qualified to make a competency assessment. A training session held in August served as a general orientation, introducing practitioners to the idea.
Mississippi State Hospital's Forensic Services, headed by McMichael, hope to make pre-trial competence evaluations more readily available by training interested psychologists and psychiatrists to become qualified evaluators available to courts to perform jail-based services, according to a DMH press release. Those services at this time are available only in Hinds and Madison counties through a pilot program, according to DMH Director of Communication Adam Moore.
Moore said it's not yet clear what judges will think of the idea. He said the pilot program in Hinds and Madison counties is aimed at the restoration aspect of the evaluation process. In other words, the psychologists and psychiatrists doing jail-based work there are working with inmates who have already been declared incompetent but were found restorable or able to be restored to competency.
But in the case of people with an Intellectual or Development Disability (IDD), those persons generally "would not be able to be restored to competency," Moore said.
In none of the evaluations of Dequariann Pilcher has he been classified as a person with an IDD. According to his grandmother, he flunked second grade over and over and over because he couldn't read.
According to the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, such a disability originates before the age of 18 and is characterized by limitations in intellectual functioning and in adaptive behavior.
Intellectual function or intelligence is most often measured by an IQ test, and generally a score of around 70 or as high as 75 indicates a limitation in intellectual functioning.
Adaptive behavior is defined as "the collection of conceptual, social and practical skills that are learned and performed by people in their everyday lives," such as language and literacy, interpersonal skills and practical skills.
Before he was incarcerated, Dequariann Pilcher exhibited distinct limitations in both.
Assistant District Attorney Jones said an omnibus hearing is scheduled in Smith's court in January and the case of Dequariann Pilcher will be raised at that time. He said an omnibus hearing includes cases "that are not quite ripe for trial, where the discovery is not right or parties need to settle any outstanding motions."
Once the defense and the prosecution are satisfied that everything pre-trial has been completed, the judge will set a trial date.
Jones said he doesn't plan to file any more motions in the Pilcher case. Discovery is complete on it, and "it's just a matter of whether the defense has any other motions they're going to file," he said.
Wallie Stuckey, defense attorney for Dequariann Pilcher, said the defense does not intend to file any further motions.
That means if all goes as expected in the January omnibus hearing, trial for Pilcher could be set as early as the judge's next session or February.
Betty Pilcher has mixed feelings about that possibility.
She has openly expressed her belief in her grandson's innocence in the murder charge, and she says police failed to consider any other possible suspects once they arrested Dequariann.
"He's being railroaded," she said.
Betty Pilcher cites signed affidavits by two eyewitnesses who were in the car with Torrey Shaffer when he was hit by the bullet that killed him.
Both state that they were told by police to look through a book of suspects and were instructed "to pick number five (5).
"Although I picked number five (5) because the police told me too, but the truth is ... when I was in the car, with my cousin, when we got shot, I did not see anyone," said both affidavits, signed by two brothers who were cousins of Torrey Shaffer.
Betty said she saw Dequariann about three weeks ago and "he was sad.
"Sometimes I get in there and he says, 'Mama, you can go.'"
She points to a picture of him at about age 10, hanging high in the living room above an ornate piece of furniture.
"He was a good boy," she said. "He's got a birthday coming up on January 24.
"He'll be 21."
by: Therese Apel
date: 2017-12-18
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2017/12/19/lawrence-county-murder-arson-standoff/966006001/
Breaking news reporter Therese Apel is on the scene of a standoff in Lawrence County where one person is confirmed dead and two structures were set on fire. Therese Apel/Clarion Ledger
(Photo: Lawrence County Sheriff's Dept.)
Wednesday, 10 a.m. update:
Officials continued to search Tuesday night for a Mississippi man who they believe shot and killed another man, wounded a woman and set two houses on fire.
Mississippi Highway Patrol spokesman Warren Strain said officers were searching wooded areas near Jayess in Lawrence County. A helicopter circled overhead and tracking dogs were being brought from Louisiana.
Earlier, officers surrounded two mobile homes and a house looking for Tony Wilson, who Lawrence County Sheriff Lessie Butler said shot and killed a neighbor in a land dispute. Wilson was in none of those places.
Butler said Wilson and Henry Peavey have disputed ownership of a parcel to which Peavey was granted title.
"Tony's girlfriend called and said Tony had killed Mr. Peavey and set his house on fire," Butler said of the incident, which started before noon Tuesday.
Officials said Wilson set fire to two houses and wounded Peavey's wife, Kathryn, although the nature of her injuries was unclear. She was hospitalized in Jackson.
Robert Langille, Wilson's brother-in-law, told The Associated Press that Wilson's father had paid taxes on a small parcel of land for years, but that Peavey had won legal title.
Original story:
A man involved a standoff with law enforcement Tuesday is accused of killing at least one person and setting two structures on fire, Lawrence County authorities said.
The suspect, who has been identified as Tony Wilson, was believed for much of Tuesday afternoon to be inside a structure on Frog Ridge Road. A Mississippi Highway Patrol SWAT team was called to the scene where one home was cleared and authorities were working to clear another.
The victim, Henry Peavey, is Wilson's neighbor, according to community residents. His wife was also wounded and transported to a Jackson hospital for treatment.
Peavey and Wilson have allegedly had squabbles over property lines for years. Neighbors said at one point a survey was done that found in Peavey's favor in regards to the land in dispute.
Lawrence County Sheriff Lessie Butler said Wilson had just bonded out of jail where he was being held on charges of violating a restraining order that was meant to keep him off Peavey's property. When officers went to serve that warrant, he allegedly pulled a gun on them and was charged with aggravated assault on a police officer.
He faces a court date for the assault charge in January, Butler said.
The sheriff wouldn't speculate on whether it's believed that Wilson will give up peacefully, but said officers are wary of his previous record.
Law enforcement from Lawrence, Lincoln and Pike County are on the scene, as well as Mississippi Highway Patrol and Mississippi Department of Wildlife Fisheries and Parks.
A helicopter was circling the area for several hours Tuesday, and there was also a ground search going on. Tracking dogs were being brought in from Louisiana as of 6 p.m.
This is a breaking story. More details to come.
by:
date: 2017-12-18
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2017/12/19/mississippi-reinstate-thousands-drivers-licenses/966510001/
Download The Clarion-Ledger app for free on the Apple app store or Google Play. Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger
The Mississippi Department of Public Safety will reinstate the driver’s licenses of all Mississippi drivers whose licenses were suspended due to nonpayment of fines, fees or assessments and will no longer suspend licenses simply because a person fails to make such court-ordered payments. DPS will continue to suspend driver’s licenses for all other reasons available under Mississippi law.
The change in policy was announced Tuesday by the DPS, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center at the University of Mississippi School of Law.
It is estimated that more than 100,000 license holders are affected by this policy change.
Under the new procedures, DPS will also waive its $100 reinstatement fee, will notify drivers that their licenses are no longer suspended and — if their licenses have expired since they were suspended — will instruct motorists how to reinstate them.
The process of reinstating driving privileges for affected drivers is expected to start in January, and letters will be sent to all drivers who benefit from the new policy. DPS has hired dedicated staff to restore the affected licenses. Drivers with a suspended license should wait until they receive written confirmation from DPS that their license has been reinstated before driving.
Additionally, DPS will no longer suspend licenses solely for nonpayment. Drivers with multiple reasons for suspension will have non-payment removed from their driving records as a basis for suspension, and DPS will notify them regarding the reason their licenses remain suspended. Those other reasons for suspension will remain in place and the license will remain suspended until the driver gets those other reasons for suspension cleared.
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According to DPS, this official policy will remain in place unless and until future significant developments occur, such as a statutory change. Drivers affected by this policy are not relieved of any existing obligation to pay fines, fees or assessments.
Marshall Fisher, director of the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, said, “We will continue to suspend licenses for other reasons allowed under Mississippi law, and we certainly take it seriously when people drive with suspended licenses. The reinstatement of these licenses will not relieve the drivers of the legal obligation to pay the fines, fees or assessments.
"Driver’s licenses will continue to be suspended for all other reasons available under Mississippi law, including but not limited to suspension pursuant to a court order finding a driver in contempt for failure to pay a fine or fee or failure to respond to a traffic summons or citation.” Fisher said. “The process of discontinuing suspension of licenses due solely to the nonpayment of fines, fees or assessments will remain in place until future significant developments occur, such as a statutory amendment.”
SPLC and the MacArthur Justice Center contend that Mississippi courts have not been following the law regarding collection of fines and fees, and both entities have been pursuing litigation throughout Mississippi addressing the rights of indigent defendants.
“We commend the state of Mississippi for taking steps to ensure that in the future, no one will lose their license if the only reason they failed to pay a traffic ticket is that they simply did not have enough money,” said Sam Brooke, SPLC deputy legal director. “We also welcome Mississippi’s decision to reinstate licenses that had been previously suspended because people were unable to pay.
“Poverty is not a traffic crime,” Brooke said. “There is a growing recognition across the country that people should not face additional punishment just because of their poverty, and that includes taking away their driver’s licenses when they can’t pay fines.”
The policy changes came about after the SPLC and the MacArthur Justice Center raised concerns about the practices.
“Being poor in Mississippi is hard enough without having your license suspended just because you can’t afford to pay off outstanding fines,” said Cliff Johnson, director of the MacArthur Justice Center at the University of Mississippi School of Law. “We don’t have subways or other reliable public transportation in Mississippi, and a suspended license makes it impossible to legally drive to job interviews, take loved ones to the hospital, pick your kids up from school, or even go to church.”
It is estimated that more than 100,000 license holders are affected by this policy change. Licenses suspended for other reasons allowed under Mississippi law will remain suspended.
Questions?
People who have questions about the status of their Mississippi driver’s license can call 601-987-1224 for more information.
by: Jeff Amy
date: 2017-12-18
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2017/12/19/judge-tosses-mississippi-lawsuit-claiming-police-brutality/967467001/
(Photo: Susan Broadbridge/Hattiesburg American)
Download The Clarion-Ledger app for free on the Apple app store or Google Play. Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger
JACKSON. – A judge has dismissed a federal lawsuit accusing two Mississippi police officers of false arrest and police brutality.
U.S. District Judge Keith Starrett issued a ruling Monday, writing that a family had failed to prove that two Hattiesburg police officers used excessive force during a domestic disturbance call in April 2013.
George Wade Jr. and the estate of his late father, George Wade Sr., sued last year, seeking money damages. They didn’t say how much they wanted.
They claimed officers Demetrius Breland and Narottam Holden acted improperly in arresting the two men, saying they broke the younger man’s leg and beat the older man “unmercifully.”
The officers say both men fought with them and they used only the force necessary to arrest them.
A lawyer for Wade Sr., a former law enforcement officer, wrote in court papers that the older man tried to intervene when he saw police knock his son to the ground. After Breland pepper sprayed the father, they had a scuffle inside the family home.
“The uncontroverted evidence shows that Wade Sr. was actively resisting arrest and that the officers engaged him with nothing but open-handed strikes, eventually grappling him to the ground and placing him in handcuffs,” Starrett wrote. “Under these circumstances, the force employed by Breland was not excessive or objectively unreasonable.”
The judge made a similar ruling regarding the younger man’s claims, saying Breland only knocked George Wade Jr. to the ground when he believed Wade Jr. was trying to resist him. Starrett said George Wade Jr.’s testimony was never submitted into evidence, meaning he couldn’t consider it against the officers’ statements.
Starrett also ruled out claims of false arrest, noting both men were initially convicted in municipal court. A higher court overturned George Wade Jr.’s conviction, while his father died before an appeal could be decided.
Claims against the city and the officers in their official capacities were dismissed in March.
A lawyer for the Wades didn’t immediately respond Tuesday to an email seeking comment.
by: Therese Apel
date: 2017-12-19
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2017/12/20/mississippi-alderman-federal-child-porn-charge/970150001/
The FBI may have a secret weapon in their fight against child porn. Veuer's Nick Cardona (@nickcardona93) tells us who that might be. Buzz60
(Photo: City of Southaven)
A Southaven alderman is facing a federal child pornography charge, the U.S. Attorney's office said Wednesday.
Ronald W. Hale, 57, has been charged with transportation of child pornography, according to a release.
Hale was charged in a one count indictment which charges that he knowingly used a means of interstate or foreign commerce to transport or ship a visual depiction involving a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
Hale surrendered to the United States Marshals Service, and made his initial appearance and arraignment in federal court on Wednesday. If convicted, he faces a maximum of 20 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
Hale was elected to the Southaven Board of Alderman last year as a representative in Ward 2. According to the Commercial Appeal's Yolanda Jones, Hale was also arrested in November on a charge of procuring prostitution.
Following his arrest for prostitution Hale was relieved of duty as a firefighter for the city of Memphis pending the outcome of the criminal investigation, said Lt. Wayne Cooke, spokesman for the Memphis Fire Department.
The case is being investigated by the FBI Jackson Division’s Southaven Resident Agency and DeSoto County Sheriff’s Department, and is being prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Mississippi. The Southaven Police Department also assisted with the investigation.
by: Justin Vicory
date: 2017-12-19
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2017/12/20/jackson-police-chief-lee-vance-retire/970539001/
Jackson Police Chief announces his retirement after 30 years. Harold Gater
Jackson Police Chief Lee Vance said he's leaving his job at the end of the year "just grateful."
Vance is a 30-year veteran of the Jackson Police Department and served as the interim chief before he was appointed by former Mayor Tony Yarber.
"In the academy one of the instructors told me the time would fly by," Vance said Wednesday. "And they have not exaggerated. I cannot look back and tell you where 30 years have gone. They've flown by."
Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba confirmed Wednesday that Jackson Police Department Chief Lee Vance is retiring by the end of the month.
“I want to express the great respect I have for Chief Vance for his dedication to the city. The chief has been an asset to the city and to my family personally. An argument can be made that he is the best chief in Jackson’s history,” Lumumba said.
View Video (13:53)
Posted by Clarion Ledger
The mayor has delayed holding confirmations for a police department chief, fueling some speculation that Vance’s days were numbered.
“I’ve been wondering what the mayor had in mind,” Ward 1 Councilman Ashby Foote said when he heard the news. “We’ve had confirmations for just about every department but not for Chief Vance.”
Vance said he and Lumumba had spoken and that they "kinda decided together that this was the right thing to do and that it was a good time."
Lumumba said he will make an announcement regarding his appointment of an interim chief in the near future. He declined to give names of any prospective candidates for the police chief position.
Vance said he doesn't have any idea who Lumumba might tap to take his place, but that he has great confidence in his command staff. He said he would be happy to give Lumumba some suggestions if he asks.
"I will offer this advice without him asking me. We've got a number of qualified people that can do a fantastic job in this top spot if they're given an opportunity," he said. "One thing any boss should do is prepare your immediate staff to take your job one day, and I've shared as much knowledge and experience with my staff on how you should conduct yourself as a police chief, so when the mayor starts to look for the next police chief, I hope he will look inside the ranks."
(Story continues after the video.)
Vance, who has focused on community policing throughout his tenure, has been known for his candor and his concern for his city throughout his years with JPD.
"Folks in Jackson are going to be straight up with you," he said. "They're going to walk up to me in the grocery store and tell me it took the police 15 minutes to get to my house and you need to do something about that, or they're going to tell you I've seen a lot more visibility out there and you're doing a good job. I'm grateful for the honesty and I'm grateful for the support."
Vance worked his way through the ranks, starting as a patrol officer. He served as a public information officer, patrol sergeant, lieutenant, Commander of the Internal Affairs Division, Interim Deputy Chief of Support Services, Commander of Precinct Two, and Assistant Chief of Police.
"I started here as a recruit in 1987, and 30 years later sitting behind the desk of the police chief," Vance said. "Not only have I been fortunate as far as ascension through the ranks, but I'm still in one piece. I've never been seriously injured, I've never been killed... I'm just grateful."
Vance said he should have started a journal when he joined JPD, and he should have made it into a book.
"But nobody would have believed it. The memories now are too much to try to recall, and to be honest with you some of them I don't want to recall," he said. There have also been some wonderful, wonderful things."
The chief has never been shy in talking about his love for the city of Jackson. He thanked Yarber for giving him the chance to serve his city, and Lumumba for allowing him to continue in the position.
"It's been a wonderful experience. I love the Jackson Police Department very much, I love the city of jackson very much, and I've been dedicated to making this city as safe as we can make it and making JPD the best police department in the country," Vance said. "I go away being thankful."
Vance said he will continue to work with his carryout restaurant that he owns with his children, as well as his security business. He said he can't rule out coming back to law enforcement one day.
"I have absolutely adopted the slogan of never saying never, but I can say there are no immediate plans for that. But I'm a believer and I believe that God will plot your path if you let him," he said. "I'm a believer in following his will, and I don't think that I got to where I am today without him smiling down on me."
by: Associated Press
date: 2017-12-16
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2017/12/17/bail-granted-2-mississippi-boys-facing-capital-murder-charges/959670001/
BALDWYN – Two of three northeast Mississippi boys facing adult capital murder charges have been released.
Local media report that 13-year-old Dequan Stribling and 14-year-old Jayce West were released Thursday on $50,000 bail after a hearing. Quindaris Buress, also 13, remains jailed without bail. Prosecutors say Burress will remain in the Lee County jail until a grand jury considers indictments against all three. The next grand jury convenes Jan. 3.
The three are charged with killing a 70-year-old Baldwyn man while robbing him. Henry Adams Jr. was found shot once in the chest at home on Oct. 23, with his wallet found outside.
In Mississippi, anyone accused of a crime punishable by death or life imprisonment is automatically charged as an adult. A judge can later send such cases to youth court.
by: Therese Apel
date: 2017-12-14
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2017/12/15/thc-kush-found-hinds-county-bust/957426001/
(Photo: Hinds County Sheriff's Department)
Authorities found several items laced with tetrahydrocannabinol, a psychotropic drug known as THC, in a traffic stop on I-20 Friday.
A release from the Hinds County Sheriff's Department stated that Hinds County Special Operations investigators made a traffic stop on I-20 near the Natchez Trace just before 2 p.m. Friday. When they conducted a search, they discovered a large quantity of pure THC oil along with THC-infused candy, THC-infused muscle relief lotion and 40 individual cones of a high-grade marijuana known as Kush.
Investigators found the illegal drugs inside of a pillow located in the back seat area of the 2016 Dodge Dart, which they said was a rental car.
Ambra Nicole Pigeon, 26, of Ft. Myers, Florida, and Maykol Juan Pozo Diaz, 27, of Cape Coral, Florida, were taken into custody.
Both have been booked in at the Raymond Detention Center on charges of trafficking a controlled substance.
by: Rachel James-Terry
date: 2017-12-15
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/opinion/columnists/2017/12/17/how-project-eject-protect-jackson/956427001/
Hurst announces Project Eject, a new initiative to help rid Jackson of violent criminals. Jimmie E. Gates
Father, father
We don't need to escalate
You see, war is not the answer
For only love can conquer hate
You know we've got to find a way
To bring some lovin' here today. — Marvin Gaye
Half my face contorted into a perplexed expression as I read about the revamped Project Safe Neighborhoods program, now called Project Eject. The words “consequences and hope for a safer Jackson” seemed to glare from the screen of my smartphone. A picture of the city of Jackson figuratively holding its breath, hoping and praying for a savior to rescue it from criminals running rampant in the streets among rioters and looters emerged in my mind. Now, please hold your shouts of dissension to the end; my shout of dissension comes first.
I am all for safer, better, stronger whatever. Yes, I want to put an end to violence, crime, drug and alcohol abuse, poverty, and save net neutrality in the process. However, I am tired of the narrative that Jackson is this big, bad place that needs a task force from every continent around the globe to keep its citizens in line. Yes, I am cautious. I lock my doors, and I may even cling to my purse on occasion. But, I do that in any city and state hosting my precious body. In other words, Jackson does not have some form of free enterprise on crime.
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Yet, anytime Jackson is mentioned, it sounds as if we’re living in a war zone. And, if one keeps reciting some of the more horrific occurrences, like a decapitated head, then Jackson is basically Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but in Mississippi, right? Although statistical information varies, none that I have reviewed shows Jackson at an all-time high. Instead, I see that in most areas, the crime rate has declined. Yet, we still continue with the “let’s frighten the residents” theme.
Aside from painting Jackson as the terror dome, Project Eject sounds overly simplified with a bunch of cotton candy fluff encased around draconian law enforcement policies. And, ultimately, I am sure my more melanated brothers and sisters will bear the brunt of this sweeping new initiative because, well, that’s just how life in America works. See, it appears that we are to be excited and rally behind Project Eject because it has a hard-hitting approach to crime. Yet, it seems that we are still trying to figure out how to address the economic and educational challenges that contribute to criminality. I think all of it has to work together congruently to formulate the balance necessary to make a significant impact in our society. So, is the PROJECT EJECT being rolled out with too much haste?
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So, there will be no bond, no parole, no deals and ejection from the community. Since we have rid ourselves of innocent until proven guilty long ago, are we also getting rid of due process? Additionally, deals are usually made out of a lack of evidence, and public prosecutors and defenders are swamped with a deluge of cases. Therefore, deals are brokered for confessions to avoid taking cases to trial with little to no evidence and risking a not guilty verdict over a conviction. Trials require man hours and tax dollars that are frankly not there. Deals are also used as leverage to capture more menacing individuals. So, while I respect the idea, I’m not sure if it is realistic.
I am also an advocate for rehabilitation. However, who are we rehabilitating if we are permanently ejecting all criminals from our communities? Support is a must when anyone is trying to make behavioral changes. Yet, how do we help our brothers and sisters if they are intentionally shipped as far away from their support systems as possible? Look, I’m just trying to understand how this all works. Therefore, I am simply asking the questions.
If Project Eject has this all figured out, then, by all means, have it with some discipline and restraint. And in any event, I hope we can veer away from bashing the city of Jackson in the process.
by: Shadrack White
date: 2017-12-16
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/opinion/columnists/2017/12/17/ag-hoods-financial-literacy-program-unconstitutional/954395001/
Firch pitches financial literacy. Video by Jimmie Gates jimmie gates
(Photo: Special to Clarion Ledger)
For years, the Obama administration’s Justice Department would sue companies, reach a settlement agreement with those companies and then use these settlements to create slush funds for left-leaning groups. In doing so they secretly discriminated against organizations with different political views. Recently released internal emails show Obama administration officials discussed how settlement agreements should be drafted so that the funds could never be used for “conservative property-rights free legal services” — heaven forbid!
Unfortunately, Mississippi is also using settlement shakedowns aimed at funneling money to pet projects. Several weeks ago, the Clarion Ledger reported that Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood obtained $2.5 million in a settlement with banks and credit rating bureaus and that money would be spent on a financial literacy program for Mississippians. The move is unconstitutional, and even if it weren’t, it’s bad policy.
The AG’s plan is bad policy because it invites unilateral control of spending by one person or a small group. Taxpayers deserve to have spending done in the open by the people that we elect to do that job, the Legislature.
“But Shadrack, isn’t the money going to a good cause?” you might ask. There are many good causes — public education, transportation, health care — competing for state funding. This is all the more reason to make sure that money is not being appropriated in the dark by bureaucrats but rather in light of day where it can be weighed against alternative ways to spend the money.
If you are inclined to disagree, think of this: what if the AG were a conservative who sued and obtained a settlement from Planned Parenthood and then set up a fund that paid for a pro-life crisis pregnancy center? I might like that idea, but my guess is others would then suddenly see the value in a different process for appropriating the money.
The rule of law is about setting up processes that function the same way every time — fair rules for everyone — regardless of whether you happen to like the person in charge and what they are doing. And, as required by the state constitution, this means any settlement money must be sent to the Legislature’s General Fund. Article 4 of the Mississippi Constitution indicates no branch other than the Legislature is given appropriating powers.
If it feels like you’ve heard this argument about settlements before, you have. In 1998, then-Attorney General Mike Moore filed a suit against and then reached a settlement with the big tobacco companies. The money from that settlement was used to fund a nonprofit established by Moore called The Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi. In 2005, Gov. Haley Barbour intervened in the AG’s tobacco suit and claimed the AG’s settlement illegally steered money away from the Legislature and to the Partnership.
The governor’s challenge went all the way to the Mississippi Supreme Court. The court stated that one thing was obvious: “(t)he Legislature holds the purse strings” and “the right of the Legislature to control the public treasury . . . is firmly and inexpugnably established in our political system.”
Of course, every case is different, and the AG seems to believe some loophole allows him to spend this current settlement money without legislative approval. But governing and spending by loophole is poor policy. Moreover, the tobacco settlement case shows the state Supreme Court would take a dim view of other elected officials circumventing the appropriations process.
The Mississippi Supreme Court could clarify that these settlements are unconstitutional, but to do so they would have to wait for a case about this question to reach them. The Legislature and governor could also do this through a statute.
If they did, they would be following the lead of the Trump administration, which has now put a stop to the sue-and-settle tricks so prevalent under Obama. At the federal level, settlement money must now go directly into the federal budget and be properly appropriated by Congress. The U.S. Senate even has a bill to codify the Trump policy into law. No doubt, the federal budget process, as well as the state budget process, could use some improvement. But at least there is a constitutionally protected process in place. Elected officials here could follow the Trump administration and respect this process instead of determining for themselves how to spend money that is not theirs.
Shadrack White is director of the Mississippi Justice Institute, a watchdog organization that represents consumers, voters and small businesses against the government in court.
by: Clarion Ledger
date: 2017-12-16
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/opinion/editorials/2017/12/17/miss-civil-rights-museum-wrong-place-jefferson-davis-reference/950012001/
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(Photo: File photo/The Clarion-Ledger)
On Dec. 9, about a dozen notable folks gathered on an outdoor stage to speak to the crowd gathered for the opening of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum and Museum of Mississippi History.
Gov. Phil Bryant was one of the speakers. It was awkward — a titter of light applause here and there. Bryant had invited President Donald Trump, known for comments that are racially divisive at best, to the museums' opening.
Bryant thanked Trump from the stage, though the president had already left after speaking to a select group indoors. Then Bryant talked about what he said was his favorite hymn, "Amazing Grace." He said Mississippi once was lost, but now is found.
That'd be easier to believe without Bryant's yearly proclamation of Confederate Heritage Month.
After Bryant, others spoke. Among them were Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, House Speaker Philip Gunn, former Gov. William Winter and Myrlie Evers-Williams, widow of civil rights martyr Medgar Evers, who was gunned down in his driveway just a few miles from the museum site in 1963.
More: Myrlie Evers on Miss. Civil Rights Museum: 'I felt the bullets. I felt the tears.'
And then, U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker. He seemed to be doing fine — at first.
Then he praised Jefferson Davis.
Yes, the Jefferson Davis.
Wicker was naming off people we should remember on this day: " ... Jefferson Davis, who before he would leave Washington, D.C., forever made sure our nation's capitol building was truly magnificent."
Come again?
Just to recap: Wicker was speaking at the opening of two museums, including the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum. Much of the crowd was African-American. Evers was sitting right behind him. She lost her husband to a white supremacist murderer.
And Wicker praised the president of the Confederacy, the slaveholding side in the Civil War. (For the record, Mississippi's Articles of Secession make it clear we joined the Confederacy so we could keep our slaves.)
But Wicker didn't mention that. Just the part about Davis helping beautify the U.S. Capitol.
Perhaps Wicker was just tone deaf, but more likely he was being politically calculating.
Wicker is staring down a likely 2018 primary challenge from state Sen. Chris McDaniel, R-Ellisville, who has already attacked Wicker for his support of removing the Confederate emblem from the state flag. Wicker has courted Trump — who signaled his support of our junior senator — and made overtures to Steve Bannon — who seems to remain firmly behind McDaniel.
More: Roy Moore Mississippi fallout: Chris McDaniel can't catch a break
It seems to us that in his speech, Wicker was looking for a way to give a wink and a nod to white voters who might not like him meddling with the flag. In doing so, he stooped about as low as one could go without bumping into Nathan Bedford Forrest.
What's worse is he did so at an event meant to pay homage to those who fought against the racial oppression for which the state flag is a reminder and symbol.
“It would be more unifying if we put this Mississippi flag in a museum and replaced it with something that was more unifying,” Wicker said in August.
If Wicker really wants to unify Mississippi, perhaps he should start by not talking out of both sides of his mouth.
by: Geoff Pender
date: 2017-12-14
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/opinion/columnists/2017/12/15/who-next-house-education-chairman/951401001/
Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves and Speaker Philip Gunn announce a move Tuesday to overhaul the state's education funding formula. By Geoff Pender
House Education Chairman John Moore's abrupt resignation amid sexual harassment complaints gives Speaker Philip Gunn a formidable task: finding a replacement to lead the key committee just weeks before the legislative session starts Jan. 2.
There are several capable veteran lawmakers in the House who could do the job. But as in 2012 when Moore, R-Brandon, was appointed, there may be a dearth of such folks who really want it.
At least for the coming 2018 session, the education post may be a thankless job with an unenviable task: rewriting the funding formula that determines how about $2.5 billion of the state's $6 billion budget is spent on public education. It's been a third-rail of an issue for many years, and selling fellow Republicans on a formula will be hard enough, much less garnering any buy-in from across the aisle.
Besides that, the committee deals with some of the most intricate and most crucial policy issues that come before the Legislature. An education chairman is under constant pressure from the House leadership, the rank-and-file, education advocates, lobbyists and the public.
More: Yes, MAEP rewrite is still on the table
So who will Gunn choose? I've not heard of a definite shoo-in. The lawmaker who would have been perhaps the most logical choice, Rep. Toby Barker, R-Hattiesburg, left the Legislature this year to become mayor of Hattiesburg.
But requirements and a relatively short list aren't too hard to suss.
First, it would be a Republican. Gunn might go across the aisle for a chair for a lesser committee, but almost certainly not education. While Rep. Angela Cockerham, D-Magnolia, is in the otherwise-Republican leadership fold and very capable with business, legal and budgeting issues, education policy doesn't appear to be her main focus.
Second, it would be someone with experience, not a freshman-term lawmaker. There are probably some tempting choices among newcomers. Rep. Cory Wilson, R-Madison, comes to mind, or Rep. Brad Touchstone, R-Hattiesburg, both members of the committee. But I'd bet whomever Gunn chooses is a little longer in the tooth on years of service.
In this Jan. 22, 2015, file photo, House Education Committee Chairman John Moore, R-Brandon, answers questions during a floor debate in House Chambers at the Capitol in Jackson, Miss.
(Photo: Rogelio V. Solis, AP)
Also, I would predict Gunn wants someone who gets along well with others and has at least respect across the aisle. Now, Moore — a hard-core partisan Republican known for engaging his mouth sometimes before his brain — didn't exactly have this box checked off when he was appointed. But he seemed to sort of grow into that. Sort of.
Point is, given what's coming down the pike, Gunn would not likely pick a lightning rod or flame-thrower chairman for education. There are some legislators you want leading when you go into political battle. But he needs someone for education who can help him herd the cats. This would rule out some veteran leaders.
This above criteria, assuming it weighs into Gunn's calculations, would whittle things down to a medium, if not a short list of potential candidates. But again, the question for most would remain, not whether they could do it, but whether they would want to.
Here's my list, in no particular order (except that Bennett's background would have to put him near the top). Your mileage may vary.
Rep. Richard Bennett, R-Long Beach. Bennett, a 10-year veteran lawmaker, has a strong background in public education. He is a former member and president of the Long Beach School Board, former member of the National School Board Association and former city alderman. His wife, a former educator and school board member, is a current city alderwoman, and the Bennetts' son is a teacher. But Bennett is already chairman of the Gaming Committee, a post important to his home area.
Rep. Scott Bounds, R-Philadelphia. Bounds is a key member of Gunn's leadership team and 14-year veteran. He's currently chairman of the Wildlife Fisheries and Parks Committee and a ranking member of the Appropriations Committee. With his budget and policy experience, he could certainly take the helm of Education.
Rep. Charles Busby, R-Pascagoula. Busby has always had a keen interest in public education policy. But he's currently chairman of Transportation, another key committee. Moving Busby to Education would give Gunn the nearly equal chore of finding someone who could handle the tough issues and policy decisions coming with infrastructure.
Rep. Jason White, R-West. White, a six-year veteran, has been a rapidly rising star on Gunn's leadership team and a go-to for political and policy heavy lifting. He's chairman of the powerful Rules Committee in the House. Like with Busby, Gunn might be hesitant to move White from his current position.
Rep. Rob Roberson, R-Starkville. Roberson is currently vice chairman of the Education Committee. While technically not a freshman — he served in the Legislature from 1998-2003 — he is a relative newcomer to this administration.
Rep. Manly Barton, R-Moss Point. Barton is in his sixth year in the Legislature but has extensive experience with local education issues and government as a longtime Jackson County supervisor. He's currently chairman of the Local and Private Legislation Committee, a post where Gunn might want him to stay because of his experience.
Rep. Mac Huddleston, R-Pontotoc. Huddleston is a 10-year veteran lawmaker, vice chairman of Appropriations and has been sort of a utility player on Gunn's leadership team. He may not be deeply versed in intricate education policy, but he's certainly up to the task of running a major committee.
Again, Gunn has numerous folks in the House who could do the job. But does anyone want to?
by: Therese Apel
date: 2017-12-13
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2017/12/14/gang-member-pleads-guilty-federal-weapon-charge/952563001/
502 Bad Gateway
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Federal, state and local officials address the gang presence in the Magnolia State. Therese Apel/ The Clarion-Ledger
(Photo: Mississippi Department of Corrections)
A validated member of the Simon City Royals street gang has pleaded guilty to a federal charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
John Wayne Clark, 32, of Biloxi, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Sul Ozerden to an indictment charging him with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, according to a Thursday release by U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst.
Clark is a documented Simon City Royal gang member.
Authorities said that in May 2015, the Drug Enforcement Administration received a tip that Clark would be transporting methamphetamine. When he was pulled over and his car was searched, police found methamphetamine and a gun hidden in the engine compartment.
In April 2016, Clark entered guilty pleas on two previous state drug charges and is currently serving a three-year state sentence.
Clark will be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Sul Ozerden on March 22, 2018, and faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
The case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the DEA as part of a violent crime initiative. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Annette Williams.
by: Therese Apel
date: 2017-12-13
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2017/12/14/gang-member-pleads-guilty-federal-weapon-charge/952563001/
502 Bad Gateway
nginx/1.11.3
Federal, state and local officials address the gang presence in the Magnolia State. Therese Apel/ The Clarion-Ledger
(Photo: Mississippi Department of Corrections)
A validated member of the Simon City Royals street gang has pleaded guilty to a federal charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
John Wayne Clark, 32, of Biloxi, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Sul Ozerden to an indictment charging him with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, according to a Thursday release by U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst.
Clark is a documented Simon City Royal gang member.
Authorities said that in May 2015, the Drug Enforcement Administration received a tip that Clark would be transporting methamphetamine. When he was pulled over and his car was searched, police found methamphetamine and a gun hidden in the engine compartment.
In April 2016, Clark entered guilty pleas on two previous state drug charges and is currently serving a three-year state sentence.
Clark will be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Sul Ozerden on March 22, 2018, and faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
The case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the DEA as part of a violent crime initiative. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Annette Williams.
by: James Alan Fox
date: 2017-12-13
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/opinion/columnists/2017/12/14/five-years-after-sandy-hook-active-shooter-drills-do-more-harm-than-good-schools/952631001/
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(Photo: Special to The Clarion-Ledger)
The Sandy Hook massacre didn’t just scar the friends and family of the 20 first-graders and six staff members who were killed on Dec. 14, 2012, at the elementary school in Newtown, Conn. It fundamentally changed the climate in grade schools nationwide. Millions of youngsters, many too young today to recall what happened then, are all too familiar with security measures designed to protect them from the bad man with a gun — including metal detectors, surveillance cameras and restrictions on non-clear bookbags. In some states, their homeroom teachers may be carrying concealed firearms just in case.
In the school year immediately following the Sandy Hook massacre, 70 percent of public schools drilled students, including those in the primary grades, on how to respond in the event of a shooting. Children as young as 5 or 6 are forced to cower behind locked doors while an adult dressed in black roams the hallways shouting threats and randomly shooting blanks. Not only are these especially young and impressionable children the least likely to experience an actual incident, Sandy Hook notwithstanding, but they are the most likely to be traumatized by the simulations.
To make matters worse, some schools include fake blood in the active shooter drills for sake of added realism. Some choose not to give advance warning to the students — or to the parents who then receive frantic text messages from their terrified children.
More: Living life in the wake of mass shootings: The New Abnormal
More: After Las Vegas: How do we prevent future Stephen Paddocks?
Despite the growing emphasis on protecting our youngest students from active shooters, the actual risk of mass murder has not changed in recent years. Since 2010, according to FBI reports on active shooter events, there have been but three incidents, other than Sandy Hook, at elementary schools:
Feb. 10, 2010: After learning that his contract was not being renewed, a teacher at the Inskip Elementary School in Knoxville, Tenn., shot and injured two members of the administration.
Oct. 8, 2010: Two students were injured when a 41-year-old gunman hopped the fence at the Kelly Elementary School in Carlsbad, Calif., and started shooting. The assailant did not attempt to enter the building.
Sept. 28, 2016: A distraught adolescent armed with a handgun jumped the fence at the Townville Elementary School in South Carolina, shooting three students and a teacher outside the school. One of the students, a 6-year-old boy, died days later from his injury.
Without minimizing the emotional and physical pain associated with these episodes, the overwhelming majority of the 35 million students in the elementary grades have not been harmed, not by actual armed intruders that is. Aside from possibly making school playgrounds more secure, the need for extraordinary measures to protect students from active shooters is questionable.
Of course, we should hardly ignore the safety and well-being of youngsters nor disregard ways in which elementary schools can protect their students. But obsessing over active shooters isn't the best approach.
Between 2010 and 2015, an average of 26 children aged 6 to 11 were killed annually in bicycle accidents, yet most states do not mandate helmets for children and the federal government has avoided the issue. Programs like a Washington, D.C. initiative that teaches second-graders to ride safely can take up the slack for negligent parents and politicians.
In the same 2010 to 2015 period, an annual average of nearly four dozen youngsters aged 6 to 11 accidentally drowned in swimming pools. Maybe we need more lifeguards at public pools rather than armed guards at public schools.
For unlikely tragedies like Sandy Hook, we should train faculty and staff, and simply instruct children to listen to the adult in the room in the event of a real emergency. We can teach our children about bike safety and pool safety, as well as other important lessons in living, without traumatizing them as we do with active shooter preparedness drills.
James Alan Fox is the Lipman Professor of Criminology, Law and Public Policy at Northeastern University and a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors.
by: Jimmie E. Gates
date: 2017-12-13
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2017/12/14/state-supreme-court-reverses-decision-removing-inmate-death-row/953092001/
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(Photo: Mississippi Department of Corrections)
The Mississippi Supreme Court has reversed a judge's decision permanently removing from death row an inmate who came within an hour of being executed in 1997.
In 2015, Circuit Judge Betty Sanders ruled death row inmate Willie C. Russell was mentally disabled, therefore permanently removing him from death row. The U.S. Supreme Court had ruled in 2002 in Atkins v. Virginia that the execution of those with mental or iintellectual disability is unconstitutional.
The court, in a split decision, sent the case back to Sunflower County Circuit Court for hearing on the state's claim that its expert wasn't given an opportunity to assess Russell for a mental disability. Sanders is now retired.
In 2006, Russell had undergone psychological testing ordered in a separate aggravated assault case, but that testing was for his competency to stand trial — not for assessing an intellectual disability, said the state Supreme Court opinion written by Justice James Maxwell.
Maxwell said Russell was never evaluated on the specific criteria for intellectual disability under the United States Supreme Court's Atkins' ruling mental disability ruling.
Sanders ruled Russell was mentally disabled under the Atkins definition.
"We find the trial judge abused her discretion by denying the state’s well-supported motion to evaluate Russell prior to the Atkins hearing," the state Supreme Court opinion said. "We reverse the order vacating Russell’s death sentence. And we remand this matter to the trial court with instructions that the state’s expert be permitted to evaluate Russell before the Atkins hearing.
Russell was initially sentenced to die for the July 18, 1989, stabbing death of correctional officer Argentra Cotton at Unit 24-B. Russell had previously been convicted of robbery, kidnapping and escape. He abducted a guard at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson when he was there for medical treatment in March 1987 and led police on a high-speed chase into rural Hinds County.
Russell came within less than an hour of execution on Jan. 21, 1997, before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay based on his claim of mental disability. The case was sent back to Sunflower County Circuit Court to rule on Russell's mental disabililtyclaim.
by: Anna Wolfe
date: 2017-12-13
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2017/12/14/region-8-cooperated-government-officials-and-worked-address-their-inquiries-over-past-several-years/953503001/
Veronica Harrison, Region 7's Mobile Crisis Emergency Response Team coordinator, travels between seven counties responding to mental health crises. Anna Wolfe
(Photo: Courtesy photo)
Following a yearslong legal battle over allegations of fraud, the Region 8 Community Mental Health Center has agreed to pay back the federal government nearly $7 million.
A U.S. Department of Justice news release said this resolves "allegations that it was paid for services that it either did not provide or that were not provided by qualified individuals as part of its preschool Day Treatment program."
Nearly a decade ago, Region 8 operated a day treatment program for preschool-age children in Simpson County. The news release said the Department of Justice, Department of Health and Human Services and Office of Inspector General found "many of the claims submitted for payment from 2004 to 2010 were for services that were either not provided or were not provided by qualified individuals."
Region 8 officials maintain they believe they did nothing wrong, and the program has since closed.
"Obviously anyone that is concerned about mental health in our state would be troubled with this situation," said Angela Ladner, director of the Mississippi Psychiatric Association. "And I think as this continues to evolve — it's not isolated. It's not just about this. It's about our whole approach (to mental health). We need some oversight in mental health and we just don't have that at this point."
Also read: Judge unseals mental health report that blasts state
Ladner sits on the Mississippi Mental Health Task Force, which has been established to tackle issues facing the state's delivery of mental health care. Region 8 Director Dave Van is also a member of the task force.
Dave Van is director of Region 8.
The allegations against Region 8 arose from a lawsuit filed by a whistleblower and former employee under the False Claims Act. That person will receive more than $1 million of the settlement, according to the news release.
The federal government estimates the settlement, $6.93 million, is the largest False Claims Act health care settlement in the state's history.
"Our children are among the most valuable and vulnerable in our society, and it is imperative that we do all that we can to protect the programs that offer them the services that they need," U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst said in the release.
Region 8, which covers Copiah, Lincoln, Madison, Rankin and Simpson counties, is one of the state's 14 Community Mental Health Centers, which deliver the majority of public outpatient mental health services in the state. The Department of Mental Health does not run the regions, but it does certify and provide grant funds to them.
Region 8 released a statement in response to the announcement: "Region 8 cooperated with government officials and worked to address their inquiries over the past several years as it continued to provide the highest level of mental health programs and services to those in need across the region. It is important to note that the allegations relate to one specific program conducted in one county that is no longer ongoing and has been shut down for 7 years. While Region 8 would have preferred to spend its resources on the community it serves and does not believe it did anything wrong, it came to the realization that protracted litigation with the government was not in the best interest of Region 8 or the people they serve. Region 8 admits to no wrong doing in this settlement and the settlement will not disrupt or impact the services Region 8 provides to the community."
by: Sarah Fowler
date: 2017-12-13
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2017/12/14/millions-pouring-hiv-relief/943893001/
As for why HIV affects the black community so heavily, it's hard to pinpoint an exact reason. But the CDC points to various socio-economic factors.
Mississippi has one of the highest HIV rates in the nation. To help combat that statistic, a national initiative will be investing $100 million over the course of the next decade, focusing on HIV advocates who work in communities across the state and the rest of the South.
Earlier this month, Gilead Sciences, a research-based biopharmaceutical company, announced the COMPASS Initiative, a 10-year commitment to investing $100 million in Southern states affected by the HIV crisis.
Approximately 50 percent of new HIV diagnoses in the United States are in the South, even though the region only makes up approximately one-third of the nation’s population, according to Douglas Brooks, senior director of community engagement for Gilead Sciences.
Brooks, who is the former director of the Office of National AIDS policy, hosted a panel discussion with HIV advocates from around the state Thursday to discuss the impact of Gilead’s investment.
Dr. Leandro Mena, of the University of Mississippi Medical Center, said he believes, over the coming years, the trajectory of HIV will change in Mississippi. How that will change, however, depends on access to care, treatment and prevention.
Related: Panel creates first-ever health care standard for gay, bisexual men
"We are really at a crossroads in time, we are experiencing a shift in this epidemic" said Mena, director of the Center for HIV/AIDS Research, Education and Policy for UMMC's Myrlie Evers-Williams Institute for the Elimination of Health Disparities.
To lower the number of people being infected, Mena said the conversation must change to help combat the stigma of being tested.
"You can put in all the resources you want, but if people don't get tested, if people don't understand, nothing happens," he said.
Neena Smith Bankhead, community engagement director for the COMPASS Initiative, said the $100 million will be used to "support the enhancement of nonprofit organizations," including addressing the stigma surrounding HIV and AIDS.
While the investment will be spread across Southern states and the exact amount invested in Mississippi ins't final, the focus is helping organizations that are and have been committed to the health and wellness of Mississippian's diagnosed and living with the disease, said Bankhead, who is , with Emory University and the Rollins School of Public Health.
"It's a commitment to HIV through organizations to help focus on wellness, mental health and also awareness, education and stigma-related areas," she said. "We're looking at the entire South. Mississippi is one of those states that has a pretty high prevalence rate in terms of HIV, existing cases as well as new cases, so our focus is to look at organizations that are doing really great work."
June Gipson, president and CEO of Jackson-based My Brother’s Keeper, said, with outside initiatives, there is often a lack of inclusivity and a "disconnect" between those who create programs to help people in need and the people whose lives are impacted by the program. By working with local community advocates, the people who see and interact with HIV patients on a daily basis, the COMPASS Initiative will be vastly different than other programs.
"How do you create something around me and you didn't ask me? It happens more often than not," she said. "This is refreshing...we know this is going to impact Mississippi and the South in a beneficial way, and it takes into consideration how we feel, it takes into consideration our culture."
Jackson ranks fourth in the U.S. in per-capita HIV infections. A recent study by Emory University found four out of 10 gay or bisexual men in Jackson are infected with the AIDS virus — the highest in the nation.
The issue doesn't just impact Jackson, however. Those living in rural parts of the state are negatively impacted by lack of options when it comes to testing and treatment options.
“We will never get to zero, we will never end AIDS, we will never have an AIDS-free generation if we don’t address the disparities and the burden of the Southern states and we can’t address the disparities and the burden of the Southern states if we don’t address rural areas,” Brooks said.
Kathy Garner, executive director of the AIDS Services Coalition of Hattiesburg, said the investment opens possibilities that could be especially beneficial in rural parts of the state like telemedicine, access to PReP and providing transportation for those who wish to get tested. PReP, a pre-exposure prophylaxis, is a daily pill that lowers the risk of HIV infection.
The AIDS Services Coalition, which provides housing and other support services, is the only AIDS services organization south of Jackson. Garner said Jackson often gets deserved attention and funds to treat those infected but people living in rural areas don't always have access to the same services.
"In the rural areas we are very similar to Horton Hears a Who," she said. "We are Whos in Whoville and we are struggling to be heard. Jackson has a significant epidemic, and I support my brothers and sisters who are here everyday and want them to get what they need to be healthy. But 60 to 65 percent of HIV is outside of Jackson and people aren't getting tested...The only way we're going to end this is if people get in care and become undetectable because it's untransmittable."
Linda Dixon Rigsby, health law director for Mississippi Center for Justice, said being able to reach those in rural areas of Mississippi could make a "huge difference."
"Just by what the Gilead team has shared with us, they truly understand the impact of what this looks like across the state of Mississippi, including rural parts of the state, not just in the capital city," she said."It's wonderful to hear that Gilead is making a statewide effort to address HIV in different ways and it's welcome."
Rigsby said those living with HIV should feel hope for the coming months and years of treatment options available to them.
"Help is coming and help is here," she said. "It's a matter of being able to afford resources and leverage resources for people living with HIV to give them hope and courage, hope that there is help and the courage to get it."
For free STD and HIV screenings, contact Open Arms Healthcare Center at 601-500-7660. For free HIV screenings, contact Southern AIDS Coalition at 601-450-4286.
by: Jimmie E. Gates
date: 2017-12-05
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2017/12/06/lawsuit-accuses-corinth-judge-unlawfully-jailing-people-unable-pay-fines/926727001/
Judge Ronald Brockmeyer resigned after last week's Department of Justice report found he punished the most vulnerable residents of Ferguson with fines and fees. He's also accused of fixing traffic tickets for himself and colleagues. VPC
Debtors' prisons have been outlawed for 200 years, but that hasn't stopped the city of Corinth and its municipal judge from operating one, according to new federal lawsuit.
The Southern Poverty Law Center and the MacArthur Justice Center at the University of Mississippi School of Law filed the lawsuit this week in federal court in Aberdeen.
The lawsuit says Corinth and Municipal Court Judge John C. Ross are operating a modern-day debtors’ prison, unlawfully jailing poor people for their inability to pay bail and fines.
“Even though debtors’ prisons have been outlawed in this country for more than 200 years, Corinth is running a jail from the Dark Ages in one of the nation’s poorest regions – it’s shameful,” Sam Brooke, deputy legal director for the SPLC, said in a statement.
Reached via phone Wednesday, Ross said it would be improper for him to comment with the case in litigation.
In 2015, a similar lawsuit was filed against the city of Jackson, alleging the city was unconstitutionally jailing the poor for not paying fines owed for traffic violations and other misdemeanors — sometimes for months at a time.
The Corinth lawsuit says the city routinely violate the constitutional rights of people facing misdemeanor or municipal charges by holding them in jail until they pay bail money or their fine, without taking into account their ability to pay, as required by law.
Brian Keith Howell, a 28-year-old man whose leg was amputated following a car accident, is listed in the lawsuit as one of those who allegedly had his rights violated.
The lawsuit said Howell was arrested Nov. 27 on a warrant for three minor traffic violations. On Dec. 4, Judge Ross assessed a $1,000 fine after Howell pleaded guilty to the traffic tickets and told Howell that he had to pay the amount in full or sit in jail for 50 days, the equivalent amount of the fine.
“Mr. Howell tried to tell the judge that he was working on getting disability and could not pay the fine right away, but Judge Ross wouldn’t listen,” Brooke said. “Judge Ross just told Mr. Howell his fine amount and sent him back to jail.”
Brooke said because Ross only holds court on Mondays, people who have been arrested can languish in jail for a week or longer before their initial court appearance to determine probable cause and assess conditions of release.
Sammy Dwight Brown, a 35-year-old man living on a small disability check, was arrested on Dec. 1 for public intoxication, Brooke said. Currently, his bail is set at $600 and he will have to wait until Dec. 11 for a hearing, even though the Mississippi Rules of Criminal Procedure requires an initial appearance within 48-hours of arrest for any person who is not released on their own recognizance.
Once defendants make it to court, Judge Ross asks if they admit to or deny the charges. Persons who admit to the charges are assessed a fine and required to pay at least a sizeable down payment. If the individual cannot pay, they are required to sit out their fine at a rate of $25 per day. Judge Ross makes no inquiry into their ability to pay, and does not inform them of their right to counsel prior to jailing them for non-payment, according to a SPLC investigation.
The SPLC and MacArthur Justice Center said they have been investigating the court’s practices over the last year. Over the course of the investigation, the groups encountered many indigent defendants who were either threatened with jail time or spent a considerable amount of time in jail for their inability to pay court-imposed fines and costs.
"The illegal practices of Judge Ross and the Corinth Municipal Court are especially problematic because the Mississippi Supreme Court recently passed new rules designed specifically to prohibit these practices," Brooke said. "he Rules of Criminal Procedure set up detailed procedures for courts to follow when addressing inability to pay. The Corinth Municipal Court is ignoring them."
Cliff Johnson, director of the MacArthur Justice Center at the University of Mississippi School of Law, said the center and other civil rights organizations like the SPLC will keep filing lawsuits and judicial performance complaints until tjudges, and the cities and counties abide by the law.
In addition to the lawsuit, SPLC and the MacArthur Justice Center lawyers filed a separate complaint against Ross to the Commission on Judicial Performance.
by: Anna Wolfe
date: 2017-12-05
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2017/12/06/opioid-campaign-mississippi-working-stop-epidemic-but/919394001/
Steve Parker announcing Stand Up, Mississippi campaign Anna Wolfe/Clarion Ledger
Across the state, Mississippians will start seeing billboards, advertisements online, in print and on the radio about the dangerous affects of opioids and encouraging folks struggling with addiction to get treatment.
The campaign, named "Stand Up, Mississippi," is just one part of Mississippi's State Targeted Opioid Prescription Project, funded through a $3.58 million federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration grant awarded to the state in April.
"This year began our efforts to inform the public, to educate on the issues and dangers of opioid abuse," said Steve Parker, deputy director Mississippi Board of Pharmacy. "A lot is being done, but it's not enough."
Parker and representatives from Mississippi Department of Mental Health, Department of Public Safety and Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics gathered at a press conference announcing the media campaign at the state capitol Wednesday.
In Mississippi, more than 222 people have died from opioid overdoses so far this year, more than any other year since the epidemic began.
"The goal of Stand Up, Mississippi is to reduce the number of families that get that tragic call," said Department of Public Safety Commissioner Marshall Fisher.
Gov. Phil Bryant convened a task force this year to study the opioid issue, which kills 91 Americans a day. Both law enforcement and regulators have joined forces, leading in one instance to recently-proposed opioid prescription rule changes from the Mississippi Board of Medical Licensure. The state Legislature convenes for its next session in less than a month and is expected to wade into the topic.
"Law enforcement is doing their job to protect us and working to improve their efforts, but you can't arrest this problem away," Parker said. "Regulators are doing their job to thoughtfully provide rules for our medical professionals, but you can't solely regulate this problem away. In January, our Legislature will work hard to tackle the issues surrounding this problem, but you can't legislate this problem away. Your government cannot fix this problem alone."
That's where the education campaign comes in, as it attempts to change perceptions regarding addiction, stress the dangers of opioids and encourage public action to end the crisis.
The initial messaging on the "Stand Up, Mississippi" website gives three prompts: "Be bold: speak out to prevent opioid addiction; be brave: share how you recovered from opioid addiction; be better: find out about treatment options."
Fifteen percent of the $3.58 SAMSA grant, or $537,705, will be spent on prevention. This includes the media campaign, education for first responders, distribution of Naloxone or Narcan to law enforcement and town hall meetings, of which there have been 19 so far this year.
The state will spend $248,000 on the media campaign, with both SAMSA funds and another grant from the Mississippian Prevention Alliance for Communities and Colleges.
Narcan is a nasal spray medication that counteracts the potentially deadly affect of an opioid overdose. Since Mississippi law enforcement officers began using Narcan, they have reversed 17 overdoses, likely saving those lives.
"Those people count. I like to say everybody matters or nobody matters," Fisher said.
Five percent of the grant will be spent on administration and the remaining 80 percent, $2.87 million will be spent on expanding treatment services. This includes increasing access to medication-assisted treatment, inpatient, outpatient, individual, group therapy, family therapy and peer support services and identifying and treating opioid abuse during pregnancy.
The state currently offers 501 in-patient treatment beds for folks struggling with addiction.
"We are working to provide resources that people need to get their lives back on track," said Department of Mental Health Director Diana Mikula.
Mississippi is expected to receive the same $3.58 million grant next year. SAMSA is a branch of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
For more information about the state's fight against the opioid crisis, visit standupms.org.
by: Star Parker
date: 2017-12-05
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/opinion/columnists/2017/12/06/wedding-cake-and-blessings-liberty/928238001/
(Photo: Special to The Clarion-Ledger)
This week, the Supreme Court hears Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission.
Jack Phillips, proprietor of Masterpiece Cakeshop, refused to create a wedding cake ordered for a same-sex marriage on grounds that it would force him to create a cake expressing a value opposed to his Christian convictions. The gay men who ordered the cake filed a sexual orientation discrimination claim against him with the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, and the Commission ruled against Phillips.
It was clear that this was not a matter of Phillips refusing to do business with these men because they are gay. He offered to make them any cake they wanted, just not one designed for a same-sex wedding.
Phillips claims his right of free expression under the Constitution's First Amendment.
Some not sympathetic to Phillips' claim argue that making a cake is not artistic expression and has nothing to do with speech protected by the First Amendment.
I'll leave the semantic nuances to the lawyers.
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I'd rather consider the spirit of the law and our Constitution.
According to its preamble, the Constitution was established to "secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity."
We want a functioning and prosperous society in which everyone can live freely. That's the point.
I am a Christian, and I believe that homosexual behavior is sinful. But as an American, it is no more my business what is happening in my neighbor's home than it is theirs what is happening in mine.
When we move into the public square, our focus needs to be freedom. Not forcing me to accepting the values of others nor them mine. We need law that allows those of different views and values to live together peacefully, mutually respecting the ideal of human liberty.
By this standard, how can we possibly rationalize forcing Phillips to produce a cake against his will, expressing a value anathema to his religion?
How can forcing Phillips to do this be understood in any way as securing for him "the blessings of liberty"?
Those in favor of redefining and legalizing marriage between individuals of the same sex had a great victory in the Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage. However, many supporters of that decision distort its spirit. It wasn't about forcing all Americans to accept homosexuality. It was about including this behavior under the umbrella of our guarantees of freedom.
The gay couple that wants to force a Christian man to make a cake for their wedding, against his deepest religious convictions, does not respect the ideal of liberty in which the Obergefell decision was handed down. If they did, they would respect differences and go elsewhere for their cake — something easily done,
According to Pew Research Center, 71 percent of American adults are Christians. Among them, 39 percent say the Bible is "the word of God and should be taken literally." Fifty percent of Evangelical Christians and 59 percent of black Protestants say the Bible should be understood as the literal word of God.
How can these Christians, white and black, possibly feel that the U.S. Constitution secures for them the "blessings of liberty" if, on a whim, a gay couple can walk into their establishment and demand a product that violates their religious convictions? Especially, when those demanding this product or service can easily obtain it elsewhere.
No, this is not like refusing to serve blacks in a restaurant. The spirit of that behavior is racism, the antithesis of "securing the blessings of liberty."
At the end of the day, our Constitution is only as good as the goodwill of our citizens. Things will only work when the ideal of "securing the blessings of liberty" is taken seriously and respected by all.
Star Parker is an author and president of CURE, Center for Urban Renewal and Education.
by: Anna Wolfe
date: 2017-12-05
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2017/12/06/reporter-barred-mississippi-mental-health-task-force-meetings/903552001/
Download The Clarion-Ledger app for free on the Apple app store or Google Play. Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger
During Mississippi's mental health task force's third meeting since Attorney General Jim Hood announced its creation in October, a security guard stood by the elevators at the Walter Sillers State Office Building in downtown Jackson, asking folks attempting to enter if they were "on the task force."
That's because members of the public and press have been barred from attending the gatherings, which take place on the 13th floor — in the press room. The meetings, in which attendees are split into several subcommittees, are designed to address issues within the state's multipronged mental health system.
They met Wednesday for nearly four hours.
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Building officials said the public cannot visit the public, taxpayer-funded offices in the Sillers building — including the governor's office and Medicaid — unless they have an appointment.
Hood's office is defending the state in a lawsuit U.S. Department of Justice filed against Mississippi in 2016 for its delivery of mental health services. The state is accused of having too great a reliance on institutional versus community-based care.
The task force is made up of representatives from more than 30 agencies, many that already serve folks with mental illnesses. The group includes health care professionals, judges, law enforcement officers, academics and advocates, as well as lawmakers Rep. Chris Bell, D-Jackson, Rep. Becky Currie, R-Brookhaven, Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory, and Rep. Bryant Clark, D-Pickens.
The attorney general's spokesperson Margaret Morgan claims the group is not subject to the Open Meetings Act because it is not drafting legislation or policy, only recommendations. Morgan also said sunshine laws don't apply because the task force wasn't created through statute and the attorney general's office isn't considered a public body where meetings are concerned.
A press release on the task force says it "will also review current legislation as well as needs for additional legislation."
A similar task force created by Gov. Phil Bryant to study the state's opioid crisis, an issue that overlaps greatly with mental health, also wrote recommendations. It held meetings open to the public.
The Clarion Ledger's attorney Leonard Van Slyke disagrees with the attorney general's office's legal interpretation of the Open Meetings Act, and said that the statute should be read more inclusively to include these types of committees, however created.
The Clarion Ledger is preparing a complaint for the Mississippi Ethics Commission, led by director Tom Hood, the attorney general's brother. Tom Hood will not handle the complaint.
The American Civil Liberties Union also said, "Closing these meetings violates the principle of open government and established law of the state's Open Meetings Act."
The Mississippi Justice Institute released a statement saying, "Multiple attorney general advisory opinions dating back to 1981 make it clear that task forces that only make recommendations are still subject to the Open Meetings Act. This is an abuse of power, and this reporter should have been allowed into this meeting."
The membership of the mental health task force is in flux, Morgan said. Hood extended an invitation to participate to many groups, Morgan added, which either accepted, declined, or even invited others in the field to join. Some members have brought guests, an intern for example, to the meetings.
Hood, a likely candidate for governor in 2019, asked task force members to decide whether other members of the public or press should be allowed to attend. A majority of respondents said they preferred the meetings be closed, making it impossible for outside review to determine the group's productivity.
Joy Hogge, director of Families as Allies and a task force member, opposed closing the meetings, saying, "I think the meeting should be open to anyone, including the press."
Morgan has provided the Clarion Ledger the contact information for at least three other members who said they'd be willing to talk to reporters.
One of those members, Biloxi police Maj. Chris De Back, said his involvement on the task force focuses mainly with coordinating efforts between mental health professionals and law enforcement to identify folks in crisis and provide "the necessary services they need before it ends up in a law enforcement capacity."
In general, De Back said the task force is good for bringing folks of all disciplines together from across the state to learn how each person plays a role — something advocates have pleaded for over the years.
"There are all kinds of services out there. The problem is the services aren't working together or they don't know about each other," De Back said. "By becoming a team, bringing everything together, we can be more efficient and, in the long run, more effective."
Sen. Bryan said Wednesday he doesn't understand why the meetings are closed and was willing to discuss what his subcommittee addressed: improvements to the state's commitment process.
Bryan said the state has made progress with commitments, a process "based on a law that existed a hundred years ago, passed when there wasn't the knowledge there is now." His subcommittee is discussing ways to continue moving away from commitments being the default way to get services for someone with a mental illness.
by: Therese Apel
date: 2017-12-06
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2017/12/07/2-gang-members-sentenced-federal-drug-case/930011001/
A Lincoln County man and an Illinois man were sentenced in a federal drug case on Tuesday.
Donyale Jerrel Holloway, 37, of Bogue Chitto, and Ennis Montgomery, 48, of Rockford, Illinois, were sentenced by Senior U.S. District Judge David C. Bramlette III, for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 50 kilograms or more of marijuana, according to a Wednesday release by U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst.
Holloway was sentenced to 17 and a half years in prison followed by three years of supervised release and ordered to forfeit $53,674. Montgomery was sentenced to almost five years in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Both defendants were also ordered to pay a $1500 fine.
In the original announcement of the arrests of Montgomery and Holloway, along with five others, the suspects were recognized by the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics as being affiliated with the Black Gangster Disciple street gang.
The defendants were arrested after a lengthy investigation into a drug trafficking organization operating in south Mississippi. Montgomery was transporting marijuana in an 18- wheeler from Texas to Lincoln County. Holloway would then distribute the marijuana in southwest Mississippi.
Officials said the case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation Safe Streets Task Force in Hattiesburg, the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, the Office of the Mississippi State Auditor, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, and the Hattiesburg Police Department. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jerry L. Rushing.
by: Ken Strachan
date: 2017-12-06
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/opinion/columnists/2017/12/07/crime-lab-funding-crucial-justice-system/929139001/
(Photo: Special to the Clarion Ledger)
Sam Howell gave me his cellphone number over a decade ago when I first began my service as Carroll County’s Coroner/Medical Examiner investigator.
It came with a message, “don’t hesitate to call when you need our help.” It turned out to be a valuable number and message from the director of the state crime lab. I was one of many coroner’s across this state that took advantage of that help from Director Howell. It was used many times over the years, from some of the most rural areas of Carroll County during all hours of the day and night.
A coordination of the county coroner with the state medical examiner’s office/crime lab in a death investigation is essential for accurate certification of deaths involving public interest. These agencies having everything they need to be effective to help the counties of this state is important. When there is a lack of resources and funds to this agency, the effects are widespread and become problematic.
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The state crime lab and medical examiner’s offices are facing nearly $300,000 in combined cuts which was part of the legislative budget committee recommendations for fiscal year 2019. While it should be noted that the budget recommendations are not final, having adequate resources are essential for accurate and timely investigations of deaths of public interest. Even as state officials have warned staffing shortages in these departments are bringing Mississippi to the brink of a public safety crisis, Mississippi counties rely on the coordination of the state in investigating deaths.
These funding shortages hinder the ability to conduct autopsies and prepare criminal evidence in a timely manner. While I am a firm believer in every dollar should be used to its fullest and there should be no waste, the adequate funding of public safety is essential in being able to conduct proper death investigations. The cause and manner of death is vital to the family of a deceased and law enforcement. The analyzing of crime scene data that the crime lab provides is essential in bringing justice to victims and their families.
An investigations backlog hinders the justice system in regards to prosecuting individuals that have committed crimes. A backlog also holds up the certification of death certificates that need to be completed for vital records.
Currently there are three pathologists at the medical examiner’s office performing over 500 autopsies each a year and with the backlog in the Medical Examiner’s office it can be one year for finalized autopsy reports. Howell said that in the last five years the backlog has exploded going from basically zero to over 3,000 reports that are over 90 days old. Future cuts will only make the backlog get worse.
Mississippi has the second highest homicide rate in the nation per capita. When a person is the victim of a violent crime, the medical examiner office/crime lab becomes one of the most important agencies in state government. This is not only to the family of the deceased but extends to law enforcement and the public. It’s essential that a county coroner can pick up the phone at any hour and coordinate with the crime lab/medical examiner’s office to begin an accurate death investigation in a timely manner. However without the resources they need, that plan falls apart.
Ken Strachan is a North Carrollton alderman and served as Carroll County’s Coroner/Medical Examiner investigator from 2004 to 2016.
by: Jimmie E. Gates
date: 2017-12-06
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2017/12/07/u-s-attorney-violent-criminals-ejected-jackson/930860001/
Hurst announces Project Eject, a new initiative to help rid Jackson of violent criminals. Jimmie E. Gates
(Photo: Jimmie Gates/Clarion Ledger)
A new partnership between the city of Jackson Police Department and federal authorities will seek to eject violent criminals terrorizing neighborhoods in Jackson.
Southern District U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst, flanked by Jackson Police Chief Lee Vance and other city, county and federal officials, announced PROJECT EJECT on Thursday in front of the federal courthouse in downtown Jackson.
"The message to violent criminals in Jackson is simple — if you violate our laws and terrorize our neighborhoods, you will be ejected from our community," Hurst said. "In the federal system, we will immediately lock you up, move to detain you without bond, you will serve a significant prison sentence without parole, and we will seek to have you serve you sentence far away from Mississippi."
The goal of PROJECT EJECT, modeled after the old Project Safe Neighborhoods in 2001, is to reduce violent crime in an effort to make Jackson neighborhoods safer.
PROJECT EJECT is comprised of about a dozen agents and task force officers from various federal and state agencies who interact daily with the Jackson Police Department to identify and respond to violent crime cases. JPD and Hinds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith will work with federal authorities to identify cases that can be presented to the U.S. Attorney's Office for prosecution.
"I'm excited about this day," Vance said. "This is a great day for Jackson. We are excited about the potential of it."
Vance said his greatest wish is that if a young man is thinking about getting into a life of crime and see that others have been sentenced to federal prison for crimes, will figure out that a life of crime isn't for him.
Chris Freeze, special agent in charge of the Jackson FBI Office, said recent uniform crime figures show Mississippi ranks sixth in the number of murders and manslaughter. "That is unacceptable," Freeze said.
"If we expect Jackson and the surrounding metropolitan area to be a viable option for our children and their future, then we need to work diligently to reduce not only violence in general but violence committed with a firearm," Freeze said.
Hurst said the project will also support locally-based crime prevention programs, rehabilitation and re-entry into society efforts.
Hurst said he believes in second chances for those willing to rehabilitate themselves, but warned those bent on violent criminal activity that there will be consequences for their action and they will be held accountable.
"We won't cut a deal; they will serve time," Hurst said.
Hurst said 18 defendants have already been charged under PROJECT EJECT for crimes including carjacking, robbery and illegal firearm possession.
Hurst cited some of the violent crimes over the last several months in Jackson including the killing of 6-year-old Kingston Frazier, who he said was murdered in cold-blood. He also mentioned a decapitated man's head left on the porch of a Jackson home.
"Enough is enough," Hurst said violence in Jackson.
by: Marshall Ramsey
date: 2017-12-08
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/opinion/cartoons/2017/12/09/marshall-ramsey-cartoon-120817/936415001/
(Photo: Marshall Ramsey/Clarion Ledger)
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by: Geoff Pender
date: 2017-12-08
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2017/12/09/trump-mississippi-civil-rights-museum-protests/929074001/
President Trump visited Jackson Saturday, Dec. 9, 2017, to celebrate the opening of two museums and the state's 200th birthday. Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger
President Donald Trump looked somber as Reuben Anderson, Mississippi's first African-American Supreme Court justice, gave him and a handful of dignitaries a private tour of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum.
"I didn't have the courage to do what they did," former Justice Anderson told the president about the Tougaloo Nine, college students who held a sit-in at the whites-only Jackson Public Library in 1961. "They took their lives in their hands."
Trump slowly nodded his head and said little as he walked through an exhibit room dedicated to the Freedom Riders, the walls lined with police mugshots of those who were arrested and beaten (three were later murdered) for pushing for voting rights for African-Americans in Mississippi in the 1960s.
Trump was uncharacteristically reserved during his brief visit to Jackson on Saturday — a visit arranged by Gov. Phil Bryant for the state's bicentennial celebration and opening of two long-planned state landmarks, the civil rights and Mississippi history museums.
Trump's visit to the civil rights museum brought protest and boycotts. Some state and national leaders, including civil rights veteran U.S. Rep. John Lewis of Georgia (who was beaten and jailed in Jackson in 1961 as a Freedom Rider), U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, former Mississippi Gov. Ray Mabus and Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba refused to attend the event because of Trump.
Trump did not mention the protests or boycotts in his 9-minute speech to an invitation-only crowd of dignitaries and civil rights veterans. He eschewed politics of the day — also uncharacteristic — and gave an erudite speech to several hundred people before the main ceremony outside the museum attended by thousands.
"These buildings embody the hope that has lived in the hearts of every American for generations," Trump said. "The hope for a future that is more just and is more free ... Here we memorialize the brave men and women who struggled to sacrifice, and sacrifice so much, so that others might live in freedom."
Trump said Martin Luther King Jr. was "a man who I studied and watched and admired for my entire life," and praised James Meredith, for integrating Ole Miss, and the Tougaloo Nine. He called America's civil rights activists "true American heroes."
"And finally, martyrs like Sgt. Medgar Wiley Evers, whose brother (Charles) I just met at the plane, and who I like a lot," Trump said. He noted Medgar Evers joined the Army and fought in Normandy before "he came back to Mississippi and kept fighting for the same rights and freedoms he fought for in the war.
"Mr. Evers was assassinated by a member of the KKK in the driveway of his own home," Trump said.
Trump recognized and praised Myrlie Evers-Williams, Evers' widow and also a national civil rights leader and driving force behind the museum.
"I just want to say hello to Myrlie," Trump said as the crowd gave her a standing ovation.
"Today we pay solemn tribute to our heroes of the past and dedicate ourselves to build a future of freedom, equality, justice and peace," Trump said.
President Donald Trump tours the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum on Saturday before making scheduled remarks to a select crowd during his visit.
Trump was accompanied on his Mississippi visit by Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and his wife, Candy. The president was met at Thompson Field by a crowd of more than 100 people, including a welcoming committee that included Gov. Phil Bryant, U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, U.S. Rep. Gregg Harper, Charles Evers, Vicksburg Mayor George Flaggs Jr. and Pascagoula Mayor Dane Maxwell, Trump's Mississippi campaign director.
Trump promptly left the museums after his speech, headed back to the airfield and boarded Air Force One. He was in Mississippi from 10:11 a.m. until 11:37 a.m.
Bryant, as he awaited Trump's arrival Saturday, noted it was a big day for Mississippi and for himself.
"This is great," Bryant said. "Our bicentennial, a presidential visit, museum openings and it's my birthday. I'm turning 50 for the 13th time."
Trump Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah on Thursday night told reporters that despite NAACP leaders and others protesting Trump's visit and some officials refusing to appear with him, Trump never considered canceling the Mississippi trip.
"We think it's a little unfortunate that a moment like this that could be used for unification and for bringing people together, some folks are choosing to play politics with it, but that's not going to deter us from honoring heroes in the civil rights movement."
Former Hinds County Supervisor George Smith, who registered to vote at the behest of Medgar Evers, said he was pleased to hear Trump's praise of civil rights veterans on Saturday.
But he's waiting to hear what Trump says when he returns to Washington and hopes he will “answer the ills we face today, problems with civil rights, education, healthcare — not only black but poor people, especially in a state like Mississippi.”
The White House Press Pool report and Clarion Ledger writer Jerry Mitchell contributed to this article.
by: Jerry Mitchell
date: 2017-12-08
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2017/12/09/civil-rights-museum-medgar-evers-widow-felt-bullets/932266001/
State leaders and civil rights veterans celebrated the opening of Two Mississippi Museums and the state's 200th anniversary of statehood. Justin Sellers/Clarion Ledger
Across the street from where police once held civil rights protesters behind barbed wire, President Donald Trump glimpsed photographs and artifacts that documented the heartbreak, determination and courage of those involved in Mississippi’s civil rights movement.
Trump attended Saturday’s opening of the Museum of Mississippi History and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, which are part of the state’s 200th birthday.
After his brief tours of the two, Trump came to an auditorium filled with hundreds of elected officials, special guests and a handful of veterans of the civil rights movement.
Many of those veterans, including U.S. Reps. John Lewis and Bennie Thompson, stayed away from the ceremony because of Trump.
Ed King, one of the founders of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, said he came because he believes in communication.
In his speech, Trump praised Medgar Evers, the Mississippi NAACP field secretary who “investigated grave injustices” and “loved his family and his country … He believed we should treat every citizen as an equal child of God.”
Four days after his June 12, 1963, assassination, Evers was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors, Trump said. “The headstones do not reflect the color of their skin but the courage of their deeds.”
He called Evers “a great American hero” and praised Evers' brother Charles, Ed King and Myrlie Evers-Williams, who were all in attendance in the small auditorium.
Later, the widow of Medgar Evers spoke to the thousands assembled outside and recounted what it was like seeing the photographs from the civil rights museum: “I wept because I felt the blows, I felt the bullets, I felt the tears, I heard the cries, but I also sensed the hope in those children.”
The Mississippi Civil Rights Museum is the first of its kind in the nation to be state-sponsored and state-funded. Another $19 million has been raised privately for the exhibits, and millions more have been raised to ensure that every ninth-grade student in Mississippi can visit the civil rights and Mississippi history museums.
Joan Trumpauer Mulholland, a Freedom Rider who was arrested and sent to Parchman prison in 1961, called the new civil rights museum “amazing. Never did I dream that I would see a Mississippi Civil Rights Museum.”
Minnijean Brown Trickey, one of the Little Rock Nine, said the museum tells the truth “that needed to be told. And it’s well done.”
Mike Espy, who in 1987 became the first black Mississippian elected to Congress since Reconstruction, called the museum “an unvarnished portrayal of what happened years ago. Everyone should see it, regardless of race and age. Many will be impressed, but all will be affected.”
National NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson, who opted not to attend the museum's opening because of Trump, said he appreciates the care taken “to tell the accurate story. To tell the whole story would take two more buildings.”
Vernon Dahmer Sr. died defending his family from a nighttime attack by the Ku Klux Klan on Jan. 10, 1966.
Inside the civil rights museum, Trump viewed a photograph of the four Dahmer sons, all in the armed forces at the time, returning home to find their family home burned to the ground.
The Dahmer family skipped Trump’s speech but attended the opening ceremonies.
Dahmer’s son Dennis, who was 12 when the Klansmen attacked the family, talked about the words spoken Saturday by politicians and others.
“It’s not just the words, it’s the meaning behind the words that are important,” he said. “It’s the actions that come behind the words that are really important.”
He praised the museum. “It’s a great day for Mississippi,” he said. “I never thought I’d see a museum have what I consider a factual telling of the story of the civil rights movement in the state of Mississippi.”
The words that puzzled some civil rights veterans came from U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, who praised Jefferson Davis for his work in preserving the U.S. Capitol. Wicker, however, made no mention of the Confederacy or the Civil War.
Saturday’s event took place across the street from the State Fairgrounds, where hundreds of those involved in the civil rights struggle in 1963 were held behind barbed wire.
Overall, nearly 1,000 were arrested in those protests, which included sit-ins, picketing and boycotting of stores in downtown Jackson.
On June 1, 1963, Jackson police arrested Medgar Evers and national NAACP leader Roy Wilkins for picketing.
When Wilkins witnessed the mistreatment at the fairgrounds, he compared what police were doing to Nazi concentration camps. “The only thing missing is the ovens,” he said.
Eleven days later, an assassin killed Evers just hours after President John F. Kennedy announced that the nation faced “a moral crisis” hanging on the question of “whether we are going to treat our fellow Americans as we want to be treated.”
Mississippi native Dorie Ladner, who was mentored by Evers, was among the activists locked up at the fairgrounds.
So was Ed King. He said the police tortured him and others there.
On June 16, 1963, many of the 5,000 who attended Medgar Evers’ funeral began to march, including Wilkins and Martin Luther King Jr.
And when they tried to march downtown to the state Capitol, Jackson police stopped them and “brought the dogs out,” Ladner said.
She was arrested and initially taken to the fairgrounds, where she saw photographer Ernest Withers had been beaten and was “bleeding profusely,” she recalled.
Because she hid a roll of film for Withers, she was taken to the local jail, where she spent the night.
The next day, Justice Department official John Doar got them out of jail.
“It was a horrible situation, but it was worth it because we had to say something, we had to speak up,” Ladner said. “You have to bear witness to these incidents.”
by: Bracey Harris
date: 2017-12-08
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2017/12/09/donald-trump-mississippi-civil-rights-museum-visit-protests/932518001/
Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba and the NAACP hold a press conference instead of attending President Donald Trump's speech at the opening of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum. Annie Costabile
Reiterating their decision to boycott the opening of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum and flanked by foot soldiers of the civil rights movement, Jackson Mayor Chokwe Lumumba and NAACP President Derrick Johnson on Saturday denounced the appearance of President Donald Trump at the state’s new museum.
Lumumba called Trump's stances an affront to the movement’s goals.
“It is my appreciation for the Mississippi martyrs not here — the names both known and unknown — that will not allow me, that will not allow many of us standing here today to share a stage with a president who has not demonstrated a continuing commitment to civil rights,” Lumumba said during a news conference at the Smith Robertson Museum, distanced about a mile from the state’s new civil rights museum and Museum of Mississippi History.
U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, who was scheduled to speak at the event at Smith Robertson, was not in attendance due to travel delays.
Johnson and Lumumba’s perspective represents the quandary that many activists and black Mississippians found themselves in after learning that Gov. Phil Bryant had invited Trump to the museums’ kickoff event.
Many had hoped Saturday’s ceremonies would be a unifier in a state that was ground zero for some of the pivotal events of the nation’s civil rights movement.
But word of Trump’s possible appearance left many progressives in a bind: They could either not celebrate the museum's opening, or they could attend an event that would provide a platform to a president whom many have called racially divisive — citing his statements in the aftermath of a deadly clash between white supremacists and counter-protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, his views against Black Lives Matter, his stance on undocumented immigrants and his opposition to the Affordable Care Act.
“We will never cede the stage to an individual who will fight against us,” said Johnson, the leader of the nation’s oldest civil rights organization. “We will not allow the history of those who sacrificed to be tarnished for political expediency.”
During his speech, Johnson brought attention to the Smith Robertson Museum’s previous life as a segregated school for black children in the Capital city.
Amos Brown, who sits on the NAACP Board of Directors, told the room of about 100 supporters that he received his schooling there, before saying he doubted Trump’s visit to the civil rights museum would spur the president to think differently.
“Since Donald Trump has not shown up to learn about civil rights and make an apology for his wrongful accusation of the Central Park Five, since Donald Trump has not stood up for our civil rights (and) did not show up when we needed him to speak a word on behalf of blacks who experienced police brutality ... he does not deserve to be in Jackson for the celebration of the civil rights museum opening,” Brown said.
As Trump toured the museum, more than 100 demonstrators gathered on High Street and chanted, “No Trump, no hate, no KKK in the USA.”
Pacing up and down with a megaphone, Alvin Barnes worked hard to keep up the crowd’s energy.
“It’s nothing against the civil rights museum,” Barnes said. “The president doesn’t have initiatives to support civil rights. He’s attacked minorities, whether they be women or Muslims.”
Lumumba expressed hope that the public would still support the museum, which along with the Mississippi history museum cost the state upward of $90 million.
“Trump’s invitation shows the fight for civil rights and equality isn’t done,” said Talamieka Brice, who also helped organize the demonstration against Trump.
Holding a picture of activist Bree Newsome, who was arrested after scaling the 30-foot flagpole on the grounds of the South Carolina statehouse to remove the Confederate flag, Brice visualized her belief that while the museum marks part of Mississippi’s civil rights history, other struggles endure — namely, changing the state flag, the only one in the nation to still have a Confederate emblem.
“We have to put in the work to bring that to fruition,” she said.
by: Tyler Carter
date: 2017-12-09
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2017/12/10/hidden-figures-moss-point-woman-had-own-nasa-role/938642001/
Download The Clarion-Ledger app for free on the Apple app store or Google Play. Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger
(Photo: Special to the Clarion Ledger)
MOSS POINT - History remembers firsts. History remembers movements, mostly, the prominent faces of a movement. Rarely, does history lend credence to those behind the scenes, keeping things together.
Sharon Caples McDougle played a significant role in an important and an iconic moment in history and didn't feel the need to tell her story — until now.
On Sept. 22, 1992, Dr. Mae Jemison was the first African-American female to set foot into space for the historic mission STS-47 aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavor. Because the space suits were specifically for men, they were typically heavier and for a woman, would require assistance putting the suit on.
Who was it to help Jemison get into her space suit — an adventurous girl from Moss Point, last name McDougle.
McDougle said after seeing the movie, "Hidden Figures," friends told her that she should tell her story, although she felt many people had already known about her efforts.
As a 1982 graduate of Moss Point High School, McDougle said she initially envisioned her career would be working with children.
More: ‘Hidden Figures’ inspires, STEAM careers encouraged
"As a little girl, I thought I would be doing something with children — maybe like a Kindergarten teacher," she said. "Around junior high, I figured I would be good at that because I had taken care of my nieces and nephews at that time."
Near her junior and senior year of high school, McDougle said she considered being a flight attendant after visiting and staying with her sister for a while in Portland, Oregon. McDougle's love for traveling and seeing the world came true, but in a different form.
"The Air Force recruiter showed up at the high school and I was like, 'that's my ticket out of Moss Point right there,''' she laughed. "After I turned 18 that February, I signed up and once I graduated high school, I was out of here."
As only life can, adversity struck in McDougle's life. After the death of her parents when she was 7, McDougle credited her teachers for providing her with the affection she needed.
"My oldest sister was 23 at that time so she was still young too and I had to realize that I wasn't the only one grieving because she was too, so the teachers really stepped in and helped me to feel good about myself," said McDougle.
Hugs, goodwill, and playing outside in her neighborhood are things McDougle credits for sustaining her through the bad times growing up in the River City.
After seven years and five months in the Air Force, McDougle said an issue in her unit, not the force in its entirety caused her to seek an "early out" because she did not want to be unhappy. After getting out in 1990, McDougle betted on herself and took a leap of faith.
"It was a little scary because I went into the force right out of high school," McDougle said. "Even though I was in the Air Force, the skills I had did not translate into a normal job."
Odd jobs such as cleaning offices and placing stickers on clothing for about five months in California kept her afloat, until one of her Air Force buddies called her the sixth month, notifying her he had been hired at Boeing Airspace.
He then notified McDougle about the job opening that suited her skillset. She called, interviewed for the position, and was hired on the spot.
"Man, I had some angels," she said. "I always say my mom made it happen."
McDougle held that position for 22 years where she was the focal point for numerous firsts and allowed her to build a relationship with Jemison.
She began her career as a Crew Escape Equipment Suit Technician and was responsible for processing the orange launch and re-entry pressure suit assemblies worn by all NASA space shuttle astronauts.
She was assigned to her first mission STS-37 within a year. McDougle was one of only two women CEE Suit Technicians and the only Black technician when she began her career.
When word of Jemison's mission was written on the big board inside of NASA headquarters, McDougle took the initiative and placed her name beside Jemison's, indicating that she would be taking care of getting her prepared for her flight.
"You couldn't choose where you would help, but as soon as I saw her name go up on the board, I wrote my name directly beside hers," McDougle chuckled, "and I dared anyone to say something."
McDougle said the relationship between she and Jemison was one of sisters, no matter her stature at that time.
"She never carried herself with an air around me, she was so cool," McDougle said. "We knew how to turn it on and off when it came to work and the respect level was always there."
Traveling to space is a rigorous task, but Jemison, according to McDougle, seemed not to be affected.
"Usually the astronauts are quarantined for a couple of days until their flight, but they exercise some while in space, but when they make it back, they are normally weak — not Mae though," McDougle laughed. "She strolled off the shuttle, I had a wheelchair ready for her, but she didn't need it. I was amazed."
Other career accomplishments include:
In 1994, McDougle was promoted to the position of crew chief making her the first female and first African-American crew chief in CEE where she was responsible for leading a team of technicians to suit up astronaut crews.
In 2004, McDougle became the first female and first African-American male or female promoted to the position of manager of the CEE Processing department.
McDougle also brought about a pay increase for suit techs who entered after her tenure began.
McDougle said she does not know how she wants to be remembered in history, but said the most important thing people know is that she remembers where she came from.
"I definitely want to be remembered as a native of Moss Point, Mississippi, first and foremost," McDougle said. "The state gets a negative light mostly, but there are a lot of great things coming out of Mississippi."
Sharon and her husband Maronald McDougle celebrated their 25th anniversary this year. They have two children — Dominique, 23, and Corbin, 19. The McDougle family resides in La Porte, Texas, but says they will always call Moss Point home.
Maronald and Sharon McDougle celebrated their 25th anniversary this year. Sharon is a 1982 graduate of Moss Point High School.
(Photo: Special to the Clarion Ledger)
History does not acknowledge those who play significant background roles, but maybe now, people will take a closer look at the woman who accompanies Jemison in photos and recognize that she too is a part of "firsts."
by: Geoff Pender
date: 2017-12-11
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2017/12/12/how-sexual-harassment-legislature-dealt/943947001/
Mississippi's governor asks people to use common sense and respect each other or there could be career altering consequences. Therese Apel
(Photo: File photo/The Clarion-Ledger)
State House and Senate leaders say sexual harassment allegations against Rep. John Moore, who promptly resigned, are the only such complaints in the Legislature at least since 2012 when the current administrations took office.
Under the current procedures and makeup, mostly men would be involved in investigating sexual harassment complaints in the Legislature.
House Speaker Philip Gunn said any such complaints in the House would be investigated by the Ethics Committee. A Senate spokeswoman said that in that chamber, the secretary of the Senate and the Rules Committee would deal with such issues.
House Ethics, a small committee which seldom meets and typically has little business to attend, is chaired by Rep. Andy Gipson, R-Braxton, who's also a judiciary chairman in the House. Although the committee is diverse in terms of race and political party, there is only one female member. Other committee members are Reps. Percy Watson, D-Hattiesburg, (vice chairman), Angela Cockerham, D-Magnolia; Mac Huddleston, R-Pontotoc; Ray Rogers, R-Pearl; Jason White, R-West; and Cory Wilson, R-Madison.
But a House spokesperson pointed out that the head of Gunn's in-house legal team is a woman, and that Cockerham runs the subcommittee in Ethics that deals with harassment training and procedures.
In the Senate, Secretary Liz Welch deals with day-to-day operations and human resources issues or complaints with lawmakers and staff. The Rules Committee would investigate complaints. It currently has no female members.
Senate President Pro tem Terry Burton, R-Newton, is chairman of Rules. Other members are Sens. Gray Tollison, R-Oxford; Tommy Gollott, R-Biloxi; Josh Harkins, R-Flowood; and John Horhn, D-Jackson.
Gunn's office retained outside counsel — an attorney who has provided anti-sexual harassment training in the House pro bono — to help deal with the complaints against Moore. Since Moore resigned, a pending House investigation is being dropped.
by: Jerry Mitchell
date: 2017-12-11
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/journeytojustice/2017/12/12/mississippi-civil-rights-museum-best-one-yet/942282001/
State leaders and civil rights veterans celebrated the opening of Two Mississippi Museums and the state's 200th anniversary of statehood. Justin Sellers/Clarion Ledger
The Mississippi Civil Rights Museum is getting rave reviews so far.
Myrlie Evers, left, widow of civil rights leader Medgar Evers, and former Gov. William Winter confer during the state's bicentennial celebration and the grand opening ceremony for the Museum of Mississippi History and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum on Saturday, Dec. 9, 2017, in Jackson.
(Photo: Rogelio V. Solis/AP)
“I've seen all the major civil rights museums in the South,” said historian John Dittmer, author of "Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi," “and this one is the most impressive.”
The museum is the only state-funded civil rights museum in the U.S.
Myrlie Evers, the widow of Medgar Evers, spoke Saturday about the tears she shed after witnessing photographs inside the museum. She praised it and the adjacent History of Mississippi Museum as “jewels” that show Mississippi can lead the way.
The state spent $90 million on the two museums. Another $19 million was raised in private donations for the exhibits.
Liz Willen, editor of The Hechinger Report, wrote in her column that some people avoid Mississippi because of its dark past.
“The Mississippi Civil Rights Museum is a reason to go — and to learn,” she wrote.
She described how the state had spilled out its racist history in unsparing detail, concluding that the new museum is “a real game changer for education.”
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation is providing more than $1 million in funding to help all of Mississippi’s students travel to and tour the civil rights museum and the history museum.
Civil rights veteran Joyce Ladner spent five hours Saturday going through the civil rights museum.
"It was an overwhelming experience. During the movement, we never stopped to think about there being a museum,” said Ladner, who was mentored by Medgar Evers and Clyde Kennard, wrongfully imprisoned for trying to enroll at the then all-white University of Southern Mississippi.
W. Ralph Eubanks (Photo: Special to The Clarion-Ledger)
Mississippi native W. Ralph Eubanks said the museum does a good job of appealing to students. “I’d like to see less visual stimuli, but I’m of a different generation,” he said.
For him, the museum opened a floodgate of memories.
“There’s a life-size figure of (Mississippi NAACP leader) Dr. Gilbert Mason,” said Eubanks, whose memoir, "Ever Is a Long Time: A Journey Into Mississippi's Dark Past," details growing up in this difficult period. “He was my Eagle Scout sponsor.”
When he saw the doors of the Bryant Grocery, which Emmett Till entered on that fateful day in August 1955, “I was frozen there,” he said.
“When you see the rifle that killed Medgar Evers, it’s chilling,” he said. “It was also chilling to see the parts of the truck in the Vernon Dahmer firebombing.”
Dahmer died in the 1966 attack, and the Ku Klux Klan leader who ordered the firebombing, Sam Bowers, was finally convicted in 1998.
M.J. O'Brien (Photo: M.J. O'Brien)
M.J. O’Brien, author of "We Shall Not Be Moved: The Jackson Woolworth’s Sit-In and the Movement It Inspired," said the civil rights museum is “world class,” using intelligence and creativity to appeal to people of all ages.
“It’s going to serve Mississippi well to have this museum that attempts to tell the whole story of what happened during those very difficult years,” he said.
Filmmaker Loki Mulholland said Monday that he has been to the "National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, The Human Rights Museum in Atlanta and the National African-American Museum in D.C. and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum is the best one yet.”
Each museum has its purpose, “but if I'm going by visceral and emotional impact I would put the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum on the top of the list,” said Mulholland, whose documentary, An Ordinary Hero, tells the story of his mother, Joan, a Freedom Rider who was imprisoned for her civil rights activities.
Freedom Rider Joan Trumpauer Mulholland, is the keynote speaker at the Creative Arts Festival at JSU.
He praised the use of technology and media to tell the stories, especially the “This Little Light of Mine” light sculpture that features pictures of those involvement in the movement as well as the names of those who became martyrs.
“Anyone who truly wants to learn about the civil rights movement, this museum has to be at the top of their list,” he said.
by: Sarah Fowler
date: 2017-12-11
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2017/12/12/books-banned-mississippi-prisons/919185001/
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Inmates at two Mississippi prisons are no longer allowed to receive soft-cover books from a nonprofit agency, but it's unclear why or how the decision was authorized.
In 2015, Big House Books, a Jackson-based nonprofit, started mailing books to inmates in jails and prisons across Mississippi. What started as a small labor of love for three Jackson natives quickly turned into an organized network of volunteers who now meet once a month to pack and ship hundreds of books at a time.
In May, two of those prisons, the State Penitentiary at Parchman and South Mississippi Correctional Institution, began returning the packages of books. The exact reason wasn't immediately made clear and was only answered Tuesday after questions from the Clarion Ledger.
Story continues below photo.
Karen Welch with Big House Books types in an ISBN number of a hardback book that will be sold to the online company, Thrift Books. Money they receive from the sales goes back into the nonprofit to help defer the cost of mailing books to the inmates. Only soft-cover books can be sent to the prisons.
(Photo: Barbara Gauntt/Clarion Ledger)
"They were allowing packages for a while until they realized that we were a little nonprofit that was sending free books," said Karen Welch with Big House Books. "I just don't understand why these two prisons are finding problems with a policy that, first of all isn't there, and then the other prisons aren't finding the same issues.
"We've definitely tried to figure out what they think we're doing wrong."
Welch said she was told her organization was not authorized to send books to individual inmates, despite their nonprofit status. An official at SMCI also reportedly told Welch that Big House Books could send religious books instead.
Officials at Parchman and SMCI referred all questions to the Mississippi Department of Corrections.
Last week, MDOC spokeswoman Grace Fisher said she was aware of the issue but did not know why the books had been returned.
Tuesday, after speaking with Deputy Commissioner Jerry Williams, Fisher said the prisons preferred if Big House Books sent books to the facility instead of individual inmates. Inmates may then check the books out from the library, she said.
Before the books started being returned, Big House Books was sending approximately 30 packages, each filled with a maximum of three soft-cover books a piece, to Parchman and SMCI on a monthly basis.
Story continues below photo.
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Letters from inmates in Mississippi prisons requesting books fill a drawer at Big House Books in Jackson. Volunteers fill the requests, one by one, mailing the paperback books to the prisoners. (Photo: Barbara Gauntt/Clarion Ledger)
The inmates can write to the nonprofit and request certain books, Welch said. The subjects range from "fluffy stuff" like romance and mystery novels to job-training manuals and study materials so they can take their GED, "books that are really going to have a huge impact on their life once they get out of prison," she said.
The books are sent via the United States Postal Service, directly to the inmate. The nonprofit does not charge the inmate or anyone else for the book. Welch said Big House Books is in compliance with MDOC's mailing policy and that the nonprofit has repeatedly asked officials at Parchman and SMCI what they can do to make sure inmates get the books.
Their pleas have gone unanswered, she said, with officials responding that books can only be sent to the prison library, chaplain or to a central office and not to the individual prisoner.
Welch said access to books "opens the doors" for many of those who are currently behind bars. By denying the free books, Welch said she feels officials are denying inmates those opportunities.
"Studies show that inmates who are educated while in prison have a much, much greater chance of not returning," Welch said. "(The books) might just be an outlet for someone who is in a really difficult place in their life...These are books, there's nothing these books can do to harm anyone. They can do nothing but improve their situation in their lives. It just doesn't make sense."
Fisher said soft-cover books should be allowed inside prisons, unless they contain pornographic material.
Inmates within the MDOC system are allowed a maximum of five books in their possession at any given time. A maximum of three books can be sent to them in one shipment, but they must come from a reputable bookstore or organization and cannot be sent via family member. Inmates can also check out books through the prison library or purchase them through canteen, she said.
Fisher expressed concern with the direct mailing system from BHB, saying that, if an inmate has more than the five allowed books, they may use them to hide contraband.
“The intent is good but the process is apparently weak,” Fisher said.
The Mississippi Center for Justice sent a letter to Corrections Commissioner Pelicia Hall Monday, questioning why the books are being returned.
In the letter, Beth Orlansky, advocacy director for the Mississippi Center for Justice, pointed out the constitutional issue in limiting inmates' access to religious-only text.
"Limiting a prisoner's access to shipments of books based on religion would violate both the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution," the letter stated.
Jackson attorney Rob McDuff, who is working with the Mississippi Center for Justice on the matter, said he hoped the issue was a "misunderstanding."
Story continues below photo.
Volunteers at Big House Books, a Jackson-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit, sort, package and prepare soft-covered books for mailing to inmates in jails and prisons across Mississippi. What started as a small labor of love for three Jackson natives in 2015 quickly turned into an organized network of volunteers who now meet once a month.
(Photo: Barbara Gauntt/Clarion Ledger)
"Reading books is good for everyone, including prisoners, and under the Constitution, prisons can't prevent them from receiving books," McDuff said. "MDOC's general policy for allowing prisoners to request and receive free books from BHB is commendable. Apparently there's been a misunderstanding at a couple of the prisons, and we look forward to that being ironed out soon."
Fisher said Williams was "willing" to meet with representatives from BHB.
“We promote literacy and want the inmates to get the books,” she said.
In the meantime, Welch said she has gotten "heartbreaking" letters from inmates asking for books. She noted those at Parchman have typically received long sentences.
"Those are some of the longest term residents, they're lifers. They're the people who need the escape the most, in my opinion," she said.
"It's just a lot of people who see it as an outlet, who can escape their circumstances temporarily, they're really grateful for it, they really are, and it's just really sad when you can't help."
by: Charlie Mitchell
date: 2017-12-11
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/opinion/columnists/2017/12/12/true-history-mississippi-both-gracious-and-vicious/944996001/
(Photo: Special to The Clarion-Ledger)
OXFORD - My, my, my. Such language.
Granted, having Donald Trump at the opening of a civil rights museum was akin to asking Jeff Davis to deliver the eulogy for Abraham Lincoln, but the reaction! And the variety! To some degree, it illustrates why few sane and sober people seek public office.
Start with attacks on our governor.
Who knows why Phil Bryant extended the invitation to Trump to be in Jackson for the bicentennial event, specifically the opening Saturday (also Bryant’s 63rd birthday) of the Museum of Mississippi History and its neighbor, the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum? Perhaps Bryant (if he’s not a member of the U.S. Senate by then) lobbied for a job when his second term ends in January 2020. Given turnover in the White House, Bryant might have slipped Trump a resume.
More: Cause of mass murder needs to be identified, eliminated
More: Civil Rights, history museums let Mississippi look in the mirror
Regardless, our governor took hits from the internet’s political left for welcoming a racist and from the right. Bryant was viciously faulted on social media for “spending $90 million” for museums when the state has roads and bridges in need of repair.
The backstory, of course, is not consistent with that claim (as often happens with internet experts). The state-owned museums were provided some state money to go with private donations, but the big player was the state credit card. Admission to the separate museums is $8 per person, and while the museums may seek continuing appropriations, the expectation is that bonds will be repaid and the museums will operate on their own revenue.
As for President Trump being a racist, who knows? Seriously. He’s made plenty of insensitive statements, but racism is a matter of the heart — specifically the belief that one group of humans is inherently superior to others.
Think about Trump’s cloistered life. From the day he was born he’s had two to 200 (or 2,000) people whose job is to keep him happy all day every day. He didn’t ask to be born into a life of privilege any more than a person asks to be born into a life of poverty, but is it right to declare all similarly sheltered people to be racist? How about “race-novice,” given that he’s rarely been around anyone not being paid to serve him.
(The same analysis, by the way, attaches to Trump’s propensity to be untruthful. To lie is to be purposely deceptive. In Trump’s case, his belief in himself is his reality.)
OK, what about other reactions?
A clear majority of Mississippians wanted Trump in office, or at least couldn’t abide the notion of a Hillary Clinton presidency. His supporters were vocal about the visit, saying any presidential nod is a plus.
True enough, we’ve rarely been on the radar. Early primaries mean in voters in Iowa, New Hampshire and others get to know candidates on a first-name basis. About all Mississippi gets during campaigns is a photo-op at the airport, if that. Once elected, presidents rarely have occasion to stop in at all.
The classiest responses came from those who said they would not let their disdain of this president detract from the day when Mississippi, at last, started holding a truthful mirror to its face.
Dennis Dahmer, son of murdered voting rights worker Vernon Dahmer, told The Clarion-Ledger he would be there. “I will not let Trump, Bryant or anyone else define the who, what and why of Vernon F. Dahmer Sr. and others’ commitment pertaining to the civil rights movement.”
With all the hoopla, not enough was said or shown about the two new world-class showcases in the downtown area. Perhaps, in days to come, residents and non-residents alike will find their way into the museums and have the type of reflective, immersive history lessons they were artfully designed to teach.
As part of that, they’re likely to find that in the distant past as in the past few days, there was viciousness in Mississippi and, in equal measure, there was graciousness. Like any other people in any other place, we’ve seen statesmanship and heroism and valor and cowardice and brutality and indifference.
The question is, once equipped with this knowledge, what kind of people we choose to be.
By the way, if Jefferson Davis had been invited to provide the eulogy for President Lincoln, history says Davis would have done it — and done it with class. Same if Lincoln were around to comment on the passing of Davis.
But that was once upon a time. And once upon a time — before the era of internet potshots — honor and dignity were considered admirable traits.
Charlie Mitchell is a Mississippi journalist and contributing columnist. Write to him at cmitchell43@yahoo.com.
by: Laura Finley
date: 2017-12-11
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/opinion/columnists/2017/12/12/need-cultural-shift-gender-based-violence/945104001/
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(Photo: Special to the Clarion Ledger)
Last month was the annual 16 Days of Activism against gender-based violence. At no time has this work been more necessary than now. From rampant sexual harassment to sexual assault, domestic violence and sexual trafficking, women across the globe and in the U.S face gender-based violence at horrifying rates.
I’d like to start with my recent personal experience, although it was definitely not the first time I have experienced it in my 45 years. I share these experiences because while there has been important attention paid lately to men in power abusing women who are their subordinates in the workplace or other realms, it’s essential to remember that “everyday” men also commit these same acts of sexual harassment, abuse, and assault. Not because their work position affords them any particular power over a woman but because the general sense that they are entitled to do and act as they please is prevalent in how many boys and men are socialized. Not long ago, I experienced unwanted sexual conduct from someone half my age. He had no social power over me other than the fact that he’s a male in a culture in which some males are taught that things are theirs for the taking. Likewise, on my campus I have been catcalled by boys recently out of high school who feel entitled to yell repulsive things. A 15-year-old girl I know was harassed by much older men while wearing a caroling costume for a holiday event. This is ubiquitous, so normalized that people are surprised by all the allegations that are emerging. We should not be. Horrified, yes. Outraged, yes. But not surprised.
Here is why we should not be surprised: Statistics have long shown the scope of these problems. Studies have found that some one-third of American women experience sexual harassment in the workplace. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), nearly one-third of the world’s women has endured physical or sexual intimate partner violence. Domestic violence kills more women worldwide than civil wars. Far more people in America, largely women, have been killed by their partners than were U.S forces in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, combined. American women are twice as likely to suffer domestic violence as breast cancer. In the U.S., more women are injured from domestic violence than from car accidents, rapes, and muggings--combined. A woman in the U.S. is sexually assaulted every 98 seconds, according to the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN). Women and young girls are sold into sexual slavery, not just overseas but on American soil. They are often recruited from websites like Backpage and Craigslist with promises of lucrative modeling or acting jobs. More than 3,500 sex trafficking cases were reported to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center in 2016, a figure that far underestimates the scope of the problem given that most instances are not reported and a girl can be trafficking multiple times per day.
Males in powerful positions are even more able to exploit and demean women and those they see as powerless, as these people fear they will lose their jobs, their reputation, and even their lives if they resist or if they tell anyone. This is tremendously clear with the spate of sexual harassment, misconduct and assault allegations being levied against politicians, media moguls, and celebrities, including but sadly not limited to Bill Cosby, Bill O’Reilly, Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, Matt Lauer, Garrison Keillor, Roy Moore, Al Franken and of course, Donald Trump.
What are we to do? The good news is there is a lot that is already happening. New laws are criminalizing revenge pornography, helping to stop males from sharing provocative photos and imagery as a means of controlling women. Women are speaking out about the harassment, abuse and assault and refusing to be silenced. Legal settlements like the recent one in Seattle that three women who were sold into sexual slavery when they were 13 to 15 years old were awarded against Backpage. Activists are continuing to strategize and build on the energy and momentum from last years’ Women’s marches.
In South Florida, I am fortunate to be able to work with a non-profit organization, No More Tears, which helps victims of many of these forms of gender-based violence. This unique organization is entirely volunteer-run and provides comprehensive services that allow victims to heal and to build happy and healthy lives. Additional information about No More Tears is available at www.nomoretearsusa.org. I am also co-organizer of the College Brides Walk, a dating and domestic violence awareness campaign that reaches several thousand high school and college youth. More information can be found at www.collegebrideswalk.com.
We know more such organizations are needed nationwide.
It is my hope that the increased conversation about these issues is indeed a cultural tipping point. Enough is enough.
Laura Finley, Ph.D., teaches in the Barry University Department of Sociology & Criminology.
by: Jimmie E. Gates
date: 2017-12-12
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2017/12/13/did-judge-remove-mans-two-children-because-unpaid-counseling-fee/947900001/
Zayne Hawkins discusses effort to try to regain custody of his two children. Wochit
(Photo: Jimmie Gates/ Claron Ledger)
New Albany resident Zayne Hawkins' two children were removed from his custody in January by a Sunflower County chancery judge and temporary custody given to his sister.
Chancery Judge Jane Weathersby didn't give a reason in her order for taking Hawkins' children, but Hawkins said it occurred after he wasn't able to pay the full $6,000 fee to the counselor the judge ordered him to take the children to. The counselor insisted on being paid in cash, Hawkins said
Hawkins said he has been unable to get a hearing to try to get his children back.
In October 2016, Hawkins said he was granted full custody of his kids in an agreed order with his ex-wife having visitation rights, but Weathersby said he had to take the children to a counselor for three months and it had to be with Mistie Barnes in Ripley. Barnes wasn’t covered by Hawkins insurance, but Weathersby refused to pick any of the five counselors covered under his insurance plan, he said.
Hawkins said he came up with most of the money, but during a review of the case in January, he hadn't come up with all of the fee to begin the counseling sessions. Weathersby then awarded temporary custody to Hawkins’ sister, and Hawkins and his ex-wife were ordered to pay his sister $600 a month in child support. Then Barnes died in August, and the guardian ad litem assigned to the case quit. Hawkins had to come up with $5,000 for new guardian ad litem, a person appointed to represent the interest of the children, to start the process all over again and he was given seven days to do it. He came up with the money, but Weathersby canceled the hearing and has refused to set a new hearing date.
Weathersby couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday, but judges are forbidden by court rules from discussing cases before them outside of the courtroom.
In the order granting temporary custody in January, Weathersby said the "court ordered that the children be taken to counseling with Dr. Mistie Barnes. To date, no counseling has been received by the children."
Retired Chancery Judge Roger Clapp said he doubts ia judge often requires a specific counselor. However, he said he has had experience with a chancery judge who invariably appointed a certain psychiatrist and was openly favorable to his opinions on and off record.
"So the unfortunate attitude, perhaps based on good faith confidence in the individual, although this was not called for in the case I mention, is certainly out there with some chancellors," Clapp said "I would give any chancellor the benefit of the doubt and expect no such attitude."
In October, the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center at the University of Mississippi School of Law filed a complaint on behalf of their client, calling for then-Pearl Youth Court Judge John Shirley to be fired after he allegedly prohibited a mother from contact with her 4-month-old child for 14 months until she paid court-imposed fees.
The Pearl Youth Court was permanently closed after that and cases transferred to the Rankin County Youth Court.
Hawkins' attorney Andy Arant of Oxford said Weathersby has never stated publicly why she removed the children from Hawkins' custody.
But in addition to ordering counseling, Weathersby also said Hawkins and his ex-wife had to undergo random drug testing. The ex-wife was negative on the only test she showed up for and she missed one test. Hawkins tested positive on two tests for prescription drugs.
"The court is very suspicious of these prescription drugs as he has in the past had addiction problems," Weathersby said in court papers.
Hawkins said he once spent months in rehab for a drug problem, but he got his life straight and has records from his doctor to show the prescription drugs were for a legitimate medical problem.
"All my client wants is his day in court to present evidence why he should get his children back," Arant said. "I feel my client has been unfairly treated. He has spent an enormous amount of money, having to borrow a lot of it. I think he has spent about $36,000 to date."
"I have never had a case like this. It really dumbfound me," Arant said.
Arant said Weathersby said it's common for a judge to order counseling for children in custody cases, but it's usually in consultation with parents on selecting the person to send the children to.
Arant said he sees no basis for Hawkins not to get a hearing.
Hawkins and his sister Roianna Hawkins Correro, who has temporary custody, have been in dispute over the children.
Correro filed last month for custody of the children. She also has filed a contempt of court motion against Hawkins that is slated to be heard Wednesday in Sunflower County Chancery Court.
It came after Hawkins' father picked up the 11-year-old after he ran away from school. Hawkins’ sister called the police, and a warrant was issued for Hawkins’ father’s arrest.
Correro's attorney, John Cox, said Wednesday he couldn't discuss the case, but said both sides obviously have their opinions about it.
by: Bracey Harris
date: 2017-12-03
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2017/12/04/brain-drain-mississippi-higher-education-leader/918913001/
Starting in 2018-2019, Mississippi's high schoolers could have the opportunity to earn endorsements alongside a traditional diploma. Wochit
Mississippi’s Higher Education Commissioner Glenn Boyce says access to public universities in the nation’s poorest state is “fantastic," but it's getting students to complete their degrees and to remain in the state after graduation that’s the challenge.
Boyce's remarks on Monday came ahead of the 2018 legislative session where state lawmakers will consider a recommendation from legislative leaders to cut funding for the state's universities by 4 percent for the 2019 fiscal year.
More: More Mississippi budget cuts proposed; leaders unapologetic
While Boyce didn't speak to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee's proposal directly, he noted that funds to the state college system should be viewed as investments.
"For every dollar invested, we grow the economy by $3.21," he said.
Speaking at a luncheon sponsored by the Stennis Institute of Government and the Capitol press corps, Boyce referenced a report commissioned by the state College Board that found 40 percent of graduates from the state’s public universities had left Mississippi five years after graduation.
More: IHL report: Education, nursing grads stay, STEM leaves
Reversing that trend, Boyce said, is critical to the state’s economic vitality. He cited a report by researchers at Georgetown University, projecting that by 2020, 65 percent of all jobs in the economy will require postsecondary education and training beyond high school.
Thirty-five percent of those job openings, according to the report, will require a bachelor’s degree, meaning that Mississippi, for which the Associated Press reported “census figures show only 29 percent of residents older than 25 have a two-year or four-year degree,” is behind the curve.
“If we don’t improve quick, fast and hard, we will not be able to compete in the future,” Boyce said. “I’m not sure we will be able to compete in the present.”
Although blunt about the state’s quandary, Boyce said there is reason for optimism. The rollout out of the state’s Compete 2 Complete program, an initiative launched in June aimed at people who attended college but left without earning a degree or certificate, he said, has been met with such interest that officials have slowed down some of their marketing efforts.
As of last month, the Associated Press reported 18 people had received bachelor’s degrees and another 50 had received associate degrees.
Boyce also praised early results for the Higher Education Legislative Plan for Needy Students, a financial assistance program geared toward low-income students, a group historically less likely to graduate due to obstacles such as accrued student debt, has seen an uptick in the number of recipients earning degrees. The degree completion rate for the HELP program, he said, is 81 percent.
After students graduate, the hurdle of keeping them in-state remains.
Boyce, a father of three, said two of his children left the state after receiving their degrees.
“We’ve got to figure out how to keep our students at home,” he said.
Key to that effort, he said, is workforce opportunities. And key to attracting employers, Boyce continued, is having a trained workforce.
Boyce, who grew up in rural, upstate New York, traced the evolution of the motor industry to illustrate his point. The higher education leader said the demand for workers in the industry had transitioned from simply wanting workers to operate machinery to a need for workers who could fix the machinery.
“But where is it next?” Boyce said. “I would love to be creating and making the machine.
“That’s where you really move the economy.”
by: Jerry Mitchell
date: 2017-12-04
url: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2017/12/05/trump-mississippi-visit-boycott-protest-threats/923009001/
The family of Vernon Dahmer Sr., who died defending his family from the Ku Klux Klan, toured the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum in Jackson on Friday.
President Donald Trump is attending Saturday’s opening of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, the White House confirmed Tuesday.
Since Trump's visit was first reported Monday, several civil rights activists say they plan to protest or boycott the event.
When asked about possible protests during her regular press conference, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders replied, “I think that would be honestly very sad. This should be something that brings the country together.”
Several months ago, Gov. Phil Bryant invited Trump to attend the opening of the two museums — the civil rights museum and the History of Mississippi Museum — on Saturday, the state’s 200th birthday.
Mississippi native Joyce Ladner, who was mentored by NAACP leader Medgar Evers before he was assassinated in 1963, said she will no longer attend because Trump opposes what activists fought and died for in the civil rights movement.
"What would Medgar Evers think?" she asked. "How would Chaney, Schwerner and Goodman feel?" James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman were three civil rights workers killed by the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi in 1964.
Rickey Cole, a leader in the Mississippi Democratic Party, is also staying away.
He tweeted, “Bringing 45 to the Civil Rights Museum is like bringing Jane Fonda to the Legion Hut.”
Mississippi NAACP President Charles Hampton asked Bryant to rescind his invitation to Trump.
“At a time when this state and country will reflect upon the sacrifices made by those known and unknown in Mississippi for the struggle for civil rights, an invitation to a president that has aimed to divide this nation is not becoming of this historic moment,” Hampton said.
He cited the dismantling of the Affordable Care Act that provides many Mississippians with access affordable health care and “a full-blown attack on voting rights by limiting access to the right to vote are not reflective of core civil rights principles.”
Jacqueline R. Amos, field director of the Mississippi Democratic Party, echoed that sentiment, saying, "Any reasonable person knows that the presence of such a hugely divisive and polarizing figure will pervert and diminish what could otherwise be a healing and teaching moment for our state.
"Mr. Trump attained to the highest office in the land by appeals and tactics that do great and lasting violence to our civil rights heritage. His campaign appealed to the very worst demons of the American soul."
Dennis Dahmer, son of Vernon Dahmer Sr., a civil rights leader killed 50 years ago when Ku Klux Klansmen firebombed his family's home and businesses near Hattiesburg, addresses the Mississippi Legislature Friday, Jan. 8, 2016, at the Capitol in Jackson, Miss. Dahmer said he plans to attend the opening of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, whether President Trump attends or not.
Dennis Dahmer, whose father Vernon Dahmer, was killed by the KKK in 1966 in Hattiesburg, said he plans to attend.
“I will be in attendance to make sure that the focus of this event, specifically the Civil Rights Museum part of it, does not get redefined, clouded or turned into some type of photo opportunity for a U.S. sitting president looking for a ‘feel-good’ crowd,” he said.
He said he knows a lot of Trump supporters will attend, but he believes some of them are having reservations about the man they voted into office.
“I will not let Trump, Bryant or anyone else define the who, what and why of Vernon F. Dahmer Sr. and others’ commitment and legacy pertaining to the civil rights movement,” he said.
He recalled the sacrifices of his father, civil rights martyrs and others who “are not here today.”
He plans to show up at the museum’s opening Saturday to make sure his father is remembered, he said. “I will stand up for Vernon F. Dahmer Sr. just like he stood up for us during the early hours of Jan. 10, 1966, since he is not here to stand up for himself.”
Jeff Steinberg is the founder of the Sojourn to the Past, which takes students on a weeklong trip to visit civil rights sites and visit those who made history, including the Dahmer family.
Even if Trump shows up, Steinberg said he still plans to attend the opening of the civil rights museum.
“I’m coming to honor my dear friends — the Evers family, the Dahmer family, Angela Lewis’ father, James Chaney,” he said. “American freedom wasn’t founded in the 1770s — it was founded in the 1950s and 1960s.”
If Trump does speak, Steinberg said he plans to protest by taking a knee.
My Dixie Alliance, which is pushing for an amendment to the Mississippi Constitution that would force those receiving state funding to fly the state flag, has announced it will attend Saturday.
So will Organizing for Action Mississippi, which is holding a Rally Against Hate and protesting that same flag.
Mississippi’s civil rights museum is the nation’s first such state-sponsored civil rights museum. The state spent $90 million on the museums, and another $19 million was privately raised for exhibits and endowments.
The museums will open with a ceremony beginning at 11 a.m. Saturday on the grounds at 222 North St., a block west of the Mississippi State Fairgrounds.
Speakers will include the widow of Medgar Evers, Myrlie Evers, as well as U.S. Rep. John Lewis, Bryant and former governors Haley Barbour and William F. Winter.
She said she hopes through the museums, people will learn about the past, learn about her late husband, Medgar, and other freedom fighters, and “how to move on to make this state and country greater than they are.”
She said she desires that “regardless of race, color and creed, we can come together, and one day override the negative comments and negative acts that still take place in our society and that through this museum, America will be stronger and a better place for all its citizens, regardless of leadership.”