Mississippi pushes more state policing in mostly Black city

[BG-NY]

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The majority-white and Republican-led Mississippi Legislature is taking final steps to expand the the territory of a state-run police department inside the capital city of Jackson, which is majority-Black and governed by Democrats.

Critics say the proposal would stomp on local self-governance and create unequal systems of justice in different parts Jackson, which has the highest percentage of Black residents of any major U.S. city.

Supporters say they are trying to reduce crime in a city of about 150,000 residents, which had more than 100 homicides for each of the past three years.

Senators on Thursday passed the final version of a bill that Democratic Sen. John Horhn of Jackson called “toxic," with 31 Republicans voting yes and 15 Democrats voting no.

The House is expected to pass the bill Friday and send it to Republican Gov. Tate Reeves. He has not said whether he will sign it, but he has often said Jackson has a crime problem.

Most Republicans left the Senate chamber during the debate Thursday, leaving Democrats to give speeches to a room chamber full of empty chairs.

Democratic Sen. Barbara Blackmon of Canton, who is Black, compared the proposal to laws that racist white people enacted to suppress Black people after Reconstruction.

“It's essentially (creating) a police state right here in the city of Jackson,” Blackmon said.

source

This seems vastly inappropriate.

[Mr. Reactionary]

I call your blue city and raise you a red state.

[Libertas Vel Mors]

I don't think this move is inappropriate. Many cities in Mississippi are majority black, but what makes Jackson unique is how poorly run it is. Not only does it have its well known water issues, but it also has the highest murder rate not just of any city in Mississippi but of any city in the country. As the state capital, the State of Mississippi and Mississippi legislators have an interest in ensuring that legislators and visitors to the capital can remain safe.

I do generally agree that municipalities and counties can better run themselves and enforce their laws then the state. But with Jackson in particular doing such a poor job (to a significant extent by choice -- it is not an exaggeration to call Lumumba a communist, and he has previously vowed to make Jackson "the most radical city on the planet"), it seems more than reasonable to increase state involvement.

[Orwell]

Jackson is a hellhole 2x more violent crimes than the national average and 3x as many as the Mississippi average. 773/100,000 if you live in Jackson you’d have a 7% chance of being victimized by a violent crime over 10 years.

[DrScholl]

We saw what happened with the emergency managers in Michigan. The Republican Attorney General had to bring charges against them it was so bad. This is just another boldly partisan power grab by the GOP that wants to rule over areas that don't vote for it. Like any city the crime problem effects the Black population more so than White legislators and visitors who don't venture into Black neighborhoods. There is data that shows that Black neighborhoods are over policed for more lesser offenses and under policed when it comes to crimes actually being solved or even prevented.

[Darthpi – Anti-Florida Activist]

Somehow hypocrite beltway Dems who were okay with overruling the DC city council on criminal justice will find a way to criticize this.

[Del Tachi]

Endorsed.

[John Dule]

Jackson is a disaster because the city has to supply services to all the government buildings, but those buildings aren’t taxable, so there isn’t a sufficient tax base to support the necessary services. The solution is density of course, but the NIMBY retards will never allow that to happen.

[Morning in Atlas]

MORE 👏LOCAL 👏CONTROL 👏EXCEPT 👏WHEN 👏CITIES 👏DON'T 👏DO 👏WHAT 👏I 👏LIKE

Seriously, Dems, this is a winning issue.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

What is it the state police force would do that the city police force isn't?  Is it just adding numbers, or is there a claim that the city police force leadership is corrupt or deficient in a particular way?

[Pres Mike]

If a city is incapable of stopping crime, the state should step in.

[Badger]

Endorsed.

Shocking.

[Vice President Christian Man]

As a communitarian, I dislike the idea of a state government that's any stronger than it needs to be. It's not like Dems normally embrace small government but Pressley or whoever the Dem nominee will be for governor should capitalize on this as well as the welfare scandal. I doubt it'll be enough to win as most WWC voters in that state are fiercely loyal to the GOP but it could get it down to single-digits if the Dems play it right.

[John Dule]

As a communitarian, I dislike the idea of a state government that's any stronger than it needs to be. It's not like Dems normally embrace small government but Pressley or whoever the Dem nominee will be for governor should capitalize on this as well as the welfare scandal. I doubt it'll be enough to win as most WWC voters in that state are fiercely loyal to the GOP but it could get it down to single-digits if the Dems play it right.

Love that new username, dude.

[MasterJedi]

As usual, it’s “local control” until the Republicans don’t like what your policies are. Then it’s “the state needs to run you until you do what we say”. Like the bleeding of Milwaukee.

The entire south needs to be placed under Federal reconstruction again for a good 100 years.

[Fuzzy Bear]

Jackson's Mayor, Chokwe Antar Lumumba, is perhaps the most radical Mayor of a major city.  He is an open Socialist and he doesn't hide his politics.  This certainly puts him at odds with state government in MS.

The State of Mississippi should certainly resolve Jackson's drinking water problem, whatever it costs. That's not the fault of Jackson's government or its citizens.  But Lumumba has put forth the sort of Woke policies on crime that, essentially, call for defunding police and reducing the punishments for crimes (not prosecuting crimes, prosecuting felonies as misdemeanors, making the reduction of mass incarceration the driving force of crime policy regardless of public safety considerations) which his allies have gone along with.  The problem is that Jackson is one of the most dangerous cities in America, and it's not White Supremacy that's caused this; it's the fault entirely of its own citizens, the vast majority of whom are African-American (78.5% black 16.5% white).  

If a Mayor actively pursues less law enforcement in a crisis environment such as the one Jackson, MS is experiencing, how are the ordinary citizens to experience a reasonable level of public safety without outsiders coming to their aid? You can go on and on about "systemic racism", "overpolicing", and such, and while most of that is utter blather, some of it merits discussion, but how is that going to help the average citizen of Jackson, MS be safer this very day?  The State Police coming to a rescue are the only solution to a city where crime is out of control and a Mayor's ideology causes him to refuse to confront the adult misbehavior of its own citizens, some of whom form the base of support this mayor has.

[Vice President Christian Man]

As a communitarian, I dislike the idea of a state government that's any stronger than it needs to be. It's not like Dems normally embrace small government but Pressley or whoever the Dem nominee will be for governor should capitalize on this as well as the welfare scandal. I doubt it'll be enough to win as most WWC voters in that state are fiercely loyal to the GOP but it could get it down to single-digits if the Dems play it right.

Love that new username, dude.

Thanks

[7,052,770]

Jackson's Mayor, Chokwe Antar Lumumba, is perhaps the most radical Mayor of a major city.  He is an open Socialist and he doesn't hide his politics.  This certainly puts him at odds with state government in MS.

The State of Mississippi should certainly resolve Jackson's drinking water problem, whatever it costs. That's not the fault of Jackson's government or its citizens.  But Lumumba has put forth the sort of Woke policies on crime that, essentially, call for defunding police and reducing the punishments for crimes (not prosecuting crimes, prosecuting felonies as misdemeanors, making the reduction of mass incarceration the driving force of crime policy regardless of public safety considerations) which his allies have gone along with.  The problem is that Jackson is one of the most dangerous cities in America, and it's not White Supremacy that's caused this; it's the fault entirely of its own citizens, the vast majority of whom are African-American (78.5% black 16.5% white).  

If a Mayor actively pursues less law enforcement in a crisis environment such as the one Jackson, MS is experiencing, how are the ordinary citizens to experience a reasonable level of public safety without outsiders coming to their aid? You can go on and on about "systemic racism", "overpolicing", and such, and while most of that is utter blather, some of it merits discussion, but how is that going to help the average citizen of Jackson, MS be safer this very day?  The State Police coming to a rescue are the only solution to a city where crime is out of control and a Mayor's ideology causes him to refuse to confront the adult misbehavior of its own citizens, some of whom form the base of support this mayor has.

"Tell me you don't know anything about Jackson without explicitly saying so." Did you read that on Facebook or something?

The problem with Mayor Lumumba is that he is corrupt and incompetent. Not just that he's in over his head, that he doesn't care that he's in over his head. He's not pushing "woke" ideology on the city, and the mayor position doesn't really have the ability to do that anyway if a hypothetical mayor wanted to.

As far as this bill goes, the optics are terrible. There's no getting around that. I sadly don't have my own suggestion of what to do about the gross incompetence of the Jackson police though, and I don't think "well I go into Jackson all the time and never encounter all this so-called crime" is going to cut it either.

[Suburbia]

They should leave these black areas alone and let them fend for themselves. It's clear that they don't want the white establishment help, so why give them this help?

The U.S. government shouldn't have helped that much during Katrina either, the Louisiana gov't and the New Orleans city government was to blame as much as the feds and FEMA were.

[Fuzzy Bear]

They should leave these black areas alone and let them fend for themselves. It's clear that they don't want the white establishment help, so why give them this help?

The U.S. government shouldn't have helped that much during Katrina either, the Louisiana gov't and the New Orleans city government was to blame as much as the feds and FEMA were.

The state has a duty to intervene even if the people are bound to be stupid.  Drinkable water is a legislated right and public safety is a mandate of the STATE government.

[Badger]

Jackson's Mayor, Chokwe Antar Lumumba, is perhaps the most radical Mayor of a major city.  He is an open Socialist and he doesn't hide his politics.  This certainly puts him at odds with state government in MS.

The State of Mississippi should certainly resolve Jackson's drinking water problem, whatever it costs. That's not the fault of Jackson's government or its citizens.  But Lumumba has put forth the sort of Woke policies on crime that, essentially, call for defunding police and reducing the punishments for crimes (not prosecuting crimes, prosecuting felonies as misdemeanors, making the reduction of mass incarceration the driving force of crime policy regardless of public safety considerations) which his allies have gone along with.  The problem is that Jackson is one of the most dangerous cities in America, and it's not White Supremacy that's caused this; it's the fault entirely of its own citizens, the vast majority of whom are African-American (78.5% black 16.5% white).  

If a Mayor actively pursues less law enforcement in a crisis environment such as the one Jackson, MS is experiencing, how are the ordinary citizens to experience a reasonable level of public safety without outsiders coming to their aid? You can go on and on about "systemic racism", "overpolicing", and such, and while most of that is utter blather, some of it merits discussion, but how is that going to help the average citizen of Jackson, MS be safer this very day?  The State Police coming to a rescue are the only solution to a city where crime is out of control and a Mayor's ideology causes him to refuse to confront the adult misbehavior of its own citizens, some of whom form the base of support this mayor has.

He's elected you. Elected by actual Jackson City residents. If his policies are so bad it's up for jacksonians to replace him, not some legislature of which 90 plus percent don't represent the city.

The fact that you use random buzzwords like socialist, radical, and woke to justify stripping Jackson City residents of democracy, in all it's racist tones at Mississippi - and let's be frank Florida - have in Spades just demonstrates how completely and contemptively out to lunch you are.

[Pres Mike]

They should leave these black areas alone and let them fend for themselves. It's clear that they don't want the white establishment help, so why give them this help?

Most black residents, like most people, are law abiding citizens. And they want less crimes. But you have a very vocal minority who think all cops are racists and anyone who calls the police in black neighborhoods are uncle toms. They create a stigma aganist the police in black communtities. Yes, police brutality is real. But rare. Yes, there is a distrust of police in general in the black community. But the rise of crime these last few years is caused by this vocal minority (and COVID resrictions but thats a seperate issue)

The state has to step in when this vocal minority take control of local cities. To protect the majority of residents. They might not come out and say it because of stigma, but I suspect the black residents of Jackson, MS would welcome more police.

[7,052,770]

They should leave these black areas alone and let them fend for themselves. It's clear that they don't want the white establishment help, so why give them this help?

Most black residents, like most people, are law abiding citizens. And they want less crimes. But you have a very vocal minority who think all cops are racists and anyone who calls the police in black neighborhoods are uncle toms. They create a stigma aganist the police in black communtities. Yes, police brutality is real. But rare. Yes, there is a distrust of police in general in the black community. But the rise of crime these last few years is caused by this vocal minority (and COVID resrictions but thats a seperate issue)

The state has to step in when this vocal minority take control of local cities. To protect the majority of residents. They might not come out and say it because of stigma, but I suspect the black residents of Jackson, MS would welcome more police.

None of this post describes Jackson. Jackson's issues are primarily driven by extreme poverty and disdain from the rest of the state (including many of the suburbs of Jackson itself), not "woke" and "anti-police" sentiments.

[Del Tachi]

Jackson is a disaster because the city has to supply services to all the government buildings, but those buildings aren’t taxable, so there isn’t a sufficient tax base to support the necessary services. The solution is density of course, but the NIMBY retards will never allow that to happen.

In order for NIMBYism to be a problem in Jackson, people would first actually want to live there.  The city is down >10% since 2010, the sharpest decline of any major U.S. city. 

[DrScholl]

They should leave these black areas alone and let them fend for themselves. It's clear that they don't want the white establishment help, so why give them this help?

Most black residents, like most people, are law abiding citizens. And they want less crimes. But you have a very vocal minority who think all cops are racists and anyone who calls the police in black neighborhoods are uncle toms. They create a stigma aganist the police in black communtities. Yes, police brutality is real. But rare. Yes, there is a distrust of police in general in the black community. But the rise of crime these last few years is caused by this vocal minority (and COVIDresrictions but thats a seperate issue)

The state has to step in when this vocal minority take control of local cities. To protect the majority of residents. They might not come out and say it because of stigma, but I suspect the black residents of Jackson, MS would welcome more police.

Just pointing out some misspellings and grammar issues you might want to correct. Anyway the kind of policing the Republican majority wants is not going to help the city, but create more racial issues with the police. The police constantly over police on more minor issues and the idea of "suspicion" without cause. Meanwhile you have Black people go missing with very little support in finding them and violent crime not taken seriously. The GOP is just seeking power where it can't win it through elections, not trying to lower crime.

Instead of ignorantly assuming that Black people who call the police are labeled "Uncle Toms" by other Black people, let's discuss how some people react to calls in Black neighborhoods. They often will drag their feet and using language like "no humans involved" in response to those calls.