#Mississippi today | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

dontmeantobepoliticalbut · 1 year

Text

A white supermajority of the Mississippi House voted after an intense, four-plus hour debate to create a separate court system and an expanded police force within the city of Jackson — the Blackest city in America — that would be appointed completely by white state officials.

If House Bill 1020 becomes law later this session, the white Chief Justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court would appoint two judges to oversee a new district within the city — one that includes all of the city’s majority-white neighborhoods, among other areas. The white state Attorney General would appoint four prosecutors, a court clerk, and four public defenders for the new district. The white state Public Safety Commissioner would oversee an expanded Capitol Police force, run currently by a white chief.

The appointments by state officials would occur in lieu of judges and prosecutors being elected by the local residents of Jackson and Hinds County — as is the case in every other municipality and county in the state.

Mississippi’s capital city is 80% Black and home to a higher percentage of Black residents than any major American city. Mississippi’s Legislature is thoroughly controlled by white Republicans, who have redrawn districts over the past 30 years to ensure they can pass any bill without a single Democratic vote. Every legislative Republican is white, and most Democrats are Black.

After thorough and passionate dissent from Black members of the House, the bill passed 76-38 Tuesday primarily along party lines. Two Black member of the House — Rep. Cedric Burnett, a Democrat from Tunica, and Angela Cockerham, an independent from Magnolia — voted for the measure. All but one lawmaker representing the city of Jackson — Rep. Shanda Yates, a white independent — opposed the bill.

“Only in Mississippi would we have a bill like this … where we say solving the problem requires removing the vote from Black people,” Rep. Ed Blackmon, a Democrat from Canton, said while pleading with his colleagues to oppose the measure.

For most of the debate, Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba — who has been publicly chided by the white Republicans who lead the Legislature — looked down on the House chamber from the gallery. Lumumba accused the Legislature earlier this year of practicing “plantation politics” in terms of its treatment of Jackson, and of the bill that passed Tuesday, he said: “It reminds me of apartheid.”

Hinds County Circuit Judge Adrienne Wooten, who served in the House before being elected judge and would be one of the existing judges to lose jurisdiction under this House proposal, also watched the debate.

Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell, who oversees the Capitol Police, watched a portion of the debate from the House gallery, chuckling at times when Democrats made impassioned points about the bill. Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, the only statewide elected official who owns a house in Jackson, walked onto the House floor shortly before the final vote.

Rep. Blackmon, a civil rights leader who has a decades-long history of championing voting issues, equated the current legislation to the Jim Crow-era 1890 Constitution that was written to strip voting rights from Black Mississippians.

“This is just like the 1890 Constitution all over again,” Blackmon said from the floor. “We are doing exactly what they said they were doing back then: ‘Helping those people because they can’t govern themselves.'”

The bill was authored by Rep. Trey Lamar, a Republican whose hometown of Senatobia is 172 miles north of Jackson. It was sent to Lamar’s committee by Speaker Philip Gunn instead of a House Judiciary Committee, where similar legislation normally would be heard.

“This bill is designed to make our capital city of Jackson, Mississippi, a safer place,” Lamar said, citing numerous news sources who have covered Jackson’s high crime rates. Dwelling on a long backlog of Hinds County court cases, Lamar said the bill was designed to “help not hinder the (Hinds County) court system.”

“My constituents want to feel safe when they come here,” Lamar said, adding the capital city belonged to all the citizens of the state. “Where I am coming from with this bill is to help the citizens of Jackson and Hinds County.”

Opponents of the legislation, dozens of whom have protested at the Capitol several days this year, accused the authors of carving out mostly white, affluent areas of the city to be put in the new district.

In earlier sessions, the Legislature created the Capitol Complex Improvement District, which covers much of the downtown, including the state government office complex and other areas of Jackson. The bill would extend the existing district south to Highway 80, north to County Line Road, west to State Street and east to the Pearl River. Between 40,000 and 50,000 people live within the area.

The bill would double the funding for the district to $20 million in order to increase the size of the existing Capitol Police force, which has received broad criticism from Jacksonians for shooting several people in recent months with little accountability. The new court system laid out in House Bill 1020 is estimated to cost $1.6 million annually.

Many House members who represent Jackson on Tuesday said they were never consulted by House leadership about the bill. Several times during the debate, they pointed out that Republican leaders have never proposed increasing the number of elected judges to address a backlog of cases or increasing state funding to assist an overloaded Jackson Police Department.

Democratic members of the House said if they wanted to help with the crime problem, the Legislature could increase the number of elected judges in Hinds County. Blackmon said Hinds County was provided four judges in 1992 when a major redistricting occurred, and that number has not increased since then even as the caseload for the four judges has exploded.

In addition, Blackmon said the number of assistant prosecuting attorneys could be increased within Hinds County. In Lamar’s bill, the prosecuting of cases within the district would be conducted by attorneys in the office of Attorney General Lynn Fitch, who is white. Blackmon said the bill was “about a land grab,” not about fighting crime. He said other municipalities in the state had higher crime rates than Jackson. Blackmon asked why the bill would give the appointed judges the authority to hear civil cases that had nothing to do with crime.

“When Jackson becomes the No. 1 place for murder, we have a problem,” Lamar responded, highlighting the city’s long backlog of court cases. Several Democrats, during the debate, pointed out that the state of Mississippi’s crime lab has a lengthy backlog, as well, adding to the difficult in closing cases in Hinds County.

Lamar said the Mississippi Constitution gives the Legislature the authority to create “inferior courts,” as the Capitol Complex system would be. The decisions of the appointed judges can be appealed to Hinds County Circuit Court.

“We are not incompetent,” said Rep. Chris Bell, D-Jackson. “Our judges are not incompetent.”

Democrats offered seven amendments, including one to make the judges elected. All were defeated primarily along partisan and racial lines. An amendment offered by Rep. Cheikh Taylor, D-Starkville, to require the Capitol Police to wear body cameras was approved. Lamar voiced support for the amendment.

Much of the debate centered around the issue of creating a court where the Black majority in Hinds County would not be allowed to vote on judges.

One amendment that was defeated would require the appointed judges to come from Hinds County. Lamar said by allowing the judges to come from areas other than Hinds County would ensure “the best and brightest” could serve. Black legislators said the comment implied that the judges and other court staff could not be found within the Black majority population of Hinds County. When asked why he could not add more elected judges to Hinds County rather than appointing judges to the new district, Lamar said, “This is the bill that is before the body.”

98 notes · View notes

todayinhiphophistory · 17 days

Text

Today in Hip Hop History:

David Banner was born April 11, 1974

67 notes · View notes

ambivalentlandscape · 1 month

Text

sorry jenny but my favorite character from a mountain goats album is the sun in full force galesburg

#sun climbs the sky for us above the mississippi. i know how to rise up with the sun. saw the sun fall down out of the sky the other day.#sun twinkling on the river this evening. sun refused to shine on my backyard today. sun up above us is trying to kill itself.#many such cases!!#tmg

38 notes · View notes

dejwrites · 1 year

Text

*clears throat* the american government do not care about fuckin’ data being sold or whatever regarding tik tok. they care about the fact that they can’t make money off tik tok *sits down*

#cause when did america ever care about it’s citizens…….like ever #like we deadass watching them prioritize an app #rent is increasing #food prices is increasing #health care still ???????#we had 12 school shootings today :/#l #there’s a bill circling around in Mississippi called the Jim Crow bill #there are counties that are trying to get rid of anything that things that deal with critical race theory #like their asses do not care about our data let’s be forreal here #this is same country that still have yet not made any laws to protect the younger generation or anybody to not get shot going to school #or grocery shopping or to the movies or to a mall

112 notes · View notes

pallanophblargh · 1 year

Text

The muse is still kinda dead, so I tried resuscitating it via two wheels in honor of the equinox. It was good, felt like hugging an old friend. I nearly forgot what it felt like to move fast!

Visited some pathways (strangely) new to me, perhaps to spite the utterly potholed and destroyed highways/roadways these comparatively unscathed trails run alongside. Said trails will likely be underwater before long, if the snowpack and river is anything to go by.

Time to buy a fancy fender for this one; the amount of muck and sand post-ride was unsurprisingly high.

#April rambles #bicycling #bike stuff #Mississippi River #all city big block #a bike named Gyrfalcon #was only 20 or so miles today but they were all good even if my planned destinations were cut off by ice #sucks to be so damn close to endless highway traffic noise #but at least I’m not slamming into nonstop potholes #need more bike trails!#shameless cycling advocate #and yet virtually none of my friends bike I weep

55 notes · View notes

cavity-collector · 5 months

Text

i hope mississippi governor tate reeves kills himself today as he has personally ruined my life and i want him to suffer so so badly.

#yes this is copy of the i hope president biden kills himself today post by i think @duncebento or dunce-bento #i just hate tate reeves on a personal level so much. he is evil and disgustingand i hope hell os real just for him #;; my posts #us politics #mississippi #textpost

13 notes · View notes

ornithological · 2 months

Text

everyone say thank you to livecams for birds

#contact call #cornell lab is my go to for livecams but found a couple other good ones today #one for the mississippi flyway #one for a sandhill crane roost along a river #and (my favourite) one for a reserve in sacramento. it's just ducks everywhere. the camera pans and it's All Ducks #my kinda place!! i now want to go there very badly #i'm spotting a lot of shovelers which are my fave ducks! also some pintail too #can't seem to find many european livecams but oh well #there was one i watched last summer of an osprey nest in scotland (i got to watch a chick fledge in real time!)#so hopefully that'll be on again this year

3 notes · View notes

batemanofficial · 26 days

Text

chinese e-commerce platforms: hi! we want to confirm that we're sending you the correct materials before we ship your package, but once we do we'll partner with local distributors to make sure you get what you ordered as quickly and efficiently as possible! 👍

american e-commerce platforms: the package you ordered two weeks ago has shipped, but has been selected for use in the 74th Annual United Parcel Service Hacky-Sack Invitational. ergo UPS will not be held liable for any damages sustained. your package will arrive somewhere between tomorrow and the breaking of the seventh seal at the rapture. shipping is $17 btw

#speak friend and enter #i ordered a tattoo machine from a company in shenzhen yesterday and it's coming TODAY. kissing them on the mouth #last month i ordered some knives that shipped from mississippi and they took a whole week to arrive #take notes america!!!

3 notes · View notes

shastafirecracker · 6 months

Text

Warning, level 4 soup and bread event

(the Hungarian mushroom soup I think I reblogged a few days ago? plus homemade rosemary bread)

#it’s the first day this autumn that it’s actually gotten cold! I’m celebrating!#it was 85F outside yesterday 😑 welcome to Mississippi #it’s also been droughty for weeks and today a cold/wet front FINALLY hit us #sf cooks #maybe I’ll post more of my cooking pics on here idk #I like cooking and sometimes I’m proud enough to do some food photography

4 notes · View notes

reasoningdaily · 1 year

Text

The Guardian US: Mississippi Republicans pass bill to create separate, unelected court in majority-Black city

The Republican-dominated Mississippi house of representatives has passed a bill to create a separate, unelected court system in the city of Jackson that would fall outside the purview of the city’s voters, the majority of whom are Black.

The bill, which local leaders have likened to apartheid-era laws and described as unconstitutional, would also expand a separate capitol police force, overseen by state authorities. The force would expand into all of the city’s white-majority neighborhoods, according to Mississippi Today. Jackson’s population is over 80% Black.

Speaking after House Bill 1020 passed on Tuesday evening, Jackson’s mayor, Chokwe Lumumba, branded the proposed law “some of the most oppressive legislation in our city’s history”.

“It’s oppressive because it strips the right of Black folks to vote. It’s oppressive because it puts a military force over people that has no accountability to them. It’s oppressive because there will be judges who will determine sentences over people’s lives. It’s oppressive because it redirects their tax dollars to something they don’t endorse nor believe in,” Lumumba said.

The bill passed largely along party lines in a 76-38 vote and will now travel to the state senate, where Republicans also hold a significant majority. The passage was preceded by an intense, four-hour floor debate in which members of the state’s Black caucus made impassioned pleas to reject the legislation and compared the bill to the state’s Jim Crow-era constitution of 1890.

The legislation was proposed by house Republican Trey Lamar, who is white and represents a district in the state’s north-west, which is majority white.

Lamar, who does not live in Jackson, has cited county court backlogs and crime rates in the city as his motivation for the proposed law. During floor debate, Lamar was asked if any of his constituents had asked for the bill. He replied: “I don’t live in Jackson … but you know what I like to do … I like to come to Jackson because it’s my capital city.”

The bill, which is over 1,000 pages long, would expand Jackson’s existing capitol complex improvement district, which is patrolled by the state’s capitol police and currently covers parts of the city’s downtown that house state government buildings. The district’s expansion would cover areas in the city’s north, which, according to local press, include entertainment and shopping neighborhoods.

The new court district would feature two judges directly appointed by Mississippi’s supreme court chief justice, Michael K Randolph, who is white. There would be two prosecutors, appointed by the state attorney general, Lynn Fitch, a white Republican. And two public defenders appointed by the state defender’s office.

Proposed amendments offered on Tuesday included calls to make the judges residents of the Jackson area and to compel elections for the positions. Both amendments failed.

The proposed bill is the latest in a line of extreme legislation in the state, which last year introduced a sweeping anti-critical race theory law, which met vocal opposition from the state’s Black caucus.

Jackson has also suffered from a series of water outages due to ailing infrastructure, which has been chronically underfunded by the state for years. Black residents in the poorest parts of the city have been disproportionately affected.

In November last year, the city’s water system was taken under federal government oversight after the Environmental Protection Agency found the city in violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act.

#mississippi goddamn #MS #Jackson MS #would also expand a separate capitol police force #according to Mississippi Today. Jackson’s population is over 80% Black.#Jackson’s mayor #Chokwe Lumumba #apartheid system

7 notes · View notes

todayinhiphophistory · 8 months

Text

Today in Hip Hop History:

Big K.R.I.T. was born August 26, 1986

104 notes · View notes

the-kipsabian · 1 year

Note

Surprise!!!

what a lovely surprise, a fave boy, thank you!! <33

#gonna try to like. peek into my messages like once a day if theres something i guess #i needed this today thank you <3 #im-just-a-mississippi-girl #thank you for asking! <3

4 notes · View notes

playitagin · 11 months

Text

"1961 –"Disturbing the Peace"

Freedom Riders are arrested in Jackson, Mississippi, for "disturbing the peace" after disembarking from their bus.

#May.24.1961 #Freedom Riders #Jackson #Mississippi #American civil rights movement #history today

2 notes · View notes

euesworld · 2 years

Text

"Good morning, today is a new day.. a new day for new experiences and each one of those is an experience for a smile, go into each experience with an open heart and a smile will never be far away."

Be ready to smile today cause the smiles will flow like the Mississippi river!! What has 4 eyes but can't see? Mississippi, hahaha - eUë