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otherkinnews · 1 month

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One anti-furry bill died, the other two wait to be heard

(This blog post was originally posted on the Otherkin News blog on DreamWidth by Orion Scribner on March 24, 2024.)

Content warnings: Rated G. An urban legend that describes an unsanitary situation. Sexism against transgender people, including attempts to prevent them from going to school or using facilities, and outing children to their parents. A straw-man version of furries being used to try to discredit transgender people, in a way that could cause trouble for people who identify as nonhuman.

So far this year, Republicans have proposed three pieces of legislation that are opposed to furries or people who identify as nonhuman. That’s something they started doing last year, inspired by an urban legend about litter boxes in public schools, which they made up in parody of transgender students asking to use school restrooms. We’ve been ending up calling these “anti-furry bills” as we keep track of them in our Otherkin News blog. Furry isn’t the accurate word, but it is the word that Republicans use in the urban legend and usually in the bills too. Every once in a while, I’m checking on the status of the bills, and trying to see if there are any new ones. Here is the update for this week.

1. Oklahoma House Bill 3084 (OK HB 3084) “Schools; prohibiting certain students from participating in school curriculum or activities; effective date.”

Background: We wrote about this bill in detail in a previous Otherkin News post. The bill says that furry students should be taken out of school by animal control. Its only sponsor (writer) is Justin Humphrey (he/him). This seems linked with his opposition to LGBTQ people, as well as his efforts to legalize animal fighting. Later, Jim Olsen (he/him) took over as principal sponsor of the bill. He proposed changing it to have the same text as an unrelated bill of his, one requiring public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments.

Update: The bill’s current status hasn’t changed since our last update. It’s still at 25% progression toward becoming a law. Its text hasn’t changed from what it was originally, so it's still about furries.

2. Mississippi House Bill 176 (MS HB 176) “Gender dysphoria; require school personnel to notify parents of student who request to be referred to as different gender or nonhuman.”

Background: This was introduced at the same time as the first bill. As we previously wrote about it, the bill is mostly against transgender students in a way that could put them in real danger. It would require schools to out transgender students to parents, and to allow faculty to not accommodate any student who “identif[ies] at school as a gender or pronoun that does not align with the child's sex on their birth certificate, other official records, sex assigned at birth, or identifying as an animal species, extraterrestrial being or inanimate object.”

Update: This bill’s current status is dead! Hooray! It died in committee on March 3. When a bill dies, that means that it won’t progress toward becoming a law.

3. Missouri House Bill 2678 (MO HB 2678) “Prohibits students from engaging in ‘furry’ behavior while at school”

Background: We previously wrote about this bill. The bill says to pull students out of school for being furries or purporting to be animals. The bill’s only sponsor is Cheri Toalson Reisch (she/her). This appears to be connected with her opposition to transgender people as well as her efforts to undermine public schools in favor of charter schools.

Updates: This bill hasn’t changed or moved forward. It’s still the same as it was when it was introduced. A hearing hasn’t been scheduled for it, and it’s not on a House calendar.

About the writer: This blog post was written by Orion Scribner (they/them), who has been a community historian and archivist for more than ten years.

#litterbox hoax #litter box hoax #litter box urban legend #furry #otherkin #therianthrope #nonhuman #US politics #OK HB 3084 #Oklahoma #transphobia #Mississippi #Missouri #MS HB 176 #MO HB 2678 #sexism #Otherkin News #rated G #unsanitary

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odinsblog · 2 months

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🗣️ tw rape mention

In U.S. history the Red Coats were the bad guys, literally coming to oppress American freedom, so it is perfectly apropos for Republicans. Oh, and the reference to The Handmaid’s Tale is also spot on.

#politics #republicans #mississippi #abortion #tate reeves #bodily autonomy #roe v wade #reproductive rights #cw rape #healthcare #forced birthers #reproductive justice #republicans are evil #tw rape #forced birth

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dontmeantobepoliticalbut · 9 months

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U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday will honor Emmett Till, the Black teenager whose 1955 killing helped galvanize the Civil Rights movement, and his mother with a national monument across two states.

Till, 14 and visiting from Chicago, was beaten, shot and mutilated in Money, Mississippi, on Aug. 28, 1955, four days after a 21-year-old white woman accused him of whistling at her. His body was dumped in a river.

The violent killing put a spotlight on the U.S. civil rights cause after his mother, Mamie Till-Bradley, held an open-casket funeral and a photo of her son's badly disfigured body appeared in Black media.

The national monument designation across 5.7 acres (2.3 hectares) and three sites marks a forceful new effort by the President to memorialize the country's bloody racial history even as Republicans in some states push limits on how that past is taught.

"America is changing, America is making progress," said the Rev. Wheeler Parker Jr., 84, a cousin of Till's who was with the boy on the night he was abducted at gunpoint from the relatives' house they were staying at in Mississippi.

"I've seen a lot of changes over the years and I try to tell young people that they happen, but they happen very slow," Parker said on Monday in a telephone interview as he traveled from Chicago to Washington to attend the signing ceremony at the White House as one of approximately 60 guests.

Tuesday marks the 82nd anniversary of Till's birth in 1941. One of the monument sites is the Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ in Chicago, where Till's funeral took place.

The other selected sites are in Mississippi: Graball Landing, close to where Till's body is believed to be have been recovered; and Tallahatchie County Second District Courthouse, where two white men who later confessed to Till's killing were acquitted by an all-white jury.

Signs erected at Graball Landing since 2008 to commemorate Till's killing have been repeatedly defaced by gunfire.

Now that site and the others will be considered federal property, receiving about $180,000 a year in funding from the National Park Service. Any future vandalism would be investigated by federal law enforcement rather than local police, according to Patrick Weems, executive director of the Emmett Till Interpretive Center in Sumner, Mississippi.

Other such monuments include the Grand Canyon, Statue of Liberty and the laboratory of inventor Thomas Edison.

Biden, an 80-year-old Democrat, will likely need strong support from Black voters to secure a second term in the 2024 presidential election.

He screened a film recounting the lynching, "Till," at the White House in February. Last March, he signed into law a bipartisan bill named for Till that for the first time made lynching a federal hate crime.

A Republican field led by former President Donald Trump has made conservative views on race and other contentious issues of history a part of their platform, including banning books and fighting efforts to teach school children accounts of the country's past that they regard as ideologically inflected or unpatriotic.

"This is an amazing, teachable moment to talk about the importance of this story as an American story that everybody can share in now, particularly at a time when people are trying to rewrite history," said Christopher Benson, president of the non-profit organization the Emmett Till & Mamie Till-Mobley Institute in Summit, Illinois.

“We have a memorial now that is not erasable. It can't be banned and it can't be censored, and we think that's a very important thing.”

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mysharona1987 · 2 years

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#News #scotus #mississippi #democrats #republicans #politics #donald trump #trump #the handmaid's tale #margaret atwood #Twitter #dogs

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commiepinkofag · 14 days

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Chisel. Chisel — First Amendment v American Fascism

[The Supreme] Court’s decision to leave the Fifth Circuit’s attack on the First Amendment in place could be temporary. As Sotomayor writes in her Mckesson opinion, when the Court announces that it will not hear a particular case it “expresses no view about the merits.” The Court could still restore the First Amendment right to protest in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas in a future case. For the time being, however, the Fifth Circuit’s Mckesson decision remains good law in those three states. And that means that anyone who organizes a political protest within the Fifth Circuit risks catastrophic financial liability.

#black lives matter #racism #first amendment #right of assembly #capitalism #protest #activism #unconstitutional #fascism #lousiana #mississippi #texas #usa #us politics #supreme court #2024

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reasonsforhope · 9 months

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"When President Joe Biden signed a proclamation Tuesday establishing a national monument honoring Emmett Till and his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, it marked the fulfillment of a promise Till’s relatives made after his death 68 years ago.

The Black teenager from Chicago, whose abduction, torture and killing in Mississippi in 1955 helped propel the Civil Rights Movement, is now an American story, not just a civil rights story, said Till’s cousin the Rev. Wheeler Parker Jr.

“It has been quite a journey for me from the darkness to the light,” Parker said during a proclamation signing ceremony at the White House attended by dozens, including other family members, members of Congress and civil rights leaders.

“Back then in the darkness, I could never imagine the moment like this, standing in the light of wisdom, grace and deliverance,” he said.

With the stroke of Biden’s pen, the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument, located across three sites in two states, became federally-protected places. Before signing the proclamation, the president said he marvels at the courage of the Till family to “find faith and purpose in pain.”

“Today, on what would have been Emmett’s 82nd birthday, we add another chapter in the story of remembrance and healing,” Biden said...

On Tuesday, reaction poured in from other elected officials and from the civil rights organizing community. The Rev. Al Sharpton said the Till national monument designation tells him “that out of pain comes power.”

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jefferies said the monument “places the life and legacy of Emmett Till among our nation’s most treasured memorials.”

“Black history is American history,” he said in a written statement...

Till-Mobley demanded that Emmett’s mutilated remains be taken back to Chicago for a public, open casket funeral that was attended by tens of thousands of people. Graphic images taken of Emmett’s remains, sanctioned by his mother, were published by Jet magazine and fueled the Civil Rights Movement...

Altogether, the Till national monument will include 5.7 acres (2.3 hectares) of land and two historic buildings. The Mississippi sites are Graball Landing, the spot where Emmett’s body was pulled from the Tallahatchie River just outside of Glendora, Mississippi, and the Tallahatchie County Second District Courthouse in Sumner, Mississippi, where Emmett’s killers were tried...

The Illinois site is Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ in Chicago, where Emmett’s funeral was held in September 1955...

Mississippi state Sen. David Jordan, 90, was a freshman at Mississippi Valley State College in 1955 when he attended part of the trial of the two men charged with killing Emmett. As a state senator for the past 30 years, Jordan, who is Black, spearheaded fundraising for a statue of Emmett Till that was dedicated last year in Greenwood, Mississippi, a few miles from where the teenager was abducted.

On Tuesday, Jordan praised Biden for creating the Till national monument.

“It’s one of the greatest honors that a president could pay to a person, 14, who lost his life in Mississippi that’s created a movement that changed America,” Jordan told the AP."

-via AP, July 25, 2023

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workersolidarity · 7 months

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🇺🇲 CURRENT AND PREDICTED TIMELINE FOR SALTWATER INTRUSION UP THE MISSISSIPPI AND INTO THE NEW ORLEANS WATER SUPPLY

A lack of rainfall in the Mississippi River basen has allowed denser saltwater from the Gulf of Mexico to intrude slowly up the Mississippi River over the last two months.

Current estimates put the saltwater intrusion reaching the New Orleans water supply in Algiers by October 20th, and the Carrollton water treatment plant by October 28th. Currently preparations are being made for the intrusion to last about 3 months, or until roughly late January according to top city officials citing data collected by the Army Corps of Engineers.

On Wednesday, the Biden Administration declared a Federal emergency after a formal request by Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards.

According to New Orleans Sewage & Water Board the city's drinking water "is safe" for now.

#source

#source2

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notwiselybuttoowell · 1 year

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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.

#in well that's horrendous news #Mississippi #democracy #authoritarianism #us politics #the justice system #judiciary #jackson mississippi

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republicanidiots · 2 years

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#politics #pollution #mississippi #environment #Mississippi is always the worst

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batboyblog · 1 year

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There's No Such Thing as an Off-Year: You Better Vote 2023.

It feels like every day you read about a horrible new law being passed by a Republican State government, or a Republican governor saying something horrible usually about trans children or drag queens. It can feel like there's nothing you can do, its an off year for elections so you just have to sit and wait and hope they don't get to pass too much terrible shit before Election Day 2024. Well you're wrong! there are elections in 2023! and big ones! There are 3 Governor's races and 4 state legislature races this year!

Before we go any farther I need EVERYONE (who is an American, sorry non-Americans I know we're annoying) to PLEASE check if you're registered to vote, Republican elections officials love to purge voters from the rolls. If you're under 18 but will be 18 by the next election many states allow you to pre-register and you should:

VOTE

Also if you don't live in a state listed below, you should check to see if you're city/town council, county commission, or local school board are holding election this year, Check!

Governors:

Kentucky:

If you're not from Kentucky you might not know that the home of Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul has a Democratic Governor, but it does, Andy Beshear. Governor Beshear from his time as Attorney General (2016-2019) through his first term as Governor has been a support of trans rights in Kentucky. Beshaer vetoed a sweeping anti-trans bill last month, sadly the Republican super majority overrode his vetoed. However Beshear and his veto powers is the one thing standing in the way of Kentucky becoming like its neighbor to the south Tennessee which is leading the nation is extreme anti-LGBT laws and general undemocratic behavior. On his second day in office Governor Beshear restored the voting rights to nearly 200,000 former (nonviolent) felons, disproportionately African-Americans. During the Covid pandemic Governor Beshear became a national leader in fighting Covid disinformation and enforcing recommended public health rules while Republican governors in the states around him denied science and let people die by fighting mask mandates and shut downs. Governor Beshear is also strongly pro-choice, he's endorsed by Planned Parenthood and NARAL, he helped expand access by allowing a second clinic to provide abortions in the state, and has vetoed efforts to restrict abortion in the state. Having a Democratic Governor is so important to mitigating the harm of the Republican legislature and improving the lives of people in Kentucky. So if you live in Kentucky of course vote, but also if you live in or near Kentucky please please think about volunteering just a little of your time to talk to voters and explain why this is important and if you don't live near Kentucky you can donate even a dollar helps or buy a hat or bag to help

VOTE VOLUNTEER SHOP DONATE

Mississippi:

It's pretty rare Democrats get a shot at the governorship in a state like Mississippi but 2023 might really be that chance. If you look at health, education, child hunger, unemployment, and life expectancy Mississippi regularly ranks near or sometimes at the bottom of states. When you understand just under 40% of the state (38%) is Black and Republicans have dominated politics for a generation those numbers start to make painful sense, it's intentional. However! we face a rare moment where Democrats might take the governor's mansion in Jackson. The last election in 2019 was unusually close (52-47) and since then Republican Governor Tate Reeves has been mired in a welfare scam scandal (involving Brett Favre of all people) and a failure to deal with a water crisis in Jackson the state's capital and largest city that left 150,000 people without clean water. Reeves is today the least popular Republican Governor in the nation. The Democratic candidate is Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley (yes he is related to Elvis Presley, yes really). Presley was elected his hometown's mayor at the age of 23, the youngest mayor in the history of the state. In 2007 he was elected to Mississippi's powerful Public Service Commission representing the northern 3rd of the state, he's won re-election in 2011, 2015 and 2019. The Public Service Commission regulates electricity, railroads, and internet service in the state of Mississippi. As a commissioner Presley repeatedly blocked efforts for "clean" coal in the state and managed to push through the largest solar power protect east of the Rocky Mountains. He's also made bring high speed Internet to rural communities in the state a main part of his mission on the commission. Presley wants to expand Medicaid (remember worst health outcomes in America?) Mississippi is one of just 10 states that still hasn't expanded it under Obamacare. He also wants to do away with the grocery tax and fully fund education. Reaves is against the first two and has mocked and blocked efforts to fund education. Mississippi for the first time in a long time has a chance of electing a governor who cares and will fight to improve people's lives. If you live in Mississippi of course vote, but also volunteer, if you live near Mississippi take a weekend to travel to the state and volunteer, if you don't live near Mississippi please give what you can donate or shop

VOTE VOLUNTEER SHOP DONATE

Louisiana:

Not gonna lie Louisiana will be the hardest lift this year. For the last 8 years the state has had a Democratic Governor, John Bel Edwards first elected in 2015 and now term-limited so he can't run again. While being thought of as a conservative Democrat (it is Louisiana after all) Edwards as done a lot of good, he expanded medicare in the state and cut the number of uninsured people in half in his first year in office. One of his first acts was to sign an executive order protecting LGBT people from job discrimination and repealed a Republican executive order protecting companies from discriminating against same sex couples. Republicans are desperate to retake this Deep South Governorship. The Republicans have endorsed the state's Attorney General, Jeff Landry. Landry sued Governor Edwards in 2016 to block his LGBT protections, even though Landry's brother is openly gay and spoke against the suit. Landry joined election denying law suits trying to overturn the 2020 election. He sued the federal government over Covid vaccine mandates for health care workers. Landry has lobbied with other Republican AGs to stop Title IX from being used to cover protect trans students. On the Democratic side Democrats have rallied behind Shawn Wilson who served as Governor Edwards' Secretary of transportation for the last 8 years. Wilson would be the first black governor in the history of Louisiana a state that is just over 30% African American, and the first black governor from the Deep South. Wilson favors raising Louisiana's minimum wage, stuck at the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour. He's for investing in costal communities facing the effects of climate change. Wilson also represents a major shift in Louisiana politics, he's pro-choice while Governor Edwards is anti-abortion. This represents a big move, when Edwards was first elected just under 60% of voters in the state say they wanted Abortion to be illegal, in 2022 that had shrunk down to just under 50%. Louisiana has a choice between becoming a radically anti-LGBT state run by an election denier, or protecting progress made and electing a pro-choice black Democrat. If you live in Louisiana make sure you're registered to vote, and everyone you know knows to vote. If you're in Louisiana or close to it volunteer just for a weekend. If you don't live close donate or buy something.

VOTE VOLUNTEER SHOP DONATE

Other Statewide Offices:

This year in Kentucky, Louisiana, and Mississippi there are also statewide elections for the important and powerful but often over looked jobs of Attorney General, Secretary of State, Treasurer, and Agriculture Commissioner. Sadly each of these posts in the 3 states is currently held by a Republican. These jobs, particularly Attorney General the chief law enforcement office in the state and Secretary of State that over sees elections are very important. Traditionally because they're more overlooked Democrats in Red states manage to pick them up. If you live in Kentucky, Louisiana, and Mississippi please do your research, remember to vote all the way down the ticket and get involved, these jobs often times don't get coverage but they are important. I'd like to briefly highlight just one race. In Kentucky the Republican Attorney General (who tried to use Covid to ban abortion, and then sued against masks) is running to unseat Governor Beshear. Democratic State Rep Pamela Stevenson is running to fill the seat. I could say a lot of things but just watch this fire breathing speech by Representative Stevenson in support of trans rights

Stevenson would also be the first black woman elected to statewide office in Kentucky, so check her website give her a dollar, volunteer if you're in Kentucky

State Legislative elections

Four states, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, and Virginia are having elections for their state House and Senates. If you've been frustrated, horrified, and/or scared by the flood of anti-trans, anti-abortion and anti-LGBT more generally bills that seem to be coming out of state legislatures every single day this year, well here's your chance to really effect that.

Virginia

In 2021 Republican Glenn Youngkin narrowly won Virginia's governorship. While some in the media tried to paint Youngkin as "moderate" his governorship so far as been consumed with a war on diversity, trying to ban "CRT" and setting up a hotline to report "divisive practices" in schools. He also attacked trans students by trying to overturn the progress made under the last Democratic Governor and changing school policies to enact a bathroom ban, a pronoun/name change ban and out students to parents. After a mass walk out by students in the state Youngkin was forced to put those policies on hold. In the same election Youngkin won in 2021 Republicans narrowly, 52 to 48, took control of the Virginia House of Delegates. Thankfully Democrats retained control of the State Senate, 22-18, which has served as a block on Youngkin, stopping him from appointing a former Trump official and coal lobbyist to head the states environmental protection. It's very important to protect the Senate majority and retake the House to block the worst of Youngkin, protect Virginia's students, and set the state up to take back the governorship. One special shout out, the first openly trans person to be elected to state government, Danica Roem, was elected to the Virginia House in 2017. After being re-elected twice, Roem is running for the State Senate. If she wins it'll be the first time a trans person has been elected to both houses of a state legislature, and the first time a trans politician has "moved up" an important step to maybe one day a Congresswoman Roem. Check her website to see how you can help make a little trans history. Make sure to VOTE, VOLUNTEER, and DONATE

Louisiana and Mississippi

both Louisiana and Mississippi have Republican majorities in their state House and Senate and pretty big majorities. But thats not a reason to give up hope. One of the big problems we see across the country is Republican super majorities or veto proof majorities were there's no break on the most extreme instincts of the Republicans. Republicans have a super majority in all four chambers of these state legislatures. However flipping just a few seats will drastically reduce the power of out of control Republicans. Particularly if either state manages to elect a Democratic governor. A Democratic governor facing a veto proof Republican state legislature is greatly reduced in what they can do to block the worst. Democratic governors in Kentucky and Kansas both vetoed hateful anti-trans laws only to be overridden by Republican supermajorities. However again only flipping just 3 seats in the Louisiana House (for example) will strip Republicans of their super majority and force Republicans to have to talk to the Democratic minority on issues rather than steamrolling over them. If you're in Louisiana or Mississippi you should have already checked if you're registered to vote, but check the Louisiana and Mississippi Democratic Parties for ways to help.

New Jersey

New Jersey is a blue state with a Democratic governor and Democrats control both houses of the state legislature. But thats no reason to get complacent! Democrats don't have a super majority in either house of New Jersey's legislature, a more deeply blue state government can push forward strong bills. Governor Phil Murphy has been an aggressively progressive guy which is a big contrast to former governor Trump ally Chris Christie. In the 2018 US House election Democrats won all but one of New Jersey's Congressional seats, by 2022 there were 3 Republicans representing New Jersey in Congress, the road to winning back the US House runs through flipping New Jersey's Republican seats and that starts by building a strong ground game and an engaged voter base in these elections right here. Don't take it for granted, don't sit it out. If you're in New Jersey VOTE, VOLUNTEER and DONATE

Special elections

If you don't live in Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, or Virginia like I said at the top there are LOTS of elections to city/town council, county government, judgeships, local DAs, and school boards all the time. So far in 2023 there have been 14 states that have had a special election to fill a vacancy in their state legislature so pay attention there may be an important election coming your way. And finally before I got I have to highlight two special elections everyone in America needs to be paying attention to

Tennessee

In the aftermath of the Covenant School shooting three Democratic members of the Tennessee House joined protesters calling for action on gun control. Rather than take action on gun control the Republican super majority in the State House filed to expel the three from office. In the final vote the two black Representatives, Justin Jones and Justin Pearson were expelled from office while their white colleague, Gloria Johnson, who did the same thing, was not expelled by the Republicans. This is a naked assault on democracy, with the Republican majority declaring they get to decide who their opposition is, and that they get to override the will of the voters whenever a black member of the House hurts their feelings. And expelling the black members and not the one white member for the same behavior is nakedly racist. There's lots more shitty details that I can't get into but if you're in Tennessee make sure you're registered to VOTE because the assault on your rights is fully under way. Both Jones and Pearson have made it clear they plan to run for re-election in the special elections set off by their expulsion. So if you live in Nashville (Jones' district) or Memphis (Pearson's district) you better show up, vote, tell everyone to vote, if you live anywhere in Tennessee please check their webpages (Justin Jones, Justin Pearson) for ways to volunteer and get out the vote. Where ever you live you can DONATE that link gives to them both jointly. Also check out the Tennessee Democrats because you better not let this moment pass, you need to gear up to fight for next year.

Please Remember to VOTE, but also volunteer, and engage, there are big elections happening all the time, and next year will be even bigger.

#vote #voting #politics #tennessee #Virginia #louisiana #mississippi #Kentucky #New Jersey #election #elections #election 2023 #tennessee 3 #trans rights #abortion

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lilithism1848 · 3 months

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#leftism #anti capitalism #communism #socialism #anarchy #extremism #oppression #right wing politics #hypocrisy #nuclear weapons #usa history #america #united kingdom #us army #united states #mississippi #americans #usa news #usa

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odinsblog · 1 month

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JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Two former Mississippi deputies wept in court Wednesday as a federal judge sentenced them to years in prison and condemned their cruelty for breaking into a home with four other white officers and torturing two Black men.

U.S. District Judge Tom Lee sentenced Christian Dedmon, 29, to 40 years in prison and Daniel Opdyke, 28, to 17.5 years.

Lee said Dedmon carried out the most “shocking, brutal and cruel attacks imaginable” against the two Black men, Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker, and against a white man during a traffic stop weeks earlier.

Dedmon did not look at Jenkins and Parker as he apologized Wednesday, saying he’d never forgive himself for the pain he caused.

Jenkins, who has trouble speaking after being shot in the mouth during the January 2023 attack, said in a statement read by his lawyer that Dedmon’s actions were the most depraved of any of those who attacked him.

“Deputy Dedmon is the worst example of a police officer in the United States,” Jenkins’ lawyer read. “Deputy Dedmon was the most aggressive, sickest and the most wicked.”

On Tuesday, Lee sentenced 31-year-old Hunter Elward, who shot Jenkins, to nearly 20 years in prison and Jeffrey Middleton, 46, to 17.5 years. The judge called their actions “egregious and despicable.” They, like Opdyke and Dedmon, worked as Rankin County sheriff’s deputies during the attack. (source)

#politics #defund the police #michael corey jenkins #eddie terrell parker #goon squad #blacklivesmatter #police #mississippi #racism #rankin county

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dontmeantobepoliticalbut · 1 year

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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.”

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