Mississippi bill revives Jim Crow era

If you want yet another example of the polarization gripping the country, and the forceful return of regressive politics, look no further than Mississippi.

After more than four hours of intense debate last week, a white majority of the Mississippi House voted to create a separate, unelected court system in Jackson, the state capital. It also voted to expand the Capitol Police force.

The court members — who would include four prosecutors and four public defenders — would be appointed by white state officials, while the state public safety commissioner, who is also white, would oversee the police force. That police force would then expand into majority white neighborhoods.

Such a judicial system has understandably been likened to apartheid in South Africa.

At 80 percent Black, Jackson is known as one of "Blackest cities in America.” Perhaps it should be known as one of the most underrepresented city in America. Redistricting over the past 30 years, critics say, has given Republicans almost total control of the government.

“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, said.

Jackson was declared America’s Deadliest Major City in America by the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting in 2021, when the city set a record with 155 homicides. Such a crisis has to be addressed. But it cannot be addressed by limiting the conversation to one segment of the population. It cannot be addressed by appointing unelected judges with no recourse from city voters.

“Where I am coming from with this bill is to help the citizens of Jackson and Hinds County,” state Rep. Trey Lamar said in defense of his bill.

Approved along party lines, 76-38, the vote was unconscionable — a shameless act by shameless politicians. The bill, which moves to the Senate, recalls the Jim Crow era. It would silence Black voters as effectively as the poll taxes of years gone by.

“It’s oppressive because there will be judges who will determine sentences over people’s lives,” Jackson Mayor Chokwe Lumumba said. “It’s oppressive because it redirects their tax dollars to something they don’t endorse nor believe in.”

The oppressiveness was exacerbated by the timing, arriving weeks after the killing of Tyre Nichols, beaten by five police officers after what should have been a routine traffic stop in Memphis, Tenn. Nichols died three days later. Video footage showed officers kicking and pounding Nichols in a burst of brutality that has become all too common.

The tragedy should have been an inflection point, a reckoning for both Memphis and the nation. The brutal beating of Nichols, caught on video, recalled other tragedies of police brutality: Philando Castile, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd. The names represent a litany of sorrow. It symbolizes an ugly stain for the police forces — and the country — that were entrusted to protect and serve.

The Nichols tragedy underscores the imperative of police reform.

The majority of police officers are noble public servants, carrying out one of the most dangerous jobs in society. Most do it with honor, courage and integrity. They deserve our deepest gratitude.

Reforms, however, are always directed at those who fail to follow the lead of their more sterling and accomplished colleagues. Police departments are characterized, rightly or wrongly, by bad actors. It is past time to educate them or weed them out.

Reform must encompass all the features in the George Floyd Act, which sought to ban chokeholds, no-knock warrants and qualified immunity for law enforcement.

The bill gained approval in the House in 2021, before facing stiff opposition in the U.S. Senate. Congress must try again, with President Joe Biden leading the fight.

And how does this connect back to Jackson, and the prospect of a separate court system and expanded police force with no accountability to the people?

Consider how in his State of the Union Address last week Biden referenced “the talk” — the discussion about not doing or saying anything, no how matter how innocent, to antagonize police officers — all Black parents must have with their children.

The Mississippi bill makes that talk all the more necessary.

System of unelected judges would silence city’s Black voters