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Officers from the state-run Capitol Police Department and the municipal Jackson Police Department stand guard outside a church in Jackson, Mississippi, where a community meeting to address youth crime was held on Feb. 14.
Rogelio V. Solis/AP
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Rogelio V. Solis/AP
Officers from the state-run Capitol Police Department and the municipal Jackson Police Department stand guard outside a church in Jackson, Mississippi, where a community meeting to address youth crime was held on Feb. 14.
Rogelio V. Solis/AP
JACKSON, Mississippi — The NAACP has warned the black-majority capital of Mississippi that it will again face “distinct and unequal policing” under state police, while civil rights groups I am suing other officials.
Republican Gov. Tate Reeves says violent crimes in Jackson have made it necessary to expand where Capitol Police can patrol and authorize appointed rather than elected judges. .
But the NAACP said in a lawsuit filed late Friday that these are serious violations of the principle of autonomy as they control the police and some courts out of the hands of residents.
“In certain areas of Jackson, citizens are arrested by police departments headed by state-appointed officials, indicted by state-appointed prosecutors, tried before state-appointed judges, and served by state-appointed judges. You can be sentenced to prison and will be sent to prison regardless of the seriousness of your conduct,” the lawsuit states.
NAACP National President Derrick Johnson is a Jackson resident himself. At a community meeting earlier this month, he said the police law would treat blacks as “second-class citizens.”
The bill was passed by the majority white, Republican-controlled House and Senate. Jackson is ruled by Democrats and is approximately 83% black, the largest percentage of any major U.S. city.
The governor said this week that the Jackson Police Department is severely understaffed and believes the state-run Capitol Police Department can provide stability. Over the past three years, the city of 150,000 people has committed more than 100 murders each year.
“We are working to address it,” Reeves said in a statement Friday. “And when we do, we disguise our actions as ‘Jim Crow. Encounter racism calling and the overwhelming false cry of the mainstream media.
According to one of the bills Reeves signed into law on Friday, the Capitol Police Department would have “parallel” jurisdiction with the Jackson Police Department in the city. The Capitol Police jurisdiction expansion will begin on July 1st.
Another law establishes a temporary courthouse within the Capitol Complex Improvement District, which covers part of Jackson. The courts have the same powers as district courts for misdemeanor offenses, traffic violations, and first appearances for some criminal charges. The new law states that people convicted in the Capitol Facilities Improvement District Court may be placed in state prisons, rather than in city or county prisons.
New court judges do not have to live in Jackson and are appointed by the Chief Justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court. The current Chief Justice is a conservative white male.
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