Department of Justice is investigating Mississippi Police Department for targeting black residents. Well, this is different. Let's see what's going on. DoJ launches probe into Mississippi town where white cops allegedly [00:00:16] use military like tactics on black residents they falsely arrest. I wonder if this is a new allegation. This investigation stems from allegations included in a 2022 lawsuit filed by several black residents against the city of Lexington. [00:00:32] The complaint comes after a slew of complaints about local officials to the agency. And here's some of what that lawsuit states. Throughout 2021 and 2022, plaintiffs and other black Lexington citizens have been falsely arrested, [00:00:47] forced to undergo baseless searches and seizures. Roadblocks subjected to unreasonable force by LPD officers when they verbally object to police mistreatment. Court documents stated, tactics employed by LPD against [00:01:04] these black citizens are like those recommended for use by the United States Army to quell armed rioters in occupied nations. And a Black Star with the details here. Police officers purposely set up roadblocks in predominantly black areas, [00:01:21] especially near Holmes County Central High School when it held events. The complaint insinuates that officers executed about 300 roadblocks last year to monitor black motorists. Well, this doesn't go on in America, does it? [00:01:36] This is someplace else. Don't we go? We deploy to other places to try to get people relief and instill order and democracy. Isn't that what we do? We send people to these places where there's all of these checkpoints and [00:01:52] roadblocks. So this is what the lawsuit is about. Police officers purposely set up those roadblocks. Interim Police Chief now, what's he accused of? Interim Police Chief Henderson started harassing not only Stuart, [00:02:10] but also his family members, including his children and nephews. In one instance, after his daughter declined Henderson's advances, he began to approach her and pin phony crimes on her, such as taking too long to get out of her car. [00:02:26] Again, this is from the lawsuit. Atlanta Blackstar with the details. Can we put up the chief's picture again? Mayor, you just made the point. Because I hear people shouting sometimes when we show a picture, [00:02:42] and it happens to be a black person in uniform, saying this isn't racist. I need you to make the point again before we move any further into the details here that there's one color too often it's blue. [00:02:59] >> Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think people got to get comfortable with this idea that policing is bad. Part of it is it's based in this notion that there's a bad apple. No, it's a bad system. And the fact that the DOJ, and I know we're gonna talk about this more. The DOJ is investigating and targeting black people in Mississippi. [00:03:15] It's hilarious in the saddest position possible. They're a hundred plus years little too late. Tell all the people, all the black people dead, that there's been an investigation launched by the DOJ and see how excited they might be. [00:03:32] I.e Circle 18 something. This is 2023 and we know this is happening. We know it's been happening and it's tragic. And this also goes into this idea that elections matter. Sharon, think about this. This is a town that's 76% black. [00:03:48] And I tell people all the time, when the power structure exists in the manner that it does, does not matter what your elected officials look like if you didn't vote them in. If a minority percentage of the population is controlling who's in charge, you still get outcomes like this. Where you can have a black police chief who's comfortable with what's [00:04:06] happening to black people in this town. >> Speaker 1: Let's talk more about black police chief Mayor Henderson is accused of breaking into a 60-year-old woman's home without a warrant while only wearing a nightgown during the winter. She was maced, arrested without her Miranda warning being read to her, [00:04:27] and hosed down before the chief left the scene. Former Lexington Police Department Chief Sam Dobbins was fired in 2022 after a secret recording of him leaked. There's Sam. The audio Dobbins can be heard bragging he shot and killed 13 people in [00:04:46] the line of duty, including a black man who he says he shot 119 times. >> Speaker 2: Jesus. >> Speaker 1: Yeah, according to a copy of the 16 minutes recording obtained by USA Today. What on earth? From his own lips. [00:05:03] More than 20 officers turned in their badges due to not aligning with the behaviors and city's culture of corruption. For instance, one officer resigned after he saw Dobbins strike a suspect in the head while they were handcuffed. Now, when fellow officers entrenched in this culture say, that's too much for me. [00:05:24] I'm out of here. I don't want any part of this. You know, it's bad. Bragging on the recording, I don't know. Maybe it is true. They walked right off the job, said, here's my resignation. Hartman pushed down at least four officers after refusing to violate [00:05:43] individual rights. Now, more than a year later, the US Department of Justice announced a probe into the police department in the city. The DOJ made the announcement November 8th, said it would zero in on use of force and it stops searches and arrests. They also plan to reach out to the community for [00:06:01] insight into their experiences. City officials, I'll go ahead and read the last line of our reporting. City officials are cooperating with them. I wish the city officials may have cooperated when they were hearing [00:06:17] about a police force run amok, violating people, hurting people, killing people. I wish the city would have cooperated with the citizens at that time. Am I wrong? >> Speaker 2: You know you're not wrong. [00:06:32] And the tragedy is, they know you're not wrong except for it's the way of America, right? It is as American as apple pie for the police departments to behave in this manner and the city government to uphold that behavior. This is tacky but it's also again American. And we would be remiss if we didn't mention the similarities between [00:06:50] Lexington, Mississippi and Ferguson. How 70% of plus of the population are black still controlled by white people with white police chief and also mayors where people are acting and living like second class citizens subjected to these crazy pullover and [00:07:07] fines that are subjected that are just basically based on your race profiling. We talked about it in New York and the problem it posed under the past two mayors of that city. We are just allowing it to happen throughout the southern part of this country as if it's souped as yours. So until we are getting serious about really, [00:07:24] really addressing police department including the mayors as part of that because I tell people all the time elections have consequences. And if you have a mayor that allows racism in the police department then your mayor is de facto racist. And I think we need to just see it that way and call it that way and [00:07:42] stop sitting the hell out on elections, especially local ones. >> Speaker 1: Mayor, I was in Ferguson. I covered Ferguson day one. And I would come back to the newsroom and some white colleague would say to me I don't understand what they want, and I said, well so and so. [00:08:02] I think what they want is to just be able to breathe and walk. There were stories, story after story of people in Ferguson, Missouri, black people who said there wasn't a day that they did not fear going jaywalking arrested. [00:08:19] Let me pat you down, arrested, put in a debtor's prison. Does this still go on? Yes, debtors prison. In fact, poor blacks were justifying the cost to call tiny Ferguson a city with its own police force, sick. [00:08:38] But I had dinner, Mayor, with a political operative friend. Not that long ago, and he said something to me, he mostly helps. Well, it doesn't matter what side of the aisle he's on, but he said this, we began talking about Cop City, which you're familiar with. [00:08:57] It something that people are objecting to, others are demanding. And he said to me, what most people don't realize is there must be an alliance between corporate well to do residents [00:09:12] who secretly want more police because what do they want? They wanna keep a certain population in check in order for them to do business. That is their formula. That's how they see it. It is a contract. It is why a black chief perhaps would allow this kind of behavior and [00:09:32] set up roadblocks, 300 roadblocks because it's a predominantly black attended event. You're a mayor, who by the way, don't think takes a salary or barely does. It's not gonna buy you maybe two dinners, Mayor, [00:09:50] but you know about this kind of thing. I was interested, stunned, appalled but tell me more. >> Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean listen, the idea that, especially like Oklahoma state level, the idea that police departments are part or [00:10:06] extended arms of corporations should not be surprised to anybody in America. People think and we believe, because we have such an over policing of people, especially black and brown people in this country, that police have always been a part of America. But in actuality, that's not the case. [00:10:21] There weren't police departments during slavery, right? They needed a way to criminalize being black and free. So they created these police departments and all of these new constitutions after the civil war reform where police departments became mandates. So what they did was they simply said, okay, we'll just use what, [00:10:37] we're slave catchers. Think about that. The police departments used to be slave catchers, protecting the interests of the well to do, because during slavery, the richest zip codes were all in the south where plantations were. So people literally took these people who were only there to protect and bring back [00:10:54] missing property, i.e black bodies that had found them way free, bring them back and turn them into police departments, and they still function that way. When you see protect and serve it was not a government entity designed to protect you Sharon, and me, and anybody else that looked like us. [00:11:11] It's only there to protect and serve. Broken glass and corporation. And that's how they show up. And now the corporation that they're serving and we're not talking about it are these privatized prisons. How do you protect them? Putting more black bodies in them, of course. They have mandates, right, Mayor? [00:11:26] A lot of them say it must be 90% full, or how do you do that without getting these charges going, flowing? Let's get some cop to this or that. It's stunning. But I will say this. [00:11:41] You, I hope, aren't a rare bird, Mayor, down in Enfield, North Carolina. Because when my friends ask me about cop city, my journalistic nose just says, well, I need to smell what's cooking over here, because there is no cop city unless city council and [00:11:59] the mayor of the great civil rights city, Martin Luther King birthplace. The King center's here, unless the mayor of Atlanta and others have already made the deal. You can protest all you want, but you better smell what they're cooking.