A Mississippi city that made headlines when a video of its police chief bragging about shooting a black man 119 times went viral is now the topic of a damning latest report by the U.S. Department of Justice alleging widespread civil rights violations .

Since 2021, Lexington police have arrested roughly a quarter of the town’s residents and issued greater than $1.7 million in fines during that period – The Justice Department made the disclosure Thursday after a nearly year-long investigation. That works out to about $1,400 for each man, woman and child in the Delta town of 1,200, positioned in certainly one of the poorest counties in the country.

The money was intended to finance the Police. For 2021-2023, Lexington increased police spending from $662,925 to $965,130.

“Lexington has turned the prison into the kind of debtors’ prison that Charles Dickens described in his novels written in the 19th century,” said Todd Gee, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi.

The Justice Department said black residents, who make up 76 percent of the town’s population, were particularly targeted and arrested for minor offenses resembling profanity. This is not any surprise given Lexington’s recent history.

In 2022, Police Chief Sam Dobbins, appointed to the position a 12 months earlier, was fired after he was recorded bragging that he shot “that N—- 119 times, OK?”

A 12 months later, his term was cut short when a former LPD officer released an audio recording
recording of Dobbins’ comments. He claimed to have killed 13 people in the road of duty, said he didn’t confer with “queers” and told one other officer, “I don’t care if you kill a motherfucker in cold blood.”

The Justice Department found a rise in low-level arrests targeting black people coincided with Dobbins’ nominationwhich is white. Under his leadership, Lexington police had a mean per capita arrest rate greater than 10 times higher than the remaining of the state, prosecutors said.

According to community members cited in the Justice Department report, Dobbins’ deputy, Charles Henderson, has replaced him as chief and continues to foster a “culture of abuse and harassment.”

In one incident, which occurred hours after the Justice Department announced it was opening an investigation into Lexington police, officers chased a black man – accused of obstruction – into a field and used a Taser on him nine times. The man began to foam on the mouth; certainly one of the officers then noticed that the probe he fired had hit the suspect in the top.

The man, who suffered from a behavioral disorder, has been arrested three times this 12 months for trespassing and stealing a cup of coffee and a bag of sugar. Each time, police illegally detained him until old charges for previous offenses were settled. But with each arrest, one other wonderful was added, and by November 2023, the unemployed and asset-less man owed greater than $7,500, the Justice Department said.

“Through a combination of poor leadership, retaliation, and a complete lack of internal accountability, LPD has created a system in which officers can ruthlessly violate the law,” the Justice Department report said.

They were often brutal in enforcing the law, sometimes using cattle prods to force compliance, said Assistant U.S. Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Kristen Clarke.

“For example, officers used a Taser to strike a black man 18 times until he was covered in his own vomit and could not speak or talk,” Clarke said.

Local civil rights activist Jill Collen Jefferson was arrested in 2023 for recording a traffic stop. She said Lexington residents essentially live in a police state.

“They are arresting them for things like taking too long to get out of their car at the grocery store…the police have waged a complete and total campaign of fear and control over Black citizens” – Jefferson he told the Mississippi Free Press.

The report shows that city officials expressed willingness to implement reforms after being informed of the Justice Department’s findings in February. They not arrest or detain people for outstanding fines, for instance.

“But … LPD has an ongoing pattern or practice of unconstitutional conduct and additional measures are necessary to stop it,” the report concluded.

In a brand new interview on the favored sports podcast “All The Smoke,” Vice President Kamala Harris responded to attacks on her racial identity that falsely questioned her blackness.

When asked by co-host Matt Barnes, a former NBA player who was herself born right into a multi-ethnic family, with an Italian mother and a black father, about how she was misrepresented by former President Donald Trump, Harris, whose father is a black Jamaican and whose mother is Indian, it explained how silly these attacks looked.

“You’ve always been confident in who you are, but what do you think when you see people question who you are?” Barnes said.

“First of all, I don’t listen to it. I’m really clear about who I am, and if another person is not, they’ve to undergo their very own therapy, it’s none of my business,” Harris said. “My mother was very clear; she raised two black girls to be two proud black women. And that was never a matter.

The false questioning of Harris’ blackness was amplified by former President Donald Trump, who was interviewed on the NABJ conference in August and used the stage to spread a lie about how Harris identified.

During the All the Smoke interview, Harris further explained why questions on multi-ethnicity or mixed race must bear in mind America’s complex history, with segregation tied to systems similar to “one drop rule”, which meant that anyone with even one ancestor of African descent was considered black and discriminated against by law.

“Over the years, journalists – some, not most – wanted to talk about it, and I said OK, if you want to have that conversation, I’m willing to do it, but sit down and get comfortable for a few hours if you want to start talking about race in America.” Harris said truthfully, as Barnes and co-host Stephen Jackson nodded in agreement.

“You want to talk concerning the 1/8 rule? You want to speak about what this implies by way of who you’re perceived to be, and the impact it could have on the remaining of your life, no matter who you really are, by way of your God-given abilities and the rights you could have and it is best to Possess?”

Harris, an HBCU (Historically Black College) and Howard University graduate, also spoke concerning the importance of HBCUs and why the Biden-Harris administration helped invest $16 billion at school funding.

“So a big part of my work, especially in the Senate and now as vice president, has been to increase federal funding for HBCUs. Because again, I know they are centers of academic excellence, centers of academic excellence, but they don’t necessarily have the same types of resources,” Harris explained.

“When I was a senator, I was liable for helping get billions to literally modernize the physical structure since it’s old. And I think increasingly more persons are realizing what you are saying – possibly we have skipped an era, but we’re getting back to a degree where more people understand what our HBCUs do and supply them with more financial support. But we’ve got to.

During the interview, the vice chairman talked about her economic plan for America should she be elected president and the way she deals with right-wing political attacks for being a stepmother.

To watch the total interview, visit the web site YouTube channel for “All the Smoke”.

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When 17-year-old University of Alabama freshman phenom Ryan Williams wowed the Tuscaloosa crowd on September 28 with a thrilling, unimaginable catch on the sideline against the University of Georgia, Former President Donald Trump has once more acted strangely.

This time, they are saying, the previous president waved to the group after which tossed several boxes of chicken nuggets to seemingly random football fans at the University of Alabama’s Bryant-Denny Stadium.

According to the Associated Press, Trump was there as a guest of Ric Mayers Jr., an Alabama businessman who can also be a member of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago golf club. Mayers indicated to the AP that he wanted Trump to enjoy a warm welcome, which the group gave, chanting “USA! USA!” while Trump threw boxes of nuggets.

Trump’s visit to a football game, where he was accepted and seemingly praised by the audience, stands in stark contrast to the coverage he has received since he spread a baseless conspiracy theory on the talk stage in early September.

Consistent with most of Trump’s appeals to conservatives who’ve latched onto his “Make America Great Again” slogan, there may be a view that America needs saving from black and brown people, especially black and brown immigrants.

Most of his supporters, nevertheless, would probably share the emotions of Shane Walsh, a 52-year-old businessman from Austin, Texas. Walsh said that although he doesn’t consider the previous president to be a good man, despite his personal feelings for him, Walsh believes that Trump is a figure who should represent America.

“I do not necessarily like him as a person, but I believe Washington is broken and it’s each side’ fault, and Trump is the sort of guy who can rise up for himself. It has many benefits, but weak will not be one of them. He is an optimist; he just makes you think it if he’s the one in charge. We’ll be nice. Walsh said .

While the group seemed overwhelmingly supportive of Trump based on their response, save for a few boos and prolonged middle fingers, the reality on campus could be very different than his reception at the game, in line with Braden Vick, president of the University of Alabama’s College Democrats chapter.

“I believe there may be a silent majority amongst students who are usually not with Trump. “We have a great atmosphere for a top-five game between these two teams that has playoff and championship implications, and it’s a shame that Donald Trump has to try to ruin it with his selfishness,” Vick said.

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