April 22 (UPI) — Civil liberties advocates have sued Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves seeking to block the implementation of a new law dramatically expanding the powers of State Capitol Police in the city of Jackson.
House Bill 1020, signed by Reeves on Friday, allows Capitol Police nominally tasked with protecting government buildings to act as a police force for the city of Jackson itself.
Additionally, the bill would create a temporary parallel court system with the Chief Justice of the State Supreme Court appointing judges and the State Attorney General appointing prosecutors.
The NAACP and American Civil Liberties Union have denounced the new measures as unconstitutional and aimed at expanding the power of non-local authority over the majority-Black capital city.
“In violation of the Fourteenth Amendment, these laws target Jackson’s majority-Black residents on the basis of race for a separate and unequal policing structure and criminal justice system to which no other residents of the State are subjected,” the NAACP said in the filing.
“Under this new regime and like in any other jurisdiction in Mississippi, in certain areas of Jackson, a citizen can be arrested by a police department led by a State-appointed official, be charged by a State-appointed prosecutor, be tried before a State-appointed judge, and be sentenced to imprisonment in a State penitentiary regardless of the severity of the act,” the group argued.
The NAACP noted that the bill would allow the Capitol Police to get around the use-of-force restrictions placed on the Jackson Police by Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba in 2020.
Capitol Police have shot four people in Jackson since last summer, including a father of two who was shot dead and a woman who was wounded by gunfire as she lay in bed.
The ACLU similarly denounced the bill as undemocratic.
“While we expected Governor Tate Reeves to sign House Bill 1020 and Senate Bill 2343, it is still disappointing to see legislation that limits the political and voting power of the majority Black citizens of Jackson become law,” the ACLU said in a statement.
The group noted the bill “would require individuals or groups to receive written authorization from Capitol Police to hold public events and protests near State-owned buildings. This means that Jacksonians would have to get permission from an unelected body to exercise their freedom of speech in their own city.”
Reeves, however, defended the bill, saying it is needed to combat high crime rates in Jackson.
“We have a crippling problem with violent crime in our capital city,” Reeves tweeted Friday. “We’re working to address it. And when we do, we’re met with overwhelming false cries of racism and mainstream media who falsely call our actions ‘Jim Crow.'”
