JACKSON, Miss.—Jackson City Councilman Kenneth Stokes was driving home from his bank on Friday, Sept. 11, when he saw a group of about 30 armed people marching down California Avenue, he recounted at the Jackson City Council meeting on Sept. 22.
The group of people Stokes saw were members of the Fred Hampton Gun Club and the Black Panther Party who traveled from across the United States to march in response to what they believe are potential lynchings in the South and throughout the country, Jackson Police Chief RaShall Brackney said.
This comes after the deaths of 29-year-old Tasia Fortune, 18-year-old Nolan Wells and 1-year-old Kohen Wiley brought national scrutiny to Mississippi this year. Fortune’s death has been ruled a homicide, with three men now in custody in connection with her murder. The investigation into Wiley’s death is ongoing. Wells’ cause of death is undetermined.
“It had been circulating on social media for a very long time, since Ms. Fortune’s death, and after Nolan Wells and a few other ones here, where people are suggesting that there are vigilantes going across Mississippi doing harm, and we understand all of the concerns around that,” Jackson Police Chief RaShall Brackney told the council.
Stokes raised concerns about the demonstration, questioning its legality under city ordinances, but special events permits are only required in Jackson for events requesting things like street closures or noise ordinance waivers, Brackney explained.
“ … I understand we feel very uncomfortable with the weapons, but that is the law here and it is the Second Amendment,” Brackney said. “We did coordinate with all of our intelligence to make sure that there were no threats to human life, which is what we also have to pay attention to, but open carry is permitted here in the state.”
Jackson Police Department’s intelligence unit coordinated with the FBI and the Secret Service to identify any potential threats prior to the demonstration as well, Brackney said. They also monitored the event as it happened.
“We did not have anyone who had reported any incidents of threat to life, but those have been increasing across the nation, where there’s a lot of political discourse, regardless of the group that’s coming in, so we pay attention not to their political affiliation or ideology, but to the behaviors and manners,” Brackney told the Mississippi Free Press.
Stokes called for state legislators to reconsider the laws that allowed the demonstration.
“Suppose the KKK, the Klu Klux Klan, comes into some of these poor black neighborhoods and do the same thing,” Stokes said. “We’ll be upset.”
City Council President Vernon Hartley asked Brackney to ensure community members are informed of demonstrations like this ahead of time. He also asked her to communicate with the city’s legal department to see if there is any way Jackson could require a permit for such a demonstration “within the confines of the constitution,” Hartley said.
New Arrests
Jackson Police made a new arrest in connection with the murder of 29-year-old Tasia Fortune during the Jackson City Council meeting on Sept. 22, Police Chief RaShall Brackney announced after discussing the Sept. 11 Black Panther Party demonstration. Fortune was found hanging in a tree behind an abandoned house on Aug. 3.
Three men have been arrested so far in connection with Fortune’s death. The first was Jarques Ratliff, 51, on Sept. 11, who entered a not guilty plea. Arrests of 25-year-old Earnest Lloyd Jr. and 45-year-old Eric Clark followed. Lloyd was denied bond while Clark has been assigned a $5 million bond. All suspects are considered innocent until found guilty by a jury of their peers.
During a Sept. 25 hearing to consider whether to send the case against Ratliff to a grand jury, Jackson Police Detective Samuel Dukes told the court that the killing appeared to be rooted in a drug dispute and that there is evidence that Fortune attempted to fight off her attackers. He said the hanging appeared “staged,” citing the medical examiner’s opinion.
The U.S. Marshall Service was actively searching for Clarke in connection with Fortune’s killing, but Brackney declined to share his name at the Sept. 22 meeting, prior to his arrest.
“Oftentimes, when we get a name, they flee even further, and so we’re going to give the U.S. Marshals a day or two to help us locate that individual and if we’re not able to do that, we will put that name out,” Brackney told reporters following the council meeting. “We will put it out through a press release and give additional updates and then, as we stated before, we are expecting even more arrests in this case.”
Ratliff will return to court on Wednesday to decide if there is sufficient evidence to send his case to the grand jury, the Associated Press reported.
Finally Having Answers
Police interviewed 15 people and did hundreds of hours of investigative work between Fortune’s death and the arrest of their first suspect, Brackney said at a Sept. 11 press conference following Ratliff’s detention.
Fortune’s mother, Christie Spivey, attended the Sept. 22 city council meeting.
“I wanted to thank the Jackson Police for finally breaking the silence and for bringing us … a few answers…,” Spivey said. “Tasia was a mother, she was a daughter, and she was a sister, and we hope that none of y’all ever have to experience what our family is going through now. But we just want to thank y’all very much for, for you know, taking the time to show love toward our Tasia.”
Brackney previously corrected reports alleging that Fortune’s autopsy was performed by the same medical examiner as Nolan Wells, a young Black man found dead following a trip to Horn Island with a group of friends over the Fourth of July weekend.
“That is a very different person who did that autopsy and that examination as well,” Brackney said at the Sept. 11 press conference.
Follow the Mississippi Free Press’ coverage of Tasia Fortune and read past stories here.
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