The state-run Capitol Police would have jurisdiction over the entire capital city and would be required to wear body cameras under an amended version of Mississippi House Bill 1020 that the Mississippi Senate passed on March 7, 2023.
Efforts to expand Capitol Police’s jurisdiction over the City of Jackson and to reintroduce a more limited citizen-led ballot initiative process remain alive in the Mississippi Legislature.
Brad “Kamikaze” Franklin writes that Jacksonians and lawmakers should just name the racist tendencies within the Mississippi Legislature thatHouse Bill 1020 reveals. “We know that you don’t like that Black people are running the capital city (at least not the kind of Black people you prefer), and we know you’re dead set on changing that by whatever means, legislative or otherwise, you can,” he writes.
“The Mississippi Legislature creates laws without input from any experts,” News Editor Ashton Pittman writes. “That held true last week, when, as Kayode Crown reported, lawmakers passed a ban on care for transgender minors without input from one transgender Mississippian or any medical professionals with expertise on the topic.”
Controversial legislation to establish a new court system in Hinds County with unelected judges and prosecutors in an expanded Capitol Complex Improvement District has now morphed into an effort to expand the jurisdiction of the State-run Capitol Police over the entire capital city.
Mississippi Senate Bill 2343 would give Capitol Police jurisdiction “relative to the enforcement of all laws of the State of Mississippi within the boundaries of the City of Jackson, Mississippi.”
The Jackson City Council passed a resolution calling House Bill 1020 an “unconstitutional” effort that “would deprive the citizens of Jackson of their right to elect judges according to the Mississippi Constitution.”
I believe this ‘expansion’ is a racial assault, but if you are in the metro area, it will affect you, too, regardless of your race,” Jennifer Riley Collins writes.
“Without a free press, you won’t know about the continued attempts to disempower everyday Mississippians,” Kimberly Griffin writes.
Mississippi Journalism and Education Group is a a 501(c)(3) nonprofit media organization (EIN 85-1403937) for the state, devoted to going beyond partisanship and publishing solutions journalism for the Magnolia State and all of its people.
125 S. Congress Street #1324
Jackson, MS 39201
info@mississippifreepress.org
tips@mississippifreepress.org
events@mississippifreepress.org
601-362-6121
The Mississippi Free Press is a project of the Mississippi Journalism and Education Group, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit journalism organization (EIN 85-1403937).
