It’s possible that a member of law enforcement fatally shot 3-month-old La’Mello Parker on Interstate 10 in Biloxi, Miss. Local grassroots organizations are rallying together to demand truth and transparency from local police agencies.
Hinds County Sheriff Lee D. Vance, a four-decade law-enforcement veteran and former chief of the Jackson Police Department, died at his home late Wednesday morning. The Hinds County Sheriff’s Office announced the news on social media, explaining that emergency response found Vance unresponsive. Vance was 63.
Parts of Mississippi’s capital city is seeing a “saturation” of additional police presence that Gov. Tate Reeves promises will counter a spike in crime and violence that has worsened since the pandemic began. But violence experts warn that a swelling police presence may not be effective, and it actually harm communities.
Retired civil-rights lawyer Barbara Phillips filed an ethics complaint against Oxford Mayor Robyn Tannehill, then called an unsanctioned meeting of the Oxford Commission on Police Transparency. The mayor and police chief did not run this meeting as they usually do.
The U.S. Department of Justice is seeking an end to its decade-long struggle with the Mississippi Department of Mental Health over inadequate community care, issuing its final plan for the ailing system last Friday.
An Asian man facing prison time on a drug charge got a plea deal soon after his attorney alleged selective prosecution and used the Oxford Police Department’s own data to reveal worsening patterns of racial disparities for arrests and prosecution of drug charges. Now, he is facing five years of supervised probation instead.
A Lafayette County drug unit has lost at least $34,000 that its agents seized during busts and arrests targeting local residents and University of Mississippi students, including for crimes involving marijuana. Government documents show that local officials have known since at least 2016 that the funds were missing—a fact that remained hidden from the public until now. Federal investigators suspect the funds may have been stolen.
On Wednesday, the Petal Area Chamber of Commerce pronounced Officer Aaron Jernigan, the “2020 Officer of the Year.” The award comes on the heels of last year’s protests over his fatal 2017 shooting of Marc Davis.
University of Mississippi Campus Police are pursuing a criminal investigation into Ole Miss Information, a group of anonymous whistleblowers who, last year, provided the Mississippi Free Press with copies of emails that served as the basis for this publication’s “UM Emails” exposé.
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