NAACP Files Lawsuit Against Mississippi for Legislation Expanding Capital City’s Law Enforcement

Gov. says needed to to combat 'unprecedented epidemic of crime'

A resident gestures to an officer as a police presence remained in a south Jackson, Miss., neighborhood on Sept. 22, 2016. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) has filed a lawsuit (pdf) against Mississippi over two bills signed into law to combat the capital city’s high crime rate by giving state officials more control over law enforcement.

Last week, Gov. Tate Reeves signed House Bill 1020, establishing an independent, state-controlled judicial system for the 17.5 square mile Capitol Complex Improvement District (CCID) surrounding the Capitol building in Jackson, Mississippi.

He also signed Senate Bill 2343, which expands the Capitol Police’s jurisdiction into the city.

The bill gives the Capitol police—a state police agency managed by the Department of Public Safety—jurisdiction over the CCID, while the Jackson Police Department would have secondary jurisdiction.

According to Reeves, the legislation increases funding to support the 150 Capitol Police—who will be required to wear body cameras—and will help the understaffed Jackson Police Department.

The legislation will also provide more funding to hire two additional assistant district attorneys, a criminal investigator, and three more public defenders.

In addition, it will create a municipal court to hear cases from the CCID “without deference by elected county and circuit judges.”

The legislation requires leadership in the Mississippi Department of Public Safety to hold quarterly town hall meetings with city residents.

‘Unprecedented Epidemic of Crime’

In a city of about 150,000 residents, over 100 homicides per 100,00 residents were reported for the last three years.

The bill’s primary author, Republican Rep. Trey Lamar, called the bill “a sincere effort to help make our capital city safer for our citizens.”

However, local and national media outlets have panned the bill as a racist attempt by a Republican-led majority in the House and Senate to seize control over a city that is 83 percent black and create a police state, thus prompting accusations of “Jim Crow” laws being echoed and the NAACP lawsuit.

Regardless of how it’s depicted “by liberal activists or in national media,” the bill is about guaranteeing safety for all citizens, Reeves said.

“Jackson is experiencing an unprecedented epidemic of crime,” Reeves tweeted. “The capital city is approximately 6% of Mississippi’s population yet, in 2020, accounted for more than 50% of the homicides in our state. It set a record for homicides within the city that year. It did it again in 2021.  In 2021, Jackson’s homicide rate was almost 100 murders per 100,000 residents—nearly 13 times higher than the US rate of 7.8 per 100,000. In 2022, it was approximately 88.9. On the global level, Jackson found itself in the company of Tijuana, Acapulco, and Caracas as one of the most dangerous places in the world.”

Reeves called the crime problem in the city “crippling.”

“We’re working to address it,” Reeves said. “And when we do, we’re met with overwhelming false cries of racism and mainstream media who falsely call our actions ‘Jim Crow.’”

NAACP Argues Violation of Fourteenth Amendment

The NAACP lawsuit argues that the laws violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment by targeting black residents with a “separate and unequal policing structure and criminal justice system to which no other residents of the State are subjected.”

“Under this new regime and unlike 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 lawsuit states.

The lawsuit argues that the legislation is designed to take power from the city’s longstanding black leadership and singles out the black population.

In response to the lawsuit, Reeves tweeted that though the “Democrat politicians, and the ‘defund the police’ activists may be willing to stand by and do nothing. I am not.”

“Families in Jackson are begging for help restoring law and order to a city that desperately needs it,” Reeves said.