Mississippi Republicans pass bill to create separate, unelected court in majority-Black city

[marmar]

(Guardian UK) The Republican-dominated Mississippi house of representatives has passed a bill to create a separate, unelected court system in the city of Jackson that would fall outside the purview of the city’s voters, the majority of whom are Black.

The bill, which local leaders have likened to apartheid-era laws and described as unconstitutional, would also expand a separate capitol police force, overseen by state authorities. The force would expand into all of the city’s white majority neighborhoods, according to Mississippi Today. Jackson’s population is over 80% Black.

Speaking after House Bill 1020 passed on Tuesday evening, Jackson’s mayor Chokwe Lumumba branded the proposed law “some of the most oppressive legislation in our city’s history”.

“It’s oppressive because it strips the right of Black folks to vote. It’s oppressive because it puts a military force over people that has no accountability to them. It’s oppressive because there will be judges who will determine sentences over people’s lives. It’s oppressive because it redirects their tax dollars to something they don’t endorse nor believe in,” Lumumba said.

The bill passed largely along party lines in a 76-38 vote and will now travel to the state senate, where Republicans also hold a significant majority. The passage was preceded by an intense, four-hour floor debate in which members of the state’s Black caucus made impassioned pleas to reject the legislation and compared the bill to the state’s Jim Crow-era constitution of 1890. ............(more)

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/08/jackson-mississippi-republicans-unelected-court-system

[Freethinker65]

1. Can a proposed return to convict leasing be far behind?

[Mopar151]

2. They should just call it The Slave Patrol.

Though "Regulators" has a certain historical context.

A BAD IDEA!, with turbo and nitrous. Maybe they'll name it after Confederate Raider ( f'n terrorist!) William Quantriil... Frank and Jesse James served under him! Famous for the massacre of 180 people in Lawrence, Kansas.

He was so evil, the Confederacy revoked his comisson!

[Mopar151]

3. Inspired by the fine work

Of SCORPION just up the road in Memphis.

[dalton99a]

4. Despicable.

[2naSalit]

5. Hello, DOJ...

Civil rights problem with the usual suspects in MS.