Police have “terrorized” Black residents in a small Mississippi town by subjecting them to false arrests, excessive force and intimidation, according to a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday by a civil rights organization.
JACKSON, Miss — Police have “terrorized” Black residents in a small Mississippi town by subjecting them to false arrests, excessive force and intimidation, according to aThe organization, JULIAN, is seeking a temporary restraining order against the Lexington police department to demand protection for the town’s largely Black population. Lexington is about 63 miles north of the capital city of Jackson.
“I’m working on moving the Lexington Police Department forward,” Henderson said. “I will say, don’t buy into everything you hear. This is defamation of character.” Robert Lee Hooker, a Black police officer who later resigned from the department, told JULIAN and later the AP that he made the recording.
The suit requests unspecified compensatory damages and asks the court to require Lexington to establish an independent civilian complaint review board that would investigate complaints from the public against the police department for abuse of authority. Citing specific confrontations last year and this year, the lawsuit alleges that members of the police department made false arrests, used excessive force and conducted unreasonable searches and seizures. JULIAN said more than 200 Black citizens have formally or informally complained about being harassed, arrested, or fined for baseless reasons in the past year or so.
While the majority of the incidents occurred when Dobbins was chief, the plaintiffs said the interim chief, Henderson, is equally ill-suited to lead the force. According to the lawsuit, Henderson assaulted a tow truck driver who had been called to take away the car of Peter Reeves, a man whom Henderson had arrested and charged with a misdemeanor for having no auto insurance and an illegal window tint on his car.
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