Mississippi Today
Hinds County forces unite against bill to create unelected judicial district, expanded police force
Hinds County forces unite against bill to create unelected judicial district, expanded police force
Jackson and Hinds County community members, elected officials, pastors and advocacy groups hope to stop legislation that would expand the boundaries of the Capitol Police and create a court system within the force’s district.
Opponents of House Bill 1020 say it is an unprecedented attempt to strip power away from the city of Jackson, which has one of the largest Black populations in Mississippi. They say the bill is racist and it implies that Black leadership is incapable of governance.
“We get to put all the action in someone else’s hands and pay the taxes to the king,” Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said during a Tuesday press conference on the Capitol steps.
The bill, proposed by Rep. Trey Lamar, R-Senatobia, has passed through the Ways and Means Committee and is up for consideration by the full House.
Speakers at the news conference said they are against the existence and expansion of the Capitol Police, which was involved in several shootings last year that led to injuries or deaths, including the death of 25-year-old Jaylen Lewis, who died after a traffic stop by a Capitol Police officer.
The current boundaries of the Capitol Complex Improvement District where the Capitol Police operates include downtown, Jackson State University, the University of Mississippi Medical Center, Fondren and Belhaven. HB 1020 would push the district north.
The district started out as a way to provide funding for infrastructure in the Capitol area. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Legislature used federal relief funds to create a patrol fleet for the Capitol Police and have four appointed judges help address case backlogs within the Hinds County Circuit Court, said Attorney Paloma Wu from the Mississippi Center for Justice.
She said this set the stage for HB 1020. The bill proposes creating a court system for the district with judges appointed by the Mississippi Supreme Court chief justice and prosecutors appointed by the state attorney general. The chief of the Capitol Police District would also be appointed by the Department of Public Safety commissioner.
“It impacts you whether you live within the red line or the blue line,” Wu said about how the district court system would cover not just people living in the district, but around Hinds County.
Wu said the power of over 200,000 Hinds County residents would be placed in the hands of one person – Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael Randolph. He did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
Opponents also said the bill will empower a slate of all white and unelected officials for Hinds County.
The entire Hinds County Democratic delegation and Mississippi Senate Democratic Caucus are against the bill, according to statements from the groups.
The county’s circuit, chancery, county and justice court judges released a statement Monday evening calling the bill unconstitutional and one that would disenfranchise the county’s voters and remove power from elected judges.
“House Bill 1020 removes authority of the Circuit, Chancery, County and Justice Court judges from hearing and presiding over cases within the proposed Capital Improvement District and takes the constitutional power of elected judges and gives it to Judges appointed by the Supreme Court,.” according to the statement.
On Tuesday on the steps of the Hinds county Courthouse, the judges flanked Senior Circuit Judge Winston Kidd. He said the residents of every judicial district elect their judges, but HB 1020 would make Hinds County the exception.
Kidd said if the Legislature wants to add more judges, it should add ones that are elected.
HB 1020 also proposes sending 18.75% of sales tax that would otherwise go to Jackson to a Capitol Complex Improvement District project fund.
At the Capitol news conference, several speakers said what could happen with the legislation is similar to what happened in the 1800’s when lawmakers sought to disenfranchise Black residents.
Rep. Edward Blackmon Jr., D-Canton, evoked the names of Fannie Lou Hamer and Medgar Evers as people who fought for the right of Black people to vote.
“We are united in our effort and our voice to stop this atrocity because if you don’t do it now, you’ll be marching tomorrow,” he said. “You’ll be marching for what we’ve won, what our forefathers and grandmothers and granddaddies fought for for so many years and gave up their blood and tears. You’ll be letting down their effort.”
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1997
Dec. 22, 1997
The Mississippi Supreme Court upheld the conviction of white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith for the 1963 murder of Medgar Evers.
In the court’s 4–2 decision, Justice Mike Mills praised efforts “to squeeze justice out of the harm caused by a furtive explosion which erupted from dark bushes on a June night in Jackson, Mississippi.”
He wrote that Beckwith’s constitutional right to a speedy trial had not been denied. His “complicity with the Sovereignty Commission’s involvement in the prior trials contributed to the delay.”
The decision did more than ensure that Beckwith would stay behind bars. The conviction helped clear the way for other prosecutions of unpunished killings from the Civil Rights Era.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Medicaid expansion tracker approaches $1 billion loss for Mississippi
About the time people ring in the new year next week, the digital tracker on Mississippi Today’s homepage tabulating the amount of money the state is losing by not expanding Medicaid will hit $1 billion.
The state has lost $1 billion not since the start of the quickly departing 2024 but since the beginning of the state’s fiscal year on July 1.
Some who oppose Medicaid expansion say the digital tracker is flawed.
During an October news conference, when state Auditor Shad White unveiled details of his $2 million study seeking ways to cut state government spending, he said he did not look at Medicaid expansion as a method to save money or grow state revenue.
“I think that (Mississippi Today) calculator is wrong,” White said. “… I don’t think that takes into account how many people are going to be moved off the federal health care exchange where their health care is paid for fully by the federal government and moved onto Medicaid.”
White is not the only Mississippi politician who has expressed concern that if Medicaid expansion were enacted, thousands of people would lose their insurance on the exchange and be forced to enroll in Medicaid for health care coverage.
Mississippi Today’s projections used for the tracker are based on studies conducted by the Institutions of Higher Learning University Research Center. Granted, there are a lot of variables in the study that are inexact. It is impossible to say, for example, how many people will get sick and need health care, thus increasing the cost of Medicaid expansion. But is reasonable that the projections of the University Research Center are in the ballpark of being accurate and close to other studies conducted by health care experts.
White and others are correct that Mississippi Today’s calculator does not take into account money flowing into the state for people covered on the health care exchange. But that money does not go to the state; it goes to insurance companies that, granted, use that money to reimburse Mississippians for providing health care. But at least a portion of the money goes to out-of-state insurance companies as profits.
Both Medicaid expansion and the health care exchange are part of the Affordable Care Act. Under Medicaid expansion people earning up to $20,120 annually can sign up for Medicaid and the federal government will pay the bulk of the cost. Mississippi is one of 10 states that have not opted into Medicaid expansion.
People making more than $14,580 annually can garner private insurance through the health insurance exchanges, and people below certain income levels can receive help from the federal government in paying for that coverage.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, legislation championed and signed into law by President Joe Biden significantly increased the federal subsidies provided to people receiving insurance on the exchange. Those increased subsidies led to many Mississippians — desperate for health care — turning to the exchange for help.
White, state Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney, Gov. Tate Reeves and others have expressed concern that those people would lose their private health insurance and be forced to sign up for Medicaid if lawmakers vote to expand Medicaid.
They are correct.
But they do not mention that the enhanced benefits authored by the Biden administration are scheduled to expire in December 2025 unless they are reenacted by Congress. The incoming Donald Trump administration has given no indication it will continue the enhanced subsidies.
As a matter of fact, the Trump administration, led by billionaire Elon Musk, is looking for ways to cut federal spending.
Some have speculated that Medicaid expansion also could be on Musk’s chopping block.
That is possible. But remember congressional action is required to continue the enhanced subsidies. On the flip side, congressional action would most likely be required to end or cut Medicaid expansion.
Would the multiple U.S. senators and House members in the red states that have expanded Medicaid vote to end a program that is providing health care to thousands of their constituents?
If Congress does not continue Biden’s enhanced subsidies, the rates for Mississippians on the exchange will increase on average about $500 per year, according to a study by KFF, a national health advocacy nonprofit. If that occurs, it is likely that many of the 280,000 Mississippians on the exchange will drop their coverage.
The result will be that Mississippi’s rate of uninsured — already one of the highest in the nation – will rise further, putting additional pressure on hospitals and other providers who will be treating patients who have no ability to pay.
In the meantime, the Mississippi Today counter that tracks the amount of money Mississippi is losing by not expanding Medicaid keeps ticking up.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1911
Dec. 21, 1911
Josh Gibson, the Negro League’s “Home Run King,” was born in Buena Vista, Georgia.
When the family’s farm suffered, they moved to Pittsburgh, and Gibson tried baseball at age 16. He eventually played for a semi-pro team in Pittsburgh and became known for his towering home runs.
He was watching the Homestead Grays play on July 25, 1930, when the catcher injured his hand. Team members called for Gibson, sitting in the stands, to join them. He was such a talented catcher that base runners were more reluctant to steal. He hit the baseball so hard and so far (580 feet once at Yankee Stadium) that he became the second-highest paid player in the Negro Leagues behind Satchel Paige, with both of them entering the National Baseball Hame of Fame.
The Hall estimated that Gibson hit nearly 800 homers in his 17-year career and had a lifetime batting average of .359. Gibson was portrayed in the 1996 TV movie, “Soul of the Game,” by Mykelti Williamson. Blair Underwood played Jackie Robinson, Delroy Lindo portrayed Satchel Paige, and Harvey Williams played “Cat” Mays, the father of the legendary Willie Mays.
Gibson has now been honored with a statue outside the Washington Nationals’ ballpark.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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