Close-Up Of Illuminated Siren On Car At Night

Source: Mari Ztikova / EyeEm / Getty

Apparently, Jim Crow never died—he simply moved to the majority Black metropolis of Lexington, Mississippi, and took up permanent residence in its law department to declare that "oppression ain't expressionless, these due north*****rs just scared."

Recently, a civil rights and international human rights organisation called JULIAN shared a recording with the Mississippi Middle for Investigative Reporting (MCIR), in which a constabulary officer is heard boasting well-nigh killing xiii people while on duty, including a Balck person he said he shot 119 times. Of course, he didn't use the words "Black person"—he used a unlike word. You lot know the ane. It's the word that ironically rhymes with "trigger," but that'south probably just an unfortunate coincidence.

First, let's start with what's on the recording.

From MCIR:

On the record, the supervising officer can be heard saying, "You're going to get some south— in the streets, and there'south simply going to be one homo fighting for yous, and information technology's going to be me, OK? Don't ever ruin that, all right, because these other due north—–south, they're [unintelligible]. I don't give a f— if you kill a mother—er in common cold blood. I volition articulate to fix the f—ing trouble, and I'm the only man in the business here that's smart enough to do it."

The officer bragged about his past killings. "I have killed 13 men in my career, justified," he said. "In my line of duty, I accept shot and killed 13 unlike people."

"You shot that many motherf—ers?" the other officer asked.

"Yeah, sir, justified, bro'," the officer asked. "Ask around."

The officeholder began to detail some of those cases, proverb, "I'm talking virtually a man had a gun, a man had to dice."

He described a shootout in a cornfield. "Justified, bro'," he said. "I shot that due north—– 119 times, OK? I saved 67 kids in a school."

"I chased this motherf—er across the field. I got him. He was DRT [dead correct there] in the field. The vehicle was shot 319 times, but he was hitting 119 times by me."

He said he was cleared at the sheriff's office, where he worked at the time, and received his gun back before he ever sabbatum back down.

When the subject arises of him talking to someone, he responded with homophobic slurs, "I don't talk to f—ing queers, I don't talk to f—ing fa——due south."

Obviously, the nigh appalling things about this recording are the officer'south casual use of bigoted slurs and the fact that the cops he was talking to didn't seem to call back anything of it—which likely means they're merely every bit racist equally their commanding officer. (Also, there's the fact that they actually have a commonly-used acronym for "expressionless correct there.")

So, who is this supervising officeholder with the big Mark Fuhrman energy and the closet full of Klan skeletons?

Well, the officeholder was identified equally now-old Constabulary Chief Sam Dobbins, who was reportedly fired after a 3-2 vote by the Lexington Board of Aldermen. Co-ordinate to MCIR, the ii aldermen who voted against Dobbins' firing were erstwhile Lexington mayor Richard Spencer (not that Richard Spencer—but pretty much that Richard Spencer, apparently) and Charles Simmons, a Blackness alderman who may or may non be the real-life version of Stephen from Django Unchained.

Of form, Dobbins initially denied he was the cop on the recording. When asked past MCIR if he actually killed 13 people in the line of duty, he replied, "That's something we don't discuss, menstruum"—despite a whole recording of him discussing information technology at length. He besides denied using slurs saying, "I don't talk like that"—despite a whole recording of him talking like that.Multiple people from JULIAN claimed to know Dobbins and recognize his vocalization.

More than from MCIR:

Cardell Wright, JULIAN's paralegal and the president of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Political party, obtained the sound from quondam officer Robert Lee Hooker who made the record, calling the remarks on tape "appalling, racist, hateful and detrimental to the welfare of the people. This recording proves that the oppressors no longer wear white sheets, but they wear constabulary enforcement uniforms."

JULIAN Founder Jill Collen Jefferson said she knows Dobbins well, and that it is definitely his vox. She said the tape reflects a blueprint of behavior Lexington police that residents have shared in community meetings, detailing more than a dozen complaints against constabulary.

For example, In December of last year, Black residents in Lexington voiced their complaints about their local police force section's civilization of racism and police brutality. Those residents include Shirley Gibson, a Black woman who was born and raised in Lexington.

"They bust upwards in my house," Gibson told WLBT. "An officeholder caught me by my neck, slung me on the ground, they maced me not once but twice, they jumped on my son, they hit him, they stomped on his anxiety. I'chiliad very terrified because this isn't the first time they did this. They did not have a search warrant."

In fact, after Dobbins was fired, Officer Charles Henderson was appointed interim chief, only Francine Jefferson, JULIAN's Mississippi country director of organizing, said Henderson also has a history of complaints made by Lexington residents.

"This firing is a victory for the community," Jefferson said. "But the board is still ignoring the issue."

She also said the current culture of policing "must be rooted out completely."

Come across Also:

Police Section Hires White Supremacist As If Information technology's No Large Deal

'Fluent In Ghetto:' Alabama Cop Fired After Racist Michelle Obama Meme