Cops playing by ‘own rules’ terrified Mississippi town with violent arrests, feds say

In a small town in Mississippi, police accused a dad of stealing packets of sugar from a gas station and jailed him for 12 days, investigators said.

Officers also once chased him through a field and tased him nine times until he was foaming at the mouth, which federal officials said is one of many examples of illegal behavior by the Lexington Police Department.

A probe by the Department of Justice found that the police department engaged in a pattern of illegal arrests, discrimination and use of excessive force that made residents of the small city “afraid to leave their homes,” investigators said.

The 47-page report published Sept. 26 accuses the police in the city of 1,200 people of violating constitutional rights.

The city’s attorney told McClatchy News she hadn’t had the chance to read the full probe but said “the City intends to work in good faith with the DOJ in the coming weeks to make sure that it is in compliance with all laws.”

‘I don’t come out of the house when I see them’

The investigation began in November and focused on the town’s searches, use of force, arrests and stops.

At the conclusion of the investigation, officials said they learned police frequently arrested people for low-level violations, some of which weren’t even illegal. Officers stopped and arrested individuals for behaviors like swearing in public, which is protected under the First Amendment, or owing fines, according to the report.

The individuals subjected to this behavior were predominantly Black, according to the probe. Investigators said Black residents were 17.6 times more likely to be arrested than white residents.

Residents said they felt powerless against the police’s behavior.

“Who do we call? They are the law,” one woman told investigators. “They could just come shoot us and say we were reaching for the gun. They can do anything to stop the truth from coming out. I am terrified of that. LPD terrifies me. … I am terrified. I don’t come out of the house when I see them.”

While making arrests for some low-level offenses, the officers are accused of using excessive force, particularly with their Taser stun guns.

In one case, police sought to arrest a man on an accusation of illegal windshield tinting, followed him home, forced their way inside and tased him for 15 seconds, investigators said.

In another example, the police chief wanted to arrest a man for “abusive language,” investigators said. The man had just broken his hand and flinched when police tried to handcuff him.

Investigators said the chief walked up to the man, put his Taser over the man’s heart and told him again to put his hands behind his back. Then he’s accused of firing the Taser into the man’s chest, and he collapsed unconscious.

His family pleaded for the chief to call for paramedics, but investigators say he refused.

“You don’t run the police department,” he reportedly told them.

He ordered the man to be taken to jail, and on the way another there, another officer tased him again when he tried to make a phone call, investigators said.

Investigators said in one instance, an officer told a dispatcher, “I didn’t give two (expletive) about his civil rights.”

‘Terrorizing the citizens of Lexington, Mississippi’

Police forced hundreds of people to go into debt by illegally arresting them for outstanding fines and making them pay “bond” and a processing fee to be released, which sometimes ended with them staying in jail, investigators said.

But the bond is not returned to the person when they appear for trial as normal bond would be, officials said. The department holds onto the money and treats it as a price to not challenge the charge in court, according to the probe.

Officers issued fines with “aggressive” enforcement, in part because the department directly earns money from arrests through bond and jail fees, according to officials. In 2023, fines constituted nearly a quarter of the agency’s revenue, investigators said.

The department is owed over $1.7 million in outstanding fines in a town with fewer than 2,000 people, officials said. Officers were also required to hit quotas for writing tickets, according to the probe.

Police are accused of searching and arresting individuals without probable cause and illegally jailing them, sometimes for days, without cause and without charging them. They “reflexively” searched vehicles even when someone had just run a stop sign, investigators said.

“They are supposed to serve and protect and that isn’t what they are doing,” one woman told investigators, according to the report. “They are terrorizing the citizens of Lexington, Mississippi.”

The report ends with a list of remedial measures for the city and police department to take, which mainly insists the department end illegal practices and implement training and policy to protect constitutional rights.

“For too long, the Lexington Police Department has been playing by its own rules and operating with impunity — it’s time for this to end,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a news release.

Lexington is about a 65-mile drive north from Jackson.

This story was originally published September 27, 2024 at 6:49 PM with the headline "Cops playing by ‘own rules’ terrified Mississippi town with violent arrests, feds say."