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CONCERNING MISSISSIPPI

500 332 Deante Morgan

Senatobia man arrested for cheering at sister’s graduation

2015/06/04 – JACKSON, MS (Mississippi News Now) -It’s the story all over social media – a Mississippi man, along with three others, were arrested for cheering at a high school graduation.

The story and now the video has had many asking today – did the school go too far?

Henry Walker couldn’t restrain himself during Senatobia High School’s graduation. He cheered when his little sister walked out, only to be arrested for disturbing the peace.

Family members couldn’t believe it.

“The only thing he said was, ‘You did it baby!’ to his little baby sister,” Walker’s mother, Linda, says. “I don’t think its right, the way they did him.”

Linda says it’s not right for the school to press charges against people who are proud of their family members’ accomplishments.

“I do think it is a highly questionable use of authority to bring criminal charges in the circumstances,” says Matt Steffey, a law professor at Mississippi College. “I mean this is a common thing that everyone has been to one of these ceremonies and experienced.”

Superintendent Jay Foster says the rules were laid out in writing for the graduation ceremony and that disruptions have caused certain graduates to not hear their name called.

He also tells our sister station, WMC, that this is not the first time family members have gotten out of hand.

“In the past, there have been things going on where people have yelled at–even left during the ceremony,” Foster says. “[Those instances] have caused certain graduates to not be able to hear their name called.”

Foster says parents are supposed to wait until all names have been called to cheer.

He says school leaders made several attempts to warn parents. He says they even posted a warning in the graduation program saying people who staged outbursts would be asked to leave.

But Steffey says correcting decorum at this type of celebration with criminal action was not the answer.

He says, “Whether or not you can lodge criminal charges is questionable enough. It seems to me whether one should is even more highly questionable.”

Steffey added, all school officials have every right to escort disruptive family or friends out of the graduation ceremonies.

 

Source:  Mary Grace Eppes and Marsha Thompson

Mississippi News Now WLBT

266 190 Deante Morgan

Jim Crow Still Disenfranchising Voters

2015/06/03 – Being black in Mississippi during the Jim Crow era was nothing to live for.  Routine lynchings, beatings, unemployment and arbitrary arrest were all a rotten part of a hard life.  As an African-American living in the South, voting was something that happened to other people, not you.  In fact, Mississippi whites created a long, embarrassing list of legal roadblocks to keep black people from electing more civilized leaders.  Some of the barriers included property qualifications demanding the ownership of $300 or more in real estate or personal assets, before allowing a vote.  Mississippi also imposed poll taxes and a literacy test that very few Mississippi whites could even hope to pass, if held to the same standard.

Literacy Test

Sometimes the election Nazis running the 1950’s-era Mississippi registrar’s office would even read a constitutional amendment aloud and then ask the applicant to explain the passage.  If the black applicant actually had an articulate answer, it was probably news to the white Mississippi election official, who probably still thought the Preamble was a kind of dance.

The laws existed exclusively to keep black and brown people out of politics and create a powerless underclass.  During Virginia’s 1901-1902 Constitutional Convention, segregationist Sen. Carter Glass lauded these Jim Crow laws, saying: “This plan … will eliminate the darkey as a political factor in this state in less than five years, so that in no single county … will there be the least concern felt for the supremacy of the white race in the affairs of government.”

Sadly, one of these barbaric methods to undermine American democracy was a law that’s tragically still with us: felony disenfranchisement.

The Mississippi Constitution lists 21 crimes that wipe out a convict’s right to vote:  arson, armed robbery, bigamy, bribery, carjacking, embezzlement, extortion, felony bad check, felony shoplifting, forgery, larceny, murder, obtaining money or goods under false pretense, perjury, rape, receiving stolen property, robbery, statutory rape, theft, timber larceny, and unlawful taking of a motor vehicle.

The Mississippi Constitution of 1890 — created with significant animosity toward blacks — initially listed 10 crimes that would strip voting rights, but lawmakers generously added eleven new crimes in 2004.

Getting convicted for any of the 21 crimes will knock out your ability to vote in the state of Mississippi for the rest of your life, long after you’ve done your time in prison, paid your fine and moved on with your life.  While some of the listed crimes are crimes of passion, most of them are money-related, meaning poor people tend to commit them.

The Mississippi Supreme Court did its own analysis of the infamous Section 241 of the 1890 Mississippi Constitution and determined that money crimes were emphasized on purpose.  U.S. District Judge Henry T. Wingate specifically cited some old Supreme Court deliberations while assessing the case McLaughlin v. City of Canton in 1995.

“[The black] race had acquired or accentuated certain particularities of habit, of temperament and of character, which clearly distinguished it, as a race, from that of the whites — a patient, docile people, but careless, landless, and migratory within narrow limits, without forethought, and its criminal members given rather to furtive offenses than to the robust crimes of the whites (such as murder).  Restrained by the federal constitution from discriminating against the negro race, the convention discriminated against its characteristics and the offenses to which its weaker members were prone,” Wingate wrote.

It turns out that a racist political convention created almost exclusively to turn blacks into powerless punching bags still costs countless Mississippi blacks their right to vote when they write a bad check for groceries.  Now, thanks to that enduring zombie law, blacks account for nearly 60 percent of the 182,000 disenfranchised Mississippi citizens who can’t vote without explicit permission from the governor or legislature.  That’s higher than the population of Jackson, the state’s most heavily populated city.

Politicos and researchers are convinced that this maggot-infested leftover from Jim Crow endures because politicians in office know a good tool when they see one.

“It’s politics,” said Nicole Porter, director of Advocacy at Washington D.C.-based Sentencing Project, a non-profit that advocates for voting rights.  “The resistance on behalf of lawmakers has all been about politics, particularly in states with conservative or Republican leadership.  The political establishment, in certain states, is working to undermine the political mobility of certain populations, of which people with criminal records may be a sizable proportion.”

That’s a nice way of saying that blacks vote Democratic, and Republican lawmakers don’t want blacks voting Democratic.  Using a law to snatch away the voting rights of former felons is a great way to kill a significant portion of the black vote, so long as a significant portion happens to have run-ins with the law.  This isn’t hard when “the law” is going out of its way to encourage “run-ins” with black people.

Although simple marijuana possession is not one of Mississippi’s disenfranchising crimes, it still provides a damning example of law enforcement’s over-zealous targeting of one race over another.  Consider this ACLU chart depicting a U.S. survey of marijuana use by race:

Marijuana Chart 1

 

Source:  https://www.aclu.org/files/assets/aclu-thewaronmarijuana-rel2.pdf

As you can see, marijuana usage between the two races is fairly close.  Now compare that to Mississippi’s marijuana arrest rate:

Marijuana Chart 2

 

Source:  https://www.aclu.org/files/assets/aclu-thewaronmarijuana-rel2.pdf

Comparing the two charts, it’s easy to see why almost 14 percent of the African-American Mississippi population is restricted from voting due to legal problems.  Blacks suffer an incarceration rate that is six times the national average.  In Mississippi, the black incarceration rate is 3.5 blacks for every one white prisoner.  This method of vote suppression is particularly egregious in a country with an incarceration rate that rose from 1.17 million in 1976 to 5.85 million by 2010.

It reached the point where even former Attorney General Eric Holder noticed the disturbing trend last year, and admitted that zombie Jim Crow was decades late for re-burial.

“It is time to fundamentally rethink laws that permanently disenfranchise people who are no longer under federal or state supervision,” Holder told the Leadership Council on Civil and Human Rights Criminal Justice Forum at Georgetown law school.  “These restrictions are not only unnecessary and unjust, they are also counterproductive.  By perpetuating the stigma and isolation imposed on formerly incarcerated individuals, these laws increase the likelihood they will commit future crimes.”

Unfortunately, changing the state law means either changing the attitudes of spineless legislators who are terrified of black voters, or trading in the legislators for people with more backbone.

This is where voting comes in.  If you are not a registered voter but want to vote in the next election, or you are a registered voter who is unsure of your registration status, please call the Mississippi NAACP at (601) 353-6906 and speak with an associate to get the ball rolling on how you can improve Mississippi law.  You need to be registered at the address where you now live at least 30 days before an election in order to vote.

It’s past time to plug a stake into the ugly heart of Jim Crow, forever.

 

Source: NAACP Writers

670 390 admin2

1 Dem, 1 Republican in Runoff for Mississippi US House Seat

2015/05/29 – NESBIT, Miss. (AP) — On a muggy evening in northern Mississippi, just a few miles from the Tennessee line, Republican congressional candidate Trent Kelly stood before a few dozen casually dressed people at an outdoor reception and talked about his current job as district attorney for seven counties and his experience as a military veteran, with three deployments during 29 years in the National Guard, two of them in combat.

“We must defend this nation against all enemies, foreign and domestic, with a strong national defense. And we must take care of our veterans who have taken care of this great nation,” Kelly said to the applause of those gathered Wednesday after work. “We must have a strong economy, and Mississippi needs to be lucrative for businesses to start. Government does not create jobs. They need to get out of the way and let our great American minds create jobs that pay a good wage and keep Mississippi and America strong.”

Kelly, 49, of Saltillo, faces Democrat Walter Zinn, a 34-year-old attorney and political consultant from Pontotoc, in a Tuesday runoff for an open U.S. House seat in north Mississippi’s 1st District. It’s been held by Republicans for most of the past 20 years.

The winner will finish most of a two-year term started by Republican Rep. Alan Nunnelee, who died of brain cancer in February. Nunnelee first won the seat in 2010 and was ill during most of the 2014 election cycle. He died shortly after beginning the current term.

Party labels don’t appear on special-election ballots in Mississippi, but candidates have told voters their political affiliation. The field for this congressional race started with 12 Republicans and Zinn as the only Democrat.

Zinn is also the only African American in the contest, and he comes from a family that includes generations of Baptist church leaders in and around Pontotoc. He tapped into an extensive network of family and church connections and campaigned in areas with strong Democratic organizations to lead the May 12 election with 17 percent of the vote. Kelly followed him with 16 percent.

Zinn is working to build on his momentum. But Republican leaders note that the GOP candidates collectively received 83 percent in the first round of voting, and they say that’s a strong indicator of the runoff’s outcome.

During a rally Thursday outside Tupelo City Hall, Zinn talked about strengthening public schools to improve Mississippi’s future.

“We need someone who is going to fight for making sure our children can stay here when they graduate from school instead of looking for finances and salaries that merit their skills in other states,” Zinn told about 30 supporters. “We have the brightest here in Mississippi. We have proven we have the most talented. We need leaders who are going to commit to giving them somewhere to live and stay and work.”

In an interview afterward, Zinn touted his experience working for the city of Jackson to secure state and federal money for economic development and public-works projects and said he would not need on-the-job training to know how Washington operates.

Zinn said he wants to improve, but not repeal, the federal health care law President Barack Obama signed five years ago. He also expressed frustration that the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee have not put money into his campaign in this off-year election.

“I think that there’s disbelief in Mississippi actually voting Democrat,” Zinn said of the national groups.

Minnie Shumpert of Tupelo, a retired dietitian for Tupelo schools, said she likes Zinn’s message about improving education and leveraging other government programs to help people create better opportunities to earn a living.

“He’s really concerned about single moms and health care and education,” Shumpert said.

Certified results show 88,364 people voted May 12. The low turnout prompted Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann to issue a statement midway through the day urging people to vote to honor Nunnelee’s memory. Turnout typically decreases during runoffs, but Zinn and Kelly are trying to keep their supporters motivated.

Zinn notes that north Mississippi is conservative, but not uniformly Republican. Democrats still hold many local offices. Before Republicans started dominating the area’s congressional district, Democrat Jamie Whitten, who worked his way up to the Appropriations Committee chairmanship and brought millions of federal dollars to one of the poorest states in the nation, held the seat for 53 years.

DeSoto County is just south of Memphis, Tenn., and for years has been the fastest-growing county in Mississippi. It’s also heavily Republican, making it an important campaign target for Kelly, who finished a distant 11th place in DeSoto County on May 12, behind other nine Republicans who spent more time and money there—and even behind Zinn, who finished fourth in DeSoto County that day.

Earl Ward, a Marine Corps veteran who attended the Kelly reception at the home of a county supervisor, said he’ll vote for the Republican on Tuesday: “I’m just glad to know we’re going to have a man going up there who’s got military experience. … They have an insight that other people don’t have.”

 

Source: The Associated Press

 

534 401 admin2

Source: DOJ to Meet with Otis Byrd’s Family

2015/05/28 – A source close to the Otis Byrd investigation tells The Clarion-Ledger that officials from the Department of Justice will meet with his family on Friday.

A source close to the Otis Byrd investigation tells The Clarion-Ledger that officials from the Department of Justice will meet with his family on Friday.

Byrd, 54, was found hanging from a tree not far from his last known address in Claiborne County in March, spurring a flurry of questions about his manner of death. On the last day anyone saw Byrd about two weeks before his body was found, he had been to the casino in Vicksburg twice and he was being evicted from his home, officials said.

Investigators have not said publicly whether they believe the death to be a homicide or a suicide, stating that they want to make sure every detail is investigated before they make a ruling. Several officials confirmed, however, that evidence seemed to point to a suicide.

Byrd was found hanging by a bedsheet, and he was wearing a skullcap.

Protesters have been demanding answers in the case. Some have traveled to Claiborne County from outside the state.

This is a developing story.

 

Source: The Clarion-Ledger 

Therese Apel 

534 401 admin2

South Jackson Hospital Could Lose Medicare Funds

2015/05/28 – Merit Health Central Hospital must prove it has made changes in handling emergency care patients, or it could lose Medicare funding, officials have warned the Jackson hospital.

“We have determined that the deficiencies are so serious that they constitute an immediate threat and jeopardy to the health and safety of any individual who comes to your hospital with an emergency medical condition,” Sandra Pace, associate regional administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, wrote CEO Lisa Dolan.

But administrators at the Merit Health hospital, formerly known as Central Mississippi Medical Center, say corrections were made after these allegations arose two years ago and their current health care meets or exceeds standards.

“First and foremost, Merit Health Central is focused on providing medically necessary emergency care to all patients who come to our emergency room,” said Jana Fuss, director of communications for Merit Health in the Jackson-Vicksburg area.

News of the CMS letter comes on the heels of Merit Health announcing it has become Mississippi’s largest health system, growing to include a dozen hospitals across the state.

In 2014, The Clarion-Ledger reported about the for-profit hospital in south Jackson repeatedly transferring emergency patients it was paid by the state to treat, possibly violating state hospital regulations and federal law. The hospital was then owned by HMA.

Trauma victims were sent away at least 89 times in 2013, often with injuries that CMMC had the capacity to treat, according to records obtained by the newspaper.

Psych patients were redirected at least 73 times in 2013 — despite the fact CMMC has more psychiatric beds, 29, than some of its most common receiving hospitals and a similar occupancy rate to the University of Mississippi Medical Center, according to state records.

On Jan. 23, 2014, a trauma surgeon didn’t arrive at the hospital for 49 minutes after receiving a call to treat a patient with multiple gunshot wounds to the chest — nearly double the maximum time allowed by state regulations. The patient, 26-year-old James McAlister, died before the surgeon arrived.

Federal law prohibits “patient dumping,” in which a hospital transfers patients to another hospital because they can’t pay.

Hospital officials have denied any wrongdoing, saying “several factors” could justify a transfer, such as diversion when the hospital is full. They have pointed out the physicians who make the decisions to transfer patients have no knowledge of their financial situations.

In a May 13 letter, Pace wrote that if “deficiencies” continued, Medicare could terminate Merit Health Central Hospital from the Medicare program as soon as June 5.

CMS concluded the hospital had failed to provide on-call physicians that were available to stabilize treatment, provide adequate medical screening and make appropriate transfers.

Fuss responded that the hospital has put in place several measures “to help ensure that on-call physicians are readily available, healthcare professionals perform thorough medical screenings on patients, emergency patients receive stabilizing treatment, and transfers are appropriate.”

These actions, she said, include new education and documentation requirements, clinical review protocols and updated policies and procedures.

They include:

Updated policies regarding physician on-call services requiring physicians to be available and reachable during the on-call period;

Reviewing trauma surgeon response times;

Increased oversight of documents involving all transferred patients;

Staff additions to ensure Emergency Department screening, treatment and transfer processes are followed.

Fuss pointed to CMS’ Hospital Compare website, which shows “most of our hospital’s emergency department care measures are consistent with or better than the state average and other area hospitals, including the average time patients spend in the ER before being seen by a health care professional, being admitted or being sent home. Given these actions, the hospital is confident that we will be in good standing with Medicare and that funding will continue.”

According to the website, the average time Central patients spent in the emergency department before they were seen by a health care professional was 21 minutes.

A ProPublica report, based on 2014 data, put that time at 23 minutes — better than the average waiting time in the U.S. of 24 minutes and the average waiting time in Mississippi of 27 minutes.

Time before emergency room patients were admitted to the Central hospital? Three hours and 54 minutes.

That beat both the U.S. average of four hours and 34 minutes and Mississippi’s average of three hours and 42 minutes.

According to the CMS website, 62 percent of Central patients said they would recommend the hospital, compared to the 69 percent average for Mississippi hospitals and 71 percent for U.S. hospitals.

Central received a two-star rating from patients — the same as Merit Health Rankin Hospital, formerly known as Crossgates River Oaks Hospital. The rest of Jackson-area hospitals received at least a three-star rating. Mississippi Baptist Medical Center received a four-star rating.

Fuss said Central’s leadership continues to monitor progress on emergency care and look for opportunities to improve medical care.

“In our emergency department and across the hospital, our clinicians and other employees continuously work to provide a safe environment for quality care,” she said. “We believe the changes over the past year demonstrate this commitment to the patients who trust their care to our hospital.”

 

Source: The Clarion-Ledger 

Jerry Mitchell