Those claims include stopping and searching drivers without justification and the use of excessive force. Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, head of the DOJ's Civil Rights Division, says those allegations were both credible and numerous.
“There are allegations that Lexington police officers used illegal roadblocks targeted at Black drivers and retaliated against people exercising their right to question police action or record police activity,” said Clarke in an announcement at the Thad Cochran United States Courthouse in Jackson on Wednesday.
“The police department also appears to have violated First Amendment rights by routinely arresting people merely for using profanity. Community members have offered troubling accounts of how these alleged practices have affected their lives – of injuries caused by gratuitous and excessive force, of alleged sexual assault, and of repression and reprisal.”
For the past year, civil rights attorney Jill Jefferson and Lexington residents have organized to demand change in both the police department and Lexington's government, which they say is complicit, if not directly responsible, for a culture of fear and intimidation.
A majority of residents at a mid-July protest in front of the Lexington municipal complex – which houses both city hall and the police station – said issues began two years ago when former Lexington Police Chief Sam Dobbins was appointed to the position.
Last July, only a year into his term, a recording surfaced of Dobbins bragging to a colleague about the number of people he’d killed in the line of duty while using racial epithets when referring to the victims.
The town’s board of aldermen fired him shortly after – but now a year on and with new chief Charles Henderson appointed, Black residents say they still have a pervasive fear of traveling through Lexington.
Launching a big investigation into a small force
In the past two years, Clarke and the Civil Rights Division have led investigations into alleged systemic police misconduct in large cities like Phoenix and Baltimore, where they closely observed institutional practices and recommended changes.
But the 2021 appointee has also handled cases with national profiles, such as the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers in 2020, the killing of Breonna Taylor by officers in Louisville, Kentucky, only a month prior and the beating and murder of Memphis resident Tyre Nichols in January.
She said those departments dwarf Lexington’s – a force of fewer than 10 officers – in size, but the importance of the work remains.
“Residents of rural and underserved communities have the same rights and deserve the same protection as people who live in downtown Baltimore or the suburbs of Louisville. Police misconduct in smaller communities may not always garner national attention, but rest assured, the Justice Department is watching,” said Clarke. “Underserved communities in the Deep South will not be left behind as we carry out our work to ensure constitutional policing across America.”
Tod Gee, recently confirmed as United States Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi, will be assisting on the investigation.
“I have been to Lexington myself and met with members of the community,” Gee said. “A thorough investigation of the Lexington Police Department is necessary. We look forward to working with our colleagues from the Civil Rights Division to follow the facts wherever they may lead us, and to hearing more from the residents of Lexington as we conduct our investigation.”
Both Clarke and Gee said the investigation would go back "a number of years" to determine whether or not abusive patterns and practices were established over time.
They plan on achieving that by combining multiple techniques already utilized by Clarke’s office during previous investigations: reviewing incident reports, training material and body-camera footage, close observation of officers during their shifts, and regular meetings with community members as the probe unfolds.
Clarke added both government and police officials in Lexington agreed to cooperate with the investigation, and that if any issues were found, she hoped the two parties would be able to cooperate on remedies, as well.
“All of these abuses and undermines public trust and harms racial minorities and other vulnerable populations – this discredits law enforcement. These problems, though, can be fixed,” she said.
“It is possible to restore public trust, to build a working relationship with the community, and to instill in departments a culture of nondiscrimination and respect for constitutional rights. We are committed to working with officials in Lexington to achieve these goals.”
A town steeped in Civil Rights history
About an hour north of Jackson, Lexington is the seat of rural and majority-Black Holmes County. The area has a long history of Civil Rights activism, which many residents still identify with deeply.
Under the threat of well-organized and oftentimes violent opposition, Holmes County’s Black residents passionately organized to exercise their right to vote and in the late 1960’s elected the first Black representative to the state legislature.
But it is also on the periphery of the Delta, a region often considered one of the poorest in the nation. With a poverty rate approaching 30% – more than double the national average – much of Lexington’s population of 1,600 has long ached for economic development.
That makes it all the worse, says Clarke, that the nature and frequency of the allegations at hand – including extortion of cash payments – seem to have persisted so long.
She and others from the DOJ were able to hear these allegations during a closed-door listening session with Lexington residents in early June.
“We believe very deeply in leaving no community behind in the course of doing our civil rights work. Listening sessions provide an opportunity for us to deepen connections with underserved areas and they open up avenues to hear from and learn from communities,” she said. “That desire to ensure that we're leaving no stone unturned, no community behind in promoting civil rights enforcement.”
