Madison County Sheriff Randy Tucker and the ACLU will enter into a consent decree over the use of roadblocks in Madison County. The ACLU accused the Sheriff of using roadblocks to target blacks in a 2017 lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court. Some highlights of the proposed consent decree are:
* MCSO will adopt a non-biased policing policy.
* MCSO can't use roadblocks for "general crime control, or deterrence, narcotics interdiction, or to check for outstanding warrants." (p.17)
* Checkpoints can not be conducted within a quarter-mile of the entrance to a housing complexes.
* Time, date, location, and reasons for checkpoint must be recorded. There must be a pre-determined order for selecting motorists as well.
* MCSD must hold anti-bias training.
* A criminal advisory board will be created. The board will have five members. A supervisor will appoint each member. The board will meet quarterly and "make recommendations to the Sheriff. The Sheriff can respond to the recommendation. The recommendation is sealed for 45 days. The Board can file a contempt proceeding against Sheriff.
The county will also pay an unspecified amount of damages to the plaintiffs. Sources told JJ the monetary damages were small.
The ACLU sued the Madison County Sheriff's Department on behalf of ten black Madison County residents for allegedly targeting blacks. The complaint charged that the arrest rate for blacks was nearly five times the arrest rate for whites. Deputies were accused of using roadblocks, jump-out patrols, and warrantless searches of homes to harass the black community. Earlier post with copy of complaint. The complaint also argued the Sheriff targeted apartment complexes such as Canton Estates.
The ACLU's first complaint said MCSD was targeting blacks but later dropped the racial bias claim from an amended complaint. The case was filled with irony as one of the plaintiffs, Khadafy Manning, had an active lawsuit against Canton Estates Apartments for being too dangerous. Earlier post.
Manning was shot during a drug deal gone bad in 2015 and was a convicted drug dealer. He was also arrested for domestic violence in 2014. Other plaintiffs had records filled with arrests and warrants.
The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves. Judge Reeves has not approved the consent decree. The proposed consent decree is posted below.
35 comments:
What a crock of @#$&.
The ACLU just made Madison County less safe.
F them.
Sort of reminds me of that old joke about the man looking for his keys under a street light. When asked about where he lost them he said about a block down that dark street. When asked why he was looking here he said because the light is better.
Common sense should tell anyone you look for criminals where they are most likely to be.
If the Judge is smart he will turn this down and put some teeth in it to keep Madison and Tucker's band of goons in check.
If they were innocent why did they agree on this. He has plenty of money to defend the department.
Maybe if 6% of the population did not commit over 50% of the crime they would be arrested less often. That is direct from the UCR done by the FBI. Considering how often department do not bother to properly report crimes the true numbers are quite likely higher.
ACLU should rebrand to American Criminal Liberties Underwriting.
As a law abiding citizen I feel much safer now. As I am sure most black men do.
"The complaint charged that the arrest rate for blacks was nearly five times the arrest rate for whites."
Do they commit 5x the amount of crimes?
Khadafy Manning...a true American hero.
How do roadblocks target blacks? I'm no fan of roadblocks and I think they're patently unconstitutional, but if you set up a check point on any given road, how does one predict who will drive down that road and encounter the checkpoint?
This settlement" leads me to believe that there are larger issues at play and the Sheriff conceded to the consent decree to avoid exposing other problems. But is the cost of potential claims, less costly than those associated with hiring a monitor for the CD?
Perhaps the sheriff should institute some warrantless searches of homes in lake Caroline. He's bound to uncover marijuana and cocaine usage. You guys won't have any problem with that, right?
It seems Judge Reeves ends up with virtually every case involving racial issues. Coincidence?
Madison County is LOST!!!!
Time to move to Leake County...
This BS isn't going to prevent the SO from protecting the public.
I would have told the ACLU to F--k off.
Everyone is scared to point a finger at those who commit crimes for fear of being called a racist. Every night on the evening news we all see who perpetrates the violent crimes as well as the nuisance crimes, yet we all look the other way for fear of being labeled a bigot. It is a culture in nosedive, and their is no plan, program, initiative that can change it. It must be resolved from within.
Michael Savage fans already know that the ACLU are vermin.
Congrats to the aclu on another important victory in Mississippi. There is no place for racism in policing. Hopefully the sheriffs office will uphold their end of this agreement and not cost the tax payers any more money for their prejudices.
This is just a political dog and pony show to quiet the liberals..
Nothing will change.
We're still and will always be, the premier place to live.
We just minimized, doing damage control is all..
Next!!
.
Surprised this is just now coming to light. Madison County Journal had the story 2 weeks ago. It surfaced at a Board of Supervisors meeting during which the sheriff requested more than $200,000 as a result of the settlement. Didn't say what it was for, lawyer fees, damages, court costs, or whatever.
When you make a deal with the Devil don't be surprised if you smell smoke and feel heat!
Its like fishing in a 55 gallon drum, it makes good sense, but ain't fair according to the ACL&U.
ACLU wants to destroy a civil society. And ultimately the US.
I'm no fan of the ACLU, but I hope the Ridgeland PD are their next target.
Race has nothing to do with the Ridgeland, PD.
Hell, I'm White and got pulled over by a young Ridgeland (also White) Police officer at 7:15 AM on a Sunday morning, while returning home with a fast food "dive through" breakfast.
Blue lights flipped on, a few yelps of young dude's siren . . . and I no choice but to stop almost blocking Old Canton & Rice Road.
My "offense" ?
The youngster cop thought I wasn't wearing a seatbelt.
I was, and he let me go . . . but that whole silly ordeal is an example of SOME of the idiots of the Ridgeland PD.
Black, White, Hispanic . . . makes no difference in Ridgeland.
There is a lot more drug usage in the $500,000 houses than in the low income apartment areas. It is good the ACLU won and hope they keep a close watch on what is going on.
Keep the road blocks coming in the high crime areas.
5:38- Remember when we were told seat belt enforcement was a secondary offense and driver’s weren’t going to be pulled over specially for being unbuckled?
@5:30 - Ridgeland pd youngsters are STAT driven. The guy was looking or and hoping to get on to turn in at the end of his shift.
If patrol officers dont write tickets or make an arrest they dont have stats to turn is. If an officer answers a call and doesnt make an arrest there is no stat to go on is tally sheet. Had you not been wearing a seat belt he probably would have arrested you and taken you to their lock up. I see people locked up for no seatbelt coupled with no inspection sticker.
As for the aclu thing, everyone of of the the plaintiff's were from canton which is over 95% black....a frickin first grader can do the math and figure out what race commits the majority of the crime...This had nothing to do with citizens that live outside the city limits of Canton.
This was 10 people that got free representation in court looking to get free money. Plain and simple. The ten people in the suit could give less than two shits about what law enforcement does. Canton PD is too scared to go in and do what the sheriff's department did and that was ENFORCE the law.
Doesn’t really matter, but I’m pretty sure this started in Flora. As for dope being in Most houses in Lake Caroline, you are probably right. But, their suppliers are mostly around Tougaloo, Ridgeland, and Fondren. Those fuckers still take VCRs for payment. Lol
Ridgeland is the buffer that keeps me safe from the Jackson residents. They need marshal law in that city. If they don’t, then the Jackson resident will be able to come steal from me.
I agree with some of but not all of the previous comments. You decide.
I've lived in Madison since 2005. Only one roadblock.
I don't see what the ACLU has a problem with.
"5:38- Remember when we were told seat belt enforcement was a secondary offense and driver’s weren’t going to be pulled over specially for being unbuckled? "
Pepperidge Farm remembers ;-)
Golly, Wally - it seems like our gubment lied to us about that - how could that be?
Sear belt not buckled is right up their with other dangerous offenses like
Failure to maintain lane control, not siginaling lane change within 500 feet, following too ,close,window tint, obscured tag (by a OM or MSU tag bracket) etc, erc. By the way you don’t mind if I search your car, you could be smuggling drugs, guns, to illegal chicken plant workers
Hey 9:21 pm: please explain your ‘Flora’ comment. I’m curious as to what you mean by this.
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