By Christopher Young,
Contributing Writer,
Nearly two hundred gathered at our Mississippi Civil Rights Museum January 13, 2023, to participate in developing priorities for Jackson in the new year. Numerous speakers weighed in as participants were encouraged to contribute to a visioning exercise which later served as the focus for breakout groups to help refine ideas, suggestions and demands. A delicious lunch was provided by Sugar’s Place, which is located at 168 E. Griffith Street, downtown Jackson.
Rukia Lumumba, co-founder and executive director of People’s Advocacy Institute and Brooke Floyd, co-director of People’s Advocacy Institute, shared mistress of ceremonies duties throughout the event. Dr. Ameen Abdur-Rashied, an Imam at Masjid Muhammad in Jackson, and Pastor Maurice Clifton, each offered prayer before Jackson Police Chief Joseph Wade was introduced.
Chief Wade promised to reduce crime. “We will reduce crime in Jackson. We will do this because crime affects everyone in this room directly and indirectly, causes trauma, affects economic development for our city and affects our quality of life. I will not allow this behavior to be normalized in our community,” Wade said. He spoke of rebuilding JPD.The city now has 265 police officers.
The newly elected Central District Public Service Commissioner De’Keither Stamps spoke briefly before rushing to Humphries County to help address power outages. He said his office regulates the electrical, water/sewer, telecommunications, and natural gas industries.
“The water is critically important…we don’t move Mississippi forward without moving Jackson forward. The leadership of this event is going to come to our office and sit down and take the work product that you produce today, and we’ll put it into our work program and see to it that your work and your voice move forward,” Stamps said.
Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba began his remarks with call and response, Free the Land, Free the Land, Free the Land – by any means necessary. “If you could see yourself right now, it is amazing. I am so happy to see this room filled with community members, filled with people from various walks of life in our city. This is the essence of where work gets done.” He went on to discuss community policing, infrastructure, education and then reinforced that “JXN People’s Assembly becomes a pressure mechanism to tell elected officials at City Hall – this is why we sent you, this is what we expect, and if you aren’t doing it, we want to let you know that we are going to pull you out.”
Before stepping down he brought up misinformation, and the recent national news story that he called “patently false and ridiculous,” referring to headlines about the gruesome discovery of 215 bodies found behind the Jackson jail.
“The first thing, if you live in Jackson, you know that we don’t have a jail in Jackson…next, every county in the United States has a paupers field, and the one they are referring to is in Raymond, Mississippi. The Hinds County coroner and Hinds County officials have authority over this. It is dangerous when people develop a narrative for your community. It creates disharmony, friction and an atmosphere of not wanting to be a part of that. The only thing that we have in Jackson is a holding cell that can hold maybe ten people and behind that is the Westin Hotel…inaccuracies of that nature are dangerous to our mission…it feeds those who don’t share our resolve to have a better vision of public safety,” the mayor said.
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