Give me your tired, your poor PDFs,
Your piles of documents stained with coffee and cigarettes,
all the law that blinds you, the promises unkept,
these, the innocent and defenseless,
the truth battered by lies,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
Under the Mississippi Open Records Act of 1983, state, county and city governments are required to disclose information unless there is good reason to keep it private.
All PDFs Available From The Public Eye (coming soon)
by Maggie Burks
Photo by Chelsi West
October 3, 2007
Updated with Correction. See editor's note at the end of the story for details.
Almost one year has passed since six black teenage boys attacked a single white teenage boy in Jena, La. In that year, the case of what is now called the Jena Six went relatively unnoticed—until the last few weeks. Amidst all of the frenzy in Jena that has spread to the rest of the nation, thousands, if not millions, have become familiar with the story of the Jena Six. The media have misreported some details, and they have over-reported others. Through blogs and, I hate to admit, Facebook, the word has quickly traveled among social communities in the nation. Black radio hosts like Michael Baisden and alternative reporters like Amy Goodman have been pivotal in getting the real stories of the Jena Six and their parents to the masses.
more...
Leflore County Chancery Judge Jon Barnwell ruled July 18 that video footage from the contentious Dec. 6, 2006, arrest of former Greenwood High School student James Marshall by then-Greenwood Police Department law enforcement trainee, Casey Wiggins, is public record. However, no new footage will be available from the arrest—which included Wiggins twice pulling a gun on an unarmed Marshall—because the Greenwood Public School District claims to have erased all footage not previously available to the media.
more...
This story appears in this week's print edition of the Jackson Free Press.
Eight adolescent girls were shackled, some of them for more than a week, at Columbia Training School because another student said they planned to escape. The girls suffered bruises from tripping in the shackles, along with blisters and cuts to their feet and ankles.
more...
The Society of Professional Journalists has launched a campaign to discover which U.S. senator has placed a "secret hold" on the Open Government Act.
more...
An extensive review of 2006 crime statistics by the Jackson Free Press shows that crime increased significantly from 2005 to 2006. Based on monthly Uniform Crime Reports, violent crime was up 40 percent, while property crime rose 10 percent. Also, while the Jackson Police Department averaged 116 arrests a month for simple possession of drugs, police records show not a single arrest for sale or manufacture of drugs in all 2006.
more...
“Everybody has a different reaction to spending 23 hours a day in isolation. There’s guys that just lost their minds. One older guy would just stand in his cell naked. He would use the bathroom and then throw it out at people walking by the cell,” Cedric Willis said. Willis, who spent five years in Parchman Penitentiary’s Unit 32 starting in 1997 for crimes he did not commit, said that only prayer and the support of his family kept him sane there. Willis was exonerated and released in 2006.
more...
We're on deadline, but I have to make a couple quick comments on Clarion-Ledger stories today. The first, on Melton's plan to increase the pace of demolitions, is a pretty solid story, with lots of facts and figures.
more...
by Brian Johnson
Photo by Brian Johnson
March 28, 2007
The Clarion-Ledger reported on crime statistics for the end of 2006 last Tuesday under the headline “Jackson Crime: Overall Numbers Dip.” The headline, and the story itself, appear to be misleading, however, because the claim that crime has dipped is apparently based on selected month-to-month comparisons with 2005 rather on a cumulative year-to-year comparison.
more...
Last Sunday marked the beginning of this year’s National Sunshine Week, when newspapers around the country raise awareness of open records laws. We the people own our government, and with very few exceptions, government officials have no right to keep secrets from us. Here at the Jackson Free Press, it’s been almost a year since we rolled out the Public Eye, which is dedicated to begging, cajoling and sometimes threatening the government into following the law and giving the public what it already owns: public records.
more...
On Feb. 15, Mayor Frank Melton told WJTV that he was going to sue WAPT because they reported that he had violated his probation by conducting a raid on the Upper Level club Feb. 11. “They have willingly and knowingly put information out there, knowing it was incorrect,” Melton told WJTV.
more...
Jan 28, 08 | 9:58 am Let the Punishment Fit the Crime Ray Carter: Willie I understand, but I bet the United States of America doesn't beleive what's sent out returns....
Jan 28, 08 | 9:42 am Let the Punishment Fit the Crime Willezurmacht: Beware of endorsing violence as a tactic for social justice. It always comes back on its user....
Jan 28, 08 | 8:54 am Let the Punishment Fit the Crime Ray Carter: Cliff, not everybody concludes that fighting racism with violence is a bad thing if violence is all you have in face of a racist criminal justice system, unfair school system, and majority community sentiment steeped in and defined by centuries of...
Jan 26, 08 | 1:01 pm Let the Punishment Fit the Crime Cliff Cargill: I'll bet Mychal Bell wil end up in prison one day, and that's just sad. Sharpton, Jacksn et al won't be there to bail him either. They'll just move on to their next money maker because that's what they do....
Jan 25, 08 | 5:31 pm Let the Punishment Fit the Crime Ray Carter: Bubba, you only know part of Mychal's history of training young boys to tend to their business. LW, can you do me a favor and start a blog about female teachers dating young males underage students? I have studied the problem and beleive I can...
Jan 25, 08 | 5:18 pm Let the Punishment Fit the Crime BubbaT: He really proved how tough he was when it took six the first time. People like that are usually not very tough one on one....
Jan 25, 08 | 5:09 pm Let the Punishment Fit the Crime Ray Carter: Speaking of letting the punishment fit the crime, a Petal, Mississippi teacher was arrested today for having sex with a minor. Again I ask what's up with this growing phenomenon? These female teachers are hitting more young boys than the star...
Jan 25, 08 | 5:03 pm Let the Punishment Fit the Crime Ray Carter: I bet he wouldn't. The other boy would need the truck, local district attorney, the school board, the principal and Richard Barrett and the Klan. My money is on Mychal Bell on a one on one....
Jan 25, 08 | 4:00 pm Let the Punishment Fit the Crime Ray Carter: Recently a young white male was indicted for riding around Jena or nearby with nooses hanging from his truck. I'm against indicting the foolish boy for that. A greater lesson and good would have likely been achieved by placing the same lad in an...
Oct 14, 07 | 9:36 pm Let the Punishment Fit the Crime LawClerk: Ray, I understand. I don't get it either.
These are *only* the murders where race had been known for both the perp and the victim.
Scary.............
Copyright Jackson Free Press Inc.
All rights reserved.
Reprint stories, reader comments, images or other JFP content only with permission of publisher. Any copying and/or redistribution of photographs, illustrations, PDFs or other images posted and/or created by the Jackson Free Press, without express permission, will be considered a violation of copyright laws and the intellectual-property rights of the Jackson Free Press, and treated as such. All reader comments can be edited or deleted without notice as outlined in the user agreement.
Report problems and flames to site admin
Site design by RoyalBlak Studios.
Free JavaScripts provided by The JavaScript Source
by Brian Johnson
by Brian Johnson
