VOL. 62, No. 50
www.tsdmemphis.com
December 19 - 25, 2013
75 Cents
Police ‘misconduct’ challenged Two October incidents trigger calls for change
Special to the New Tri-State Defender
by Dr. Sybil C. Mitchell
Jeramey Anderson became Mississippiʼs youngest legislator at 22. (Facebook)
Tulane student youngest member of Miss. House of Representatives The Root
by Stephen A. Crockett Jr.
As a sophomore at Moss Point High School in Mississippi, Jeramey Anderson became interested in politics and it’s a good thing considering those years in high school prepped him to become Mississippi’s youngest legislator at 22. Anderson is a senior at Tulane University’s Gulf Coast campus in Biloxi where he studies homeland security and public relations and will have to juggle his legislative duties with his studies. “I’m going to do what needs to be done,” he said. “The people of this district come first and I will manage the two.” After graduating from Moss Point in 2010, Anderson attended Pearl River Community College on a soccer scholarship. At Pearl River, Anderson would earn an associate de“I’m going to gree in criminal justice, AP redo what needs to be ports. Anderson dedone...The feated former Point people of this Moss Mayor Aneice district come Liddell with first and I will nearly 61 percent the vote on manage the of Tuesday to win the District 110 two.” seat vacated by Billy Broomfield, the Associated Press reports. His biggest issue to take on once in office: education. “We focus too highly on standardized testing,” he said. “We teach students to memorize the answers to specific questions and ideas, but what we don’t teach them is how is they got those answers. We need to get back to the foundation of understanding why things are what they are.” One of the biggest challenges facing Anderson once in office will be learning to navigate the mostly Republican state legislature as a freshmen Democrat, AP reports. But Anderson welcomes the challenge with the support of the people and his dean at Tulane who is going to allow Anderson to take online courses to fulfill his degree requirements. “My goal is to bring all these concerns together and all these solutions together and sort out the best way to fix the problems we’re facing,” he said. “My vote is going to be the vote of my constituents, not myself.”
MEMPHIS WEEKEND
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
H- 7 1o - L - 5 9o H- 7 3o - L - 5 5o H- 6 1o - L - 3 2o Scattered T-Storms Heavy T-St orms Partl y Cl o udy REGIONAL TEMPS LITTLE ROCK NASHVILLE JACKSON, MS
Friday H-71 L-58 H-61 L-59 H-74 L-63
Saturday H-71 L-51 H-67 L-61 H-76 L-59
Sunday H-59 L-32 H-66 L-35 H-71 L-38
Their numbers were few, but spirits were high as Memphis United Coalition members took to the streets Tuesday (Dec. 17) to protest what Mid-South Peace and Justice Center Organizing Director Brad Watkins called “a disturbing trend of harassment and misconduct among Memphis police officers.” “The homeless and groups of young African Americans are being singled out by law enforcement for arrests, illegal searches for no cause and other forms of misconduct in the community,” Watkins said. A related gathering took root early that afternoon at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church on Fourth Street downtown. Homeless advocates and a legal representative conducted workshops where attendees were given some direct advice. They were told that citizens have the right to record or photograph any incident involving themselves or others when trying to document civil rights violations or illegal actions by law enforcement. “MPD (Memphis Police Department) said there is no official policy in place that allows citizens to record police actions,” Watkins told The New Tri-State Defender during an interview. “But the office of Mayor AC Wharton (Jr.) said that city policy does allow individuals to photograph or video any questionable incident by anyone, including police officers.” Two troubling instances of what
Members of the Memphis United Coalition say the police are singling out the homeless and groups of young African Americans for arrests, illegal searches and other forms of what they see as misconduct. Their dissatisfaction drove them to march and then protest in front of City Hall on Tuesday. (Courtesy photo)
witnesses have labeled police misconduct and abuse of power occurred in October within a few days of each other: one involved about 50 African-American young people and the other involved a homeless man. As videos and stories of similar incidences were shared through social media and other sources, more people from the same groups began to come forward and share similar experiences. “This started a series of important conversations, and Memphis United SEE POLICE ON PAGE 3
ANALYSIS
Congress doesnʼt seem to care
Looking for a Job?
The Root
by Charles D. Ellison Lawmakers are in a knot over everything from the Affordable Care Act to finding a rare congressional kumbaya moment for a budget deal. But perhaps you haven’t noticed – it seems as if the last thing anyone in Washington, D.C. to talk Politicians wants about is employare busy at- ment. That’s fairly tacking the strange, considerpresident’s ing it’s still rather health care rough out there as far as job markets plan. go. The general public feels the same way. Not that this should be a preferred pathway to quality living, but one suspects that if given a choice, most individuals would naturally gravitate to being employed over having health care. The latter typically gets prioritized once you make sure you have the ability to
Job seekers take a break during a Chicago job fair in 2010. (Photo: Scott Olson/Ge tty Images) clothe, feed and house yourself. A recent United Technologies-National Journal poll discovered the obvious: Most Americans, 3-to-1, would rather Congress get to the business of boosting job growth. A
majority in a later UT-NJ poll engaged in a bit of wishful thinking, with 56 percent confident that Washington would pass a jobs creation bill. On average, more than 64 percent
of respondents to a YouGov poll said everyone in Washington – White House, Republicans and Democrats – should be doing more about the jobs situation. Still, Congress seems more obsessed with balancing budgets, eliminating deficits and fixing broken websites than creating jobs. As congressional midterms start shaping up, strategists in both parties are telling candidates to focus on “Obamacare” pros and cons. Just what we need: another long political year with little said or done about job prospects, but more annoying reruns about the health care law. It doesn’t help, of course, that partisans have somehow hyped themselves into a false sense of security about the unemployment situation. Both Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill use the latest decrease in the unemployment rate to justify the respective spin for that day – and they are also heinously using it to ignore the plight of the long-term unemSEE JOB ON PAGE 2
As funky as lawmakers allow…
The 37th National Black Caucus of State Legislators annual conference at The Peabody last week had some seriously funky moments courtesy of world-class entertainment by Memphisʼ own Larry Dodson and James Alexander, better known as the Bar-Kays. See related story and photos, page 2. (Photo: Tyrone P. Easley)