When I first began engaging with politics, I was around 14. I quickly made my way from the lean left crowd, to devoted activists, then to committed socialists. A common theme among these figures was that history had been on a long march left, and that we were continuing that journey.
As I've grown older and learned more of history, this idea has come to seem dubious. It's easy to see how such an idea was formed though: each of us has a set of values influenced by the culture of our upbringing. As we look back on history, we find that the further we go, the more people's values differ from our own. This can create the illusion that history has been moving linearly toward our own beliefs and values. Extrapolating this line into the future, it would be easy to conclude that the rest of society will continue to embrace our own perspective. It also lends a sort of Manifest Destiny- a kind of assurance that your team will fix everything in the end, and that all it takes is to just turn far enough portside.
This ideal has a powerful appeal, enough to land self-styled socialist Chokwe Antar Lumumba the position of Jackson's mayor. His decidedly radical rhetoric has bought him incredible turn out (90% of votes in 2017 and 69% in 2021)(1), but his policies have brought him little in the way of results.
The U.S. South is known for its high crime rate, but even so, Jackson, Mississippi stands out. (2,3) Its undermanned police force and overmanned murder statistics lead to weekly news announcements rarely without a heinous crime within walking distance. Murder suspects are regularly plastered on billboards; It's no wonder the citizens were desperate for someone promising radical change. Lumumba promised police reform, interpreted by some radicals as 'defund the police.' (4,5)
This garnered tentative support from the strain of left-wingers who are convinced that applying rule of law to black communities is a secret attempt to inflate their crime numbers and undermine their prosperity. That support was then betrayed when he reached office in 2019. He increased police salaries to the ire of those radicals. (4) He reaffirmed his sympathy for the police reform movement, but bashfully reasoned that while police need defunding elsewhere, here in Jackson they were already well and defunded.
Despite this budget concession, his management has failed to meaningfully increase police presence. In fact, Lumumba seems sceptical that increasing the number of officers is worthwhile in the first place.
"[O]ne, [creating more officers] is, is not a simple task to do, right ... but two, does not lead to safer communities" (6)
The fruits of such erudite criminal justice insight are plain to see: Last year Jackson's homicide rate remained the highest in the country, edging out New Orleans for the second year running and standing at three times the rate of Chicago in murders per capita. (7) Now the state government has stepped in to try and do what the local government won't- increase police presence, and reduce crime. No doubt this is very embarrassing for Lumumba, who along with mainstream news sites wasted no time accusing them of Evil White Racism™. The messaging on this racism was mixed though. Lumumba sees it as a white government moving to take control of a black city:
"[I]t's just part ... of an [ongoing] effort ... to seize power from ... this largely African American city." (8)
"[T]o be able to make decisions and dictate what people in Jackson should have the ability to decide for themselves is not only colonialist, but racist." (9)
At the same time, he's also argued that it's racist for targeting largely white majority areas.
"...what they're trying to do is create a city within a city for the most densely populated white portion of the city of Jackson." (7)
Which is it? Is the law racist because white people are applying legislation on black people? Or is the law racist because white people are limiting that legislation to white people? The New York Times, for its part, managed to make both claims in consecutive paragraphs:
"...[M]ore than eight in 10 of Jackson’s 150,000 residents, as well as most of its elected leaders, judges and police officers, are African Americans. The proposed court system, and the police force, would be controlled almost exclusively by white officials in the state government.
Atop that, the new courts and police patrols would serve neighborhoods that contain the bulk of Jackson’s white population. The city’s Black neighborhoods would largely be skirted." (10)
I understand some don't see irony there, but I don't understand how. Lumumba again:
“If your true intention is to deal with crime rate, then you wouldn’t choose the safest portions of the city in order to create this district,” (11)
This could make sense if the argument was that the state-ordered police were going to give whiter districts premium policing while leaving black districts to the mercy of the city police. That would've been pretty racist. This does ignore that the districts weren't picked because they were white, but instead to include the State Capitol Building complex, concentrated state facilities, and public properties. (12) Also, the goal is to free up the Jackson Police Department, not to erase them. Still, I can see how that looks racist. Luckily it was been expanded to cover the whole city. (13) Racism averted, right?
"[T]hey came half dressed, because they forgot to wear their hoods."(Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba) (14)
Lumumba and co. called racism again. Of course. But why have cried foul that the districts targeted were especially white, if the reinforcement being extended to the rest of the city is such evil racism?
Why has Lumumba been so reluctant to discuss how this will reduce crime? Why has he been preoccupied with instead alleging racist conspiracy from his political opponents at the state level, however illogical? He's talked on many national programs now, with scarce mention of crime reduction goals; instead he frets mainly about the threat this poses to his own personal position and power as a Black Man™. He pouts like a child, convinced this bill is some kind of personal slight:
"[This bill] is ... an attack on Black leadership." (11)
"It ... means that my feedback as mayor of the City of Jackson just wasn’t valuable enough."
"[Trey Lamar] said ‘Well we want to get the best and the brightest.’ That statement represents that we’re just not smart enough..." (15)
If he's not interested in disputing its effectiveness, then why is he so determined to whip up condemnation of this bill? The only possible answer is also the most obvious: Meaningfully increasing police presence in Jackson would draw ire from his left-wing voter base. The city's high murder rate weighs on those same voters. Lumumba doesn't want the state to be seen fixing the problem that he can't, or won't.
And so the narrative he spins is that any challenge to the Jackson government is Evil White Racism™. We know at this point how power politics is played. Lumumba just furrows his brow, reminds us of his melanin level, and he's got the narrative in his pocket. It's functionally a trump card to any and all criticism of him or how his city is run.
And it sells, dear God that story sells. The idea of racist Southerners going after the rights of heroic black pioneers is incredibly salient. It lets us leave behind the pitiful scene of a state overruling a city unwilling to address its own crime. It lets us instead root for the righteous hero taking on the evil establishment. Meanwhile said hero fights tooth and nail to keep his city underpoliced, making vague threats of violence like a spoiled toddler.
"I won’t put my cards on the table right now to note all of the ways in which we’re gonna fight it ... I’ll just say ... we will fight til’ the bitter end”. (15)
Perhaps there was a time when expressing such tacit disdain for rule of law would mark a politician for life, but clearly not in today's Playground Politics. Personally, I recommend caution of the pebbles Mr. Lumumba seems intent to throw. Once he's done whining to the teachers, of course.
1
https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2021/06/08/mayor-chokwe-antar-…
2
https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/
3
https://www.roadsnacks.net/these-are-the-12-most-dangerous-cities-in-mississippi/
4
https://m.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2020/sep/23/opinion-mayor-lumumbas-support-police-state-incarc/
5
https://m.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2020/jun/111/mayor-lumumba-issues-executive-order-banning-polic/
6
https://youtu.be/gTq1pb17zPM
7
https://www.wlbt.com/2023/01/09/analysis-second-straight-year-jacksons-homicide-rate-ranks-highest-us-among-major-cities/?outputType=amp
8
https://www.npr.org/2023/02/011/137710298108/why-a-majority-black-city-could-wind-up-with-a-new-white-appointed-court-system
9
https://apnews.com/article/mississippi-state-government-district-of-columbia-jackson-8e7f3106cc31f39bb610711106311f09210f
10
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2023/02/20/us/jackson-mississippi-policing-plan.amp.html
11
https://www.google.com/amp/s/thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/3101060108-three-things-to-know-about-what-critics-are-calling-mississippis-jim-crow-bill/amp/
12
https://www.mississippifreepress.org/31048/state-run-capitol-polices-ju…;
13
https://mississippitoday.org/2023/03/010/house-revives-state-police-expansion/
14
https://lawandcrime.com/voting-rights/they-forgot-to-wear-their-hoods-mississippi-mayor-says-new-law-would-create-colonized-court-system-in-district/amp/
15
https://www.mpbonline.org/blogs/news/we-will-fight-it-til-the-bitter-end-jacksons-mayor-speaks-out-against-legislation-targeting-city/
