Residents sue Mississippi police department for ‘terrorizing’ Black people after recording exposed chief using the N-word and bragging about a shooting

A Lexington, Miss. , police SUV is parked outside their department near the town square, Monday, Aug. 15, 2022.

A civil rights and international human rights organization filed a federal lawsuit on Tuesday, against local officials in Lexington, where they say police have “terrorized” residents, subjecting them to false arrests, excessive force and intimidation. Associated Press Residents are suing a Mississippi police department for its treatment of the town’s Black residents. The legal action comes after its chief was exposed on an audio recording making racists and homophobic comments.

The lawsuit asks for a federal investigation into the department.   Five Black residents of Lexington, Mississippi, have sued the police department for having “terrorized” Black residents after a recording surfaced of now-former police Chief Lee Dobbins using a racist slur to describe a person he claimed to have shot more than 100 times. The lawsuit alleges the police department has “a pattern, practice, and/or custom of unnecessary or unreasonable force,” making false arrests, and “retaliating against officers who report misconduct,” according to the court documents.

That pattern extends to “not protecting Black residents,” it says, and demands the City of Lexington be required to stand up an independent civilian complaint review board and provide better training for city officials and police officers.  JULIAN, a civil rights organization that helped make the recording public, filed suit Tuesday on behalf of five residents named as plaintiffs to “demand protection for Lexington’s largely Black population from the very police department that ostensibly exists to keep them safe but in reality has terrorized residents,” according to a press release. Lexington is over 86% Black, according to the United States Census.

“Over 200 Black citizens have formally or informally complained about being harassed, arrested, or fined for baseless reasons in the past year,” says the complaint, which calls for a federal probe. It names the Lexington Police Department, the City of Lexington, Dobbins, and the interim chief as defendants.  Two of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, Robert and Darius Harris, allege that after the LPD falsely arrested and tased Darius for shooting off fireworks from private property on New Year’s Eve, they were arrested after they spoke out about it after a town hall meeting on April 7 to discuss the community’s grievances against the police department, according to the complaint.

 “The retaliation and baseless arrests that Plaintiffs Robert and Darius Harris experienced are consistent with how LPD treats any Black resident who stands up for themselves, speaks out, or dares to live their lives in Lexington,” the complaint says. Another plaintiff, Peter Reeves, alleges he was arrested for having a bottle of Tylenol in his vehicle after he criticized the police department on social media. From the back of a police vehicle, Reeves said he saw police arrest multiple Black drivers at a road block while not stopping white drivers.

The suit alleges the LPD’s roadblocks regularly target Black people by where they are located.  The Lexington Police Department, Dobbins, Dobbins, and Lexington Mayor Robin McCrory did not immediately return Insider’s requests for comment. In the recording that sparked the action, which Insider obtained and reviewed after it was released in July, Dobbins — who was fired on July 20 — can be heard using the N-word and various homophobic slurs.

 Dobbins refers to an alleged shootout in a cornfield, saying, “I shot that n—– 119 times, OK? I saved 67 kids in a school. The rest of my department, they faded out, they got scared. I went hard bro.

I chased this mother—— across the field. “Hooker told Insider he made the recording because he felt it was his “duty as a Black man to expose a man of his character. ” Read the original article on Insider.