Lawsuit: Mississippi police ‘terrorized’ small town

MICHAEL GOLDBERG
Associated Press/Report for America

JACKSON, Miss (AP) — Civil rights advocates say in a federal lawsuit that police have “terrorized” residents in a small Mississippi town by subjecting them to false arrests, excessive force and intimidation. The civil rights organization JULIAN is seeking a temporary restraining order against Lexington’s police department to “demand protection for Lexington’s largely Black population.” The lawsuit came Tuesday after the organization obtained an audio recording in July of then- Lexington Police Chief Sam Dobbins using racial slurs and talking about how many people he killed in the line of duty. The Mississippi Center For Investigative Reporting reports that Dobbins denied making the slurs.