To donate by check, phone, or other method, see our More Ways to Give page.

×
A person floats a lantern on the water on the 78th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima.

On 78th Anniversary of Hiroshima Bombing, Mayor Decries 'Folly' of Deterrence Theory

Front view of the The E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse in Washington, D.C.
News

Trump's Latest Social Media Target? Judge Presiding Over 2020 Election Conspiracy Case

Donald Trump points from a stage.
News

'There's No First Amendment Right to Threaten': DOJ Asks for Protection Order in Trump Election Case

felon disenfranchisement
News

Federal Court Strikes Down Mississippi's 'Jim Crow' Felon Disenfranchisement Law

Researchers conduct routine maintenance on a research buoy
News

'Terrifying': Scientists Raise Alarm Over Unprecedented Global Ocean Heat

Opinion
Climate
Economy
Politics
Rights & Justice
War & Peace
Two figures view a panorama of the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, as one points.
Opinion

The US Government Once Called Hiroshima and Nagasaki ‘Nuclear Tests’

Opinion

The Cure for Climate Anxiety? Climate Action

Opinion

Instead of Moving to Escape Climate Chaos, Build Social Trust Where You Are

Opinion

Indict Trump for Insurrection, Too

Country singer Jason Aldean and his band play in front of a courthouse where a black man was lynched in 1927
Further

Try That In A Small Town Where Good Ol' Boys Are Raised Up Right To Lynch and Stuff

Currently stirring the culture war pot is a new, incendiary, "almost comically offensive" pro-lynching anthem by country singer Jason Aldean, who posed with his redneck band at the site of an infamous Tennessee lynching to flash videos of protesters and bray that if you "cuss out a cop" or "stomp on the flag," "See how far you make it down the road," which isn't threatening at all so why is he being "cancelled"? Maybe 'cause he's a racist "garbage fire of a human being"?

Try That In A Small Town argues that if you in any way "act a fool" - “Sucker punch somebody on a sidewalk/Carjack an old lady at a red light/Pull a gun on the owner of a liquor store...Cuss out a cop, spit in his face/Stomp on the flag and light it up" - vigilante justice will find you: "See how far ya make it down the road/Around here, we take care of our own." In a later verse Aldean, who was on stage when a gunman opened fire in 2017 at a Las Vegas music festival, killing 60 people and wounding over 800 in this country's worst gun massacre, sings, “Got a gun that my granddad gave me/They say one day they’re gonna round up/Well, that shit might fly in the city, good luck/Try that in a small town.” As he sings, images of rowdy protests, including post-George-Floyd BLM actions, flash frantically onscreen; at one point, a Fox News chyron screams, "State of Emergency Declared in Georgia" - though it turns out much of the footage is from protests in Canada and Europe.

Most egregious, Aldean's backdrop is the stately Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee, where in 1927 a white lynch mob strung up and murdered 18-year-old Black man Henry Choate after dragging his body through the streets with a car. One goon reportedly taunted the teen by holding up the rope beforehand and sneering, "Well, that sends you to hell - here you go!" before they hanged Choate and threw his body over the balcony; the rope dangled there for several weeks. The violence is said to have haunted Maury County: At least 20 Black men and boys were lynched or "disappeared” by the local Klan in that era, and it was the site of the 1946 Columbia Race Riot that almost saw the lynching of Thurgood Marshal. It's unclear if the producers of Aldean's flag-waving video - American, not Confederate, so good on him - chose the site because of or (improbably) unaware of its history, though some critics argue that would be even worse: "It just reinforces that Tennessee’s racist history is truly inescapable." Regardless, the song has enough Birth of a Nation, extrajudicial law and order dog whistles - his small town is "Full of good ol' boys, raised up right/If you're lookin' for a fight" - horror-struck critics have deemed it both "an ode to sundown towns" and "a modern lynching song."

Predictably, Aldean denies this. While the song was released in May, the video - and outrage - wasn't released until July 14. "When u grow up in small town, it's that unspoken rule of 'we all have each other’s backs and we look out for each other,'" he wrote at the time. "It feels like somewhere along the way, that sense of community and respect has gotten lost...I hope my new music video helps y’all know that u are not alone in feeling that way." Cue wizened old guy in video musing "what this community and a lot of farm communities stand for - somebody needs some help, they’ll get it." Awww. That sounds so sweet. Given the song's menacing imagery and belligerent rhetoric - "Ya think you're tough/ Well, try that in a small town...You cross that line, it won't take long/For you to find out...Try that in a small town" - it also sounds like disingenuous bullshit, ugly light years away from "community" and "respect." Aldean's "angry cocktail" of country music, willful blindness, nostalgia and paranoia about anything "other" or "from away" - Nikki Haley's pining for the "simple" days of "faith, family and country" when marginalized people had no rights - is a perfect, heedless distillation of what MAGA world wants this country to be: Make America White (also straight and Christian) Again.

As usual, rural (white) towns play a key role in this well-burnished mythology, serving as the defenders of America's heartland against a perilous, communist, dystopian landscape - big cities, bad crimes, foreign food, weird ideas, dirt, noise, people of color. But painting small-town America as a pristine, peaceful utopia is more bullshit. In small towns, poverty, unemployment, domestic violence, lack of health care, boarded-up businesses, mean-spirited scapegoating of "others" and the opioid/fentanyl epidemic are rampant; food deserts are growing, farm communities are shrinking; vigilante justice still isn't justice, and local politics are often inept, corrupt, racist, rich-centric like the rest of the country. Deaths from the "unholy trinity (of) cars, guns and drugs" are 20% higher in rural small towns than big cities. Gun violence is everywhere: Uvalde, Newtown, Parkland are small towns, their shooters were young local (white) men, the Las Vegas shooter was an angry white man from Iowa, 2/3 of all fatal shootings involve rural white men - who often shoot themselves - with no "marauding bands of BLM protesters" in sight, and to paint gun violence as a big-city, left-leaning issue is "dog-whistling past the graveyard." It's also, says Nashville's Sheryl Crow, "just lame.”

The country music that supposedly represents these communities likewise boasts its own hypocrisies, discrepancies and racist history. An art "created around whiteness," its executives segregated country music from the start into "race music" and "hillbilly music," thus perpetuating a white-dominated genre that "borrowed from Black musicians but rarely centered on them," or even gave them credit. While it long had its progressive exceptions - Jimmy Rodgers, Mother Maybelle Carter, Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Loretta Lynn, Charley Pride, with many more upcoming - it was historically reactionary. Enter Aldean, dubbed by some country purists "barely a country artist" but more a "mid-tempo arena retro rocker" whose hot new song is "a clownish, poorly-written, trite and reactionary piece of audio refuse," a "dated, untimely, unnecessarily strident... grandstanding embarrassment" without charm and a "poorly-attempted cultural statement that has clearly proven counter-productive," though it's making tons of money "being marketed well to people with terrible taste in music." The song is now #1 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs, with views of the video soaring from 350,000 to 16.6 million. Capitalism loves controversy - and evidently lots of lies.

Aldean, it turns out, may be crazy about small towns, but he's not from one, nor does he live in one. He grew up in Macon, where he attended private school, and he lives in Nashville, a city of over 700,000. He also doesn't write his own songs - "he picks them out of a catalog like a karaoke singer" - nor did he write this one: It's written by Neil Thrasher, Kurt Allison, Tully Kennedy and Kelley Lovelace, "none of whom are Jason Aldean," so "you'd have to ask them if it's about Blacks, Jews, Antifa, homeless people, or they're just mad some teenager stole their flag." "What we have here is a prep school dilettante who was raised in a big city, singing a song he didn’t write, about an experience he never had," writes Noah Berlatsky. He adds the song nonetheless remains "ugly and evil (because) Aldean is in fact speaking for an American tradition (that) is not limited to small towns but very much includes them, and Aldean remains "a garbage fire of a human being." Still, he questions condemning Aldean as a fake, thus conflating authenticity with morality: "It's odd to criticize a racist for not being true to his racist posturing, for not being the rugged small town bigot of his songs." At some point, he suggests "we stop caring so much about who is 'real' and start caring more about who is good."

The consensus: Aldean's neither. After a few days of backlash, Country Music Television pulled the video. Aldean squawked the critiques were "meritless," he doesn't even mention race and, "Cancel culture is a thing...if people don’t like what you say, they (try) and ruin your life, ruin everything." More squawking from the loathsome likes of Marcia Blackburn - "I stand with Jason Aldean" - Jesse Watters - "(This is) "open season on all of us" - and lying Sarah Huckabee: CMT "caved to the woke mob." Then the video re-appeared, with BLM protests edited out. Meanwhile, Aldean kept touring, whining and sounding like a vengeful, dumb-as-a-rock thug. In Boston, he inexplicably compared his song to the Marathon bombing: Boston should understand his message "better than anybody...Any of you guys that would’ve found those guys before the cops did, I know you would’ve beat the shit outta them...It's about people getting their shit together and acting right." In Hartford on Sunday, protesters gathere - "There is comfort in breaking bread together” - to don gowns and bear photos of Aldean in rainbow glory: "Try That In A Ball Gown." Critics had thoughts about "societal expectations" for the chunky singer. "I am sure he looked beautiful in that gown without the photo-shopping" and "the belt buckle really ties it all together." Talk about taking care of our own.

Jason Aldean - Try That in a Small Town (Official Music Video)youtu.be

Jason Aldean in a rainbow colored ballgownActivists fixed the image of Aldean with a rainbow ballgownTwitter/Reddit photo

Further
SEE ALL
Researchers conduct routine maintenance on a research buoy
News

'Terrifying': Scientists Raise Alarm Over Unprecedented Global Ocean Heat

News

On Earth Overshoot Day, Campaigners Say 'Move the Date' by Fixing Broken Economic System

​Climate activists demonstrate in Berlin
News

Climate Groups Announce Global Days of Action to 'Propel Renewable Energy Revolution Forward'

The climate justice group 350.org on Monday announced upcoming global days of action—November 3 and 4—aimed at accelerating the worldwide transition to clean energy.

"On every continent, in big cities and on small islands, we'll take action to show that a global renewable energy revolution is within our reach," says a new website where people can sign up to participate in what 350.org and its partners are calling Power Up. "We'll spotlight the oil industry's greed and reclaim the money and power to fund a just future powered by the sun and the wind."

"We are taking to the streets because we are outraged," the website states. "But also because we are hopeful and determined to use our anger and our hope to resist—and to build a better future for ourselves and our planet."

The announcement comes just days after fossil fuel corporations reported another quarter of massive profits and affirmed their plans to expand drilling even as the planet burns. Big Oil has known for decades that extracting and refining petroleum causes life-threatening greenhouse gas pollution, but the heavily subsidized industry continues to undermine scientists' warnings in an effort to protect its bottom line.

"This intolerable state of affairs must change, and it must change now," 350.org executive director May Boeve said in a statement. "Around the world, people are uniting to wrest power and resources away from reckless fossil fuel companies to propel the global renewable energy revolution forward."

"We stand at a pivotal moment, as the undeniable impacts of the climate crisis are ravaging our world," said Boeve. "The window to act is short—but there is still time to create enormous positive changes."

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres made a similar point last week. After surveying some of the deadly extreme weather disasters—from heatwaves to wildfires and monsoon rains—that have unfolded around the world this July, which has already been deemed the hottest month in recorded history to date, the U.N. chief said that "it is still possible to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C and avoid the very worst of climate change but only with dramatic, immediate climate action."

"We have seen some progress—a robust rollout of renewables and some positive steps from sectors such as shipping—but none of this is going far enough or fast enough," Guterres added. "Accelerating temperatures demand accelerated action."

According to 350.org:

  • Every dollar invested in clean energy generates nearly three times as many jobs compared to investment in fossil fuel projects.
  • Just four oil giants—Exxon, Shell, Total, and Chevron—collectively earned a staggering $33.2 billion in profit in the first quarter of 2023 alone. The same amount of money could fully electrify an estimated 55 million rural households without energy and grid access.
  • The excessive profits made by the West's five largest oil and gas companies totaled $134 billion in 2022. These exorbitant profits, made at the expense of ordinary households, underscore the urgent need for global energy justice and a transition to renewable energy.

"The rapid heating of our planet isn't a natural phenomenon. It's a crime committed by a wealthy few for their own profit," says the Power Up website. "While we suffer, fossil fuel CEOs grow richer and richer. For decades they've been blocking climate action to protect their obscene wealth. But they're not untouchable."

"The solution is clear: Taking money from where it currently is—the obscene profits of the fossil fuel industry—and shifting it toward renewable energy systems rooted in justice," the website reads. "But taking the money of the fossil fuel industry is not enough: We want to put them out of the way. We need our governments to explore every possible means of action to stop Big Oil from dictating our energy future."

The upcoming days of action are scheduled for November 3 and 4 because that's when fossil fuel companies are expected to announce their third-quarter profits. Later that month, policymakers from around the world are set to gather in the United Arab Emirates for the U.N.'s COP28 climate conference.

350.org and its partners are "driven by the conviction that we have the tools, technology, and resources to enable a fast and just transition to renewable energy systems—they just need to be moved in the right direction."

"The profits the fossil fuels industry makes by digging, burning, and polluting could be used to power hundreds of millions of households worldwide with solar and wind energy," the groups insist. "It could insulate homes, keep the lights on in hospitals and schools, ensure stable access to clean electricity everywhere, lift people from poverty, and protect all of us from the worst impacts of the climate crisis."

Organizers have two simple demands:

  1. Pay Up—make fossil fuels companies pay the bill: We must reclaim fossil fuel companies' illegitimate profits. To start with, our governments should impose taxes on their unjust profits [and] eliminate subsidies, investments, and loans to coal, oil, and gas companies. And instead, they should fund and support renewable energy initiatives rooted in justice.
  2. Power Up—unleash the money to fund renewable energies: Governments must redirect financial resources toward renewable energies through all the financial mechanisms possible, on local, national, and global levels. These resources should align with the scale and urgency of the climate crisis and ensure a globally equitable distribution of funds.

"Across the globe, people are already leading the way toward a clean, just, [and] renewable world, using solutions to the climate crisis as tools of resistance against the toxic fossil fuels industry—showing that another world is possible," the groups point out.

"Wind and solar are producing record amounts of clean electricity year after year, and getting cheaper every day," they continue. "We have all the tools, resources, and technology needed to make the energy transition happen. The only thing missing is the political will to put the good of people and the planet above the profits of the oil industry."

NewsClimate
SEE ALL
News

Ignoring Warnings of Mass Job Loss, Fed Hikes Rates to Highest Level in Decades

A Norfolk Southern train in East Palestine
News

Norfolk Southern Wants to Buy the Only Municipally Owned Railroad in the US. Voters Can Stop It.

The company responsible for the toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, is on the verge of buying up the only municipally owned interstate railroad in the United States.

One remaining barrier to Norfolk Southern's $1.6 billion purchase of the Cincinnati Southern Railway (CSR) is the Ohio city's voters, who will have an opportunity to reject the proposed sale on the November 7 ballot.

Norfolk Southern first expressed interest in buying the 337-mile railway outright in 2021, well before the East Palestine derailment earlier this year brought closer scrutiny to the rail giant's history of fighting safety regulations at the expense of workers and communities. Cincinnati has leased the railway to Norfolk Southern for decades, and the arrangement currently brings the city around $25 million a year.

City officials—including the unelected board of trustees that manages the railway—formally announced the proposed sale last November, setting off a lengthy process during which lawmakers changed 150-year-old statutes to allow proceeds from the transaction to be used for purposes other than paying off debts, such as infrastructure improvements.

The $1.6 billion from the sale would be placed into "a trust fund of professionally managed financial assets," according to the five-member board of trustees, which would oversee the fund. The board unanimously approved the sale in a November vote.

On July 13, the board recommended that the proposed sale be placed on the ballot this coming November. The sale must also win approval from the U.S. Surface Transportation Board, which is assessing the deal and expected to issue a decision by September.

Aftab Pureval, Cincinnati's Democratic mayor, called the potential sale "a historic opportunity to deliver great value to citizens of Cincinnati and realize a substantial return on the investment and foresight of our predecessors."

But some local residents have voiced sharp disagreement, suggesting the deal could face resistance come November. Madeline Fening of the Cincinnati CityBeatrecently observed that "the events in East Palestine have completely changed the way residents discuss the vote."

The November ballot language will explicitly identify Norfolk Southern as the prospective buyer.

Emily Spring, a Cincinnati resident and community organizer, said last week that "selling the CSR to Norfolk Southern would not only hurt the railroad's workers and surrounding communities—neighborhoods historically affected by unfair economic and political practices—it would give the power that we have as Cincinnatians to yet another billionaire corporation that continues to put profits over people."

"I, along with others in my community, am prepared to block this sale and fight to keep our railroad in the hands of Cincinnatians," Spring added. "For Cincinnati, for our environment, for rail workers, and for our communities, it's time to derail this sale."

"It would give the power that we have as Cincinnatians to yet another billionaire corporation that continues to put profits over people."

Werner Lange, chair of the Ohio Peace Council and a retired educator with five grandchildren living in Cincinnati, argued in a recent op-ed that the pending sale is a "Faustian bargain, one that sacrifices something of inestimable value for insecure material prospects."

"The CSR is a jewel in the Queen City treasure, and has been so for over 150 years," Lange wrote. "As the only municipally-owned long-distance railway in the nation, it confers a unique and enviable status upon Cincinnati. It shines as a beacon of hope and harbinger of things to come in an industry increasingly plagued with catastrophic derailments by privately-owned railroad companies, such as the notorious Norfolk Southern."

Lange cast doubt on proponents' case that the sale would be an economic boon for the city, writing that "according to recent state law, should there be more than a 25% loss on speculative investments made by appointed financial managers from the $1.62 billion sale price, then the city receives nothing—nada—until the stock market loss is rectified, if ever."

"Norfolk Southern clearly qualifies as a poster child for corporate greed and neglect of community need, making it unworthy as a buyer of the cherished Cincinnati Southern Railway," Lange added.

The rail giant's accident rate has risen three times faster than the industry average over the past decade, surging by roughly 81% between 2013 and 2022 as its profits have steadily grown, hitting an annual record last year.

Like other rail giants, Norfolk Southern has lobbied furiously against even modest safety improvements at the state and federal levels. As The Leverreported in the wake of the February derailment in East Palestine—which is still reeling from the toxic crash—Norfolk Southern "helped kill a federal safety rule aimed at upgrading the rail industry's Civil War-era braking systems."

The company's CEO has also declined to support federal legislation aimed at preventing a repeat of the East Palestine disaster.

Railroad Workers United (RWU), an alliance representing rail workers across the United States, is among the organizations speaking out against the proposed sale of the Cincinnati railway to Norfolk Southern, calling it the latest example of industry privatization and consolidation.

Last month, RWU—which supports nationalizing the U.S. rail industry—adopted a resolution describing the CSR as "an example of publicly owned rail infrastructure in North America that needs to be expanded, not eliminated."

Matt Weaver, a maintenance-of-way worker and member of RWU's steering committee, said in a statement that "the rail industry has robbed the American people blind for 150 years now."

"Millions of acres of land and massive subsidies were given to the 'Robber Barons' of old," said Weaver. "Today's rail industry is the same, indifferent to the needs and concerns of their own workers and customers, let alone the nation. The citizens of Cincinnati would be wise to hold onto their railroad infrastructure as their forefathers understood the perils of private rail ownership. They would not be well-served by this sale."

NewsEconomy
SEE ALL
News

House Democrats Call for 'Live Broadcasting' of Trump Trial

News

AP Psychology Effectively Banned in Florida Over Lesson on Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity

News

Rail Unions Renew Push for Safety Reforms 6 Months After East Palestine Disaster

News

Trump Pleads Not Guilty to Charges He Tried to Overturn Election

Demonstrators protest against gerrymandering
News

Looking to End '12 Years of Rule by Right-Wing Interests,' Groups Challenge Wisconsin Maps

Voting rights organizations and law firms joined forces Wednesday to file a legal challenge against Wisconsin's aggressively gerrymandered state legislative maps, which have allowed Republicans to cling to power in the Assembly and Senate for more than a decade.

Filed by Campaign Legal Center (CLC), Law Forward, the Election Law Clinic at Harvard Law School, Stafford Rosenbaum LLP, and Arnold & Porter, the petition argues that "Wisconsin's current legislative districts are unconstitutional in multiple ways," intentionally fragmenting Democratic voters in mid-sized cities and towns and giving Republicans an unlawful advantage.

The state's maps haven't changed much since 2011, when Republican lawmakers crafted GOP-friendly districts under then-Gov. Scott Walker.

"They are extreme partisan gerrymanders that violate multiple provisions of the Wisconsin Constitution," reads the new lawsuit, which was filed directly with the state Supreme Court. "The maps violate the Constitution's guarantee of equal protection because the Legislature, through these maps, has created superior and inferior classes of voters based on viewpoint, subordinating one class to the abusive fiat of the other. The maps also violate the constitutional guarantee of free speech because they retaliate against voters who express a political view by stripping them of political power."

The groups filed the challenge on behalf of 19 Wisconsin voters a day after liberal Justice Janet Protasiewicz was sworn in to the state Supreme Court, ending 15 years of conservative dominance. Protasiewicz criticized Wisconsin's maps as "unfair" during her campaign for the seat—the most expensive judicial race in U.S. history.

Jeff Mandell, a partner at Stafford Rosenbaum and board president of Law Forward, said Wednesday that "in the past 12 years, one political party captured the Legislature and has insulated itself from being answerable to the voters."

"Despite the fact that our legislative branch is meant to be the most directly representative of the people, the gerrymandered maps have divided our communities, preventing fair representation," said Mandell. "This has eroded confidence in our political system, suppressed competitive elections, skewed policy outcomes, and undermined democratic representation."

"We have endured 12 years of rule by right-wing interests," Mandell added, "and the voters of Wisconsin deserve fair representation."

"Legislators have no right to complete a term of office that was unconstitutionally obtained."

After a legal battle last year, the Wisconsin Supreme Court implemented Republican-drawn voting maps that Democratic Gov. Tony Evers vetoed in late 2021. Wisconsin's Republican-controlled Legislature tried and failed to override the governor's veto.

The new lawsuit argues that by imposing on the state the exact maps Evers vetoed, the Wisconsin Supreme Court violated the separation-of-powers principle.

The petition notes that the maps "did precisely what Republicans hoped" in 2022, "increasing their majority to 64 assembly seats (two shy of a veto-proof two-thirds majority) and 22 senate seats (a veto-proof majority)."

"An equally divided electorate yielded near two-third majorities for Republicans in both chambers," the petition adds.

The plaintiffs ask that the state's current legislative maps be redrawn and call for special elections for state Senate seats that would otherwise not be up for reelection until 2026. If the lawsuit succeeds, state Assembly races would also be held under newly drawn maps.

"The legislators elected in November 2022 took office in unconstitutionally configured districts," the lawsuit states. "That constitutional infirmity has persisted for over a decade now, and Wisconsinites have suffered under this unconstitutional system for long enough. Legislators have no right to complete a term of office that was unconstitutionally obtained."

Mark Gaber, senior director of redistricting at Campaign Legal Center, said Wednesday that "for far too long, Wisconsinites have had their voices illegally silenced by extreme gerrymandering."

"Gerrymandering is a stain on our democracy no matter which party does it," said Gaber. "It's common sense: Voters should pick their politicians, not the other way around."

NewsPolitics
SEE ALL
Front view of the The E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse in Washington, D.C.
News

Trump's Latest Social Media Target? Judge Presiding Over 2020 Election Conspiracy Case

News

'There's No First Amendment Right to Threaten': DOJ Asks for Protection Order in Trump Election Case

News

Federal Court Strikes Down Mississippi's 'Jim Crow' Felon Disenfranchisement Law

News

CNBC Anchor Accuses UAW Leader of 'Class Warfare' for Fighting for Workers

Michael Corey Jenkins
News

6 Mississippi 'Goon Squad' Deputies Plead Guilty to Torturing Black Men

Six former Mississippi sheriff's deputies from a self-described "Goon Squad" pleaded guilty Thursday to subjecting two Black men to racialized torture and shooting one of the victims in the mouth after a neighbor called in a complaint about the men staying in the home of a white woman.

Former Rankin County Sheriff's Office (RCSO) Deputies Brett Morris McAlpin, Jeffrey Arwood Middleton, Christian Lee Dedmon, Hunter Thomas Elward, Daniel Ready Opdyke, and Joshua Allen Hartfield pleaded guilty to federal charges in connection with the January 24 torture of 32-year-old Michael Corey Jenkins and 35-year-old Eddie Terrell Parker.

On January 24, the white deputies—who had no warrant—broke down the door of the Braxton home where Parker was living, handcuffing and repeatedly tasing the victims before sexually assaulting them, calling them racist names while threatening to kill them, and shooting Jenkins in the mouth, shattering his jaw and causing permanent injuries to his tongue and neck.

"These guilty pleas are historic for justice against rogue police torture in Rankin County and all over America," Malik Shabazz, an attorney representing Jenkins and Parker, said in a statement. "Today is truly historic for Mississippi and for civil and human rights in America."

Trent Walker, another attorney for the two men, toldMississippi Today that his clients "feel they're getting justice. They feel vindicated."

"There were a lot of naysayers," Walker added. "This proves there is justice in Mississippi, even in Rankin County with its long history of police violence."

Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey—who in June said the six deputies had resigned or been terminated—called the case "the most horrible incident of police brutality I've learned of over my whole career, and I'm ashamed it happened at this department."

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) launched a probe into the case in February after an Associated Press investigation linked the Rankin County deputies "to at least four violent encounters with Black men since 2019 that left two dead and another with lasting injuries."

According to Mississippi Today:

In 2021, Damien Cameron, a 29-year-old Black man, died after a confrontation with Rankin County deputies Elward and Luke Stickman. Cameron's mother, who filed a civil lawsuit against the department, said she witnessed the officers kneel on Cameron's neck and back, while Cameron told them he could not breathe for over 10 minutes.

A grand jury chose not to indict the officers for Cameron's death a year before Elward shot Jenkins. "If they would have did something then, this wouldn't have happened," said his father, Mel Jenkins.

Kristen Clarke, who heads the DOJ's Civil Rights Division, said the defendants "caused harm to the entire community who feel that they can't trust the police officers who are supposed to serve them."

U.S. Attorney Darren LaMarca said the deputies "became the criminals they swore to protect us from."

"Now, they'll be treated as the criminals as they are," he added.

According to court documents, McAlpin—formerly the department's chief investigator—received a complaint from one of his neighbors in Braxton, a village of less than 200 people in neighboring Simpson County, about several Black men staying at the home of a white woman.

The neighbor—who according to court documents "observed suspicious behavior" by the men—did not know that Parker was helping to care for the woman.

McAlpin directed Dedmond, an RCSO investigator, to handle the complaint. Dedmond then contacted a group of deputies led by Middleton who called themselves the Goon Squad "because of their willingness to use excessive force and not report it."

The deputies went to the woman's home without a warrant, kicked down a door, and upon encountering Jenkins and Parker, handcuffed, arrested, and tased the men without any probable cause. Opdyke kicked Parker in the ribs while Dedmond demanded to know "where the drugs were." Dedmond drew and fired his pistol, repeating the question. Parker reiterated that there were no drugs in the house.

The deputies then dragged Jenkins and Parker into the living room and called the men racial slurs "including 'nigger,' 'monkey,' and 'boy'" while accusing them of "taking advantage of the white woman who owned the house" and warning them "to stay out of Rankin County and go back to Jackson to 'their side' of the Pearl River."

During a search of the home Opdyke found a dildo and a BB gun, mounted the sex toy on the weapon, and orally assaulted Jenkins and Parker with it. Dedmond prepared to rape Jenkins with the object but "stopped when he noticed that [he] had defecated on himself."

The deputies then forced Jenkins and Parker onto their backs on the living room floor, held them down, and "poured milk, alcohol, and chocolate syrup on their faces and into their mouths" and "cooking grease on [Parker's] head" while Elward threw eggs at the men.

Jenkins and Parker were then ordered to "strip naked and shower off to wash away evidence of abuse" before they were taken to jail. After this, the deputies beat the men with kitchen implements and a sword.

Noticing their tasers were issued by two different law enforcement agencies, the deputies decided to test the stun guns on their victims "to see which one was the most powerful." They shocked the men 17 times.

McAlpin and Middleton then stole several items in the home that caught their eye, including a military uniform and rubber bar mats. The deputies stopped stealing when they heard two gunshots in the bedroom where the other deputies were holding Jenkins and Parker.

One of the shots was fired in the home's yard by Dedmond. The other was fired by Elward, who stuck his gun in Jenkins' mouth and fired. According to a court document, "the bullet lacerated [Jenkins'] tongue, broke his jaw, and exited out his neck."

As Jenkins lay on the floor, bleeding and without medical attention, "the defendants huddled up on the rear screened-in porch and devised a false cover story" that Jenkins consented to a search that produced two bags containing methamphetamine, and that Parker fled into the home.

The deputies also falsely claimed that Parker had reached for a gun after Elward removed his handcuffs in the bedroom where he was shot in self-defense. They then planted evidence including the BB gun with which the victims were sexually assaulted and methamphetamine previously obtained from an informant.

False police reports, sworn affidavits, and charges against Jenkins and Parker followed. The deputies also gave false statements to agents of the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, which investigated Elward's shooting of Jenkins.

The defendants, who are scheduled for sentencing in November, face possible prison sentences ranging from 80 to 120 years and fines of between $1.5 million and $2.75 million each.

In June, Jenkins and Parker filed a $400 million federal civil rights lawsuit against Bailey and the six deputies.

NewsRights & Justice
SEE ALL
A person floats a lantern on the water on the 78th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima.
News

On 78th Anniversary of Hiroshima Bombing, Mayor Decries 'Folly' of Deterrence Theory

News

14-Year-Old Boy Killed by Israeli Occupation Forces During West Bank Raid

News

Warren, Deluzio Grill Arms-Makers on How Much They Would Benefit From GOP Tax Cuts

News

Groups Demand Accountability for War Crimes in US-Backed Saudi-Led War in Yemen

People in a small boat approach the FSO Safer oil tanker
News

UN Launches High-Stakes Effort to Prevent Catastrophic Oil Spill From Tanker Near Yemen

"The United Nations has begun an operation to defuse what might be the world's largest ticking time bomb," U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres announced Tuesday.

"A complex maritime salvage effort is now underway in the Red Sea off the coast of war-torn Yemen to transfer one million barrels of oil from the decaying FSO Safer to a replacement vessel," said Guterres.

If all goes as planned, the oil will be pumped from the abandoned supertanker to the Nautica over the next three weeks, UN Newsreported.

"In the absence of anyone else willing or able to perform this task, the United Nations stepped up and assumed the risk to conduct this very delicate operation," Guterres explained. "This is an all-hands-on-deck mission and the culmination of nearly two years of political groundwork, fundraising, and project development."

The U.N. chief called the oil transfer initiative "the critical next step in avoiding an environmental and humanitarian catastrophe on a colossal scale."

"Without action," he warned, "the vessel could have exploded or broken apart, spilling as much as four times the oil released in the Exxon Valdez disaster. Fishing communities would be wiped out. Hundreds of thousands of jobs would instantly disappear. Whole communities would be exposed to deadly toxins."

Moreover, "major ports including Hodeidah and Saleef would be forced to close indefinitely. Food, fuel, and life-saving supplies for millions would halt," Guterres continued. "Water, coral reefs, [and] sea life would be utterly devastated. Shipping all the way to the Suez Canal could be disrupted for weeks. The potential clean-up bill alone could easily run into the tens of billions of dollars."

"That is why we have been raising the alarm and working to mobilize support to avoid this nightmare," he added.

Peer-reviewed research published in October 2021 warned that an "increasingly likely" oil spill from the slowly corroding Safer into the Red Sea could cut off access to clean water and food aid for millions of people in a matter of days and completely decimate the region's fishing stocks within three weeks.

The 47-year-old supertankerhas been moored roughly five nautical miles southwest of the Ras Issa peninsula on Yemen's west coast for more than 30 years. Maintenance of the vessel ground to a halt in 2015 amid the U.S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition's ongoing war on Yemen. As a result, it has deteriorated to a state beyond repair.

Despite several warnings about the life-threatening dangers posed by the decaying ship—including one made in June 2020 by the head of the U.N. Environment Program to the U.N. Security Council—it has taken years to finalize a plan to remove the 1.1 million barrels of crude it is holding.

According to Guterres, "The United Nations enlisted the best in the business: a team of world-leading experts in maritime law, oil spills, salvage operations, marine engineers, naval architects, insurance brokers and underwriters, chemists, surveyors, and more."

"This operation required relentless political work in a country devastated by eight years of war," Guterres noted. "It depended on generous financial support."

"The ship-to-ship transfer of oil is an important milestone, but it is far from the end of the journey," the U.N. chief continued. "The next critical step is arrangement for the delivery of a specialized buoy to which the replacement vessel will be safely and securely tethered."

"Looking immediately ahead, we will need about $20 million to finish the project, which includes cleaning and scrapping the FSO Safer and removing any remaining environmental threat to the Red Sea," he added. "I urge donors to act at this crucial time."

NewsWar & Peace
SEE ALL