NAACP files lawsuit after Governor signs bills expanding Capitol Police

JACKSON, Miss. (WCBI) – The NAACP is responding to Governor Tate Reeves’ signing of House Bill 1020 and Senate Bill 2343 by filing a lawsuit.

The NAACP Office of General Counsel and Covington and Burlington LLP filed the lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi on behalf of Jackson residents, civil activists, and the NAACP.

Under the new bills, Capitol Police are now the primary law enforcers within the expanded Capitol Complex Improvement District which has expanded to include much of downtown Jackson and shopping areas along Interstate 55 in north Jackson.

There is extra money to hire and support 150 police officers on the Capitol Police staff.

There is money for two additional assistant district attorneys and a criminal investigator in Hinds County. There is also money to hire three more public defenders.

The amount of time a person must spend in prison if he or she runs from law enforcement was also increased, along with longer sentences for carjacking.

NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson said increasing state control is an attempt to “increase policing, install undemocratically appointed judges, and infringe on the constitutional right to protest is simultaneously irresponsible and dangerous.”

The laws are set to go into effect on July 1.

The following is a link to view the NAACP lawsuit response passage: naacp.org/naacp-files-lawsuit-response-passage-unconstitutional-legislation-mississippi

Governor Tate Reeves responded to the NAACP’s lawsuit on Twitter.

The tweet reads: “Derrick Johnson, Democrat politicians, and the ‘defund the police’ activists may be willing to stand by and do nothing. I am not. Families in Jackson are begging for help restoring law and order to a city that desperately needs it. So, we’re going to do everything we can to help them.”

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