Legislative Update: Tort Reform, Heartbeat Bills, Teacher Pay Moves Forward
JACKSON — Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba approached the podium at City Hall late last September to announce a policy that would "put us well on the trajectory of being the radical city that we have proclaimed to become." After a raft of officer-involved shootings, the city would begin releasing the names of law enforcement officers who discharged weapons in the midst of officer-involved shootings within 72 hours, he said.
It was not until January, though, after Jackson Free Press intern reporter Taylor Langele submitted a public-records request that the city began releasing the names of officers involved in nine shootings since Lumumba took office in July 2017. Just as this newspaper's transparency efforts finally paying off, though, lawmakers in the Mississippi House of Representatives passed a bill to nullify them: House Bill 1289, the Law Enforcement Identity Protection Act, would limit the release of the names of officers involved in non-fatal shootings.
During floor debate on Feb. 12, Rep. Christopher Bell, a Jackson Democrat, pushed back against the proposed legislation. "When anyone else is accused of crimes, are their identities not published?" Bell, who is black, asked the white sponsor of the bill, Rep. Mark Baker, R-Brandon. "Are their mugshots not taken and published in the newspaper?"
"If you want a bill that protects the identities of criminals, or people accused of crimes, you can bring that out," Baker shot back. "This bill is to give the officer a little breathing room.... He has to worry about the internal investigation, and, at the same time, his spouse and his children."
Read more: http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2019/feb/20/legislative-update-tort-reform-heartbeat-bills-tea/