Madison County, Mississippi, is one of America’s most segregated areas in the United States and it is allegedly kept that way by the sheriff, his deputies, and other county officials. A new lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) alleges that county leaders have intentionally used local law enforcement to preserve racial segregation.
The suit was recently filed by the ACLU and pro-bono lawyers from Simpson Thacher & Bartlett on behalf of 10 individuals. In part, the suit claims that the Madison County Sheriff’s Department (MCSD) “has implemented a coordinated top-down program of methodically targeting African American individuals for suspicionless searches and seizures.”
The controversial tactics used by law enforcement come in various forms include:
• roadblocks and checkpoints on the edge of highly concentrated black communities. The Black residents are forced to submit to unconstitutional search and seizures as a normal occurrence when coming from and going to their homes.
• unprovoked stops on streets and sidewalks where MCSD demand identification. Often the officials use the ID to check for municipal citations or warrants.
• warrantless entry into African-American homes. These entries often include illegal searches and indiscriminate physical attacks.
“Forcing citizens of the United States to ‘show their papers’ in this fashion runs afoul of the law as well as the most basic norms of decency in domestic policing,” the suit says.
According to the lawsuit, Nick Singleton, 35, has been stopped at least 20 times in the past year alone. Marvin McField, 37, has tried to avoid Madison County Sheriff Department roadblocks ever since he was “searched, beaten until he could not breathe, and incarcerated for 19 days without ever being charged with a crime” at one such stop years ago. Fifty-nine-year-old Bessie Thomas, a 50-year resident of Canton and a minister at two local churches, says the stops are a routine part of getting around her community. “[T]he roadblocks end where the white people start” at her town’s eastern end, Thomas told attorneys.
The complaint also says that Madison County Sheriff Randall Tucker, who took office 5 years ago, has stopped keeping track of civilian complaints against his deputies and expanded the scope of the department’s racially targeted dragnet.
