Federal Lawsuit Filed Against Police Department in Mississippi for Alleged Mistreatment of Black Citizens
Five Black residents of Lexington, Mississippi, have sued the police department for having “terrorized” Black residents after a recording surfaced of now-former police Chief Lee Dobbins using a racist slur to describe a person he claimed to have shot more than 100 times.
The lawsuit alleges the police department has “a pattern, practice, and/or custom of unnecessary or unreasonable force,” making false arrests, and “retaliating against officers who report misconduct,” according to the court documents. That pattern extends to “not protecting Black residents,” it says, and demands the City of Lexington be required to stand up an independent civilian complaint review board and provide better training for city officials and police officers.
JULIAN, a civil rights organization that helped make the recording public, filed suit Tuesday on behalf of five residents named as plaintiffs to “demand protection for Lexington’s largely Black population from the very police department that ostensibly exists to keep them safe but in reality has terrorized residents,” according to a press release.
