Justice

Treating Children Worse Than Dogs

Handcuffing and shackling children is despicable. Yes, children break rules and need discipline. Yes, they can be rude and annoying. Yes, they can push your limits even if you are a trained professional. None of this means you can handcuff children to a stair railing and leave them unattended for hours.

Support Your Local Food

When I was a child, I would wait with maddening anticipation for Friday night. That's when my dad would pick me up for the night shift at Doubles Pizza, the restaurant he owned.

To Gate Or Not to Gate?

Jackson residents could vote to gate their neighborhoods around city-maintained streets under an ordinance Ward 1 Councilman Quentin Whitwell proposed this week.

Court Stops Simon Execution

Robert Simon Jr., 47, gets to live a little bit longer on death row. The state of Mississippi planned to kill him May 24, but the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stopped the execution just hours before the scheduled time.

‘Gated Pods' a Bad Idea

Sadly, Councilman Quentin Whitwell's ideas are going downhill since he pushed for a food-truck ordinance.

[Kamikaze] Trash Talking

Let's put some accurate information onto the turnpike, shall we? Crime in Jackson is down. Dropping. Heading south. It's a slow decline, yes, but a decline, nonetheless. For those of you who liken Jackson to the streets of Medellin, Colombia, during the Pablo Escobar era, I'm sorry to inform you that overall crime has dropped 5 percent since this time last year.

Jackson Crime Rate Down Again

Read the report. 05022011-05082011.pdf

Out of Time

Once the drugs started to flow, it took only a minute for Benny Joe Stevens' lips to stop moving. He slipped out of consciousness, and soon his heart stopped.

A Newspaper Is Born

Never in the history of journalism, as we know it in the State of Mississippi, has any newspaper from its inception had such bold aims and purity of purpose as the MISSISSIPPI FREE PRESS.

[Stiggers] My Dog Bites Booty

"The Crime Watch Report News Brief is your source for information on suspicious individuals and activities in desirable suburban communities. Here's your Crime Watch News Brief reporter, I. M. Scared."

[Dickerson] Civil Rights Ain't Just History

Gov. Haley Barbour did the right thing by lobbying for a civil-rights museum.

Freedom Rides Again

Their Story, 50 Years Later

Hank Thomas walked up the steps of the Greyhound bus on a sunny day May 4, 1961. As he calmly surveyed its drab, blue-gray interior, the lanky 19-year-old black student from Howard University had no idea that in about two weeks he would come dangerously close to meeting his maker on its floor.

[Balko] How Bin Laden Won

In "The Looming Tower," the Pulitzer Prize-winning history of al-Qaeda and the road to Sept. 11, author Lawrence Wright lays out how Osama bin Laden's motivation for the attacks that he planned in the 1990s, and then the Sept. 11 attacks, was to draw the United States and the West into a prolonged war--an actual war in Afghanistan, and a broader global war with Islam.

Divisiveness Hurts Kids and Families

Cue the ominous voice: "Imagine for a moment this road is our county line. This side represents one of the most violent cities in the nation. Over here, on our side, one of the most desirable communities in America to raise a family." Thank you, Madison County sheriff candidate Mark Sandridge, for one of the most offensive campaign ads we've seen in recent memory.

[Stiggers] Cootie Creek County Sheriff

In the ghetto criminal justice system, the people are represented by members of the Ghetto Science Team: police officer and part-time security guard at the Funky Ghetto Mall; Dudley 'Do-Right' McBride, renegade documentary filmmaker; Kunta 'Rasheed X' Toby; and attorney Cootie McBride of the law firm McBride, Myself and I. This is their story.

Ellington