vol. 14

no. 35

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P R E V E N T I N G V I O L E N C E , P A R T I I

City’s Missing RevenueSummers Jr, p 7

Celebrate Mom Locally

Cardon, Helsel, p 26

This Week in Sports

Flynn, p 29

How Police Can (and Cannot) Deter Gunfi re

Ladd, pp 15 - 25

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JACKSONIAN MAKAILA FAITH NIXON

E very morning, Makaila Faith Nixon and her mom, Dee Bookert Nixon, start with stating their daily affirma-tions while looking at their reflection

in the mirror. “I am smart! I can do it! I am beauti-ful! I am proud of myself!” Makaila says to the Jackson Free Press, recalling her morning ritual. “It makes me feel good.” She is only 5 years old, but having an anesthesiologist as a dad (Larry James Nixon) and a nurse as a mom, who co-founded the Cure Sickle Cell Foundation, and a musically driven brother, Jaden Wesley, who plays the violin, is only fuel to Makaila’s fire in pursu-ing her many dreams. “I want to be a doctor, big model and bal-lerina, but I have (scary) dreams too,” Makaila says. The Jackson native has been modeling professionally for nearly two months and just recently did a soft launch for her jewelry line, Just Faith. Makaila loves jewelry. Her favorite piec-es include “shaky earrings,” she says, or those adorned with several hanging flattened beads that make noise when rattled, and her jew-eled owl earrings, which are an assortment of pink, blue and white studded jewels on a small owl-shaped platform. “She started (modeling) last year at (age) 4, and I let it go a little bit because we didn’t know where to go or how to do it,” Dee says. “I’m a nurse by training, and this is all new to

me. The Bible says study and shows yourself, so I studied, I researched, I read, and I started reaching out to people doing what my daugh-ter wants to do.” Makaila is like any other 5-year-old with big dreams of taking over the world, especially as a young role model of color. When she isn’t playing with toys, riding her bike or danc-ing to Beyoncé’s “Run The World (Girls),” Makaila is strutting down the runway, posing for professional photographers and is key in developing the color palette, names and de-signs for her jewelry line, which local business Kahrna’s Kreations makes. Makaila’s favorite colors in the line include yellow, blue, pink and purple. “We’re learning as we go,” Dee says. “Not only is (Just Faith) for children, but eventually there will be a line of matching sets for moms. The great thing is all the pieces are easy to mix-and-match, they are fashion for-ward, fun, trendy and fit different budgets.” Just Faith has a line of earrings, bracelets, necklaces and will eventually do head pieces. Makaila has worked with several well-known photographers in Jackson, including Mitch Davis, Sidney Conley, Elliot James, Jack Patterson and Jay Johnson. “Not just young girls of color, but all girls can relate to Makaila,” Dee says. “I want her to take on this big world and still hold her own, and when I’m not there in her ear, I want her to remember her affirmations.” —Onelia Hawa

MAY 4 - 10, 2016 | VOL. 14 NO. 35

4 ............................. EDITOR’S NOTE6 ............................................ TALKS12 ................................ EDITORIAL12 ................................. SORENSEN13 .................................... OPINION15 ............................ COVER STORY26 .......................... FOOD & DRINK30 ....................................... MUSIC30 ....................... MUSIC LISTINGS28 ....................................... 8 DAYS29 ...................................... EVENTS29 ..................................... SPORTS31 .................................... PUZZLES33 ....................................... ASTRO 33 ............................. CLASSIFIEDS

cover photo of JPD Chief Lee Vance (left) and Sheriff Victor Mason (right)

by Imani Khayyam C O N T E N T S

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8 A Jackson, Miss., group leads efforts to form a statewide after-school network.

26 Check out what local restaurants are doing for Mother’s Day.

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“My hope is that we can have some civil discussion between each other as citizens of the same place and learn to understand each other’s points of view.” —Drew Holcomb, “Drew Holcomb Gets Neighborly”

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I ’m not often at a loss for words. I can talk about almost anything. Body image. Sex. Politics. Food. The sinking of the Titanic. Why I like cats

more than dogs. But I struggle with talking about race. My family was never overtly racist around me, but certain things they said al-ways carried that undertone. They would insist that they weren’t prejudiced against others, but then they would talk about how Jackson has gone to hell and now Rankin County is going to hell because “they” are taking over the suburbs and how Mexicans are taking all the good jobs and how Mus-lims are going to kill us all, etc., etc. If I had followed the principle of “monkey see, monkey do,” I probably would have turned out very differently. When I was younger, my family would often tell me to “love others” and “treat everyone with kindness” and “don’t say the n-word” (to this day, I’ve said it maybe once in my life), but then they’d go and do the exact opposite. And the funny thing is when I’d call them out on it, they’d act like they never said such a thing. I’m a firm believer that if you’re told something over and over, eventually you begin to believe it. But most of their de-rogatory comments were noise to me. Of course, prejudice was never entirely lost on me. I’ll admit that I’ve had my moments, and I’ve tried hard to overcome them. I’ve noticed more and more lately that my younger family members are beginning to develop the same habits as their parents. They’ve said “n*gger” more than they ever should. They often refer to their African American peers as “they,” and I’ve heard them speak negatively more than once about LGBT people. I’ve long been silent about it, at least when it comes to them. Growing up in a conservative family, sometimes it’s easier

to just shut up. But I’m tired of watching them go down the same path as their par-ents. I fear for them, and more than any-thing, I fear for my niece and nephew, who are old enough that they are beginning to observe and absorb the world around them, and the rest of their generation. I can see the cycle of prejudice repeating itself, and I don’t want to see the next gen-eration go down that path. I want them to see people as people, not as skin tones or

religious backgrounds or sexual orientation or gender. I don’t even like it when people try to confine colors to specific genders. A couple of months ago, I saw a Buzz-feed video where people did a “privilege walk.” Activity directors read the partici-pants questions, and they stepped forward or backward based on their response. The further back they were, the less privilege they experienced in life. I’ve been curious about where I’d fall in that spectrum. I come from a white up-per-middle-class family. Together, my mom and stepdad make upwards of $100,000 a year. While we did struggle here and there when I was growing up, I never had to go without food or clothes or shelter, and for the most part, they gave me what I wanted. I even had the bonus of having a father who was still in the picture, who always made sure I got everything I wanted when

I was younger. It even caused problems when he married my stepmom and intro-duced her two daughters into my life. They hadn’t had much of the privilege I did, so it caused a lot of conflicts between me and my younger stepsister. One time right around when my dad and stepmom married, I blurted out to my older stepsister, who had just had a son and was very clearly broke, “Where is my Christmas present?” (I wasn’t exactly the

most tactful or nice child sometimes). My stepmom’s reaction to that made it clear for the first time in my life that not everyone had a childhood like mine. I think that was when I started really listen-ing to what people told me and paid at-tention to what they did, which was often contradictory. The hardest part of watching the Buzzfeed video was when people would let go of each other’s hands because some went up higher and some went lower. I know I’d be pretty high on the privilege scale, and not just because of my upbringing. I don’t think I’ve ever experi-enced any racism or prejudice in terms of work, but I’m sure it’s happened when I couldn’t see it. I can’t prove it personally, but I’m pretty damn sure I’ve gotten more opportunities than some. It’s been weighing on my heart and

mind that it’s time to stop being silent. It’s time I fight for those who don’t have a voice, and fight against those ingrained beliefs. The problem I’m faced with now is how to go about it. Race wasn’t discussed in my house in an open, safe manner, so this is new territory for me. I may not know how to say it yet, but I’m ready to further that dialogue. I think Mississippi and this country are on a path of change (a good one, if we play our cards right), and I want to be a part of that change. Because I’ve always had a hard time fitting in, I’ve long wanted to fade into the background, but I’m discovering that I’m one of the ones who can help. I’m one of the ones who has to step forward, because if people like me don’t, the cycle of prejudice will never end. If we don’t stand beside our brothers and sisters of different races and genders and sexual preference, their voices may not be heard. I’m tired of people being discriminated against for things they can’t control or things that make them different. I’m tired of watch-ing people being marginalized. And I’m tired of watching silently as all of this happens. I’m tired of leading a privileged life and standing idly by as others get discriminated against and denied jobs and housing and food and the ability to love who they choose. After this last legislative session, I’ve given serious thought to leaving Mississippi. But every time the thought crosses my mind, I remember that if I leave, I’m only playing into the negativity. So instead, I’m going to consider plant-ing roots and raising my voice. It’s time more people like me stand up and give voices to the silent. Because if we don’t, who will? Assistant Editor Amber Helsel is a foodie-in-training and an artist, and her fa-vorite past-time is people-watching. Her pa-tronus charm is a cat. Email her story ideas at amber@jacksonfreepress.com.

CONTRIBUTORS

Time to Be a Voice for the Silent

JFP Editor-in-Chief and CEO Donna Ladd is a Neshoba County native. After being in exile from Mississippi for 18 years, she came on back to where she damn-well belongs. She wrote Part 2 of the “Pre-venting Violence” series.

Staff Photographer Imani Khayyam is an art lover and a native of Jackson. He loves to be behind the camera and capture the true essence of his subjects. He took photos for the cover and worked with Donna on “Preventing Violence.”

News Reporter Arielle Dreher is working on finding some new hobbies and adopting an otter from the Jackson Zoo. Email her story ideas at arielle@jacksonfreepress.com. She wrote about the Legisla-ture supermajority.

Education Reporting Fellow Sierra Mannie’s opinions of the Ancient Greeks can’t be trusted nearly as much as her opinions of Beyoncé. She wrote about after-school programs.

City Reporter Tim Summers Jr. enjoys loud live music, teach-ing his cat to fetch, long city council meetings and FOIA requests. Send him story ideas at tim@jacksonfreepress.com. He wrote about water and sewage revenue.

Freelance writer Jessica Smith is a Jackson-based musician and community activist. Outside of writing, she enjoys exploring Jackson but, most of all, meeting new people and building rela-tionships. She wrote about Drew Holcomb & the Neighbors.

Ad Designer Zilpha Young has dabbled in every medium she could get her hands on, from blacksmithing to crocheting. To see some of her extracurricular work (and lots of cephalopods) check out zilphacreates.com. She designed ads for the issue.

Sales and Marketing Con-sultant Myron Cathey is from Senatobia. He is a graduate of Jackson State University and enjoys traveling, music, and spending time with family and friends.

by Amber Helsel, Assistant EditorEDITOR’S note

I’m going to consider planting roots and raising my voice.

Donna Ladd

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Jackson, Mississippi

Welcome to

242 Hwy 51, Ridgeland | 601.605.9393Facebook: Repeat Street Metro Jackson Twitter: @RepeatSt | www.repeatstreet.net

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T he Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers In-ternational Airport is not the only municipal air-traffic hub looking down the barrel of a state-sanctioned

reorganization of its governing board. In Charlotte, N.C., the Federal Avia-tion Administration has still not announced a decision about the status of the license and, therefore, approval of a license for the commission the state the North Carolina General Assembly created, similarly to the Mississippi Legislature’s vote to take control of the Jackson Municipal Airport Authority. The North Carolina bill, now law, was Sen-ate Bill 380, filed on March 20, 2013, and ratified on July 26 of the same year. Not but three days after the bill became law in 2013, the FAA sent the Charlotte city manager and the state attorney general a two-page letter detailing several issues with the law. Until those issues could be addressed, the FAA warned, “the city of Charlotte re-mains the airport sponsor and the certificate holder,” as it still does today.

FAA’s Opinion on Charlotte “As we read Bill 380,” the July 29, 2013, FAA letter stated, “an Airport Commission is created which would operate the airport and control the airport property, but title to the airport property would remain with the city when the act becomes law.” One of the few undisputed facts in the ongoing discussion about the Jackson airport is that the City of

Jackson will remain the deed holder to the property. That is exactly what Mississippi’s version of the bill states. “Upon consent of the governing bod-ies, the Airport Commission could also ac-

quire other general aviation airports,” the North Carolina law continued. Months ago, during the arguments on the floors of the Mississippi House and Senate, several op-ponents of the airport “takeover” bill argued that exact same point. But the real meat of the FAA letter to North Carolina leaders is in the description of the review and approval process of the

eligibility of the “sponsor” for the license to operate the airport. “This review requires the sponsor, in this case, the newly formed entity, to demon-strate to FAA that it is legally, financially, and

otherwise able to assume and carry out the certifications, representations, warranties, as-surances, covenants and other obligation re-quired of sponsors…,” the letter states. What is the one “obligation” that both the new Charlotte commission and the soon-to-be created Jackson commission fail to meet? “The entity must complete a title search to verify that all federally-obligated

Wednesday, April 27 The University of Southern Mis-sissippi appoints Dr. Maureen Ryan as dean of the College of Arts and Letters. … ABC, NBC, CBS and CNN report that law enforcement officials discovered prescription painkillers with Prince when he was found dead in his Paisley Park home.

Thursday, April 28 Rep. Kimberly Campbell, D-Jack-son, says she will be leaving the state House at the end of May to become state director of the AARP. … Community supporters gather on the steps outside the Mississippi State Capitol to memorialize workers who have lost their lives on the job.

Friday, April 29 University of Mississippi says it will investigate former offensive lineman La-remy Tunsil’s comments that he accepted money from a member of the football staff while playing at the school.

Saturday, April 30 Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta sets fire to 105 tons of elephant ivory and more than 1 ton of rhino horn, believed to be the largest stockpile ever destroyed, to protest poaching and trade in ivory and products from endangered species.

Sunday, May 1 Hundreds of supporters of LGBT rights gather to protest HB 1523 at the Capitol and the governor’s mansion.

Monday, May 2 Education Secretary John B. King Jr. calls on North Carolina and Missis-sippi to repeal laws that restrict the rights of transgender Americans, calling them hateful and saying that gender identity should be protected. … Republican law-makers in Virginia say they will file a law-suit challenging Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s decision to allow more than 200,000 convicted felons to vote in No-vember.

Tuesday, May 3 After the police chief complained to the JFP about law gun laws hurting his ability to lower crime, Ward 3 Council-man Kenneth Stokes introduces an or-dinance to make discharging a weapon within the Jackson city limits punishable by jail time and mandatory fines. Get breaking news at jfpdaily.com.

Charlotte, Baton Rouge Airports Lessons for Jackson’s ‘Takeover’by Tim Summers Jr.

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Efforts and stallouts at Baton Rouge and Charlotte airports indicate several options for how SB 2162 might play out for the JMAA’s governance.

“Stop Filling Lawyers’ Pockets Act” – The state would see an influx of general-fund dollars because this bill would make it unlawful to pass unconstitutional legislation.

“Free Puppies for Anyone Who Wants One Act” – Every taxpaying citizen gets to choose be-tween a golden retriever or a Labrador puppy. Tax-

deductible if you rescue two or more puppies.

“Make Public Transportation Great Again Act” – Would increase number of buses and taxis that roam

the city. Complaint line managed by Gov. Phil Bryant.

“Mississippi State Flag Makeover Act” – Presents opportunity for change and progress in the state. Also state’s biggest tie-dye

party complete with a slip and slide down the Capitol steps.

“Educated Public Input Bill” – A bill that makes it il-legal for legislators to make dumb decisions for an entire population. For every dumb bill proposed,

lawmakers have to buy every citizen a pizza.

“Destiny’s Child Liberation Act” – Can he pay my bills? My telephone bill? My automobile? If he

did, then maybe we could chill at the Capitol club.

Better Bills for BryantAs one of the craziest and controversial legislative sessions come to a close, we would

like to propose bills that should have hit the governor’s desk.

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airport property will be under control of the new entity,” the FAA warned.

“I don’t think its about what the FAA may want to do, may require or not,” Sen. John Horhn, D-Jackson, said. “I think it’s a small group of people who decided that they were going to take the airport regardless of what the law says.” The City of Jackson controls and owns the land that the airport sits on. The question is then whether this new com-mission can “give assurance that it pos-sesses good title for the airport lands in its control”? And “if it does not possess good title,” can it give “specific assurances to FAA that good title will be acquired”? In Charlotte, the new commission may have trouble proving this satisfactorily. The Charlotte Observer reported on Sept. 3, 2015, that the new commission was half a million dollars in the hole for attorney’s

fees as was the city itself in the ongoing legal battle. But, as the battle continues, the city maintains control. “Again, please keep in mind that until FAA approves the transfer of Federal obliga-tions and issues an Airport Operating Certif-icate to the new entity, the city of Charlotte remains the airport sponsor and the certifi-cate holder,” the FAA letter said. Gregg Watkins, communication man-ager for the current Charlotte Mayor Jennifer W. Roberts, did not wish to go on the record with a comment about the FAA’s pending decision but did share that the commission had very little to do with the airport or its functions at this point.

Baton Rouge’s Answer Baton Rouge, La., like Jackson, expe-rienced a drop in the number of passengers serviced during the last few years. And just

like Jackson, it lost these customers to the New Orleans airport. So, Baton Rouge hired a consulting firm, Emergent Method, to re-search its market. Emergent, in a report, de-scribed these drops, the movement to New Orleans, as well as the economic impact this would have on the area. For instance, as far as numbers go, al-though Jackson loses an average of 146 cus-tomers a day to the New Orleans airport, Baton Rouge is missing out on 1,217 cus-tomers a day as of September 2014. The two airports also lost carriers during the last few decades, including Southwest Airlines. In response, the Emergent study exam-ined the structure of the governance of the airport. At the moment, the Baton Rouge airport operates as an extension of the City of Baton Rouge, governed by a 12-member advisory commission, which is in turn ulti-mately governed by another comprised of

the mayor-president and the Metropolitan Council for East Baton Rouge Parish. If that seems like a lot of oversight, the study agrees, citing comments from com-munity stakeholders complaining about such a “convoluted structure through which decisions must be made, and (that) thus di-minishes the role of the Airport Commission in providing the appropriate level of gover-nance for such decisions.” The study does not then suggest more commissioners, as Mississippi’s bill does, but instead “enacting legislative changes at both the local and state levels that streamline the (Baton Rouge) governance structure and foster more organizational and operational autonomy.” Email city reporter Tim Summers, Jr. at tim@jackson-freepress.com See more local news at jfp.ms/localnews.

T he water- and sewer-revenue deficit has a few possible sources, but even Jackson City Council members are having a difficult time parsing out

the how and why. “It’s difficult to separate the signal from the noise with water, sewer revenue,” Coun-cil President Melvin Priester, Jr. said during a phone interview on April 25. Priester point-ed back to a 2013 Neel-Schaffer report dur-ing the hearings for the $90-million bond the City issued for the Siemens contract. Public Works Director Kishia Powell also brought up the same report during a April 18 meeting of the Budget Com-mittee of the City Council, stating that a Neel-Schaffer’s revenue projection in its Performance Contract Savings report shot too high for the City’s current revenue in-take to meet.

Water, Sewer Rates Most of the savings, the report states, would come from a more accurate meter read, saving the City money by ensuring that customers pay for all the water used. “The new meters,” the 2013 report states, “will increase overall accuracy of small, mainly residential, meters by 9.5 percent and the overall accuracy of large, commercial, meters by 8.5 percent.” “There are fewer large meters, but the City realizes almost 50 percent of water rev-enue from these meters,” the report states. “The savings that will result from these large

meters will be significant on a per meter ba-sis. Siemens expects the City to begin to see increased revenue from these meters in as few as 30 days following the release of bond proceeds.” The projected construction schedule at the time stated that most of the large meters would be installed by the end of September 2013, definitely completed by December of that year, and then for the small-meter instal-

lation to be completed by the end of Sep-tember 2014. Powell says that around 5,000 of the 65,000 meters that are residential have been reading automatically, with the rest of the 45,000 residential meters to start reading au-tomatically within the next few weeks. “It caught up to and severely impacted revenues,” Powell said during the April 18 meeting about the loss of the projected sav-ings Siemens predicted as a result of more ac-curate meter-reads. However, Priester questions the differ-ence between the Neel-Schaffer and the Sie-mens projected rate increases and the rates charged to customers since fall 2013. In the 2013 engineer’s report, it states that to keep up with the demands of the debt incurred in the historic $90-million bond, the City would have to raise the rates to an estimated $2.58 per CCF, 100 cubic feet or 748.5 gal-lons of water and up to $2.21 for the same amount of sewage by September 2015. It estimated in 2013 that by September 2016 the rates would go up again to $2.70 CCF for water and $2.35 CCF for sewage. The problem, Priester said, is that the City Council raised the rates in 2013 to $3.21 CCF for water and $4.47 CCF for sewage. So where did the difference go? No one seems to know.

Straight Pipe Theft The City Council is also concerned

about the prevalence of straight-pipe theft, when someone circumvents a meter to use water without paying for it. The name comes from installing a pipe from the distribution system to the house or business. Ward 1 Councilman Ashby Foote said by his calculations that it was costing the city “anywhere from a million to a half a million” a month “just because we weren’t enforcing the rules as it applies to straight-piping.” He called this number a “back of the envelope” calculation during the April 18 meeting. “And if we had that money we wouldn’t have this problem,” Foote added. “It’s not like people in Jackson decided to stop using water.” Powell said it has not been a priority for the City’s already overworked Public Works Department and that Jackson is not a unique example of the problem. “The staff has been investigating and pulling around 350 straight pipes since this summer. This is not the only city that has a water-theft issue,” Powell said. “We have even found locations where we have repeatedly pulled straight pipes. Short of dealing with the police and code services, there is nothing that keeps people that don’t want to honestly pay for water from going right back out and removing the meter and installing a straight pipe,” Powell said. Email city reporter Tim Summers, Jr. at tim@jacksonfreepress.com See more local news at jfp.ms/localnews.

City Leaders at a Loss over Water, Sewer Revenue Lossby Tim Summers Jr.

Public Works Director Kishia Powell asserts that the City’s issues with water and sewer revenue stem from a combination of ambitious projections

new meter and billing system, both a result of the Siemens contract.

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TALK | education

A fter school at Galloway Elementary School, the moms talk about read-ing levels. Marqueta Washington, whose

youngest son is a second grader at Galloway Elementary, says he reads at a 3.9 level, the average for a child who has been in third grade for nine months. Her fourth-grade daughter reads at a 6.9 level. Like her 13-year-old son, Washington’s youngest children are on the honor roll. She says she couldn’t do it without Opera-tion Shoestring, whose after-school program serves pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade children who go to Galloway, Brown Elementary and Rowan Middle Schools. “I’ve had three children to go through Operation Shoestring for after-school and summer camp, and I would not have it any other way. They learn, they play, they exercise, and by the time they get home, they’re exhausted,” Washington said. It makes sense that they would be tired—Operation Shoestring students stay active after school. Except for Galloway Elementary’s upper elementary students, the program provides after-school services to children at their own schools; the older Galloway kids travel up the street to Operation Shoestring’s licensed childcare fa-cility. After a healthy snack, they break into groups with their class-mates, based on their grade levels. They get an hour of homework help from Operation Shoestring teachers who work closely with their day-time classroom teachers to gauge each stu-dent’s needs. After a period of physical activity, the students return to their classrooms for an ac-ademic enrichment activity to reinforce what they learn at school. At Galloway Elemen-tary, when they leave with their parents and grandparents in the afternoon, they zip out the door, waving worksheets and smiling. Proponents say high-quality after-school programs are one solution to Missis-sippi’s ongoing education problems, includ-ing some of the lowest scores on national tests, and Operation Shoestring’s data seems to support their claims. Kids enrolled in the program tend to do great at school, according to data from report cards and tests collected by the nonprofit. During the 2014-2015 school year, pre-kin-dergarten through eighth-grade students all saw statistically significant gains in academic

performance. Pre-K through fifth grade students also saw behavioral improvement. Smoothest Ride Possible With headquarters nestled alongside the pothole-riddled Bailey Avenue, Opera-tion Shoestring does its best to make sure that the students at Galloway, Brown and Rowan have the smoothest ride through school as they possibly can. Operation Shoestring has long stood as a pillar of community support for children

in the midtown, Mid-City and George-town neighborhoods surrounding it. It was founded in 1968 at nearby Wells United Methodist Church as a response to racial un-rest and the economic impact of the flight of middle-class white citizens from Jackson as a burgeoning black populace from the Delta attempted to establish itself. Now, decades later, Operation Shoe-string still mostly serves the Georgetown and Mid-City neighborhoods with after-school and summer programs they might not get otherwise. Most states have statewide after-school networks. Mississippi is one of three states that don’t. But thanks to a Charles Mott Foundation grant, Operation Shoestring, working with other organizations such as the Mississippi Department of Education, the governor’s office and other stakeholders in out-of-school-time providers, are planning a statewide after-school network.

Operation Shoestring Programs Direc-tor Amber May says they’re working together to create a network that focuses on fostering partnerships, maintaining the quality of af-ter-school and summer programs, and keep-ing up resources and financial support. May says she, along with Jackson Pub-lic Schools School Board Secretary Jed Op-penheim and Anthony Johnson, executive director of Alignment Jackson, traveled from Oxford to the Gulf Coast to observe after-school programs and talk to their pro-

viders in order to create an after-school network. (The Delta is not yet included.) Each area they visited had its strengths, but a common problem each place had was transportation: how to get students to and from after-school care sites from schools stumped many operators. Despite these challenges, May says, after-school operators in the state are hopeful that they can create a network to serve Mississippi’s students. She says with a network, after-school programs across the state can support each other not only with financial and physical resources, but also with knowledge of how to identify the successes and challenges of after-school programs are to create a com-mon vision for the statewide after-school network. “We feel after-school is a solution to the educational crisis in Mississippi,” May told the Jackson Free Press.

Preventing Juvenile Crime A 2007 study from The Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learn-ing showed that after-school programs us-ing evidence-based approaches to caring for children saw better outcomes for children. Kids’ academic, personal and social skills in-creased, and they felt better about themselves in general. Additionally, the Promising Afterschool Programs Study, concluded in 2007, found that disadvantaged students who regularly

participate in high-quality after-school programs usually see signifi-cant gains in test scores and work habits, as well as a corresponding de-crease in behavioral issues in school. After-school programs do more than just help increase academic suc-cess: They might also prevent juve-nile crime. The Afterschool Alliance, a nationwide group dedicated to in-creasing affordable after-school op-tions for K-12 students, reports that most juvenile crime occurs between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m.—when 25 per-cent of children, and 17 percent of Mississippi’s children, are generally unsupervised while their parents are at work. Operation Shoestring parents say the program offers much more than supervision, though. “I love that they work so closely with Galloway in making sure that what’s being taught throughout the day is reinforced in the afternoons,” Washington said. “It makes my job of reinforcing at home a whole lot

easier. What they don’t quite possibly grasp during the day, someone’s there to help them during the afternoon.” “I love Operation Shoestring. I wouldn’t trade it for the world,” said 33-year-old Gal-loway Elementary PTA member Chan-dra Mayes. Her second- and fourth-grade children both have reaped the benefits of Operation Shoestring, where they get their homework done, so they have time to enjoy themselves by the time they get home. “Mine are going to stay in something at all times. They aren’t going to be out in the streets,” Mayes said.

Sierra Mannie is an education report-ing fellow for the Jackson Free Press and The Hechinger Report. Email her at sierra@jacksonfreepress.com. Read more education stories at jfp.ms/education.

Could an After-school Network Solve Mississippi’s Education ‘Crisis’?by Sierra Mannie

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Galloway Elementary school students clap and spell words after school at Operation Shoestring.

JFP ONE-ON-ONE with Chief Lee Vance

Monday, May 9Millsaps College, Room 215 - Gertrude C. Ford Academic Complex

5:45 p.m. seating; 6:00 p.m discussion starts(discussion will be fi lmed so early arrival is encouraged)

Join us for complimentary wine, beer, soft drinks and light snacks after the discussion.

Jackson Free Press Editor-in-Chief Donna Ladd sits down with Jackson Police Department Chief of Police Lee Vance for a one-on-one discussion seeking solutions to violence and crime in underserved communities. This discussion will go deep into the issues Donna has explored in her recent reporting for the JFP. (jfp.ms/preventingviolence) Discussion will include programs designed to curb violence, the problems affecting Jackson’s streets and JPD’s efforts to combat

crime while fi nding solutions for the city’s youth.

Please RSVP by e-mailing one@jacksonfreepress.com or visit jfp.ms/one to RSVP online.

JFP ONE-ON-ONEJFP ONE-ON-ONEwith Chief Lee Vance

Millsaps College, Room 215 - Gertrude C. Ford Academic Complex

THIS MONDAY 5/9/16! VISIT JFP.MS/ONE TO RSVP.

10

TALK | supermajority

G overnment to an average citizen is what you can watch on C-SPAN, with the drawl of policy explana-tions and (usually) poor sound and

video quality. What no one prepares you for is the color and flair of politicking—cheers, cowbells, standing ovations, hazing and the like. The Legislature really is alive with color in conversation, debate and personality. Mis-sissippi’s 2016 legislative session was perfect evidence that politics isn’t always what you see on C-SPAN. The 2016 session marked a turning point in the political land-scape of the state. After a contested election resulted in the removal of former Rep. Bo Eaton, a Demo-crat from Smith County, the GOP gained a supermajority in the House of Representatives—and as a result the Legislature. Even though five Smith County voters have sued the speaker and other Republicans for discounting their votes, in federal court—defendants have until May 23 to file a response—the outcome set up the drama and national at-tention that defined the 2016 leg-islative session. With Eaton’s early departure, House Republicans only had to vote along party lines to pass any revenue or tax bills this ses-sion, without Democratic opposition. The supermajority seemed to affect more than just votes on revenue bills, however, and ten-sions in the House seemed to ride a roller coaster of emotion—coasting smoothly on some days and then suddenly twisting into a turbulent, bumpy section on others.

‘I Once Was Lost’ On the last day of the session—for the House that is—Rep. Rufus Straughter, D-

Belzoni, stood before the House and spoke on his last of several points of personal privi-lege for the session. “I come before you today because we—in my opinion—need to do a better job of working along with each other,” Straughter told the House before they left for the year. Straughter has been in the Legislature for almost 21 years now, and he said every lawmaker ought to have a portion (or piece

of legislation) to take back to his or her com-munity that made them proud. “Sometimes we have to have these dialogues with ourselves, you need to vet yourself, and have dialogues with those who might be on the other side of where you are,” Straughter told the House. “I believe that if we would sit down and have a dialogue with those who might be opposite of where I am, I think we could find some middle ground.” A few minutes later, the entire House chamber hushed quiet as La’Porsha Renae, a McComb native and recent “American Idol” runner-up, broke into an a cappella version

of the hymn “Amazing Grace.” “I once was lost but now I’m found, was blind but now I see ….” Thunderous applause and cheers fol-lowed, and one member shouted out, “We sure needed that.” Less than an hour later, House Speaker Philip Gunn, R-Clinton, sat down with re-porters to talk about the session. When asked about the supermajority and tensions in the

House, Gunn said there is always a period of adjustment after an elec-tion cycle. “I feel—like you have any session after an election—there’s always a period of adjustment, and I think we weathered that very well this year. Everyone has new roles and new responsibilities, and it takes some time to figure that out,” he told reporters. “We had a few dust-ups, but I worked closely with the Democratic leadership to re-solve those, and I think we finished on a very positive note.” Gunn said his door has al-ways been open and that he and his staff have listened to the concerns of minority-party members, and that

while there has been some tension this ses-sion, now things are moving forward well. “I don’t think we need to get caught up in things that don’t affect the public—what affects the public? What affects the public is the legislation that we pass, what affects the public is the policy we pass,” Gunn said. “I don’t think the public cares that two members have a fuss on the floor; that’s not news, that’s tabloidism, that’s sensationalism, what matters, and I don’t think they care whether or not we get along out there, but I think what the public cares about is, ‘What have you done for us?’”

The Strategy of Resistance Bill reading was the strategy of resis-tance this year to slow down the legislative process when tensions rose over certain bills, first by the Legislative Black Caucus and then backed by the House Democratic Caucus. A Supreme Court redistricting bill set off the first round of bill reading, which meant the reading of an over 200-page bill that would have put a moratorium on superintendent salaries, which in turn led to House mem-bers voting to disallow questions of privilege at all. (Questions of privilege under House rules are those about the rights and reputa-tion of the House and its members). After some discussion across party lines, the bill reading stopped, and questions of privilege were restored: Members would be recognized immediately to speak on ques-tions of privilege for 10 minutes max. Things moved along just fine, points of personal privilege were taken often, but work more or less got done—until the Jackson airport “takeover” bill came out of the House Ports, Harbors and Airports Committee. Hinds County Democrats raised an outcry because they claim that after ne-gotiations, the speaker had agreed to kill the bill to give more control over Jackson’s airport to state lawmakers. Speaker Gunn denied these allegations and told reporters there was never an agreement to kill the bill. “That’s a complete fabrication; they just don’t like the bill,” Gunn told The Clarion-Ledger the day the bill passed. After the airport bill passed, and for a while thereafter, Democrats—particularly the Hinds County delegation—led a second-round bill reading in protest. Reading any bill longer than 20 pages meant a delay of at least ten to fifteen minutes. Bills are read by an automated voice, which has its own Twit-ter account, before members vote on

by Arielle Dreher

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Rep. Herb Frierson, R-Poplarville, (left) House Speaker Philip Gunn (center) and Speaker Pro Tempore Greg Snowden, R-Meridian, (right) wait at the front of the House chamber, while a bill is read.

NEW LAWS; WHAT’S ON GOV. BRYANT’S DESK

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TALK | supermajority

that bill, and only the member who requested the bill be read has to stay

in the chamber while it is read. Democrats held bills on a motion to reconsider often—particularly those they voted against almost as a bloc—like House Bill 1523 that many consider a way to legalize discrimination against LGBT citizens and others. House Democratic Caucus leader Rep. David Baria, D-Bay St. Louis, said his party worked to get organized this session and moved to do so quickly. “Organization is not something you typically associate with Democrats—it’s a group of very independent-thinking people, and a lot of our House Democrats have several years in the Legislature,” Baria said. “Everyone agreed we needed to have some structure.” The House minority caucus had week-ly meetings this session, adding what Baria calls “structure” and “formality” that helped bring the group together. Going forward, Baria said they will continue to organize as a group—having whips in committee meet-ings in order to brief members on legislation before it comes to the floor. “We understand we are in a rebuild-ing phase in our party, and we understand that we need to work from the ground-up,” Baria said. As for working across party lines, Baria said he would continue to stick his hand across the aisle to the Speaker and his leader-ship team. Baria echoed the Speaker’s senti-ments on “dust-ups.”

“The people who vote for us don’t want us to come up and fight. They want us to get things done, and they want us to work together,” he said.

The Good and the Bad The House was full of freshmen this year, 25 to be exact: 16 Republicans and nine Democrats. The freshman experience played out differently depending on which party you sided with—unless you are Rep. Joel Bomgar, R-Madison, who seemed to vote his conscience on just about every bill. Bomgar said he doesn’t believe in artificial

trade-offs in life, and said he always had a responsibility to tell the truth with his votes. “I believe it’s your responsibility to your voters and to yourself and, in my case, before God to do what I think is right,” Bomgar told the Jackson Free Press. The majority of House Republicans voted in favor of most budget bills, but Bomgar only voted in favor of four budget bills: the ones that funded the three branches of state government and the bill that paid the state’s debt service. “I believe in smaller government and, you know, government doesn’t get smaller when you keep voting for huge budgets,” Bomgar said. Bomgar said his first year in the Legisla-ture was a lot of what he was expecting, and said he did heavy research to determine what was involved before he showed up. He said it was a great session for tax cuts and education. “With a Republican supermajority, the votes were there to clear the hurdles to get appointed superintendents and more expan-sion in charter schools,” Bomgar said. For freshmen Democrats, the experi-ence was a bit different. Dealing with a su-permajority meant starting conversations and beginning to learn how the political pro-cess works when you’re in the minority party. Rep. Chris Bell, D-Jackson, said his first ses-sion was a good experience that he enjoyed. “I am excited about the new friendships we’ve forged so far, and I think next year we will be in better shape to start to change the

direction of Mississippi,” Bell said after the House adjourned. When asked what legislation he was proud of that came out of the legislative ses-sion, however, Bell struggled to point to any particular bills. Bell said he experienced ten-sions not just between political parties but between the legislative leadership and the City of Jackson. “The only way we would be able to get anything accomplished is (we) would have to talk to each other regardless of party affilia-tion,” Bell said at the session’s end. “They say a closed mouth doesn’t get fed, if you don’t

ask you don’t receive, you have to force con-versations to get things started to change our direction, and I think over the next couple years things will get much better.”

Jackson vs. the Capitol The City of Jackson was on the defen-sive for most of the legislative session, mainly because Sen. Josh Harkins’, R-Flowood, in-troduced an airport “takeover” bill, which gained Republican support and passed through both chambers this session. Sen. John Horhn, D-Jackson, who helped lead the fight against the Jackson air-port “takeover” bill, says the tone of the Leg-islature changed this session. For Jackson, he said, that change of tone started in December 2015 when ru-mors about the airport bill began circulating. Speaking last week at Koinonia Coffeehouse, Horhn said the airport bill contributed to the “furthering of bad blood between the city of Jackson and the rest of the state.” Horhn said that the City of Jackson needs to be intentional and work toward a relationship with the state’s leadership and with the governor in order to improve the respect for the capital city at the Capitol. He said it’s a communication issue. “I think the relationship has got to be improved between the administration of the capital city and the people of the capital city and the Legislature,” Horhn said last Friday. “There has got to be a change, we’re not go-ing to survive as a metro area if we don’t start developing trust among one another.” Jackson might have had a “win” from a bill to create the Capitol Complex Improve-ment District, thus redirecting more revenue from the State to the City, until it reached conference late in the session. The mayor supported the initial bill and said in a Facebook post the day it died that “in its original form, (it) would have been integral to City efforts to structure a sound finance plan to guarantee a strong infrastruc-ture system for Mississippi’s capital city.” But by the time the bill made it through a six-person conference with only one Hinds County lawmaker, it contained a poison pill that even soured the Jackson delegation on taking the funds: a special state-appointed

judicial seat within the capital city to deal with criminal matters. “The bill that came out of commit-tee actually created a judicial district in that Capitol Complex for the sole purpose of

dealing with criminal matters,” Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, a Republican, told reporters after the Senate adjourned for the session. “I don’t think you have to be a genius to determine that there are real challenges in the criminal-justice system in Hinds County.” Reeves said that in order to address in-frastructure problems in the capital, crime needed to be addressed. “To make that a justified investment by the state, we must help fix the crime problem in the entire city and the entire county, and I think one way to do that is to lessen the bur-den on the current criminal-justice system,” Reeves said. Jackson City Council President Melvin Priester Jr. expressed his surprise at that last-minute addition to the bill on his Facebook page before lawmakers left town and the bill died: “Then we wake up this morning to no dedicated funding, expanded jurisdiction for the Capitol Police (which happens regardless of funding) and a separate, un-elected judge for this one part of Jackson (assuming this thing ever gets funded),” he wrote. The legislative session ended early this year, and lawmakers left a bill making do-mestic violence a ground for divorce as well as campaign finance reform measures for an-other session. At the end of the session, Reeves said that lawmakers always leave some things un-done in a session and said he takes a slightly different approach than most legislative lead-ers. “My view is when it comes to any sin-gle piece of legislation, Mississippi has been a state now for 199 years. If we’ve made it this long without any single piece of legisla-tion becoming law, we probably can make it one more year,” Reeves told reporters the day after the Senate adjourned. “And whether we like it or not, we’re going to be back here in January, and we’ll have the opportunity to fix anything that didn’t get done.” Read more state coverage at jfp.ms/state.

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Rep. Joel Bomgar, R-Madison, (left) and Rep. Chris Bell, D-Jackson, (right) both

Needed: Public Engagement in Policing

I t takes more than policing to “cut down on crime” and create safer neighborhoods. It takes a village, quite literally. Community engagement is crucial to keeping neighborhoods and cities

safe. One of the easiest ways to stay engaged with policing, beyond watching the nightly news and lamenting how unsafe the streets are, is to hold law-enforcement offi cials accountable, and help them. In 2015, as Donna Ladd details in the cover story, the Jackson Police Department and the Hinds County Sheriff’s Department rolled out a new program called MACE, which in theory could have worked but without funding and focus turned into another increase in policing and “blue lights” in targeted trouble areas. The program increased enforcement but without the services piece. It’s not OK to promote a program that can result in over-policing young men who are at the highest risk for not only shooting others but being shot and killed themselves. We don’t entirely blame law enforcement. Funding is not readily available, with the City of Jackson’s revenue streams drying up in part because of probably-mismanaged water contracts. Revenue collections in the City are down millions of dollars based on budget projections for the fi scal year, due to complications of implement-ing billing technology from the Siemens contract. The media and the public help perpetuate “bad neighborhood” memes. When a neighbor-hood is perpetually framed as a backdrop in broad-casts as a crime haven, the projected image becomes reality. The community thinks certain parts of Jackson are dangerous, and thus, development and

resources stay away from the red-lined area we’ve proclaimed as a crime haven. Instead of resources, we send the cops to solve problems more vast than their job descriptions could begin to address. The public has to want more than to treat young people, many suffering from trauma that comes from being raised in an unstable, violent environment, as “superpredators” or “thugs.” These are young men and women who need jobs, edu-cation and support from the public sector and the community. It takes an engaged public to hold law enforcement accountable by vetting programs that use taxpayer dollars, mentoring those young men and women and providing resources for research-based programs that do not merely lock people away, hold them too long and spit them back into the same environment they came from. It’s the community’s job to stem the cost of violence by in-vesting and encouraging agencies to investigate and perhaps invest in evidence-based programs such as Cure Violence or the real Operation Ceasefi re. While we applaud the sheriff’s department for programming services for all age groups, one group is too often absent from the list: the group that needs programming the most. Young men are pulled into rigid bootcamps but would benefi t more from GED courses, job training and profes-sional development. It’s time to look at crime and policing from a larger lens; it’s not about who shot who. It’s about why violence is occurring in the fi rst place. If we’re going to bring down crime in Jack-son, it needs to be together, and include the men whom policing most affects in the fi rst place.

Email letters and opinion to letters@jacksonfreepress.com, fax to 601-510-9019 or mail to 125 South Congress St., Suite 1324, Jackson, Mississippi 39201. Include daytime phone number. Letters may be edited for length and clarity, as well as factchecked.

Let the Suffering End

“D ear Lord, I cannot take it anymore. I want to kill myself, but I cannot bring myself to do it. Please take me.” “Are you there, God? I cannot take this!” “Mom, Dad, can you please hide the guns because I am

so scared?” All words spoken in my early 20s before I started my professional career. A summer where I could not sleep or eat. I lost way too much weight. I was very sad. Today, I would say I was in the middle of a total downward spiral into depression. My parents took me to the doctor, but with them in the room, I could not talk about it. My mom told the doctor I was having stomach issues. Stomach issues? “No, no, no!” I screamed on the inside. No, God did not take me. No, my parents did not hide the guns and did not ask me a thing as to why I made this request. No, the depression was never addressed. You see, my parents, like many in the South, live by that rule of “If you do not talk about it, it did not happen.” Yes, I am still here and thankful. I told my mom the words in my early 20s—the words so many, especially in the South, fi nd so hard to say: “Mom and/or Dad, I am gay.” Mom pretty much threatened me if I told my dad. I fi nally just took all that emotion and locked it up. I spent so much time being closeted. At work, I had a pretend boyfriend. With friends, I brought my gay boy-friend to weddings and other social settings. Some friends that I told imme-diately turned into former friends. I talked to my old youth minister, and he actually told me to leave his offi ce. “Is this God’s love?” I asked myself. The company where I was employed had an opening, which was a promo-tion that had my name written all over it. Everyone knew I would get it. My one competitor was nowhere near my experience level. The members of the inter-view committee assured me that the job was mine. I was called into the CEO’s offi ce, and I was so excited going down that hall. Once inside, I was told that I did not get the job. Members on the committee informed me that the CEO thought I was gay (never confi rmed, mind you). Because I would be the public face of company, she said they could not have a gay representing the company. I actually confi rmed this with her. She said I was correct. That brought me to my knees crying when I got home. “What is wrong with me?” I asked myself. I had to make a decision. My choices were to stay, to die a young death somehow or to leave. I chose to leave the South and headed north. I found a community where I’m myself. I found a beautiful partner who is now my wife. Still, I come back to visit my family. While my sib-lings are amazing, my parents will never accept me. I have to stay anony-mous here for my mental health, as I don’t want the wrath of my parents. On a recent visit to Mississippi, my dad kept repeating that the world is evil. He told me, “Gay marriage was ruining our country.” I was holding back tears and felt angry. Looking him in the eye, I asked, “How is gay mar-riage hurting you?” No answer, and I walked away. I fi nally went to a therapist in the last couple of years to learn how to ac-cept myself and have worked on not caring what my parents think. I am fi nally starting to deal with the hurt that was caused all those years ago. I hope parents read this, and it changes hearts. I hope people will read this and know that we are humans with beating hearts—hearts that hurt. HB 1523 sets progress back years. It could cost Mississippi economically. More importantly, it costs the sons and daughters of Mississippi the most. Multiple studies have been conducted regarding the effects of homophobia on the mental health of LGBT people. They all say the same: It negatively effects their mental and physical health. Gov. Bryant, I beg you to get rid of this bill. I know many have gone through or are going through what I did. Let the suffering end. Bring hatred to a halt. Let’s learn from our past. Enough is enough, Mississippi. The author’s name has been changed by request.

Let’s learn from our

past. Enough is enough,

Mississippi.

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OXFORD—A top deputy in the French National Assembly is call-ing on the French government to weigh in on behalf of workers at

the giant Nissan plant in Canton who want to have a union vote without management intimidation and threats. Christian Hutin, deputy chairman of the Social Affairs Commission and a member of the French National Assembly, addressed that nation’s governing body last Wednesday, April 27, and asked that it help Mississippi workers by using its leverage as a major stockholder in the Renault corpora-tion and thus a power broker with Renault’s partner, Nissan. The French government controls nearly 20 percent of Renault stock and 32 percent of its votes. Renault, in turn, shares an “alliance” with Nissan and owns 43.4 percent of Nis-san shares. Carlos Ghosn is chairman and CEO of both Nissan and Renault. “The situation in (Canton) is dire and sadly not new, with the rights of workers seriously being compromised,” Hutin said in a recent statement. “Every possible step is taken to pre-vent the personnel from or-ganizing a union inside the plant. Pressure, threats, harassment, routine propaganda … Every possible step is taken to prejudice the rights of workers in what is known as a historic cradle of the civil rights movement in the United States of America.” Hutin is right. In the global economy that exists today, global corporations only respond to pressures at the highest level. Ghosn appeared before three leading French National Assembly members in February and actually lied about his company’s views on unions in Mississippi, claiming that Nis-san respects and upholds U.S. labor laws, respects workers’ right to organize and works with unions at its plants around the world. In an April 14 letter to Ghosn, Hutin called out the man once known in France as “le cost killer” for his slashing of 25,000-plus jobs en route to his status as corporate super star. “The affirmations (Ghosn made to French National Assembly members) do not correspond with the facts,” Hutin wrote. “In effect, two weeks after your testimony, management at the Canton plant showed an anti-union video to the 5,000 workers at the site, which we have now seen.” Workers at the plant enjoy some of the best blue-collar wages in Mississippi. How-ever, many of them believe recent hikes in pay came directly as a result of pressure from the United Auto Workers and a grassroots pro-union movement that has evolved in

Canton over the past decade. Workers say management harasses anyone with pro-union sentiments. Management holds all the cards regarding medical treatment for injuries on the job, shifts in work hours and production speed on the assembly line. Workers have no say when company doctors dismiss their health complaints, in arbitrary or sudden changes in work hours, or with safety concerns. As many as 50 per-cent of the workers at the Nissan plant were hired as “temporary” workers, which means lower wages, fewer benefits, and little or no job protection—this at a plant that enjoyed an initial $363 million Mississippi taxpayer-funded infusion to come to the nation’s poorest state. More government-spawned

incentives were to follow. “There are unions in all the factories (where) Nissan is located,” Hutin quotes Ghosn as telling the French National As-sembly members in Febru-ary. “Nissan has absolutely no tradition of failure to knowingly cooperate with unions nor does it consider this a bad thing.” Wouldn’t such obvi-ously false statements be considered contempt of Congress here in the Unit-ed States?

Sources have indicated to me that a union vote could take place at the Canton plant as early as this summer. However, worker fear is a cold reality in the face of what UAW activists say is intensifying anti-union activity in Canton, and it could still kill any union effort. Anti-union allegations are nothing new to Ghosn. Back in the early 1990s, he was based in Greenville, S.C., as head of the French tire-maker Michelin’s North Ameri-can division. When plans became known that a Spartanburg Technical College class wanted to show the groundbreaking docu-mentary “Uprising of ’34,” Ghosn’s Michelin weighed in and helped squash the showing. The documentary depicted the tragic slay-ing of seven striking textile mill workers in Honea Path, S.C., in 1934. Ghosn is notorious for appearing in an anti-union video that was required viewing for workers at Nissan’s Smyrna, Tenn., plant on the day before a union election there in 2001. “Bringing a union into Smyrna could result in making Smyrna not competitive, which is not in your best interest or Nis-san’s,” Ghosn told the workers. The work-ers voted down the union, of course. I’ll bet their hands shook as they cast those ballots. Joe Atkins is a veteran journalist and pro-fessor of journalism at the University of Missis-sippi. Email him at jbatkins@olemiss.edu.

A French Government Official Weighs in on Nissan

JOE ATKINS

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T he 17-year-old who goes by the name Kvng Zeakyy was first arrested when he broke into Isable Elemen-tary School near where he stayed

on Florence Avenue in the Washington Ad-dition. He and his buddy wanted to steal some laptops, but they only saw desktop computers when they got inside. And the boys weren’t really big enough to carry those out of the school. Zeakyy was 9 and in the fourth grade there, and his friend was 11. Then the cops came. The bust turned into Zeakyy’s first stint in the Henley-Young Juvenile Justice Center—or the “detention center” as young people who’ve passed through its (proverbi-ally) revolving doors refer to it. The three-day stay there—in some ways a rite of pas-sage for many poor young people of color in Jackson—was really the beginning of the child’s discontent that eventually led him to sell dope around the Addition. “I knew a lot of people in there,” Zeakyy said in April. A couple of his older brothers’ friends in the detention center told him they would protect him. “I cried and everything when I was in there.” The guards, he said, scared him by telling him he would be in Henley-Young for 25 years. “I thought they were telling the truth.” We were hanging out and talking in Sheppard Brothers Park on Earth Day, the third time we’d met up at the same picnic tables there in recent weeks. This time, he kept playing with his large, loose watch be-cause he had a meeting at 5 p.m. “sharp,” as he had warned me in a Facebook message. Zeakyy was, and is, a smart young man. Until he was in the fourth grade, he didn’t think too much about what his family didn’t have and was engaged at school. “In every subject, I made A, A, A, A,” he said of his early school years. But, he added, “I was too young to know about struggle, what was really going on in my household, what was really going on in life, period. I thought life was about going to school, make a couple As, get a couple dollars, and I’d buy me snacks and stuff. For real.” His mother sometimes worked jobs such as housekeeping at nearby Jackson State University, to feed her growing house of kids, but often was out of work. Zeakyy, her sec-ond child, has two sisters and three brothers; his older brother is in prison now for armed robbery. The father of his little brother and one of his sisters lived with them for several years and did what he could, Zeakyy said, but it wasn’t enough. “When you get to a certain age, I’d say fourth grade because I went to jail when I was in fourth grade, the detention center, you want the shoes everybody else got and stuff,” he said. “Therefore, you feel like you gotta take matters in your own hands to get it. … I chose to go the opposite way when I was going the right way the whole time, but it made things worse.” But it wasn’t home life that led Zeakyy to crime; they were poor, but it wasn’t abu-

sive, he said. “It was more about what was going on outside your home that made you feel like your home was rough. … Your peers and whatever they push you … not just bul-lying you in a physical way, bullying you through your mind.” Still, poverty can get the best of a kid. “Struggle is when you supposed to have a happy home with your family, but you stay-ing with somebody else’s family because you and your family don’t have no home. When you did have a home, you didn’t have no light. Y’all was using candles or something. You was hungry,” he said. “It’s about what you know you should have, what’s making you eager in your mind to do the other thing. It’s real,” he added. “The streets” had distracted Zeakyy by the seventh grade; he was in and out of the detention center and often suspended from school until he was expelled when he was 15. And he had regular run-ins with the police. Zeakyy describes a cop hitting him in the stomach when he was in handcuffs and another one busting his face and nose. That time, his mother saw him sitting in the squad car with a bloody nose and demanded to know what happened. The cop threat-ened to take her to jail, he said. It wasn’t about white cops picking on black kids, though. “They all different col-ors, a variety, wasn’t no racist thing, just Jack-son police gone beat your ass,” Zeakyy said. “If police will kill a man with no weapon,” the teenager added, referring to the long list of unarmed black men police have killed around the country, “you think I want to say, ‘Hey, how you doing today’ to the police? I’m not interested in going near the police even if I’m in trouble. I ain’t gone say it’s because of the color of my skin; (it’s about) the place I’m at.” That place is a poor, crime-infected neighborhood like the Washington Addi-tion with limited opportunities where inter-actions with law enforcement are often toxic and punitive—especially with young black men suspecting of committing a crime. More often than not, in Jackson and across America, it is a broken exchange from the outset, with both police and suspects be-lieving the other is out to get them.

‘You Can’t Run from No Bullet’ Jackson Police Chief Lee Vance was wearing a salmon-pink Nike sweatshirt and looking bone-weary when he showed up at 3410 Fontaine Avenue on a Sunday night, March 6, in the wake of the fourth and fifth gun murders of that weekend. Samuel Da-vis, 21, and Janice Grayer, 51, both African American, had died after a shootout in the middle of Fontaine, at the intersection of Eminence Row, in the Virden Addition. Davis took multiple bullets and died on the scene; police then believed Gray was caught in the crossfire and tried to drive her-

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Kvng Zeakyy is a 17-year-old aspiring rap artist in the Washington Addition who wants the world to understand the dangers he and others face.

How Police Can (and Cannot) Deter Gunfireby Donna Ladd

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self to a hospital, but she crashed her car near Mayes Street and Bailey Avenue, and was pronounced dead on arrival at the Univer-sity of Mississippi Medical Center. Another black male was hit, but lived, police said. JPD found more than 40 shell casings in the street and a gun on Davis’ body. “I’m sure there were witnesses, but whether they’ll tell us the information is a whole other story. There were plenty of people out here, but no one has come forward, yet,” Vance told re-porters as captured by WJTV. “Situations like this weekend test your resolve,” added Vance, the chief of a mostly black police department who often seems conflicted and a bit angry over how to deal with gun violence among and against young black men in the city where he grew up. “Mississippi has some of the most lib-eral gun laws in the country, and the only thing you have to do in order to possess one is be 18, not be a convicted felon, and it’d be a legal weapon,” he told me last summer in his office. “So I think it would be dishonest if I said that did not lend itself to the amount of guns that we have on the street.” Then the chief paused and added, “But my honest feeling is that you have to make a decision whether or not you’re gonna point that gun at somebody and pull the trigger.” Davis, who police say was both a shoot-er and victim that night on Fontaine, was a friend of Zeakyy and other members of the “Undivided” group that former gang mem-ber John Knight started in the Washington Addition. The young men have all been in trouble, but have no felony convictions, and are trying to stay straight and avoid both committing violence and becoming a victim of it; their mentor Knight was shot six times when he ran the streets in the Addition. On the day I first met them, most of them wore black t-shirts with a tribute to their friend “Sammy” on the back with praying hands. Zeakyy disagrees with the chief and others, such as Ward 3 Councilman Ken-neth Stokes, who want to take firearms off people who live in gun-soaked areas like the Additions. Young people need guns to stay alive, he said, because they can’t, or won’t, call the police for help. “I look at carrying guns as protection because police ain’t there when a dude fires the first shot. If they are, he is not going to fire the first shot,” Zeakyy says in the park. “… You can’t run from no bullet. … You’d rather be caught with (a gun) than caught without it, know what I’m saying?” Zeakyy says the lives of young people in neighborhoods like his are in continual dan-ger. “Some people carry guns for the wrong things, but a lot of people carry guns because if you don’t carry a gun in Jackson, Missis-sippi, you gone get robbed or shot. People might leave you alone just because they see your gun,” the aspiring rap artist said. “Not carrying a gun ain’t gone stop no killing,” his fellow “Undivided” member, Jay

McChristian, 19, suddenly interjected. “ Exactly,” Zeakyy continued. “Not say-ing carrying one will, but if you know what you’re doing, it will. It’s not about who’s got the gun first or who shoots first, or none of that. He can shoot first, but I can aim, and he can shoot and miss, and I can shoot and hit him, and I save my life. Or I can see him fixing to shoot and shoot before him and save my life.” The threat is real for people who grow up amid the struggle of life in the Addition, Zeakyy emphasized. “They beat up on you, they take their anger out on you if you ask

me,” he said of desperate people around him. Frustration then filled his voice. “Police ain’t gone be too much help. You think somebody shooting at you, police ain’t gone be like, ‘Move, son, I’ve got this’ and start shooting for you. No! They gone wait ‘til everybody get done shooting, and then lock everybody up, that’s what they’re going to do. It’s just the truth.” From Vance’s perspective, the truth is that too many men and women are shooting and being shot in neighborhoods flooded with legal and illegal guns—and the public expects police to stop shootings that are hard to prevent. “In the city of Jackson, the type of mur-ders that you (usually) have are when two people have a dispute, and they can’t seem to solve the dispute other than one or the other picks up a gun and shoots the other. There are no indicators that are provided to law enforcement so that we may be able to in-tervene,” said Vance, who grew up on Wood Street and has been on the force 27 years. Still, the chief takes the ambitious stance that every other law-enforcement leader around the country seems to share: The police must accept the responsibility of preventing crime, including gun violence,

rather than just respond to it after the fact. For one thing, the public expects it. “That’s something that I think is em-bedded in the psyche of society,” Vance said last summer. “I mean, I don’t know how you rid or even make people think alternatively to that, and I’m not sure whether that’s not a fair expectation. Part of the problem is being strictly reactive in a police agency. You gotta be proactive, you gotta come up with a pre-vention plan if you want to be successful.” But, Vance emphasized, the police de-partment is only the first responder to crime and cannot alone stop it, or ensure that

criminals stay in jail or prison. It’s as if the public, the media especially, only look to the police to stop violence—a random shooting happens, and it’s the police’s fault, he said. “I don’t care whether it’s good, bad or in-between, I will sit down with you, and tell you the truth about what’s going on,” he said. “But you get tired of having to clean up somebody else’s messes that don’t even want to give you a dime to help you, right? But I get held, we get held responsible for it.” A few months later, standing on Fon-taine Avenue in his Nike sweatshirt, Vance sounded despondent over senseless violence beyond his power to control. “This is a crisis weekend. We’ve got people that have no re-gard for human life carrying guns with bad intentions,” Vance told reporters. “Jackson, Mississippi, is a much better place than what we saw this weekend. We’ve got to be about proving that, but it’s going to take more than police ….” The WJTV audio then cuts him off as the reporter intro-duces the next sound bite.

‘Uncomfortable’ Criminals As the April 15, 2016, roll call wound up for Friday-night officers in the 2nd Pre-cinct in the big windowless room inside the

Metrocenter Mall, the police chief and the Hinds County sheriff sat down side-by-side at the back of the room to poke fun at each other and talk about a new joint crime-fight-ing strategy as uniformed JPD and Hinds County officers milled about. “It’s a commu-nity-oriented policing concept,” Vance told a Jackson Free Press reporting team, there for an evening ride-along. “All that really is is an attitude adjustment.” It’s also a way to get more squad cars, each typically with one officer inside, driv-ing through the city’s neighborhoods. Ideally, Vance said, somebody sitting on her front porch would see a JPD or a Hinds car every 45 minutes. “The beat structure is designed for the presence of that police officer in that area; it’s supposed to deter crime,” he said. “Operation Side-by-Side” is the first time the two agencies have worked together since both men took the top positions, Vance in 2014 after Tony Yarber became mayor and Mason last year after defeating one-term Sheriff Tyrone Lewis. At one point, the two proudly fist-bumped each other as they talked about put-ting JPD’s DART officers together with the sheriff’s new Street Crimes Unit. The beefed-up joint force—Vance de-clined to say how many officers it involved—will drive the city, watching for problems and creating a presence, rather than responding to 911 calls, which keeps cops in reactive mode and makes it harder to interact with residents (as does riding in cars). “Getting out into the neighborhoods, being seen, it makes the citizen feel safe, makes the crimi-nal feel uncomfortable,” Vance said. “The number-one complaint I always got from people was this: ‘I don’t see the po-lice enough.’ They love that visibility,” Vance said at the 2nd Precinct. The teams will bring heavy enforce-ment to areas the brass thinks need it in order to deter crime—poor areas such as the Wash-ington Addition where many residents, and not just criminals, historically distrust the police, regardless of the race of the officers. “If you’re seen in these neighborhoods as be-ing a servant and not an adversary,” Vance said, “it’s going to work out much better.” If the police act respectfully, residents are more likely to call them when they wit-ness crime, Vance said, voicing a dangerous outcome of police distrust in often-targeted black communities throughout the country. When they trust the police, residents are more likely to call and say, “‘I saw Joe Blow break into that house … his cousin lives around the corner, and that’s where they usu-ally take that stuff,’” Vance said. Then, police can go there and have a “knock-and-talk”: “‘Hey, we heard you got some stolen stuff in here.’ That in itself is effective,” he added. By April 10, it had been a violent spring

CEASEFIRE from page 15

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The Jackson Police Department’s 2nd Precinct Commander Jarratt Taylor recently won the “traveling trophy” due to crime drops in his precinct.

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in Jackson—18 homicides, most of them gun crimes—and much of it had occurred in poverty-stricken pockets of the 2nd Pre-cinct. April 15 was a rainy Friday, and a JFP reporter and photographer rode along with a JPD sergeant, watching cops stop poten-tial prostitutes and do pat-downs for drugs and weapons, as I tagged along with the chief in his SUV. He explained more about what the DART unit does, referring to the New Orleans Police Department and how each of its nine districts had a “strike force,” similar to DART. Every week, each district com-mander would look at COMSTAT data and assign the unit to hot spots. “It all goes back to the same concept that we were talking about with the old MACE project, the concept about (Sheriff) Vic’s inner-city task-force thing: applying constant pressure to trouble spots to make the crime go away or pre-vent any more from occurring,” Vance said while driving through the 2nd Precinct. “It’s all the same concept; you can call it a quarter pounder with cheese if you want to, but it’s the same thing, right? It’s about applying resources on the concept that police presence is going to deter crime.” The teams made no major arrests that night, however, and did not do joint operations for an-other two weeks. But on April 28, Vance and Mason called reporters to the chief’s office to renew their vows from two weeks before. Ma-son said Side-by-Side would con-tinue: “Vance has the intelligence, and we have the muscle,” he said. Vance said they would not only do weekend sweeps, but set up checkpoints during the week. As television cameras rolled and reporters crowded in close, Vance de-clared their intention to bring down gun violence, but without repeating his earlier lament to me about how hard it is to take guns off anyone who isn’t a felon. The opera-tion is designed as a show of strength by law enforcement in areas, such as Beat 7 of Pre-cinct 2—the Washington Addition—where they expect the traditional spikes in crime as school gets out and the summer heats up. As I listened from a table off to the side, Vance promised a “high-visibility presence in Jackson neighborhoods.” “We all could probably agree that that is the most effective tool in combatting crime,” the chief added. The police leaders promised massive enforcement, including stops for quality-of-life violations, which are typically low-level crimes that residents don’t appreciate. The violations can also function as a useful gateway excuse, if controversial nationally, to search for a weapon or a warrant. Vance and Mason are right. Side-by-

Side is a classic strategy of police depart-ments: Get several agencies—city, county, maybe state and federal—to work together to show an anxious public that they’re out there making cities safer, or trying to. Such operations can bring big arrests; as they make stops and check warrants, of-ficers might catch someone wanted for a seri-ous crime and toss him into “Mason’s Inn,” which the sheriff calls the Hinds County Detention Center in Raymond that his team now runs. The collaboration might make a big drug bust. And with any luck, their very presence, with many blue lights flashing and lots of questioning of possible suspects, will make trigger-happy criminals think twice, at least for the moment. Or, research shows, all those blue lights and men with their hands up, although long

considered policing 101, may create condi-tions that breed more crime.

A Half-Cocked ‘Ceasefire’ The blue-and-gold “traveling trophy” stands maybe 4 feet tall and moves around to different precincts, honoring the com-mander and his officers who have seen the most dramatic drops in crime. When Chief Lee Vance presented Pre-cinct 2 Commander Jarratt Taylor with the award at the April 7, 2016, COMSTAT meeting, it came after a busy year, especially in Beats 7 and 10. In 2015, those two beats had seen a combined three murders, 51 armed robberies, 13 rapes and nine carjack-ings, in addition to high property crimes. Beat 10 spans an area of west Jackson with West Capitol Street to the north, Ellis Avenue to the east, St. Charles Street to the south, out to the Clinton city limits. Beat 7 contains the Addition just south of JSU. “He’s coming up with strategies, mo-tivating his people to do what they’re sup-

posed to do—that is prevent crime through visibility, arrest individuals responsible for committing crimes through quick response,” Vance told me in his SUV about Taylor. “We’re not here just to maintain the status quo; we want to improve the crime picture in this city,” said Vance, former com-mander of Precinct 2 who had won the tro-phy, a practice started by former Chief Rob-ert Moore to boost morale, several times. In 2015, Taylor helped execute a mas-sive enforcement effort called Metro Area Crime Elimination, or MACE for short, promised to be a local version of the national Operation Ceasefire model. MACE drew of-ficers from JPD, Hinds County and federal agencies to do massive sweeps of the area, similar to Side-by-Side now, except the latest effort, so far, involves the two local agencies.

The previous sheriff, Tyrone Lewis, in-stigated MACE, although Vance remembers going up to Cincinnati, Ohio, a couple of years back to learn more about the promis-ing concept before he was chief. “Operation Ceasefire was instituted in Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, and Indianap-olis, and these cities achieved reductions in gun homicide of 25 to over 60 percent,” the California U.S. Attorneys website reports. In Jackson, MACE targeted Beat 10 and then moved to Beat 7 in 2015, flooding those areas with police officers, resulting in many arrests for everything from quality-of-life violations to drug crimes. “They came eight weeks straight every day for like four hours,” Ray McChristian, the 19-year-old “Undivided” member, said about the operation last summer. Vance said the “busy beat” needed at-tention. “The idea was to saturate it, root out the crime element. The crime over there was just about eliminated through all that satura-tion,” he said in his SUV.

MACE was great while it lasted, police say. “It was a success,” Commander Taylor said after an April COMSTAT meeting. But here’s the rub: Jackson didn’t come close to doing MACE correctly, leaving off vital components that are core to the nation-al, research-based Operation Ceasefire mod-el, and cherry-picking the enforcement parts that people in the metro have long expected them to do, regardless of the outcome. In Jackson, the partners only did what Vance called the “enforcement piece” and didn’t get around to the other prongs that the strategy’s designers believe can actually interrupt gun violence in a community over the long term so young men don’t end up in jail. “I think the enforcement piece went well,” Vance told me, “but the other admin-istrative issues, so to speak, never really got

established and up and running as well as the enforcement piece. … The other parts of it were not fully implemented. It got stuck.” Funding never came for the “re-search piece” or services, and then the sheriff’s office turned over, and MACE “dwindled,” he said. Young men deemed to be at highest risk of shooting someone in the 2nd Precinct—the ones often dismissed as “thugs”—don’t remember being summonsed to appear in a room where they would sit encircled by local law enforcement, FBI, the district attorney, the U.S. attorney, ATF and the Drug Enforcement ad-ministration, who would threaten to send them away to federal prison in another state if anyone in their gang or group committed gun violence. They didn’t listen to a “Voice of Pain,” a mother who had lost a son to gun violence

who told her story to appeal to their “moral” sense as their family members sat in another room watching the drama play out on a big screen. They weren’t then offered help with jobs, getting their GED or connecting with mental-health services from local social-service providers, or told that the people surrounding them believed in them, valued their lives and didn’t want to see them go to jail. But they should have been. This integrated strategy is at the core of the Operation Ceasefire model—a form of “targeted deterrence.” The carrot-stick ap-proach is carefully designed to reach men be-lieved to be on the cusp of committing gun violence, let them know the consequences and help them fulfill their needs, thus find-ing a way to maybe change their trajectory into something more positive. At the very least, maybe they won’t shoot or get shot. It is not massive enforcement and flash-

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‘Soaked in Drama and PTSD’ In many ways, Op-eration Ceasefire started in a church in 1992. Boston, Mass., was four years into the crack epidemic that nearly destroyed urban communities by the time the Morning Star Baptist Church became the site of a bloody gang retaliation for a drive-by shooting by teenagers. Gang members crashed a church service in Roxbury, the black neighborhood where teenage dropout Malcolm X first learned the street hustling that would send him to jail. The gang members came to church with guns and knives to attack rivals who had killed one of their own. The incident became the kind of dev-astating wake-up call that another attack in a South Carolina church two decades later would be for the nation. In Boston’s case, it telegraphed that the bloody gang retaliation cycle needed to stop. In 1995, freelance writer David Ken-nedy, a white man who grew up in a Detroit suburb, was hired to research urban crime on the nation’s urban streets with police as well as members of gangs and drug crews,

for Harvard’s Kennedy School of Govern-ment. What he and his teammates ultimate-ly learned would profoundly push back on the myths about young criminals that were dominating media, the halls of government and even public policy: that troubled young

men of color were remorseless, immoral “su-per-predators” who were multiplying. By 2000, there would be 30,000 more boys age 14 to 17 becoming “high rate, re-peat offenders,” President George H.W. Bush’s drug czar, William Bennett, and others warned in their book “Body Count: Moral Poverty and How to Win America’s War Against Crime and Drugs” (Simon & Schuster, 1996). To bolster their argument, the men quoted James Q. Wilson, who co-authored the “Broken Windows” crime strategy along with George Kelling. “Be ready,” Wilson warned about the supposed “30,000 more young muggers, killers and thieves than we have now.” The only way they could be stopped, those men argued, was through massive policing, even for minor crimes. They supported mass in-carceration to get them off the streets. That racist prediction was dramatically wrong. “Their argument was completely cir-cular and almost entirely without evidence: Crime was caused by bad behavior, crime

was horribly worse, therefore black kids’ characters must be horribly worse, there-fore black kids’ bad character explained the crime,” Kennedy wrote, attacking their log-ic, in his book, “Don’t Shoot: One Man, A Street Fellowship and the End of Violence in

Inner-City America” (Blooms-bury, 2011). Instead, Kennedy hit the streets and learned that the young men who were driving a lot of street violence in cities from Boston, to Los Angeles, to Jackson were war-torn human beings who just might make a different decision if given the opportunity and motivation, especially if they also had ac-cess to the services, education and jobs that could interrupt the abusive cycle. The homi-cide rate then for black kids in Boston was 1,539 per 100,000 opposed to the national aver-age of about 10 per 100,000. “Those folks are always get-ting victimized at astronomical rates,” Kennedy told me in his office at New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice in December. “The people we normally think of as offend-ers are the most victimized population. … The overlap of offending and victimization is always there.” That is, young people like the ones Zeakyy describes sit-ting in Sheppard Brothers Park, who as children have wit-nessed repeated violence and been punched in the belly by cops, are immersed in group dynamics that keep them

bouncing back and forth between fear and bravado that can, in turn, get them killed or lead them to pull the trigger, often over a beef with a young person in a similar situation or just in an act of self-defense. “This was a horrendously dangerous way to live,” Kennedy wrote of the gang members he first got to know. “They were soaked in drama and PTSD,” he added. The young people didn’t believe they had a way out, partially because it wasn’t modeled for them and also because they be-lieved it had always been this way, especially having come of age during the devastating crack era with little connection to the world outside their blocks. And they came up in neighborhoods with traditionally adversarial relationships with police officers who often only saw them as thugs, or even those hope-less super-predators that Bush’s drug czar warned the nation had to be locked up. Today, in 2016, many young men of color still believe they have no other options, that they are likely to die, that they need guns

just to stay alive, as Zeakyy eerily described. Kennedy also found that the young men, including the ones who had commit-ted heinous crimes, didn’t like their reality, even if they felt like they were trapped in it or that they had to live out the perceptions about them. He believed they might make choices to leave that life, if those options were available and provided to others in their gang and even opposing gangs, so they could “save face” and feel safe if they made a different decision. They often didn’t know what the real legal ramifications of their group actions could bring, including federal prison a state or two away from their families. Perhaps most importantly, their num-bers turned out to be exactly opposite of the super-predator myth: The ones likely to shoot somebody were few in numbers and drove most of the violent crime, which is still true today. In fact, Kennedy found then (and still finds) that less than one-half of 1 percent of people in America’s most dangerous areas are committing violent crime. Here in Jackson, the police chief be-lieves that 10 percent of the population is committing the worst crimes—a number that could turn out even lower if the granular data collection Kennedy pushes is embraced. Once the predicted shooters, or groups, are targeted, Kennedy’s vision for Operation Ceasefire, which grew out of his original Boston Gun Project, is supposed to happen. And it’s not massive enforcement and sweeps; it’s personal and targeted, designed to avoid getting the wrong people caught up in the police net. Once police identify those at risk of shooting—a process Kennedy de-scribes in detail in his book—trained offi-cers visit their homes, talk to them and their families, and deliver a letter telling them they must attend a “call-in.” (Then called “fo-rums,” the first one occurred in Boston 20 years ago on May 15, 1996.) The young men sit in the middle of the room at the call-ins, surrounded by “moral authority” folks from the legal system, clergy, their communities and nonprofits who, as described above, threaten, cajole, shock and offer to help them, even as the young men themselves aren’t allowed to talk until the re-freshments after the theatrics end. The most compelling threat, Kennedy believes, is tell-ing fearful young men that if one member of their gang or group commits gun violence, the feds will arrest them all and send them far away from home. “We told them what it would take to make us go away,” Kennedy wrote. A concept called “pulling levers” is vital to Ceasefire: The idea is that the combina-tion of local and federal criminal-justice players—from cops to prosecutors—can fashion a menu of ways to scare the young men straight. They might threaten a RICO

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Police Chief Lee Vance is straightforward about his department’s challenges in dealing with violent crime in the city. He also wants want support from the community.

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organized-crime conviction, beefed-up pa-roles (with meetings in the precinct) or con-stant visits by police—whatever it takes to get the would-be shooters’ attention. A key threat is the promise to arrest the entire gang if one pulls the trigger—a com-ponent that irks Ceasefire opponents like vi-olence interrupter and former gang member Shanduke McPhatter in Brooklyn, N.Y. “What if I don’t care if you’re going to jail?” McPhatter said of fellow gang mem-bers. “What if I don’t care if you take them, too? That’s not going to stop me. Police threats are common, everyday occurrences for somebody who lives in the streets.” Still, Kennedy points to repeated suc-cess stories, starting with the original Bos-ton Gun Project that became known as the “Boston Miracle” because gang violence fell dramatically while it was underway. To work, Kennedy warns, Operation Ceasefire efforts must be well-oiled, system-atic, collaborative affairs where all pieces of the puzzle are in place and monitored well. He believes most communities have most of what they need to pull it off, if they will align their resources right. “Never write a check you can’t cash,” he wrote in his book. Cities like Jackson need to get orga-nized and ask for help. “Any city has the tools it needs to do this work, for all practical purposes. But you need to know how to take what you’ve got and rearrange it to do this,” he said. The information is in the public do-main without branding or copyrights. Still, cities that try it without help from Ceasefire experts to “map it onto their own situation” often fail, making predictable mistakes. The need for precision, of course, can also be Operation Ceasefire’s downfall. A county like Hinds might just ignore major components, blaming the lack of resources, and another city might have personality con-flicts or lose the will to keep it going, which eventually happened in Boston. It’s one thing to reduce violence, that is, and it is another to find the will, and the resources, to sustain the reduction.

That Vicious Policing Cycle Still, the sustainability challenge is not even the main thing for Kennedy’s loudest critics; it’s the “pulling levers” aspect of Op-eration Ceasefire, or more accurately, who is threatening to pull them, that draws the harshest criticism of the model. It is the in-volvement of law enforcement that is often the deal killer for those most worried about the school-to-prison trajectory that many young people are launched on very young, such as with Zeakyy’s fearful fourth-grade stay in Henley-Young. Critics use the same research Kennedy relies on about how over-policing leads to more crime to argue that the core enforce-ment component of Operation Ceasefire does little to truly interrupt the cycles of de-

spair that lead to crime in many of the na-tion’s poor, black communities. Brooklyn College sociology professor Alex Vitale is a critic of over-policing in gen-eral and, specifically, Operation Ceasefire, which he calls another version of a “punitive mindset.” He points to his city’s model that launched in 2014. “New York’s Ceasefire is all stick and no carrot,” he said last year. “Kids get a phone number to call to find out about services that exist. … It’s not particu-larly effective. It’s a referral to nowhere.” Operation Ceasefire, Vitale said, “fits with a broader, neo-conservative world view; people are just economic creations and re-spond rationally to inputs. Root causes are a messy area (that) can’t be quantified. (Cease-fire) doesn’t take into consideration that

people can be emotional and irrational.” A 2007 Justice Policy Institute study, “Gang Wars: The Failure of Enforcement Tactics and the Need for Effective Public Safe-ty Strategies,” shredded Operation Ceasefire, citing research that questioned many of its outcomes, its sustainability and even its core beliefs about how gang members responded to call-ins in some cities. “Probationers who participated in lever-pulling meetings were as likely as their counterparts to commit new crimes,” the report found, and less likely to report “positive life changes.” The report also warned that law en-forcement will always be the loudest, most controlling voice in a room supposedly “bal-anced” with service providers. Sheila Bedi, a Northwestern University law professor who worked with the Southern Poverty Law Center in Mississippi to reform Mississippi’s juvenile-justice system, agrees that the police can’t deliver real juvenile crime prevention. “My bottom line is that

as long as the intervention is within a police department, it is going to fail as a way to stop violence,” she said last week. “That’s been proven over and over and over again. Police have one tool: the abil-ity to arrest.” In order for police to learn to truly prevent crime, Bedi said, “a culture shift would have to happen that (would) be so tre-mendous that it’s not going to happen.” Gary Slutkin, the University of Chi-cago epidemiologist behind the Cure Vio-lence model of training and paying former gang members to interrupt violence without police involvement, rejects the premise that either the threat of punishment, or acting on that threat, brings real prevention to a com-munity. “The lockup solutions are not the solutions. They’re not,” he said in April.

“Behavior is not primarily formed by punishment,” he said. “It’s not maintained by fear of punishment. Those are old ideas.” Slutkin said the entire country is trying to figure out how to reduce prison popula-tions and save the costs. “The easiest way to save money is to keep people out, not to put people in,” he said. “Public-health methods keep people out because the event doesn’t happen.” Thus, the need is to “reach the hearts and to reach people” to keep the violent event from occurring, not threaten young people with federal imprisonment if a friend pulls a trigger. Besides, the critics and the young peo-ple in the Washington Addition say, the tar-geted young men already live under constant threat. Another one won’t necessarily stop the violence, or change the desperate condi-tions that lead them to desperate choices. The Man of the House Kvng Zeakyy’s older brother may be

locked up now—after committing armed robbery, home invasion, stuff like that, the young rapper said in the park in April. But his brother did try to have a good influence on him, teaching him to protect his mother, how to ride a bike and to “be the man of the house” when he was away. “He taught me good things, and more bad things,” Zeakyy says, keeping one eye on his watch. Why did his brother take guns and rob people? “Same reason I sold dope. He had his own way of hustling,” Zeakyy said. “He had a negative way of hustling. I have a negative way of hustling, but my neg-ative way of hustling is the more positive way you can hustle in the streets.” The 17-year-old then explained his rationale for his own choice of hustle. His preferred approach—selling drugs, for in-stance—was giving people what they want-ed. And he needed the money to eat and help his family. But his brother’s more dangerous hustle crossed Zeakyy’s line: “His negative way of hustling is one of the worst (ways) you can hustle in the streets … look at him as the bad guy in the streets.” “The police look at everybody as the bad guy in the streets,” Zeakyy said, but many of them are just trying to get by and stay alive; they’re living the struggle the only way they know how and hoping they don’t get shot along the way. Then they commit a crime and, “Boom! They in jail doing time, 30, 40 years because nobody ever told them that ain’t what you gotta do. You should stay in school and get a job, little brother, and I’ll help you.” The lack of jobs, and training for them and transportation to get to them, really is the crux of the issue, many violence experts say. That includes Operation Ceasefire ad-herents who don’t see policing going away, but want positive efforts added to it. “We say very clearly, ‘We want you alive, safe and out of prison,” NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Collaborative Policing Su-san Herman told me last May in One Police Plaza in New York. Herman’s husband, Jere-my Travis, supported early Operation Cease-fire research and is now president of John Jay College where Kennedy teaches (and that awarded a fellowship for this reporting, but has not influenced it). Herman helped bring Ceasefire to New York in 2014 and believes in it passionately as a way to collaborate with the community rather than always bringing one-sided enforcement. “We say very clearly what the conse-quences will be of continued violence, and we offer very real practical assistance for big problems and small problems that just get in the way of people being successful,” she said. (Herman, incidentally, also convinced NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton to reduce the number of arrests for low-level offenses, including pot possession, in New York.)

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Dr. Gary Slutkin is an epidemiologist at the University of Illinois who pushes a public-health approach to preventing crime through violence interrupters. He doesn’t buy arguments that the threat of punishment prevent violent crime.

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Alex Vitale looks at crime prevention differently—without police at its center. Vitale describes his alternative to polic-ing, including Operation Ceasefire, calling it his “model neighborhood”: “I would set a massive youth job subsidy program, sub-sidize private-sector jobs, provide kids with public-sector jobs, jobs-on-demand. Then try to help young people find a job they can actually do, bring them up to speed, so they can actually do it, etc.” Sure, such a model would cost money, as does a solid Cure Violence model—Slutkin says an effective one starts at about a $350,000 investment in order to train and give jobs to violence interrupters—but such

investments would pay off if taxpayers were willing to get serious about violence preven-tion that doesn’t involve prisons and hiring more cops, Vitale said. And more people would stay alive and out of prison. “As soon as a bullet hits a person, you’ve got an average of $400,000 costs,” Slutkin said, “sometimes a million or more.” (A cau-tion, though, in cities including Chicago and New Orleans, Cure Violence programs are called “Ceasefire,” even though they do not involve law enforcement. And New Orleans and New York, among others, do both Cure Violence and Operation Ceasefire models.) But are Jackson and Mississippi ready to invest in that level of violence preven-

tion, even if it would pay for itself? A crime-prevention program that doesn’t have law enforcement in a prominent position could stand little chance of support from those who prefer paying for prison beds to adequately funding education and the health care of children who don’t admit to drug dealing and breaking into schools. Thus, the appeal of the “balanced” Operation Ceasefire to many. When done correctly and despite its downsides, it can function as a compromise of sorts that brings police and the community together in an about-face on blanket enforcement and the rounding up of would-be super-predators. As for Zeakyy, he had to cut the inter-

view short when he saw his mentor, John Knight, riding up to the park on a bicycle with a crowd of young men on bikes fol-lowing closely behind. Zeakyy shoulder-bumped photographer Imani Khayyam and headed toward the next picnic tables over where the “Undivided” meeting was about to get underway. He was on time. This is the second part of a “Preventing Violence” reporting project, supported by a John Jay College of Criminal Justice fellowship and a grant from the Solutions Journalism Network. Visit jfp.ms/preventingviolence for links to re-search and additional information on Opera-tion Ceasefire and Cure Violence. Additional reporting in New York by Donna Airoldi.

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O ressa Napper-Williams’ son Andrell was a victim of gun violence twice. The first time was when he was 16 and a student at Martin Luther King Jr. High School in Harlem. As he walked away from witness-

ing an altercation, where young people were looking for his cousin, a bullet struck him in the back, but he survived. Not too long after that incident, Napper-Williams, then a single mother, decided to leave New York City, and move to New Jersey. She still worked at her church six days a week then, in East New York, a Brooklyn community filled with housing projects, police and gun violence. “We still were able to come back and forth (to the city), but I didn’t want them to go to school in New York, so that’s what moved us to New Jersey,” she said in December, sitting in a Brooklyn Greek diner, sharing a plate of feta-covered French fries. But on Aug. 7, 2006, Andrell was in the city after spend-ing the night with family members. At about 10:35 p.m., the 21-year-old was waiting for his cousin outside a house in Brooklyn when a guy started shooting in front of the build-ing, trying to hit two other men in retaliation for a family member they had buried that morning. An NYPD detective called Napper-Williams with the news. “Mrs. Napper?” he said. “Your son, Andrell Napper, was killed.” He told her about the circumstances, before add-ing, “I’ll give you a call back and let you know if he was in-nocent or not.” “Excuse me?” Andrell’s mother said. “You don’t even have to call me back.”

‘All Blood Is Red’ Since her son’s death, Oressa Napper-Williams doubled her last name by marrying a good man and became an advo-cate against gun violence. She runs her own nonprofit in New York City, Not Another Child, in her son’s honor, which pro-vides counseling for survivors of those killed in gun violence. She is also the NYPD’s “Voice of Pain” in its Operation Ceasefire call-ins of young gang members at high risk of gun violence. Working with Deputy Commissioner of Collabora-tive Policing Susan Herman, Napper-Williams believes in the process strongly. She wants the young men to see the pain of a mother who has lost her baby up close and personal. After the various law enforcement and clergy talk to the young men, Napper-Williams stands before them. She is

model-beautiful and talks like a Sunday preacher in the South with a comedic touch. Each call-in is a little different, but Napper-Williams pours out her heart and soul and pain to the usually black young men in front of her. Napper-Williams is intimately involved in the Cease-fire process, and she believes in its potential, but she still re-members how the detective treated her. And even now, in her vaunted role inside the NYPD, police still disrespect her, she said, when they don’t know that she’s part of Herman’s team. Such disrespectful treatment of victims of color, even those who may have been involved with crime, only increases the divide between police and communities of color, she said, lamenting how many other mothers must hear the same thing from cops about their kids. “Their children may have been guilty, and it still does not take away that they were still killed. It doesn’t take that away!” she said.

A ‘Racialized Gulf’ Operation Ceasefire impresario David Kennedy calls the historic divide between the nation’s police departments and neighborhoods of color a “racialized gulf” caused by years of bad, racist policing in those communities. And the policing wasn’t merely offensive, he says. “The things we were doing through criminal justice in the name of protecting these communities were actually causing a lot of these problems,” he told me in his John Jay College office in

December. “… Arresting all the men and breaking up their family structure damaged the natural fabric of the neighbor-hood by locking everybody up and churning them repeatedly through jail and prison and parole and probation, treating whole neighborhoods with disrespect.” During New York’s stop-and-frisk era, African Ameri-cans often called the police the “jump-out boys,” because they would screech up in their cars, jump out and stop random black men with no probable cause because of the way they looked, and them frisk them. The vast majority were doing nothing wrong and weren’t arrested. They were also over-whelmingly black and Hispanic. “Stopping everybody was one of the reasons that the crime was high,” he said. Kennedy says research now proves that massive sweeps of poor neighborhoods—instead of policing that carefully targets high-risk individuals—actually increases crime in those areas, and makes residents afraid to call the cops. Residents of a majority-black city like Jackson, with mostly black leadership and police, might shrug at the notion. But not so fast, Kennedy says. “The racial aspect is much, much, much less black-white than it is black-police,” he said. It’s wrong to think that law enforcement’s bias against black citizens is the same “white vs. black racism that the country really, of course, did experience for most of its history.” “Where these issues are presenting themselves now is not really about black and white; it’s about especially black communities and police departments,” he said. “… What it’s really about is the relationship between black Americans and black communities and the legal power of America, and the way that power has been exercised … and the experience of black neighborhoods at the hands of those legal authorities.” “And that doesn’t have to be white folks,” he added.

‘Implicit Bias Is Just Fact’ Kennedy argues that it’s time to face the racist culture of most American police departments when it comes to how they treat who they police. “It’s overdue and essential,” Ken-nedy said, for police and other leaders to go to their commu-nities of color and admit that they have not served them well, with sentiments like: “We know now that things that we have done with the best of intentions have made things worse. … We now understand, for example, that when we lock all of your men up, we make things worse. We have crossed the constitutional lines with stops, searches, other things.” He also challenges cops who believe “implicit bias” isn’t a real thing. “Implicit bias is just a fact. It’s like gravity; it’s just there.” For police, he said, “it can produce exactly the same kinds of outcomes that outright racism produces without the person doing it having a racist bone in his body.” David Kennedy is part of the National Initiative for Build-ing Community Trust and Justice, which is calling for police rec-onciliation work. Read more at jfp.ms/coptrust.

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Oressa Napper-Williams lost her son to gun violence a decade ago. The detective who alerted her said he’d let her know if he was “innocent.” Now she is the

and regularly speaks publicly against gun violence.

‘Police vs. Black’: Bridging the ‘Racialized Gulf’by Donna Ladd

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1908 Provisions

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Hilton Jackson Hotel and Convention Center

Old Capitol Inn

Saltine Oyster Bar

Table 100

Hilton Garden Inn/The King Edward Hotel

Two Sisters’ Kitchen

Que Sera Sera

Nandy’s Candy

La Brioche Patisserie

The Manship Wood Fired Kitchen

Broad Street Baking Company

The Strawberry Café

Primos Café

Sugar Magnolia Takery

Just Plain Good Cakes, Cheesecakes and Catering

Jaco’s Tacos

Hickory Pit

Char Restaurant

Amerigo Italian Restaurant

Campbell’s Bakery

Whole Foods Market

Grant’s Kitchen

Celebrating Moms Locally

by Dustin Cardon and Amber Helsel

Mother’s Day is May 8 this year. Here’s what’s going on in local restaurants.

LIFE&STYLE | food&drink

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For Mother’s Day, Broad Street Baking Company will have sugar-cookie bouquets.

$5 FRIDAY NIGHT BLUES

601-960-2700 facebook.com/Ole Tavern 416 George St, Jackson, MS

- MAY 6 -

BAILEY BROTHERS

- MAY 7 -

THE STONEWALLS

- MAY 8 -

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E-mail interns@jacksonfreepress.com,telling us why you want to intern with us and what makes you the ideal candidate.

*College credit available to currently enrolled college students in select disciplines.

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ISH Grill & BarThurs:4 - 11pm Fri:4pm - 2am Sat:6pm - 2amHappy Hour Drink & Food Specials Daily 4-7pm

769-257-52045105 I-55 N. Frontage Rd, Jackson, MS 39206

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EVERY 2ND & 4TH SUNDAYCALLING ALL SINGERS, POETS, AND COMEDIANS TO COME SHOWCASE

YOUR SKILLS FOR OPEN MIC ENTRY CALL 601.668.9154

$500 GRAND PRIZE

Make checks payable to Mississippi Coalition Against Domestic Violenceor use your credit card at mcadv.org

Saturday, July 16, 2016 @ Hal & Mal’sDowntown Jackson

To donate money or items for the silent auction, or join the committee, call 601.362.6121 ext. 12, or email the chick crew atmaya@jacksonfreepress.com

SPONSORSHIPS AVAILABLE:

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WEDNESDAY 5/4 History Is Lunch is at noon at Old Capitol Museum (100 S. State St.). Former U.S. senator Trent Lott discusses his book, “Crisis Point: Why We Must—and How We Can—Overcome our Broken Politics in Washington and Across America.” Free; call 601-576-6998. … An Evening of Song and Remembrance with Batsheva is from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at Beth Israel Congregation (5315 Old Canton Road). Bat-sheva is an award-winning, multilingual singer-songwriter. Free; call 601-956-6216.

THURSDAY 5/5 Cinco de Mayo Block Party is from 3 to 9 p.m. at Som-bra Mexican Kitchen (Township at Colony Park, 140 Town-ship Ave, Suite 100, Ridgeland). Includes a fiesta hour with drink specials until 6 p.m., Mexican street food, a beer truck, and music from Jason Turner, The Eclectics and Latinismo. No cover; call 601-707-7950; sombramexicankitchen.com.

… A Roast of Richard Schwartz is at 5:30 p.m. at Drago’s Seafood Restaurant (1005 E. County Line Road). Schwartz is a popular Jackson attorney. Speakers include Tim Brown, Howard Katz, George Neville, Lance Stevens, Vicki Slater, Patrick Wooten and Mark Fowler. Cooper Miles performs. $40; call 601-948-8631; msaj.org.

FRIDAY 5/6 Central Mississippi Leadercast Leadership Training is from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Rising Son Retreat Center (444 Lake Road, French Camp). Attend the national simul-cast of the conference featuring speakers such as Nick Saban, Steve Wozniak, Andy Stanley, Kat Cole, Dr. Henry Cloud and more. $103-$139; call 662-547-6835; email spoche@frenchcamp.org; eventbrite.com. … Celtic Woman per-forms at 8 p.m. at Thalia Mara Hall (255 E. Pascagoula St.). The Irish, all-female ensemble presents classics, fan favorites and contemporary pop songs. $25-$100; call 800-745-3000; jacksonbroadway.com.

SATURDAY 5/7 Craftsmen’s Guild Spring Showcase is from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Mississippi Craft Center (950 Rice Road, Ridge-land). See handcrafted artwork from 30 guild members. Also includes the MSO Craft Beer and Bloody Mary Garden (tick-eted event), and the Baking for a Cause bake sale to raise funds for a disadvantaged youth craft camp. Free showcase, beer garden: $20 in advance, $25 at the door; call 601-856-7546 or 601-960-1565; craftsmensguildofms.org or msor-chestra.com. … Stray at Home Art and Music Festival is from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Smith Park (302 E. Amite St.). Includes live music, vendors and a cornhole tournament. Proceeds benefit Community Animal and Rescue Adop-tion (CARA). Free admission, entry fees apply for corn-hole tournament; strayathome.com.

SUNDAY 5/8 Mother’s Day at the Zoo is from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Jackson Zoo (2918 W. Capitol St.). Moms receive half off admission with a paying child. $7.3-$10.3; call 601-352-2580; email ejrivers@jacksonzoo.org; jacksonzoo.org. … “This Is Our Youth” is at 7:30 p.m. at Warehouse The-atre (1000 Monroe St.). The play about three despondent teenagers during the Reagan Era is part of the Unframed Series at New Stage Theatre. For mature audiences only. Additional dates: May 6-7, 7:30 p.m. $10 (cash or check); call 601-948-3533, ext. 222.

MONDAY 5/9 Jesus, Hillel and the Commandment to “Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself” is from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at Beth Israel Congregation (5315 Old Canton Road). Rabbi and author Stephen Wylen gives the lecture. An open Q&A session follows. Free; call 601-956-6216.

TUESDAY 5/10 BankPlus Concert Series: Gregg Allman is at 7:30 p.m. at Thalia Mara Hall (255 E. Pascagoula St.). Allman is a singer-songwriter who is a member of the Allman Brothers Band. Anders Osborne also performs. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. $29.5-$79.5; call 601-292-7121; ardenland.net.

WEDNESDAY 5/11 The Cooking (with Class) Class is at 6 p.m. at Rainbow Natural Grocery Cooperative (2807 Old Canton Road). Learn to make a variety of healthy, vegetarian eating options. Free; call 601-366-1602; find the event on Facebook.

SATURDAY 5/7Birdsong and Bluegrass is at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science.

THURSDAY 5/5Fondren’s First Thursday is in Fondren.

SUNDAY 5/8The Mother’s Day Chamber Music Concert is at Fondren Presbyterian Church.

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(Left to right) Matthew Denton, Allison Heinz and Michael Kinslow star in “This Is Our Youth,” which is part of New Stage Theatre’s Unframed Series, May 6-8 at Warehouse Theatre.

BY MICAH SMITH

EVENTS@JACKSONFREEPRESS.COM

FAX: 601-510-9019DAILY UPDATES AT

JFPEVENTS.COMMusic legend Gregg Allman performs Tuesday, May 10, at Thalia Mara Hall.

Fondren’s First Thursday May 5, 5 p.m., in Fondren. Studio Chane hosts the monthly neigh-borhood event. Includes shopping, food vendors, live music, open houses, a pet adoption drive and more. Free; call 601-720-2426; fft.city.

“This Is Our Youth” May 6-8, 7:30 p.m., at Ware-house Theatre (1000 Monroe St.). The play about three teenagers is part of the Unframed Series at New Stage Theatre. For mature audiences. $10 (cash or check); call 601-948-3533, ext. 222.

Stray at Home Art and Music Festival May 7, 11 a.m.-7 p.m., at Smith Park (302 E. Amite St.). Includes music, vendors and more. Proceeds ben-efit CARA. Free admission, entry fee for cornhole tournament; strayathome.com.

One on One with Chief Lee Vance May 9, 6 p.m., at Millsaps College, Ford Academic Complex (1701 N. State St.). JFP Editor-in-Chief Donna Ladd sits down with Jackson Chief of Police Lee Vance for a one-on-one discussion seeking solutions to violence and crime in under-served communities. Topics include programs designed to curb violence and JPD efforts to combat crime. Wine and light snacks served. RSVP. Seating at 5:45 p.m. Free; email one@jacksonfreepress.com; jfp.ms/one.

12th Annual JFP Chick Ball July 16, 6 p.m.-mid-night, at Hal & Mal’s (200 Commerce St.). This year’s focus is children who are victims of domestic abuse. Includes food, door prizes, a silent auction, poetry and music. Benefits the Mississippi Coali-tion Against Domestic Violence. For ages 18 and up. Seeking sponsors, donations and volunteers now. $5 cover; call 601-362-6121 ext. 16; email chickball@jacksonfreepress.com; jfpchickball.com.

Cinco de Mayo Block Party May 5, 3-9 p.m., at Sombra Mexican Kitchen (Township at Colony Park, 140 Township Ave, Suite 100, Ridgeland). Includes drink specials until 6 p.m., Mexican street food, a beer truck, and music from Jason Turner, The Eclectics and Latinismo. No cover; call 707-7950; sombramexicankitchen.com.

History Is Lunch May 4, noon, at Old Capitol Museum (100 S. State St.). Former U.S. senator Trent Lott discusses his book, “Crisis Point.” Free; call 601-576-6998.

Woman to Woman Second Annual Empower-ment Conference May 6-7, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., at Hilton Jackson (1001 E. County Line Road). Joanne Bell of Woman to Woman with Joanne is the host. Registration required. $35 one day, $50 two days; call 601-398-6733; eventbrite.com.

Jesus, Hillel and the Commandment to “Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself” May 9, 7-8:30 p.m., at Beth Israel Congregation (5315 Old Canton Road). Rabbi and author Stephen Wylen gives the lecture. A Q&A follows. Free; call 601-956-6216.

Cooking (with Class) Class May 11, 6 p.m., at Rainbow Natural Grocery Cooperative (2807 Old Canton Road). Learn to make a variety of healthy, vegetarian eating options. Free; call 601-366-1602; find the event on Facebook.

Events at Thalia Mara Hall (255 E. Pascagoula St.) May 6, 8 p.m. The Irish, all-

female ensemble presents classics, fan favorites and contemporary pop songs. $25-$100; call 800-745-3000; jacksonbroadway.com.

May 10, 7:30 p.m. Allman is a singer-songwriter who is a member of the Allman Brothers Band. Anders Osborne also performs. $29.5-$79.5; call 601-292-7121; ardenland.net.

Birdsong and Bluegrass May 7, 10 a.m.-3 p.m., at Mississippi Museum of Natural Science (2148 Riverside Drive). Take a guided nature walk, listen to bluegrass music, explore birding activities and see a spectacular birds of prey program. Girl Scouts and Cub Scouts who attend receive badges. Included with admission ($6, $5 seniors, $4 ages 3-18, free for members and children under three); call 601-576-6000; mdwfp.com/museum.

Chroma May 7, 7 p.m., at St. Andrew’s Episco-pal Cathedral (305 E. Capitol St.). Enjoy music from the Grande Chorus, the Anacrusis Youth Ensemble and the Chamber Singers. Pre-concert talk before the program. $20, $5 students; call 601-278-3351; mschorus.org.

Mother’s Day Chamber Music Concert May 8, 3 p.m., at Fondren Presbyterian Church (3220 Old Canton Road). The Fondren Quartet and Viola Dacus perform. Free; call 601-982-3232 or 601-362-3235; email fondrenpcusa@comcast.net or gag1391@aol.com.

Events at Lemuria Books (Banner Hall, 4465 Interstate 55 N., Suite 202)

May 4, 5 p.m. Julia Reed signs books. Reading at 5:30 p.m. $50 book; call 601-366-7619; email info@lemuriabooks.com; lemuriabooks.com.

May 7, 1 p.m. Michael Murphy signs books. $18.95 book; call 601-366-7619; email info@lemuriabooks.com; lemuriabooks.com.

National Homebrew Day May 7, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., at LD’s BeerRun (5006 Parkway Drive). Learn how to brew beer. For ages 21 and up. Free; call 601-208-8686; email byobms@gmail.com.

Demonstrating Artist May 5, 5-8 p.m., at Fon-dren Art Gallery (3030 N. State St.). Jackson artist Thomas Wilson gives an oil painting demonstra-tion. Free; call 601-981-9222.

Opening Reception for Soundscapes May 5, 5-8 p.m., at Pearl River Glass Studio (142 Millsaps Ave.). See Amelia Key’s series of mobiles and prints. Show hangs through May 27. Free; call 353-2497; ameliakey.com.

The Four Seasons of The Cedars Spring Art Show May 5, 5-8 p.m., at The Cedars Historic Home (4145 Old Canton Road). This year’s theme is “Winners.” Free; call 601-981-9606; fondren.org.

THURSDAY, MAY 5 College baseball (6-9 p.m., SECN): Mississippi State looks to continue its climb up the polls and toward the post-season as it begins a three-game series against Missouri.

FRIDAY, MAY 6 College baseball (7-10 p.m., ES-PNU): See game two with Mississippi State against Missouri as the Bulldogs try to catch Texas A&M in the SEC West standings.

SATURDAY, MAY 7 College softball (12-3 p.m., SECN): UM looks to try climb up the SEC soft-ball standings against No. 3 Tennessee.

SUNDAY, MAY 8 College baseball (12-3 p.m., SECN+): The Rebels look to keep pace with rival MSU and catch Texas A&M as they battle Georgia.

MONDAY, MAY 9 MLB (6-9 p.m., ESPN): Two top MLB teams clash as the Washington Nationals host the Detroit Tigers.

TUESDAY, MAY 10 Documentary (7:30-9 p.m., ES-PN2): tells the story of the rise and fall of USC during and after coach Pete Carroll.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 11 College softball (11 a.m-9 p.m., SECN): The 2016 SEC Softball Tour-nament begins with coverage all day on the SEC Network. When the NFL Draft concluded af-ter three days, teams had selected 10 players from Mississippi universities. Another two players in the draft, Shon Coleman and Vernon Butler, also had ties to Mississippi high schools.

Former University of Southern Mississippi cornerback Kalan Reed, now also known as Mr. Irrelevant, was the final pick of the draft. Former University of Mississippi wide receiver Cody Core was the 199th draft pick, the same spot as Tom Brady.

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Check jfpevents.com for updates and more listings, or to add your own events online. You can also email event details to events@jacksonfreepress.com to be added to the calendar. The deadline is noon the Wednesday prior to the week of publication.

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Follow Bryan Flynn at jfpsports.com, @jfpsports and at facebook.com/jfpsports.

the best in sports over the next seven daysby Bryan Flynn

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T ennessee native, father, husband and Americana musician Drew Hol-comb has become an established in-dependent artist, selling more than

100,000 records and performing more than 1,500 lives shows since releasing his first al-bum, 2005’s “Washed in Blue.” Holcomb and his band, the Neighbors, are kicking off a long string of festival performances, in-cluding Shaky Knees Music Festival, which takes place May 13-15 in Atlanta, and Moon River Music Festival, which takes place Oct. 7-9 in Memphis and Holcomb himself will host and curate. While fans elsewhere wran-gle tickets for his out-of-state shows, Jackso-nians can catch Holcomb play for free at the annual Stray at Home Art & Music Festival on Saturday, May 7. Growing up in a musical household, Holcomb says, he fell in love with the art form at a young age. His mother is a pia-nist who served as the household’s alarm clock. The playing of gospel hymns on the piano meant it was time to get up and pre-pare for school. While Holcomb was in sev-enth grade, he received a guitar for Christ-mas, picking out the chords to Bob Seger’s “Against The Wind” as the first song in his repertoire. However, he didn’t start writ-ing music of his own until he was studying abroad at the University of Edinburgh. Hol-comb says he takes inspiration from a wide variety of great artists who came before him. “Too many to name—anyone who works hard, tells the truth and keeps their humanity along the way (inspires me),” he says. “Johnny Cash and (Bruce) Springsteen are a few that come to mind.” Today, Holcomb resides in Nashville with his wife and frequent band mate, singer-songwriter Ellie Holcomb, and their daughter, Emmylou. Drew says being able to share the stage with his wife makes living

the artist life a good fit for their family. Even after years of performing and re-leasing new music, including his most recent album, 2015’s “Medicine,” Holcomb says mistakes still happen, of course. He says the best course of action is to laugh it off and keep plugging along. “Mistakes in music are what makes music have some humanity,” Holcomb says. Holcomb and the Neighbors will be headlining Stray at Home this year, per-forming alongside artists such as Young Valley, Rock Eupora, Rooster Blues and the Vibe Doctors, and he says he is looking for-ward to coming back to Jackson. Growing up in Memphis, Holcomb says made many friends who have ended up in Jackson, and he is looking forward to seeing them. Holcomb says he has seen a lot of artists cancelling shows in North Carolina follow-ing HB 2 and Mississippi due to HB 1523, but rather than refusing to perform for audi-ences in either state, he hopes that his music will help foster a deeper understanding. “I am not going to throw a whole state full of people under the bus and boycott Mississippi,” he says. “I do the most good by showing up and playing my music, which hopefully will continue the conversation on what it means to love your neighbors and try to see the world through someone else’s eyes. The best songs make people think and feel, hopefully more than they did before they heard the song. … My hope is that we can have some civil discussion between each other as citizens of the same place and learn to understand each other’s points of view.” Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors per-form for Stray at Home Art & Music Festival, which is from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday, May 7, at Smith Park (302 E. Amite St.). Ad-mission is free, and all ages are welcome. For the full event schedule, visit strayathome.com.

DIVERSIONS | music

Drew Holcomb Gets Neighborlyby Jessica Smith

Nashville-based singer-songwriter Drew Holcomb (center right) and his band,

Dugger), perform for the Stray at Home Art & Music Festival, Saturday, May 7, at Smith Park.

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