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<font size=4><b>Did a White Sheriff and District Attorney Orchestrate a
Race-Based Coup in a Northern Louisiana Town? <br><br>
</font><font size=3>3/26/10<br>
By Jordan Flaherty<br>
</b>
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jordan-flaherty/did-a-white-sheriff-and-d_b_514707.html">
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jordan-flaherty/did-a-white-sheriff-and-d_b_514707.html</a>
<br><br>
In the small northeast Louisiana town of Waterproof, the African-American
mayor and police chief assert that they have been forced from office and
arrested as part of an illegal coup carried out by the region's white
political power structure. In a lawsuit filed last week, Police Chief
Miles Jenkins describes a wide-ranging conspiracy led by the area’s
district attorney and parish sheriff. These charges come at a time of
widespread and high-profile racist attacks against the US President and
Black members of Congress nationwide, and in a state where white
political corruption and violence have been and continue to be used as
tools to suppress Black political representation.<br><br>
About 800 people live in Waterproof, a rural community in Tensas Parish
that is 88% African American. Tensas has just over 6,000 residents,
making it both the smallest parish in the state, and the parish with the
state’s fastest declining population. The area schools remain mostly
segregated, with nearly all the Black students attending public schools,
and nearly all the white students attending private schools. With a
median household income of $10,250, Waterproof is also one of the poorest
communities in the US. The only jobs for Black people in town involve
working for white farmers, according to Chief Jenkins. “Unless you go out
of town to work,” he says, “You’re going to ride the white man’s tractor.
That's it.” <br><br>
Bobby Higginbotham was elected mayor of Waterproof in September of 2006.
The next year, he appointed Miles Jenkins as chief of police. Jenkins,
who served in the US military for 30 years and earned a master’s degree
in public administration from Troy University in Alabama, immediately
began the work of professionalizing a small town police department that
had previously been mostly inactive. “You called the Waterproof police
for help before,” says Chief Jenkins, “He would say, wait ‘til tomorrow,
it’s too hot to come out today.” The new mayor also sought to reform the
town’s financial practices, which Chief Jenkins says were in disorder and
consumed by debt.<br><br>
Ms. Annie Watson, a Black school board member in her 60s who was born and
raised in Waterproof, worked as a volunteer for the mayor. She says that
the mayor and chief, who had both lived in New Orleans, brought a new
attitude that Parish officials didn’t like. “The Mayor and the Chief said
you can’t treat people this way, and the Sheriff and DA said you got to
know your place. If you're educated and intelligent and know your rights
in this parish, you are in trouble,” she says. “They are determined to
let you know you have a place and if you don't jump when they say jump
you are in trouble.”<br><br>
Ms. Watson explains that Parish Sheriff Rickey Jones and District
Attorney James Paxton were threatened by Chief Jenkins’ efforts to
professionalize the town’s police force. Aside from representing a
challenge to Sheriff Jones’ political power, this also took away a source
of his funding. “Before Mayor Higginbotham, all traffic tickets went to
St. Joseph,” she says, referring to the Parish seat, where Sheriff Jones
is based. “So he cut their income by having a police
department.”<br><br>
Jack McMillan, an African American deputy sheriff who works with Sheriff
Jones, says he tried to warn Chief Jenkins to back down. “You’ve got to
adapt to your environment,” he says. “You can't come to a small town and
do things the same way you might in a big city. Like the song says, you
got to know when to hold ‘em, and know when to fold ‘em.” <br><br>
Chief Jenkins asserts that the white-led political infrastructure, led by
the Sheriff Jones and DA Paxton, were threatened by their actions. This
group immediately sought to orchestrate a coup against the two Black men,
including clandestine meetings, false arrests, harassment, and even
physical violence. Court documents describe how Paxton, Jones, and their
allies formed an alliance “designed to harass intimidate, arrest,
imprison, prosecute, illegally remove plaintiff from his position of
police chief, prevent plaintiff from performing his law duties as police
chief and/or force plaintiff to leave the town of Waterproof.”<br><br>
<b>Tensas Parish<br><br>
</b>Prior to the registration of 15 voters in 1964, there was not a
single Black voter registered in Tensas, despite having more than 7,000
African American residents (and about 4,000 white residents), making it
the last parish in Louisiana to allow African Americans to register.
Tensas and the nearby parishes of Madison and East Carroll all share the
sixth judicial district – currently represented by District Attorney
Paxton. It is a small but influential district - Buddy Caldwell, DA for
the sixth judicial district from 1979 to 2008, is now Attorney General
for the state of Louisiana. The sixth district parishes all have majority
Black populations and mostly white elected officials, which Chief Jenkins
and Ms. Watson attribute to political corruption and disenfranchisement
of Black voters. <br><br>
Waterproof is “Reminiscent of the bygone days of southern politics,” with
a white power structure maintaining political power over a Black
majority, according to veteran civil rights attorney Ron Wilson, who is
representing Jenkins in his civil rights lawsuit. “At any and all costs,
even jeopardizing the life and freedom of my client, they will ruin him
to maintain power. This case is ultimately about whether an
African-American can be guaranteed the rights that are assured to him in
the constitution.” According to court papers, this Jim Crow alliance
dominates elected power in the area, and "even on the local level,
where the office holders tend to be African American, they are powerless
to control their own destiny.” According to Chief Jenkins, the District
Attorney once boasted that he controlled the votes of Waterproof’s Black
aldermen.<br><br>
Chief Jenkins says he faced an immediate campaign of harassment. “They
just wanted this town to be white-controlled,” explained Chief Jenkins.
The police chief described being arrested multiple times under the order
of DA Paxton and Sheriff Jones. The charges, says Jenkins, range from
charges of theft for a pay raise he received from the town’s board of
Aldermen to criminal trespass for going to the home of a citizen who had
been stopped for speeding without a valid driver’s license, to disturbing
the peace for an incident where individuals threatened the police chief
with violence for issuing traffic citations. Ms. Watson says the charges
were invented out of thin air. “It was a sad case of lies,” she says,
adding that, “The majority of the town of Waterproof supports the chief
and supports the mayor.”<br><br>
Chief Jenkins says he was arrested and declared a flight risk by District
Attorney Paxton, despite living and owning property in the Parish. “In
all my years,” says attorney Ron Wilson, “I've never seen a police
officer, and certainly not a police chief, charged for something like
this.” Chief Jenkins alleges he was attacked and choked by a deputy
sheriff, who he says shouted, "Shut up...We are in charge…We are the
sheriff and the sheriff controls Tensas Parish. The sooner you all learn
this the better off you will be," an action that Ms. Watson says she
also witnessed. <br><br>
Chief Jenkins says his police car was shoved in a ditch, and when he
arrested the people who had committed the act, the DA refused to press
charges. In fact, he says the DA refused almost all charges he presented
and released anyone he arrested. The chief was even charged with
kidnapping for one incident in which he arrested the former town clerk
for illegal entry. “That’s the most ludicrous notion I've ever come
across,” says Wilson. “That a police chief can be arrested for
kidnapping, because he placed someone under arrest who was breaking the
law.” <br><br>
A grand jury has returned indictments of Chief Jenkins and Mayor
Higginbotham, and Higginbotham’s trial is scheduled to begin this Monday.
The mayor faces 44 charges, including multiple counts of malfeasance in
office and felony theft. The charges appear to be based on the results of
a state audit of Waterproof that found irregularities in the town’s
record keeping going back to before the election of Higginbotham –
irregularities that the mayor and police chief say they had repaired.
<br><br>
<b>Patterns of Violence<br><br>
</b>Mayor Higginbotham was elected at the same time as two other Black
mayors of small Louisiana towns, both of whom also received threats based
on race. In December of 2006, shortly after Higginbotham was elected
mayor of Waterproof, Gerald Washington was shot and killed three days
before he was to become the first Black mayor of the small southwest
Louisiana town of Westlake. An official investigation called his death a
suicide, but family members call it an assassination. Less than two weeks
after that, shots were fired into the house of Earnest Lampkins, the
first Black mayor of the northwest Louisiana town of Greenwood. Lampkins
reported that he continued to receive threats throughout his term,
including a “for sale” sign that someone planted outside his house.
<br><br>
Waterproof was Klan country from the reconstruction era until well into
the 20th century, and racist violence was common in the region. Eight
Black men in Madison Parish were lynched over a period of three days in
1894 for the charge of “insurrection,” apparently because one man refused
to follow an order from a sheriff. “The Klan was very active here,” says
Ms. Watson, recalling her childhood in Waterproof. “We had crosses burned
on people’s lawns. The school principal had a cross burned on his lawn. A
man named Sun Turner was shot and killed on the streets by the Klan.”
<br><br>
Waterproof is an hour south of Tallulah, the site of a notoriously
abusive youth prison, and a little more than hour east of Jena, where
accusations of systemic racism brought 50,000 people from around the
country, including many civil rights leaders, to a 2007 march. Like Jena,
Waterproof is also home to a prison that contracts to hold federal
immigration prisoners.<br><br>
When asked for comment on Chief Jenkins’ lawsuit, Tensas Parish Sheriff
Jones denied that race was a factor, claiming that Jenkins had abused his
office and that many of the local citizens who filed complaints against
him were Black. “I'm not going to support any type of corruption,” said
Jones. “Certainly not from him.” District Attorney Paxton, also named as
a defendant in the lawsuit, disputed all accusations from Jenkins,
suggesting that he had tried to help Jenkins when he was first elected.
“A lot of this will become clear when the case against Mayor Higginbotham
goes to trial on Monday,” he added.<br><br>
Flood Caldwell, one of the town’s aldermen, is currently serving as the
town’s mayor. Jenkins points to Caldwell’s appointment as further
evidence of a coup, saying that the town aldermen, under the direction of
DA Paxton, illegally voted to remove Mayor Higginbotham. “No one
recognizes Caldwell as mayor except the DA and his friends,” says Chief
Jenkins. The office of the Louisiana Secretary of State confirms that
they still have Higginbotham listed as mayor, adding that they cannot
comment further because of pending litigation.<br><br>
Wilson says this case is ultimately about the repression of Black
political and civil rights. “I think this has been going on in Tensas for
a while,” he says. “I think they’ve gone too far in this case, and
someone finally has come along and says they won’t go along.” Wilson
hopes this lawsuit will bring federal attention. “We hope the justice
department will look into this and bring some much-needed reform to this
part of the world,” he says. <br><br>
Chief Jenkins says he took the Sheriff’s job to serve the community,
“You’ve given this country the best years of your life and you get
treated like an unwanted stepchild,” he says. “I didn't realize there was
so much politics to just doing your job.”<br><br>
Ms. Watson believes that this is a struggle for self-determination and
basic civil rights. “I was born in 1948,” she says. “Ever since I was
born, Blacks never had a say in this parish, until Chief Jenkins and
Mayor Higginbotham. They spoke up, and tried to change things. That’s why
the parish is going after them.”<br><br>
<b><i>Jacques Morial of the Louisiana Justice Institute contributed to
this story.<br><br>
Jordan Flaherty is a journalist, an editor of Left Turn Magazine, and a
staffer with the Louisiana Justice Institute. He was the first writer to
bring the story of the Jena Six to a national audience and audiences
around the world have seen the television reports he’s produced for
Al-Jazeera, TeleSur, Press-TV, GritTV, and Democracy Now, as well as his
appearances on Anderson Cooper 360, CNN Headline News, and several other
programs. His post-Katrina reporting for ColorLines shared an award from
New America Media for best Katrina-related reporting in ethnic press.
Haymarket Press will release his new book, </i>FLOODLINES: Community and
Resistance from Katrina to the Jena Six<i>, in 2010. He can be reached at
<a href="mailto:neworleans@leftturn.org">neworleans@leftturn.org</a>.<br>
<br>
</i></b>-------------------------------------------------<br>
<b>Links to Resources Mentioned in Story:<br>
</b>Lawsuit Filed by Chief Jenkins:<br>
<b>
<a href="http://www.nolapublicrecords.org/sites/default/files/docs/Complaint3.pdf">
http://www.nolapublicrecords.org/sites/default/files/docs/Complaint3.pdf</a>
<br>
</b>Louisiana Audit of Waterproof Finances, and Mayor's Response:<br>
<b>
<a href="http://www.lla.state.la.us/about/divisions/advisoryservices/2008/">
http://www.lla.state.la.us/about/divisions/advisoryservices/2008/<br><br>
</a>Professors: <i>Please assign </i>FLOODLINES: Community and Resistance
from Katrina to the Jena Six<i> in your classes for Fall of 2010.</i></b>
<b><i>The book has already been added to the curriculum for courses at
Xavier University and University of New Orleans.<br><br>
</i>Pre-Order on Amazon:
</b>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Floodlines-Community-Resistance-Katrina-Jena/dp/1608460657/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269623271&sr=8-1">
http://www.amazon.com/Floodlines-Community-Resistance-Katrina-Jena/dp/1608460657/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269623271&sr=8-1</a>
<br><br>
<b><i>Bring Jordan Flaherty and other activists, organizers and
journalists to your town for the </i>Fall 2010 Community and Resistance
Tour<i>! Email
<a href="mailto:neworleans@leftturn.org">neworleans@leftturn.org</a>.<br>
<br>
</i>Recent Reporting by Jordan Flaherty:<br>
</b>James Perry's Run for Mayor of New Orleans:
<a href="http://www.colorlines.com/article.php?ID=680">
http://www.colorlines.com/article.php?ID=680</a><br>
New Orleans' Heart is in Haiti:<br>
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jordan-flaherty/new-orleans-heart-is-in-h_b_427108.html">
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jordan-flaherty/new-orleans-heart-is-in-h_b_427108.html</a>
<br>
Her Crime? Sex Work in New Orleans:
<a href="http://www.colorlines.com/article.php?ID=673">
http://www.colorlines.com/article.php?ID=673</a><br>
Discriminatory Housing Lockouts Amid Post-Katrina Rebuilding:
<a href="http://www.colorlines.com/article.php?ID=617">
http://www.colorlines.com/article.php?ID=617</a><br>
Homeless and Struggling in New Orleans:
<a href="http://www.colorlines.com/article.php?ID=591">
http://www.colorlines.com/article.php?ID=591</a><br><br>
<b>Other Resources:<br>
</b>Louisiana Justice Institute:
<a href="http://www.louisianajusticeinstitute.org/">
http://www.louisianajusticeinstitute.org</a><br>
Justice Roars:
<a href="http://louisianajusticeinstitute.blogspot.com/">
http://louisianajusticeinstitute.blogspot.com</a><br>
Project Transparency:
<a href="http://www.nolapublicrecords.org/">
http://www.nolapublicrecords.org</a><br>
Left Turn Magazine:
<a href="http://www.leftturn.org/">http://www.leftturn.org</a><br>
This is a low-volume email list for Jordan Flaherty's articles and
updates from New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. To subscribe, email
jordanhurricane-subscribe@lists.riseup.net. To unsubscribe, email
jordanhurricane-unsubscribe@lists.riseup.net.<br><br>
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