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Editor’s Note: This story includes a graphic photo of Damien Cameron in the hospital before his death.

Two years after a Rankin County man died at the hands of sheriff’s deputies, family and community members are frustrated by a lack of accountability and answers. 

On July 26, 2021, Monica Lee witnessed her son, Damien Montrell Cameron, die on the front lawn of her Braxton home after two deputies allegedly chased, beat and tased him and knelt on his neck. The deputies said they were responding to a vandalism call reported by a neighbor who accused Cameron, according to an incident report obtained by Insider.  

“That was my child and I feel like I deserve justice for him,” Lee said during a Thursday morning press conference in Jackson. 

She said the deputies, Hunter Elward and Luke Stickman, have not been held liable for their use of force, which is a reason why she is calling for a renewed focus on her son’s case and demands to ensure justice. 

The family wants all officers involved in Cameron’s death to be charged, including Elward, Stickman and Sheriff Bryan Bailey, and for a criminal investigation to take place. 

The district attorney and attorney general’s offices did not find evidence to prosecute the deputies, the family says, and last year a grand jury declined to indict the deputies. 

Cameron’s family continues to ask for information such as the original police report and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation’s investigation report, dashcam footage and coroner and autopsy reports. 

Not having these critical pieces of information make it difficult for the family to understand what happened to Cameron, to build a case and fight for justice, said Chloë Cheyenne, CEO of COMMUNITYx, which is working with the Cameron family. 

Representatives from the Rankin sheriff’s department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Because the family says there has been no accountability at the local or state level, they are appealing to President Joe Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland and are asking the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the sheriff’s department for civil rights violations. 

These demands come as Cameron’s case has been mentioned alongside recent allegations of misconduct by Rankin sheriff’s deputies. 

A $400 million lawsuit was filed last week on behalf of two men allegedly beaten and tortured by deputies, showing a pattern of excessive force against Black men. The lawsuit cites Cameron’s death as part of that pattern. Elward is also named as one of the deputies that participated in the alleged misconduct against the two men. 

Cameron’s family is working with COMMUNITYx, an online activism tool, and has a website to raise awareness, share information and give people a way to show support through signing a petition or donating to a fundraiser. 

“Everyone in this room clearly understands that this (excessive force by police) is a systemic issue across the country and it’s a deeply-rooted issue clearly here in Rankin County,” Cheyenne said. 

The post He died from injuries sustained during his 2021 arrest. Family wants Rankin County deputies held accountable. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

During a wide-ranging discussion of the next steps for Jackson’s water system in federal court Wednesday, the attention zeroed in on a document familiar to many Jacksonians.

Since 2016, after Jackson failed to meet federal standards for lead in drinking water, the city has sent out regular notices to residents warning them of potential contamination.

“Our water system violated a drinking water standard and a drinking water requirement,” the notice starts. “Although this is not an emergency, as our customers, you have a right to know what happened, what you should do, and what we are doing to correct this situation.”

The letter specifically warns pregnant women and children 5 and younger to take extra precautions — including running cold water for a minute before use, and not using unfiltered tap water for baby formula — because of potential lead contamination.

During Wednesday’s status conference updating Judge Henry Wingate on the ongoing rebuild of the water system, federally appointed third-party manager Ted Henifin argued that the notices are unnecessary, especially because the city hasn’t shown lead levels above the federal action level since 2015.

The Mississippi State Health Department, in enforcing the federal rules, requires the city to send out the notices until it completes a “corrosion control plan,” which would help ensure lead doesn’t leach off of old pipes into the drinking water. The latest notice says the city’s plan will be operational by August.

Both Henifin and Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba have questioned the impact of the notices on residents and their willingness to drink from the taps, given the decades of instability from the water system.

Last week, while unveiling $100,000 worth of water filters donated to the city by United Healthcare, Lumumba said the filters may help restore confidence in the system lost because of the lead notices. Local advocates have called for the government to provide filters out of concern for residents living in older homes, where there’s a higher likelihood of lead being in the home’s plumbing.

But Henifin, as he told the court Wednesday, took issue with Lumumba’s wording, arguing it could cause residents to think the water is dangerous to drink. Henifin repeatedly said that the water is safe for everyone, including pregnant mothers and young children. If anything, he said, the filters could make the water less safe if residents don’t change the filters out every four months, which could cause bacteria to build up.

His statement contradicted advice that Health Department has given Jacksonians for years. The agency’s website says: “Any child five years of age or younger and any pregnant woman should use filtered water (NSF53 certified filter) or bottled water for drinking and cooking.”

Lumumba, defending himself, pointed to other comments he made at last week’s event, when he said, “It hasn’t been demonstrated that the water is in fact dangerous.” The mayor made the clarification after a local doctor, John Patterson, said unfiltered water could be dangerous for those vulnerable populations. During questioning from Wingate, Lumumba said it’s his personal belief that the water is safe to drink.

Wingate called Wednesday’s conference to clear up the public messaging around the city’s water system. He said it’s not only the court’s duty to help repair the water system, but also to “instill confidence in the public” that the water is safe to drink.

When called upon by Wingate, an attorney representing Health Department said that the agency requires the notices to comply with federal standards, and that the notices are only meant to provide information to residents.

Both the Health Department and the City of Jackson are defendants in an ongoing lawsuit alleging a coverup of the city’s lead contamination dating back to 2013.

The post At Jackson water update, Henifin pushes back on state health guidelines appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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Recent storms and resulting power outages prompted a mini-vacation of sorts to New Orleans, not that I need a good excuse to head that way.

My Sunday morning walk took me by Tulane’s Yulman Stadium, where Southern Miss somehow beat the suddenly mighty Green Wave last season and where the Ole Miss Rebels will play Tulane on Sept. 9 at 2:30 p.m.

Trust me on this: You will not need a sweater or sleeves of any sort that afternoon. I suppose there could be a hotter, more humid place on earth than New Orleans currently, although I cannot imagine it.

My sun-broiled walk took me down Willow Street right by where grand, old Tulane Stadium used to stand in all its rusting glory. Yulman Stadium, a neat, modern 30,000-seat facility sits in what would be the afternoon shadow of the old Tulane Stadium, which hosted 38 Sugar Bowls and three of the first nine Super Bowls. Some of my grandest football memories took place in that old, iron and steel monstrosity which literally shook every time the New Orleans Saints scored a touchdown — which, come to think of it, never seemed quite often enough.

Please bear with me, a few memories:

• This was Sept. 17, 1967. I was 14, brother Bobby was 13. Our dad surprised us that Sunday morning in Hattiesburg when he loaded us up in that blue Dodge Monaco and told us we were going to watch the brand new New Orleans professional football team, the Saints, play the Los Angeles Rams. The traffic was awful, and we parked all the way across Claiborne Avenue. We had no tickets, so Dad scalped three as we neared the stadium. Turns out, we were in the north end zone. Turns out, that was the place to be. Funny, my second most vivid memory of that day is of the beer vendors, with kegs on their backs trudging up and down those stadium steps, hawking draught beer and sweating through every fiber of their clothing. I don’t know how much they were paid, but I know it wasn’t enough. Unlike those hapless Saints, they earned their keep. Older readers probably have already guessed my more vivid memory of that day. The Rams kicked the opening kickoff away from the end zone where we sat. Far in the distance, rookie running back John Gilliam caught the ball at his own six-yard line and headed toward us. And he just kept coming and coming, growing larger and larger. When the wide-eyed Gilliam crossed the goal line for the first touchdown on the first play in Saints history, we could see his jaws trembling from the effort. Boy, we thought, this is going to be easy. Boy, it turns out, it was anything but…
• This was Sept. 19, 1971. By then, I was writing sports for my hometown newspaper, and the Saints were opening their fifth season, again against the Los Angeles Rams. Despite four years of abject failure, there was new enthusiasm. The Saints had a new quarterback, a redhead from Mississippi named Elisha Archibald Manning III, Archie. Trouble was, the Saints still lacked competent people to block for him. The Rams of that vintage featured a defensive line of man-eaters known as The Fearsome Foursome, led by Merlin Olsen and Deacon Jones. I remember thinking they might literally kill the rookie quarterback. But Archie scrambled away from them enough to keep the Saints in the game. The Saints, down 20-17, were driving toward the north end zone with seconds to play. With the time for one play and the ball on the one-yard line, they called timeout. Archie went to the sidelines to talk to Saints coach J.D. Roberts. They talked at length until the referee came over to break it up. Years later, Archie would tell me he never got a play call from Roberts. So he went back to the huddle and called what he figured John Vaught would have called at Ole Miss. Archie kept the ball around the left end and barely scored the winning touchdown before getting hammered one last time by the Rams.
• I have saved the best for last. This was Nov. 8, 1970. The Saints were suffering through another miserable season. They had just fired their first head coach, Tom Fears, and hired Roberts away from a semi-pro team in Virginia. Nobody else from my newspaper even wanted to go that day, so I took one for the team. My daddy, perhaps feeling sorry for his oldest, rode shotgun. It was a humid, gray day. The Detroit Lions, led by the great defensive tackle Alex Karras, were the opponent. It was a forgettable game until the ending. The Lions, a much superior team, seemed barely interested. The Saints somehow stayed in the game, until, again, there was time for just one play, the Lions holding a 17-16 lead. The Saints had the ball at their own 44. Remember, this was back when the goal posts were on the goal line. Roberts sent out the Saints placekicker, Tom Dempsey, who was far wider at his equator than any other part of his body. More to the point, he had half of a right foot. He was going to try a 63-yard field goal. Dad and I laughed. We were not alone. A couple nights later, Karras would tell Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show that he was laughing too hard to rush the kick. The ball was placed down at the Saints’ 37-yard line, which seemed like it might as well have been 50 miles away in Thibodeaux. But Dempsey swung his thick right leg and the ball exploded toward the goal posts 189 feet away. It crossed about a foot over the cross bar. At first, there was a split second of silence while people tried to comprehend what had just happened. And then grand old Tulane Stadium exploded. I remember people dancing down Willow Street. I remember people hugging strangers. I remember Dad saying, “Son, we can go on back to Hattiesburg or we can head to the Quarter. There’s gonna be a party.” We chose the latter. Of course we did.

So I thought about all that and more on my Sunday walk down Willow Street. I thought about 80,000 people stomping and screaming and holding up a game for 19 minutes because they disagreed with the officials. I thought about beer-bellied Billy Kilmer, a perfectly competent quarterback, getting booed unmercifully while he took his weekly beatings with the Saints. I thought about Kansas City taking apart Minnesota in Super Bowl IV with dapper Hank Stram striding up and down the sidelines. (Joe DiMaggio sat one row in front of us that day and my mama never took her eyes off him.)

I thought about how Tulane Stadium was condemned on the same day the Louisiana Superdome opened in 1975. And I remembered how, four years later, workers took it down, section by section, selling all that metal for scrap.

Gone, but never forgotten.

The post A walk down Willow Street, and memories of old Tulane Stadium appeared first on Mississippi Today.

On Wednesday Georgianna McKenny finally got to share a secret she’d been keeping for weeks: she beat out more than 3,300 students across the country in a national podcast competition. 

The 17-year-old is the winner of National Public Radio Student Podcast Challenge, which gives students a chance to have their work featured on the daily national broadcast. Her episode exploring the impact of the Jackson water crisis on students was created in her University Composition class at the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science, a public boarding school located in Columbus. Her teacher, Thomas Easterling, created the project three years ago in an effort to revamp his coursework after the pandemic. 

“It forces them to get out of the classroom and it forces them to see how scholarship and citizenship really are tied,” Easterling said. 

The project begins with an essay at the beginning of the year where students describe a place that’s important to them, followed by a research paper, usually about a topic related to their home community, that provides the basis for the podcast episode. 

McKenny said her initial essay focused on her hometown of Crystal Springs but she ended up writing about the water crisis the more she researched the topic and talked to her family in Jackson. 

The drinking water system in Jackson — Mississippi’s largest city and home to more than 150,000 residents — has struggled with reliable water pressure for years. The city’s water system was on the brink of failure in late August 2023, leaving thousands of capital city residents with low or no water pressure and little information about when service would be restored. The governor declared a state of emergency which was not lifted until late November. The entire city was under a boil water notice for weeks.

The episode begins with McKenny describing the experience of her cousin waking up each morning and checking the tap to see if there was water. Her interviews with her cousin and friends provided the student context for the episode. Easterling connected her with a current Jackson Public Schools teacher who was able to put her in touch with an administrator who spoke anonymously in the episode. 

“Some of the stuff they would tell me, I was surprised,” she said. “Maybe it didn’t go exactly with my research, or it was just something I never thought about altogether.”

McKenny said she was interested to learn that some schools would combine when a campus had to close due to lack of water pressure, because she assumed the students just wouldn’t go to school that day. Her podcast explores the challenges that came with navigating school during this time, including the confusion of teachers and students outside their normal environments and the impact on lunch preparations.  

While the project is usually split into a scriptwriter and a producer, McKenny served as both for her project, something she said she enjoyed because it allowed her to fully realize her vision for the project. She said she particularly liked the process of audio editing, but didn’t like having to listen to the sound of her own voice.

“Sometimes I would talk too fast or too slow, that was frustrating to listen to it back again and again,” she said. 

The competition received over 3,300 entries at the middle and high school levels. Judges praised the creative introduction and personal connection in McKenny’s episode. 

McKenny said it feels “amazing” to have won, and encouraged others to pursue telling stories they are interested in. 

“If anyone is considering making a podcast, writing an article, or just publishing something, they should do it no matter how many people it impacts,” she said. “If they’re passionate about it, there’s going to be someone who wants to listen.” 

The post MSMS student wins NPR podcast competition for her reporting on Jackson water crisis appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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Incumbent Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said that if he is reelected, he wants to continue to cut Mississippians’ taxes, and he argues it is feasible because of conservative policies and spending he pushed in his first term.

“One of our goals, of course, will be to continue to lower the tax rate,” Hosemann said. “… We implemented the largest tax cut in Mississippi history, which will reduce the income tax rate to 4% by 2026 … And we are having discussions in the Senate on both the income and the grocery tax. And as you know, I am open to either or both. And by doing things like paying off $550 million worth of state debt … that saves us about $35 million a year in interest that can go back to lowering people’s taxes and education and infrastructure.”

Hosemann is running for reelection to a second and final term as lieutenant governor, overseeing the state Senate. Mississippi Today recently asked Hosemann and his opponent, state Sen. Chris McDaniel, to share their ideas for the future.

READ MORE: What Chris McDaniel wants to do for Mississippi

Hosemann said Mississippi and state government are seeing an unprecedented economic boon that will allow focus on numerous priorities such as tax cuts, improving infrastructure, workforce development, education and health care.

“We’ve never been in a position where we’ve lowered the tax rate, paid off our debt and haven’t borrowed any money in what will be three years next year,” Hosemann said. “That just hasn’t been done in Mississippi before. In addition to that, we’ve also made reductions … We’ve reduced the number of (state employee positions) by like 5,700 … The first year we were here, we cut the budget by 2% … We’ve got $700 million in our rainy day fund.

“… When I told people we were going to run the state like a business, I think they had probably heard that before, but they’d never really seen it done before. But that has happened,” Hosemann said.

Hosemann said he pushed for raising teacher pay, and “we invested millions in adding thousands of quality pre-K seats for 4 and 5-year-old children, provided math and reading coaches for districts, and provided resources for school buildings.”

Hosemann said he has pushed “conservative values” in legislative policy, including “strengthening Second Amendment rights, passed measures to prohibit abortion, eliminated inappropriate materials from our libraries, and required sports to be played by biological gender.” In a second term, Hosemann said he would “continue ensuring our conservative values are protected in Mississippi.”

Here is a list of some legislative priorities he proposes if reelected:

Taxes

“In the next term, as revenue rises, we will continue cutting taxes on working people, focusing particularly on the income and grocery taxes.”

Efficiency

Hosemann said he plans to “continue eliminating state debt and consolidating agencies/responsibilities of agencies where necessary to provide better services or stop waste in state government.”

Crime

Hosemann said the Legislature in his first term increased penalties and mandatory minimum sentences for violent crimes and if reelected “we will add prosecutors in judicial districts across the state, address challenges facing our correctional system, including a crowing prison population and recidivism, and supplement local law enforcement needs.”

Infrastructure

“In the next term, we will continue to fund major capacity projects without neglecting maintenance needs, bring access to high speed internet services in our rural communities, prepare sites for economic development … and engage in other match programs incentivizing local governments to also invest in local infrastructure.”

Economic and workforce development

“We will continue to support Accelerate Mississippi’s efforts, including the career coach program,” and will increase workforce participation through partnerships with community colleges and developing incentives aimed at small businesses.

Education

Hosemann said he plans to “continue to make teaching in Mississipp competitive with neighboring states,” increase resources for special-needs children, increasing expertise in screening, teaching and therapy. He said he wants to “incentivize moving to a modified (school) calendar, particularly in underachieving districts.”

Health care/mental health

Hosemann said he will continue with programs and investment in growing the state’s health care workforce. He said he has been meeting with experts on a “regionalization concept” and other best practices in other states to improve health care. He said the Health Department is working on a comprehensive look at the state of healthcare, and a Senate select committee will be having hearings this fall “to determine the standard of medical care we have for every county,” and “The way to furnish health care to everyone is first determine what the standard of care is for every one of your counties.” He said, “that is going to result in us then funding to the standard of care — I don’t know if whether that would be from state assets or federal assets or both.”

The post What incumbent Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann wants to do for Mississippi appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Four-term Republican state Sen. Chris McDaniel said that if elected lieutenant governor, “tax relief” would be his top priority.

“That would include income tax elimination and grocery tax elimination,” McDaniel said, “which leads to more job creation and economic growth … The grocery tax is particularly regressive and punishes people for purchasing necessities and impacts lower-income people the most. I think it’s wrong to tax necessities.”

McDaniel is running against incumbent Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann in the Aug. 6 Republican primary. Mississippi Today recently asked McDaniel and Hosemann to share their ideas for Mississippi’s future.

READ MORE: What Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann wants to do for Mississippi

Another top priority if elected, McDaniel said, would be reinstating voters’ right to ballot initiative — bypassing the Legislature and putting issues or policies to a direct popular vote. A state Supreme Court decision in 2021 nullified Mississippi’s ballot initiative process. Attempts to reinstate it failed the last two years in the Legislature, with many including McDaniel blaming Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and his Senate leadership for its failure.

“The ballot initiative is frankly right up there with tax relief, tied for number one of my priorities,” McDaniel said. “The ballot initiative in my mind is a constitutional right that allows people to circumvent politicians who aren’t listening to their wishes.”

McDaniel said if elected, he plans to push for more parental rights in education, cutting red tape that hinders businesses, protecting property rights, promoting religious freedom, vaccination freedom and pro-life policies. He said he will support policies that are tough on violent crime and generally work to bring more conservative policies to the state Legislature and combat “woke ideology,” particularly in the classroom.

“What we are seeing now nationwide is the insertion of liberal philosophy into the classroom, particularly with sexual orientation and transgender … orientation in the classroom,” McDaniel said. “I believe that teachers should be focused on education, not new gender fads and political philosophies we’re seeing across the country. I have watched Florida push back against this woke ideology, and I respect that very much.”

McDaniel said he believes in smaller government and will work to reduce spending and eliminate “fraud, waste and abuse.”

McDaniel said he believes he can get his major policy initiatives through the Republican-controlled Legislature, a process that has been likened to “herding cats.”

“We have a supermajority, and I expect Republicans to behave like Republicans,” McDaniel said. “… We shouldn’t have to bet Republicans to behave like Republicans. I don’t think I would have to herd too many cats. You would expect them to to adhere to our platform and behave the way they campaigned, and I would expect the people that elected them to hold them to that.”

Here is a list of McDaniel’s legislative priorities if elected lieutenant governor:

Education reform

McDaniel said he will promote “parents’ rights and voices in their children’s education. He vows to end “the one-size-fits-all approach to learning, support student tailored education through school choice and protect children in the classroom by ending woke indoctrination.”

Fiscal conservatism

McDaniel said he would work to “put the hard-earned paychecks of Mississippians back in their pockets by eliminating the income tax” and grocery tax. He said he will “fight for the American dream by cutting red tape that is crushing small businesses,” and cut wasteful spending.

Constitutional rights

McDaniel said he will work to “preserve religious freedom and allow for constitutionally protected prayer.” He said he would protect freedom of speech by reinstating the ballot initiative process for voters and protect private property rights of Mississippians. McDaniel said he wants prayer back in school, and “I would like to see us pass legislation whereby we reimplement prayer, and if challenged, take it up to the Supreme Court like we did with Roe v. Wade.”

Pro-life, tough-on-crime policies

McDaniel vows to “protect Mississippi’s most precious through preserving pro-life policies,” and “end soft-on-crime policies that jeopardize the safety of our communities.”

The post What lieutenant governor candidate Chris McDaniel wants to do for Mississippi appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi Today was selected as the first-place winner of the Local Media Association’s Digital Innovation Awards for its strategy to grow reader revenue around the Pulitzer Prize-winning series, The Backchannel.

READ MORE: Anna Wolfe and Mississippi Today win Pulitzer Prize for “The Backchannel” investigation

Mississippi Today staff members Lauchlin Fields, Bethany Atkinson and Alyssa Bass led the distribution and engagement strategy along with the reader revenue initiative, which garnered more than 75 donations from readers citing the investigative series on Mississippi’s sprawling welfare scandal as their reason for giving in the two months following the launch of the series.

“Our goal was to reach as many readers as we could and to convert loyal readers into paying members,” said Fields, Mississippi Today’s audience development director. “While (The Backchannel) series published in April (2022), our plan allowed us to follow the long tail of the stories that came out of (Anna Wolfe’s) investigation.”

The winning strategy centered on a dedicated two-month plan that involved Wolfe engaging with readers through reader surveys, video, texting, special member appeals and a dedicated newsletter, which allowed readers to have a more intimate role in the continuing coverage of the welfare investigation.

“Mississippi Today offers an exemplary case study of leveraging their core asset — watchdog reporting in service of the community — to generate new reader revenue. What’s most impressive is how the entire organization rallied behind this initiative, despite the traditional church-and-state “we can’t talk with each other” operating mentality. The thorough, full-funnel, cross-departmental audience plan was “innovative” and the calls to action were “aggressive” and effective.”  

— Judge’s Comments

This is the first year the statewide online news publication competed in the LMA Digital Innovation Awards, a contest which recognizes the best in local digital media in 15 categories, such as Best Local Website, Best Virtual Event, Best Branded Content Strategy and more. It is a highly competitive contest designed to recognize both large and small media companies for their outstanding and innovative work.

Local Media Association is a 501(c)(6) trade association focused on the business side of local media with programs and labs that focus on revenue growth and new business models.

Reader revenue, which refers to financial contributions from readers, empowers nonprofit news organizations like Mississippi Today to maintain editorial independence, establish a direct relationship with audiences and produce high-quality journalism that serves the public interest. 

READ MORE: ‘A full-funnel approach’: How Mississippi Today’s welfare scandal investigation led to record donations

The post Mississippi Today wins national award for digital innovation appeared first on Mississippi Today.

For the first time in recent memory, the Crooked Letter state doesn’t have a team in the College World Series. Rick, displaced to New Orleans by the recent power outages, and Tyler, in studio, discuss the Mississippi-less College World Series, Mississippi State’s recent hire of a pitching coach in hopes of getting back to Omaha, the U.S. Open, and Scorebook Live Mississippi’s all-sports awards.

Stream all episodes here.

The post Podcast: Our power’s out and so are our baseball teams, but the podcast must go on. appeared first on Mississippi Today.