NAACP sues Mississippi over 'separate and unequal policing'

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The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in the U.S. warns that "separate and unequal policing" will return to Mississippi's majority-Black capital under a state-run police department, and the civil rights organization is suing the governor and other officials over it, the Associated Press has reported.

Mississippi's governor signed a bill on Friday to expand the territory of a state-run police department inside the majority-Black capital city of Jackson, where about 83 percent of its residents are Black, the largest percentage of any major U.S. city, according to the report.

The NAACP said in its lawsuit filed late on Friday, that these are serious violations of the principle of self-government because they take control of the police and some courts out of the hands of residents.

"In certain areas of Jackson, a citizen can be arrested by a police department led by a State-appointed official, be charged by a State-appointed prosecutor, be tried before a State-appointed judge, and be sentenced to imprisonment in a State penitentiary regardless of the severity of the act," the lawsuit said.

NAACP national president Derrick Johnson, who lives in Jackson, said the law would treat Black people as "second-class citizens."

"They're only imposing this on the city of Jackson," Johnson said. "No other jurisdiction in the state of Mississippi will have this type of oversight and taking of local authority. That is a direct violation of equal protection."

The legislation was passed by a majority-white state House and Senate.

(AP)