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Black Mississippi capital distrusts plans by white officials

Members of the Capitol Police confer at the Mississippi State Fairgrounds in Jackson, Feb. 13, 2023. The majority-white Mississippi Legislature is considering a bill that would expand the patrol territory for the state-run police department within the majority-Black city of Jackson. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

The Rev. CJ Rhodes of Mt. Helm Baptist Church in Jackson, Miss., says Feb. 14, 2023, that many people in the predominantly Black congregation strongly object to expanding territory of the state-run Capitol Police inside the city of Jackson and creating courts with appointed rather than elected judges. "They feel — viscerally feel — like this is taking us back to the 1950s and 1960s,” said Rhodes, who is the son of a civil rights attorney. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

FILE - Mississippi House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Trey Lamar, R-Senatobia, speaks in the Mississippi House chamber in Jackson, Miss., Nov. 2, 2022. Lamar is the sponsor of a 2023 bill that would expand the patrol territory for the state-run Capitol Police within the majority-Black city of Jackson and would create courts with appointed rather than elected judges. Lamar is an attorney from a rural town more than 170 miles (275 kilometers) north of Jackson. He says the proposals are aimed at making Mississippi's capital safer and reducing a backlog in the judicial system, and have “zero racial intent whatsoever.” (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)

FILE - Charles McCaskill, 68, calls out his thanks to members of the Mississippi Students Water Crisis Advocacy team who delivered two cases of water to his south Jackson, Miss., home, on Sept . 7, 2022. Jackson residents have a longstanding distrust of the water system because of frequent notices that the water must be boiled to kill contaminants before it’s safe to drink. During crises in August and September and again in December, many people waited in long lines for bottled water. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)

Recent vandalization of Mom's Dream Kitchen in Jackson, Miss., on Feb. 14, 2023, causes concern to the restaurant's owner, Timothy Norris, who is also a licensed professional counselor. Norris said the neighborhood around the restaurant has become less safe, but he is also concerned that proposed legislation by a majority-white Mississippi Legislature would limit self-governance in the majority-Black city. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

Traffic from Jackson, Miss., crosses over the Pearl River, one of the proposed boundaries for the enlarged Capital Complex Improvement District, Feb. 14, 2023. A bill being considered by the majority-white Mississippi Legislature would expand the patrol territory for the state-run Capitol Police within the majority-Black city and would create a court system with appointed rather than elected judges. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

A motorist drives through a neighborhood that could someday be patrolled by the state-run Capitol Police in Jackson, Miss., Feb. 21, 2023. A proposal being considered by the majority-white Mississippi Legislature would expand the patrol territory for Capitol Police within the majority-Black capital city of Jackson, but many residents and officials say this would infringe on the rights of local people to run their own government. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

Dan Piersol, a retired art museum curator who lives in a neighborhood that would be patrolled by the state-run Capitol Police in Jackson, Miss., said Feb. 13, 2023, that he objects to a wider jurisdiction for the Capitol Police and to the creation of a court with appointed rather than elected judges. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

Kelly Crim, playing with her 15-month old son Liam in northeast Jackson, Miss., on Feb. 13, 2023, said she supports expanding the territory for Capitol Police into the part of Mississippi's capital city where she and her family live, but was unaware of a proposal to create a new court with appointed rather than elected judges. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

Timothy Norris, a licensed mental health counselor and owner of Mom's Dream Kitchen in Jackson, Miss., right, speaks with restaurant customer Keith Bradford on Feb. 14, 2023. Norris is concerned that proposals by the Mississippi Legislature, which is majority-white, would infringe on self-governance in the state's majority-Black capital city of Jackson. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba watches on Feb. 7, 2023, at the state Capitol in Jackson, Miss., as lawmakers debate a bill that would expand the patrol territory for the state-run Capitol Police and create a court system with appointed rather than elected judges. People in Mississippi's majority-Black capital city say the mostly white state Legislature is trying to encroach on their rights of self-government. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

FILE - Mikara Stewart, 5, looks around a voting privacy kiosk while her grandmother, Doris Thomas, obscured, votes in Precinct 36 after standing in line for almost two hours in Jackson, Miss., on Nov. 3, 2020. In the wake of the proposed House Bill 1020, Black lawmakers say creating courts with appointed judges would strip away voting rights in a state where older generations of Black people still remember the struggle for equal access to the ballot. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)

Mississippi Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell, left, confers with Jackson Police Chief James Davis during a town hall meeting to address youth crime issues in Jackson, Miss., Feb. 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

A large crowd attends a meeting to listen to Jackson, Hinds County and Mississippi law enforcement officials, a local judge and the superintendent of the city schools speak about efforts to reduce youth crime and violence, Feb. 14, 2023, in Jackson, Miss. The audience also heard about the involvement of the state-run Capitol Police in the majority-Black city. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

Mississippi state Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson, left, hands out information about a Capital Complex Improvement District expansion bill during a Feb. 14, 2023, meeting at a church in Jackson, Miss. Blount and other Jackson and Hinds County officials oppose the bill that could create a court system with appointed rather than elected judges in Mississippi's capital city. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

Officers from the state-run Capitol Police and the city-run Jackson Police Department stand watch outside a Jackson, Miss., church where a community meeting was held to addresses youth crime issues Feb. 14, 2023. At the meeting, the audience also heard about the role of both police departments in Mississippi's majority-Black capital city. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

FILE - Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, center, speaks during his State of the State address on the steps of the state Capitol in Jackson, Miss., Monday, Jan. 30, 2023. The capital city has had Black mayors since 1997. Reeves has campaigned in the past on withholding state financial support the city requested. During the 2022 water crisis, Reeves said in another city that it was “as always, a great day to not be in Jackson.” (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)

FILE - More than 200 people gather on the steps of the Mississippi Capitol on Jan. 31, 2023, to protest against a bill that would expand the patrol territory for the state-run Capitol Police within the majority-Black city of Jackson and create a new court system with appointed rather than elected judges. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)

Maati Jone Primm, owner of Marshall's Music & Bookstore in downtown Jackson, Miss., speaks about how proposals by the majority-white Mississippi Legislature would affect governance of the state's majority-Black capital city, Feb. 13, 2023. “It’s a land grab. It’s a resource grab," Primm said. "It’s a way to disempower Jackson and its citizens, for its citizens not to have a say.” (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

Timothy Norris, a licensed mental health counselor and owner of Mom's Dream Kitchen in Jackson, Miss., speaks during an interview Feb. 14, 2023. Random gunfire, repeated break-ins and an unreliable city water system are constant challenges for the soul food restaurant his mother opened 35 years ago in Mississippi's capital city. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

Black Mississippi capital distrusts plans by white officials