Slain Mississippi candidate was beaten and burned, his family says

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Slain Mississippi candidate was beaten and burned, his family says

Emily Le Coz
Reuters
1:25 PM CST, March 4, 2013

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JACKSON, Mississippi (Reuters) - A gay, black mayoral candidate killed last week in Mississippi was beaten, dragged and set on fire before his body was dumped near a river, according to his family.

In a statement issued late on Sunday, the family of Marco McMillian said a coroner who performed an autopsy on his body told them about the gruesome manner of death.

"We feel this was not a random act of violence based on the condition of the body when it was found," the McMillian family said. "Marco, nor anyone, should have their lives end in this manner."

Coahoma County Coroner Scotty Meredith declined to comment on the family's statement that McMillian was beaten and burned.

The body of McMillian, a 33-year-old candidate for mayor of Clarksdale, Mississippi, was found on Wednesday. A day later, law enforcement officials arrested a 22-year-old man, Lawrence Reed, who is also black, and charged him with murder in connection with the case.

McMillian was one of the first viable openly gay candidates to run for office in Mississippi, according to the Victory Fund, a national organization that supports homosexual candidates.

Autopsy results are not expected to be released until toxicology tests are complete, which could take two or three weeks, Meredith said.

The Coahoma County Sheriff's Department, which is leading the investigation, has released few details about the killing or a possible motive. Law enforcement officials say the killing is not being treated as a hate crime.

McMillian had been missing since February 25 when his sport-utility vehicle was involved in a head-on collision in a rural part of Coahoma County in the Mississippi Delta. McMillian was not in the vehicle at the time of the accident.

McMillian recently moved from Memphis back to his hometown of Clarksdale to run for mayor as a Democrat. He had faced state Representative Chuck Espy, a Democrat, and former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill Luckett, an attorney, along with two other candidates.

McMillian's campaign focused on reducing crime and unemployment in Clarksdale, a city of roughly 18,000 people, said campaign spokesman Jarod Keith.

A once-booming agricultural community, the city has steadily bled residents and jobs over the years and now faces high levels of violence and unemployment.

Another Democratic candidate for mayor, Doris Haynes Miller, said she recently was robbed at gunpoint in the town.

(Editing by Kevin Gray and Andrew Hay)

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-usa-crime-mississippibre92311e-20130304,0,5580882.story

North Chicago Police brochure peppered with black stereotypes

North Chicago Police brochure peppered with black stereotypes

By Judy Masterson jmasterson@stmedianetwork.com February 24, 2013 12:18PM

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Comedian Dave Chappelle's character Tyrone Biggums.

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Updated: February 25, 2013 6:39PM

On one page, comedian Dave Chappelle appears as Tyrone Biggums, the stumbling junkie with crack residue around his mouth.

On other pages of an official North Chicago police handout, a smiling African American man is handcuffed in an orange prison jumpsuit and another is portrayed as bug-eyed and slack-jawed in a mugshot. The handout — given to participants of the new North Chicago Citizen Police Academy last week — was intended to illustrate trial procedures. It had a much different effect.

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Waukegan activist Ralph Peterson called the handout “outrageous.” Jennifer Witherspoon, president of the NAACP’s Lake County branch, said the handout reinforces “every negative stereotype blacks as a people have been fighting against.”

Also in the brochure: Bumbling TV cop Barney Fife, Judge Judy and Lindsay Lohan. On the cover: Lake County State’s Attorney Mike Nerheim opposite Tom Cruise as a military defense attorney from “A Few Good Men.”

Nerheim called the handout “incredibly disturbing.”

“Unprofessional is probably the nicest way to put it,” Nerheim said. “It was obviously done without my knowledge and consent. I definitely see how it could be offensive to people. It’s not something that should be coming out of the police department.”

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Nerheim said he called North Chicago Mayor Leon Rockingham after receiving the handout by email on Thursday.

North Chicago Police Chief James Jackson said that the material, created by an African-American officer, was not authorized. The brochure also contains images of Indiana University basketball coach Tom Crean, big-bellied white police officers and infamous murder defendant Casey Anthony.

“We should have caught it,” said Jackson, who characterized the handout as an ill-considered attempt at humor.

Peterson isn’t laughing.

“It’s another red flag,” Peterson said. “It’s more bad judgment. For officers to pass out a pamphlet like this screams a need for sensitivity and that this department is not capable of policing the black community.”

He said it showed continued insensitivity toward the city’s majority African-American community in the wake of the Darrin “Dagwood” Hanna police brutality case, in which North Chicago and its police department are embroiled in a federal wrongful-death suit. Peterson brought the handout to the attention of the North Chicago City Council last week.

Peterson also questions why the department is using officers who were involved in the Hanna arrest, along with others who have been the subject of excessive force complaints, as instructors in the academy.

Jackson defended his decision to use veteran officers who volunteered to lead the 10-week course.

“We’re trying to get more interactions with the community,” Jackson said. “We don’t want to discourage that.”

Meanwhile, the “Trial Procedures” handout has been scrubbed from the curriculum, and police Lt. Tony Thies, who is in charge of the academy, apologized to participants who showed up Thursday for the third class.

Rockingham said he had talked to two academy participants about the circular. “One said they didn’t find it offensive, the other said it could have been taken the wrong way,” he said.

But Witherspoon said: “Someone needs to be held accountable.”

“Imagine if you just came to America and saw this,” Witherspoon said. “This is not who we are. We are doctors and lawyers. I don’t understand why this wasn’t reviewed by the chief or mayor before it went out.”

Academy student Paula Carballido, of North Chicago, said an officer explained that the images were taken from movies and TV and were not meant to offend.

Carballido, who said that about half of the dozen or so participants are African American, praised the course, which offers an in-depth view of law enforcement procedures. She said the course was informative and “respectful.”

“It’s changed my perspective about police officers,” Carballido said. “Officers are human and they can make poor choices. But the officers in the academy want to restore trust.”

http://www.suntimes.com/18386671-761/north-chicago-police-brochure-peppered-with-black-stereotypes.html

Hungary PM condemns far-right, promises to protect Jews

Reuters – 19 hrs ago

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  Reuters/Reuters - Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban leaves a EU leaders summit discussing the European Union's long-term budget in Brussels November 23, 2012. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Monday condemned a call by a far-right Jobbik lawmaker to draw up lists of Jews as "unworthy" of his country, promising he would protect all citizens from any kind of discrimination.

Orban was responding to comments by Marton Gyongyosi, one of Jobbik's 44 lawmakers in the 386-seat parliament, who said on November 27 during a debate on violence in the Gaza Strip that it would be "timely" to draw up a list of people of Jewish ancestry who posed a national security risk.

His remarks, for which he later apologized, triggered international outrage. The U.S. Embassy said it condemned "in the strongest terms the outrageous anti-Semitic remarks made on the floor of Parliament by a Jobbik parliamentarian".

Seeking to distance himself and his country from the comments, Orban said Gyongyosi's outburst had no place in modern Hungary.

"Last week sentences were uttered in parliament which are unworthy of Hungary," Orban told parliament, responding to a lawmaker from the opposition Socialist party.

"I rejected this call on behalf of the government and I would like you to know that as long as I am standing in this place, no one in Hungary can be hurt or discriminated against because of their faith, conviction or ancestry."

He and the rest of the country would protect Hungary's Jewish population, he added.

"MISUNDERSTOOD"

Gyongyosi has said his remarks were misunderstood, saying he had only been referring to Hungarians with Israeli passports in the government and parliament. He has refused to resign over the scandal.

On Sunday, more than 10,000 Hungarians protested against the far-right with leaders from governing and opposition parties denouncing Gyongyosi's call, which they said echoed the Nazi era. The rally united the country's deeply divided political scene in an unprecedented way.

Jobbik dismissed the protest as "political alarmism" and Gabor Vona, its leader, told parliament on Monday that Gyongyosi had only been suggesting examining "the citizenship of MPs and government members".

The matter should have been closed after Gyongyosi's apology, he argued.

"But there were those professionally frightful, those policy-bereft hysterics who thought otherwise and put on the old record crying anti-Semitism," he said.

"In between two bouts of hysteria you should not forget that this country had been destroyed by Fidesz and the Socialist party, and not Jobbik. And its Jobbik's task to rebuild it."

Orban's conservative Fidesz party swept to power with a two-thirds parliamentary majority in 2010, ousting the Socialists.

Jobbik became the third-biggest party in parliament after a campaign which vilified the Roma minority and attracted voters frustrated by a deepening economic crisis.

The party has since retained support in the recession-hit central European country and some analysts believe it may hold the balance of power between Fidesz and the left-wing opposition in the next elections in 2014.

http://news.yahoo.com/hungary-pm-condemns-far-promises-protect-jews-174116712.html?ugc_c=gLpeelv12QB4yT1nr7ztnkV7WJDRF8Uba6tJPBzFJ4PMCTIN2Jfql0KWT1vqqrvnfF7Gsb1Mnb2eHDJeAJ6p3j4Wtf.HYmJXSUiOMdWwmj2Zs81BezzM9ePUk1syUv68.c28AJ8ZwH8zhrhRfWW_wlHENgDIYL7u7dbXuMSTyXVuMf7X31IaehJvFUqKaTOuo7olfo.H.MEjkeG5SWoadKKf.v41BUsXugNwmloDBs_Vt7WjvzJXQsdUtA