Pastor again petitions board about brutality allegations
The Columbia Police Department has been approved for a $9,700 grant to get body cameras for officers and expects to have them in roughly a month.
Police Chief Michael Kelly updated aldermen about the plans during Tuesday’s board meeting, where Pastor Kenneth Owens again questioned officials about allegations of police brutality.
The cameras would be put on a charger at the end of each shift and would automatically download all their footage from there.
Owen, who had previously addressed aldermen on Feb. 19, said he represented a group of citizens who want an officer suspended pending a Mississippi Bureau of Investigation probe where a man, Jessie Domenique Jefferson, told Hattiesburg TV station WDAM that an officer pointed a gun at his head and stomped on his feet with a chair during a questioning in October.
However, Mayor Justin McKenzie and aldermen said the accuser has never come to them and that they won’t take action against the officer based on hearsay.
“If this happened, it would not be tolerated,” the mayor said. “If something happened and there is proof, there is facts to it, it would not be tolerated by me or this board.”
Owens said city officials received a letter from officers about it, but McKenzie said both letters admitted the writers did not witness anything. He said it’s been the subject of an internal investigation that has since been turned over to the MBI.
“I just hate for elected officials that we elected to turn a blind ear to what the city of Columbia is crying out for, that somebody will look at it and see what’s going on,” Owens said. “And we’ve come to the board in a peaceful manner. We didn’t come down here protesting or nothing, but that will be our next step; we’ll be having a protest about this situation.”
McKenzie said he would welcome any outside agencies to come in and that he personally called MBI to come. Owens asked for a town hall meeting and McKenzie said they would see about getting a time set.
Owens, who lives in Hattiesburg but has a church and family in Columbia, opened his remarks by saying he had not received any answers from the city to his questions from the previous meeting and that he and others had held a community meeting March 2 and had more questions. He asked about the total number of officers as well as per shift.
McKenzie said they have about 25 total officers with 18 to 19 being full-time. He declined to publicly say how many per shift, saying it would alert criminals, but that he would discuss that privately with Owens.
Owens asked about the ratio of officers for a city this size, and McKenzie said the standard is about 2 per 1,000 population and that Columbia exceeds that. Owens asked if there were any suspensions as a result of the MBI investigation, which city officials said there had not been.
Owens also asked about a federal lawsuit, but city officials said they have not been served with the lawsuit yet but saw it broadcast on WDAM.
Owens also asked about a case in circuit court involving a man named Scott Bell that has been settled involving a former officer. City Attorney Lawrence Hahn said all he would tell Owens was that it is resolved. McKenzie said those involved weren’t there to defend themselves.
Owens said the city’s insurance goes up when it pays out lawsuits and said the truth will come out.
“We’ve been having this going on for a long period of time that we’ve been having police brutality from one incident to another. And we’ve got a problem that we need to fix and solve,” Owens said.
McKenzie said only one person has brought a complaint to him and that it’s being handled in court. That involves MyJellious McKenzie and an incident with police at his home in August. It’s set to go to court Friday in Marion County Circuit Court.
Owens asked each alderman to give him their response about suspending the officer in the Jefferson case.
“I don’t plan to hold something against an officer or anybody else who works for the city that’s been convicted on Facebook or on television,” Alderman Jason Stringer said.
Alderwoman Anna Evans said she asked Owens to have Jefferson call her to make a complaint but that never happened. “All we get is a letter and then you get information that ‘they said.’ I can’t go on that; that is not evidence,” Evans said.
Owens replied that someone threatened with his life and running from the Police Department wouldn’t want to come talk to an alderman.
“Being an ex-police officer’s wife, I’m sorry, there’s a lot of stuff being blamed on police officers,” Evans said.
McKenzie spoke again later at the close of the meeting, saying WDAM has been at several positive events involving police but those have never made the air. Those include “Coffee with a Cop,” neighborhood meetings and a table at the recent Columbia High career fair.
“This seems like a one-sided interpretation of what’s going on around here. There are good things happening in your community. There are good things happening in your police department,” McKenzie said.
