Waterproof, Louisiana, and the region around it may be majority Black, but White Power is determined to prevail by any means necessary. White parish officials replaced the town’s African American mayor and arrested the Black police chief for kidnapping when he placed a lawbreaker under arrest. “They are determined to let you know you have a place and if you don’t jump when they say jump you are in trouble.”
As you read this story you can listen to the interview we did yesterday with investigative reporter Jordan Flaherty and Chief Miles Jenkins.. Its unbelieveable that such things are still going on in 2010 Here’s the link our Hard Knock Radio podcast http://www.swift.fm/mrdaveyd/song/33537/
Shout out to Black Agenda Report who first ran this piece..
Bobby Higginbotham was elected mayor of Waterproof in September of 2006. The next year, he appointed Miles Jenkins as chief of police. Jenkins, who served in the US military for 30 years and earned a master’s degree in public administration from Troy University in Alabama, immediately began the work of professionalizing a small town police department that had previously been mostly inactive. “You called the Waterproof police for help before,” says Chief Jenkins, “he would say, wait ‘til tomorrow, it’s too hot to come out today.” He also sought to reform the town’s financial practices, which Chief Jenkins says were in disorder and consumed by debt.
Tensas and the nearby parishes of Madison and East Carroll all share the sixth judicial district – currently represented by District Attorney James Paxton. Buddy Caldwell, DA for the sixth judicial district from 1979 to 2008, is now Attorney General for the state of Louisiana. The sixth district parishes all have majority Black populations and mostly white elected officials, which Chief Jenkins and Watson attribute to political corruption and disenfranchisement of Black voters. Prior to the registration of 15 voters in 1964, there was not a single Black voter registered in Tensas, despite having more than 7,000 African American residents (and about 4,000 white residents), making it the last Parish in Louisiana to allow African Americans to register.
Chief Jenkins says he faced an immediate campaign of harassment from Sheriff Jones. “They just wanted this town to be white-controlled,” explained Chief Jenkins. The police chief described being arrested multiple times under the order of District Attorney Paxton and Sheriff Jones. The charges, says Jenkins, range from charges of theft for a pay raise he received from the town’s board of Aldermen to criminal trespass for going to the home of a citizen who had been stopped for speeding without a valid driver’s license, to disturbing the peace for an incident where individuals threatened the police chief with violence for issuing traffic citations. Ms. Watson says the charges were invented out of thin air. “It was a sad case of lies,” she says, adding that, “The majority of the town of Waterproof supports the chief and supports the mayor.”
Mayor Higginbotham was elected at the same time as two other Black mayors of small Louisiana towns, both of whom also received threats based on race. In December of 2006, shortly after Higginbotham was elected mayor of Waterproof, Gerald Washington was shot and killed three days before he was to become the first Black mayor of the small southwest Louisiana town of Westlake. An official investigation called his death a suicide, but family members call it an assassination. Less than two weeks after that, shots were fired into the house of Earnest Lampkins, the first Black mayor of the northwest Louisiana town of Greenwood. Lampkins reported that he continued to receive threats throughout his term, including a “for sale” sign that someone planted outside his house.
When asked for comment on Chief Jenkins’ lawsuit, Tensas Parish Sheriff Ricky Jones denied that race was a factor, claiming that Jenkins had abused his office and that many of the local citizens who filed complaints against him were Black. “I’m not going to support any type of corruption,” said Jones. “Certainly not from him.” District Attorney Paxton, also named as a defendant in the lawsuit, disputed all accusations from Jenkins, suggesting that he had tried to help Jenkins when he was first elected. “A lot of this will become clear when the case against Mayor Higginbotham goes to trial on Monday,” he added.
Great story.. But I would ask you to take out the backtrack of music. Into yes all the way threw the story was just an annoying sounds.
Thanks,
Frank
This is what is really goin on in america. The US is not some post racial america now that obama was elected.
It is still the racist place that enslaved us and then had jim crow laws before these patriot act laws.
It seems, no matter the year, the black man in amerikkka is under seige.
IN los angeles it is similar, only we know who controls the state legislature here and how they get down. We see how politically correctness has made the racial relations worse.
I think that is life in america. Race will always be a curse that keeps this nation divided. I mean me personally i trust black people just as little as white.
I trust no human no politician, but thats just me.
The question is what city is next?? And what race will overthrow which race in power??? It is no longer a black and white thing with our open borders.
Clear civil right violations, an overt racist campaign waged to destroy black public officials.
Post racial america? LOL!!! Waterproof, Louisiana never got the memo.The Klan is still in full affect in 2010 because in their racist minds reconstruction and segregation never ended. Tell Messiah Obama that the rednecks and right wing wackos are at it again and we need to deal with domestic terrorists in our own backyard once and for all.
I’m from that very town, and even though there was a lot of wrong doing done by those white authority leaders, there was even way more corruption coming from that black mayor and the former chief of ours. It didn’t mention when he stop sending our Energy money to the light company and they shut off our street lights all over town for about a month. What type of town is that. And that chief, he just was drunk the most of the time, harassing females trying to get their numbers ,and that came straight from my cousin cause it was her number he was trying to get. But I don’t think that nobody should be the victim here in this story because they are all crooks, the high official blacks and the whites, the only victims are the poor community.
I am not sure what is more disturbing, racsism or lack of education and pride in one’s race! I was born and raised in Waterproof. So was my parents and the generation prior. The town was poverty riden, misinformed, uneducated, knowledge strickened, then and now! I and those who had a desire to do more than drive tractors, pump gas or live on the system, chose to move away! People are conrupt, black and white. However, I would be slow to speak of what one do or did not, if I am not ready and willing to initiate change. We are speaking of a community that closed down the only two schools in town, but welcomed a new prison! Those who remain, should either educate themselves so they can continue to inform others. Be diligent, not ignorant! Many who remain in Waterproof are content with poverty. In order to have more, one must expect more!!!
Glad to find this post after an Internet search in response to a colorofchange petition. I will definitely sign and follow up this story.
Sally
Interesting, no mention of the hundreds of thousands of state and federal dollars, earmarked for improvement of water and sewage systems that are unaccounted for by the Waterproof officials. While the residents suffer from abysmal sanitation and water quality, these criminals go free, and think they should get a get-out-of-jail card for their grand larceny with the hollow cry of “racism”. Who, I ask, are the real racists here? Those that deprive their citizens of essential services while lining their own pockets or those working to bring these criminals to justice and provide much needed services to this very poor area of our state? I’m sure that this will never be published on your website, but at least you can no longer plead ignorance on this topic. Regards,
Steve