Mississippi Cop Fired After Confronting Confederate Flag Wavers

JACKSON, MS — A black Capitol Police officer in Jackson, Mississippi, was fired after he confronted a group waving Confederate battle flags and the Mississippi state flag — the only one in the United State that depicts the Stars and Bars of the Confederacy — outside the state’s new civil rights museum.

The officer’s firing was confirmed by state Rep. Kathy Sykes, a Jackson Democrat, who told the Clarion-Ledger that waving either flag around the civil rights museum is considered “almost like desecration” by African-Americans, who have a long history of disenfranchisement in Mississippi, where 38 percent of residents are black.

The confrontation with members of the Delta Flaggers, a group that wants to preserve the controversial state flag, was recorded on a video posted on Facebook. Group members regularly protest at state institutions that don’t fly the flag. For them and others, the flag represents history and culture. But for others, it is a symbol of slavery and segregation.

Mississippi voters overwhelmingly supported keeping the flag by a 2-to-1 margin in 2001. But it’s not flown outside the civil rights museum or the History of Mississippi Museum, nor at many of the state’s public universities, the Clarion Ledger reported.

The confrontation occurred as Mississippians continue to debate whether to replace the flag. Gov. Phil Bryant and Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves both favor keeping it, but among those who think it should go is Democratic Rep. John Hines of Greenville, a member of the Legislative Black Caucus.

"It's time for Mississippi to move in a new direction," he told The Associated Press. "The state that I believe Mississippi can be — that flag is not a representative symbol of it."

The Mississippi Legislature won’t take up the issue this year, though bills on both sides of the debate were filed. A petition drive is underway to gather signatures for a 2019 ballot referendum that would amend the 1890 state Constitution to recognize it as the official state flag. That measure would also require the flag to be flown at all state institutions and agencies.

The Legislature’s pass on flag legislation this year prompted a fiery opinion piece in the Jackson Free Press from Mississippi native Duvalier Malone, a Washington, D.C.-based motivational speaker, political consultant and community activist.

“How can you claim to love God and claim Mississippi is the Bible belt of the South, but also endorse the Confederate emblem, which is the American equivalent of the Nazi symbol?” h wrote. “The crimes people have committed under the Confederate banner are horrific. Cloaked individuals in white sheets toting gasoline-soaked crosses in their attempts to terrorize black Americans have carried this banner. Those who have gone into churches to murder innocent African Americans as they praised God have also carried it.”

The video shows how heated the debate can become. The officer, who hasn’t been named, is shown telling the Delta Flaggers they have to move from the grass surrounding the museum.

“People, people, let me tell you something," he said, "if you set foot on this grass, I'm going to have to throw you back out of here."

At one point, the officer grabbed the flag pole held by a member of the Delta Flaggers group, but didn’t take it away. “That’s assault! That’s assault!” someone yelled as the demonstrators echoed his remarks. Someone else said, “You hit him with a stick.”

"Did I put my hands on you?" the officer responded. "Thank you.”

On the Facebook post, Flagger Chris Blount said the altercation wasn’t the first with the officer, and that the officer is the only one with Capitol Police “with an attitude like that.” Another video shows more of the confrontation.

Photo by Bill Colgin/Getty Images News/Getty Images