The Mississippi Police Department, whose chief bragged about killing a “n—-r” 119 times, has arrested a quarter of its predominantly black population, according to the DOJ

A Mississippi city that made headlines when a recording of its police chief bragging about shooting a black man 119 times went viral is now the subject of a damning new report from the U.S. Department of Justice alleging widespread civil rights violations.

Lexington police have arrested about a quarter of the city's population since 2021 and issued more than $1.7 million in fines during that period, the DOJ announced Thursday after a nearly year-long investigation. That equates to about $1,400 for every man, woman and child in the Delta city of 1,200, located in one of the poorest counties in the country.

The money was used to fund the police. From 2021 to 2023, Lexington increased police spending from $662,925 to $965,130.

“Lexington has turned prison into the type of debtors’ prison that Charles Dickens described in his 19th-century novels,” said Todd Gee, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi.

Black residents, who make up 76 percent of the city's population, were specifically targeted, the Justice Department said, and arrested for minor offenses such as obscenities. That's no surprise given Lexington's recent history.

In 2022, Police Chief Sam Dobbins, who had been appointed to the post a year earlier, was fired after he was recorded bragging about “shooting the n– 119 times, okay?”

A year later, his tenure was cut short when a former LPD officer leaked an audio recording
Record of Dobbins' comments. He claimed to have killed 13 people in the line of duty, said he didn't speak to “queers” and told another officer: “I don't give a fuck if you kill a motherfucker in cold blood.”

The DOJ noted that the increase in low-level arrests against blacks coincided with the appointment of Dobbins, who is white. Under his leadership, the Lexington Police Department recorded an average per capita arrest rate that was more than 10 times higher than the rest of the state, according to prosecutors.

Dobbins' deputy, Charles Henderson, replaced him as chief and continues to “foster a culture of abuse and harassment,” according to community members quoted in the Justice Department report.

In an incident that occurred hours after the DOJ announced its investigation into Lexington police, officers chased a black man — accused of disrupting a business — through a field and used a Taser on him nine times . The man began to foam at the mouth; One of the officers then noticed that a probe he had fired had hit the suspect in the head.

The man, who had a behavioral disorder, had been arrested three times this year for trespassing, stealing a cup of coffee and stealing packets of sugar. Each time, police illegally detained him until he cleared old charges for previous offenses. But with each arrest came another fine, and by November 2023, the man, unemployed and with no assets, was more than $7,500 in debt, the Justice Department reported.

“Through a combination of poor leadership, retaliation, and a complete lack of internal accountability, LPD created a system in which officers can relentlessly violate the law,” the DOJ report said.

They were often brutal in enforcement, sometimes using a cattle prod to force compliance, said Kristen Clarke, assistant U.S. attorney general for the Civil Rights Division.

“For example, officers used a Taser to shock a black man 18 times until he was covered in his own vomit and was no longer able to speak or speak,” Clarke said.

Local civil rights activist Jill Collen Jefferson was arrested in 2023 for recording a traffic stop. She said Lexington residents essentially live in a police state.

“They are being arrested for, for example, taking too long to get out of their car at the supermarket… The police waged a complete campaign of fear and control over black citizens,” Jefferson told the Mississippi Free Press.

According to the report, city leaders have expressed a willingness to reform since they were informed of the Justice Department's finding in February. For example, they no longer arrest and detain people for outstanding fines.

“However… LPD exhibits a persistent pattern or practice of unconstitutional conduct and additional remedial action is required to stop it,” the report concludes.