WaPo: “More than 40 Lexington residents sat at tables and listened to Todd Gee, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi, present the findings. Many of those in attendance were the first to blow the whistle on the police department’s alleged abuses. They clapped modestly after he finished presenting, aware the process of reforming the Lexington Police was only beginning.
Getting here was an act of faith on the part of the dozens of people who interviewed with investigators or encouraged others to do so, residents and their advocates said. People in this town of about 1,200 people were afraid police would learn about them talking to the federal investigators — a situation far less common in the much larger jurisdictions in which the Justice Department more typically investigates police.
If Lexington’s officers saw residents speaking with investigators in public places, or caught wind of their involvement, they would retaliate by pulling them over and arresting them, victims told advocates and investigators. The Justice Department found that in 2023, “Black people were 17.6 times more likely to be arrested by LPD than white people were.””