Jackson Free Press

Concerns about indiscriminate shootings spurred the Jackson City Council to support House Bill 854, which proposes increased penalties against the practice. At its Jan. 27 meeting, the council voted unanimously for a resolution to support Rep. Debra Gibbs’ proposed legislation.

The Jackson Democrat’s bill makes the offense a felony and increases the fine from a range of $100 to $500 with between 60 days and six months of jail time or both to $500 to $2,000 fine or possible jail time of up to two years in the "custody of the Department of Corrections" or both.

The bill defines an "area zoned by a municipality or county as residential" as locations where firearm discharge should not occur. The law now only mentions "street, public road, public highway, levee, railroad or the right-of-way."

"When it comes to this kind of bad behavior, I think we need as big a stick as humanly possible to combat it," Ward 7 Councilwoman Virgi Lindsay said. "And this is a really good step in the right direction, and I hope the Legislature will seriously consider it."

‘What Goes Up Must Come Down’

"I know we all have been getting calls about multiple shootings, which is illegal when you discharge a firearm in the city like that, and so we've all been getting calls. People have had to repair their roofs," Council President and Ward 6 Councilman Aaron Banks said and also hoped the bill will scale through.

Banks first informed the council about the bill on Jan. 17. At that time, Lindsay said, "there was one gentleman In the Fondren area of my ward whose car was damaged because of fallen bullets on New Year's Eve, and so this is really a dangerous practice. What people tend to forget is what goes up must come down, and people are getting hurt. Their property is being damaged."

While expressing support for the legislation, Ward 2 Councilwoman Angelique Lee said her ward sounded "like a war zone" on New Year's Eve. "These are people just getting out and just shooting in the air, shooting in the air, not having any regard to where those bullets could be landing," she said.

Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba said police are limited in what they can do to deal with the situation because the law says a warrantless arrest for a misdemeanor cannot occur unless the incident happened in the presence of the officer.

"In recognition of what the law is, we need residents to help us to stop this practice from taking place and, you know, residents see it happening all the time," he added.

Making Doing Doughnuts A Felony

The city council also unanimously pledged support for Gibbs’ bill to make blocking "any street, road, driveway, interstate or highway for the purpose of drifting" a felony. This action is apparently in response to the New Year's Day incident on Interstate-55 where some drivers held up traffic and did doughnuts on the road.

The law presently provides a fine of up to $1,000, imprisonment of up to six months or both, and addresses only drag racing and racing on roads. House Bill 655, of which Gibbs is the principal author, would increase the penalty for such practices to up to $2,000, up to two years incarceration or both, and make violations felonies.

To specifically address what happened on Jan. 1, the new bill adds that "It shall be unlawful for any person or persons to willfully obstruct by the use or operation of a motor vehicle the free, convenient and normal use of any public sidewalk, street, highway, alley, road, or other passageway by impeding, hindering, stifling, retarding or restraining traffic or passage thereon."

Banks said drifting is a dangerous practice. "What we wanted to do from the City of Jackson is to specifically deal with the drifting part, as we all saw happen on I-55 and, and is going on also in (Ward 3) Councilman (Kenneth) Stokes’ ward on Woodrow Wilson (Avenue), where people block the street and do donuts." he said. “And people may be having emergencies (and travel those roads) and everything.

“Sometimes we have to send a tough message," Banks said. "Laws are to prevent people from doing it, not to see how far you can go and what you can get away with, but to prevent people from doing it."

Stokes said such practices lead to accidents on the road, and mentioned people drag racing, running red lights and moving beyond the speed limit. "People deserve the right to travel our streets without being interrupted by people doing those donuts and people just driving crazy and recklessly," he said.

Email story tips to city/county reporter Kayode Crown at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @kayodecrown.