Jackson and Austin

Austin, Texas, is a progressive, arts-intensive enclave in the middle of one of the most conservative states in America.  It sounds like they'd be under siege, but it works for them, and it has worked for as long as I can remember.  That might be a model we can use in Jackson.  I think it's a model we're already using, even if it's not consciously so.

I'm aware that most of the city government looks at the whole Capitol Police and HB1020 thing as a bunch of peckerwoods trying to make them look bad.  There might even be something to that philosophy.  

Here's me out, though.  They're not gonna stop.  Getting mad about it is just gonna make them do it more because, to them, there are political points to be made by making Jackson progressives angry.  

Instead of fighting it, what I would do is I would lean into it.  I'd play up how the state of Mississippi has sent us all these shiny new police cars and all the shiny new policemen (that we don't have to pay for) and then really, really sell the idea that they're going to make our high profile areas, mainly the Fondren Entertainment District, The Downtown Entertainment and Museum District and the LeFleurs Bluff entertainment district as safe as your momma's pantry--and then hold them to that.  

In an area with a reputation for crime, having a bunch of new police, even if they were forced on you by people who hate you, is an absolute selling point, and a big selling point that we don't have to pay for can be a genius plan if you sell it right.

Of course, if you act like you appreciate what the white, conservative legislature is doing, they may quit doing it because they hate us and their constituents hate us, but there are ways around that.  It might even be a step toward making it so they don't score points by beating up on Jackson.

Squaring off against the governor and the speaker and whatever yay-who's are in the legislature isn't a sustainable plan.  Jackson ends up losing every time, and they win points with their people by beating up on us, even though it's hardly a fair fight since they have all the power.

If you finesse these people, though, if you can manage to maybe not show your entire hand and act like you really want to work with them, then Jackson can work its way into more control of these efforts, which will help assuage some of the legitimate concerns there are about over-policing.  

The current mayor comes from a culture of radical protests and combative cultural language.  His father was a master of that.  Radicalism works best when you have no power.  Radicalism becomes your power.  It gives you a voice that you otherwise wouldn't have.  Once you're in positions of power and shared power, radicalism starts to work against you because it makes other people not want to work with you.

I think it's possible for the Mayor to honor the work his father did and honor the alliances that come with that but really push forward with the idea that this is a new day.   Push forward the idea that a Black Jackson now shares power with their white neighbors, and as a good neighbor, wants to work with all the programs that come with being neighbors, including things like the Capitol Police, but also forge better and stronger relationships between all the metro police departments so you don't have this conflict that you see now between Jackson and Pearl, Brandon and Madison police.

We're so close to having the best of both worlds.  All we have to do is grab it.  Until we learn to grasp the concept of and live with the idea of our being a new, conjoined community, then we're gonna suffer a lot of the things we've been suffering.  

Working with somebody doesn't have to make you look subservient to them.  Think about Thalia Mara.  She was this tiny little woman with a weird accent and a whole bunch of gay friends who somehow figured out a way to make all these backwoods sons-a-bitches do exactly what she wanted, and she made it look like it was their idea.  I think that can happen again.  It just takes a change of perspective.