Picket lines
School boycotts
They try to say it’s a communist plot
All I want is equality
For my sister, my brother, my people, and me
— “Mississippi Goddam,” Nina Simone (1964)
“Justified.”
That’s what the Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch ruled last week in the fatal police killing of 1-year-old Kohen Wiley.
One. Year. Old.
In three sentences, Fitch, a self-described “Trump conservative” who is currently running to be Mississippi’s next governor, rendered the state’s bloody hands blameless.
“Today, the Office of the Attorney General announced it has completed the review of a June 14, 2026 incident in Senatobia involving one officer with the Senatobia Police Department. In this incident, the Attorney General’s Office found the use of force was justified. Pursuant to Section 45-1-6 of the Mississippi Code, the review followed an investigation by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation,” a statement from her office read last week.
Effectively: Case closed.
Suffice it to say, the word “justified” should never be uttered in the affirmative when discussing the death of a baby. The word wizardry in the AG’s brief statement is deviously impressive, but her most cunning feat is her ability to simultaneously victim-blame while erasing facts.
An “incident” involving five officers magically becomes “one,” and his “use of force” suddenly becomes a light veil over four bullets pierced into a car, rendering a little Black boy’s body lifeless.
Voila: Justice!
Did I mention that Fitch is running for governor?
