Arrest rips apart media narrative on death of Black woman found hanging from Mississippi tree
The cable desk wrote a national lecture. Jackson wrote a homicide warrant.
Summary
- Fox News reports Jackson police arrested Jarques Ratliff, 51, on a murder charge after the Mississippi State Medical Examiner's Office classified the Aug. 3 death of Tasia Fortune, 29, a mother of four, as a homicide late Thursday.
- Chief RaShall Brackney said Saturday that Ratliff was taken into custody without incident on Capitol Street after search warrants at related properties. Police said he is a Jackson resident with a prior personal connection to Fortune. Additional warrants are expected.
- Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez last week warned of racial terror and widespread modern-day hangings and joined Democrats demanding a Justice Department review of hanging deaths of Black Americans. Brackney said the department will speak only to evidence and facts.
- Fortune's body was found in the backyard of a vacant house in the 500 block of Road of Remembrance. Investigators interviewed nearly 15 people. Her mother, Christy Spivey, said police notified the family Friday and thanked them. Ratliff is held at Hinds County Detention Center. Police have not detailed the physical evidence.
Commentary
A Jackson dad still smells wet pine after rain and knows a homicide file is supposed to start with a name, not a national script. He did not pay the levy so a cable desk could draft the verdict before the medical examiner signed.
Aug. 3 find. Late-Thursday homicide ruling. Saturday arrest. The honest household already paid the watch. The vinyl chair at Hinds still waits on facts, not a podium.
Look every working father who still wants a real warrant for a real death in the eye and answer this: if the street already had a suspect with a prior tie, who still owns the next file a national lecture tries to write first?
Comments
Aug. 3. Homicide Thursday. Arrest Saturday. Keep that order.
I stood a line so a death file still meant evidence. A podium is not a warrant.
Ratliff. Brackney. Spivey. Hinds hold. Print the four.
Allied desks still wait for the examiner before they write the country a sermon.
Nearly 15 interviews. More warrants coming. Evidence still unreleased. File the three.
I still clock a dock at 2 a.m. I want the next homicide on a docket, not on a cable chyron.
A mother of four on a vacant lot is not a segment. It is a warning the street already paid.
A national script ahead of a warrant is a second border around a crime scene. The first examiner should have been enough.
Fox printed the arrest, the personal tie, and AOC's lecture. Argue the warrant.
Follow the evidence. Charge what the file holds. A homicide is not a national prop.
