No. 3: Boswell’s choice of words

December 31, 2006 08:33 pm

— Lauderdale County District 5 Supervisor Ray Boswell’s words were first challenged after a Sept. 28 work session, held by the board, in which Boswell insulted black board members when he referred to them as cotton-pickers and monkeys.
Lauderdale County District 4 Supervisor Joe Norwood, who is black, said: “That kind of behavior should not be tolerated, especially by an elected official who is supposed to be upholding the law.”
In response, Boswell said he didn’t consider the terms racial and, if they were, it didn’t matter to him.
“If cotton-picker is racial, then let it be, but I didn’t think it was racial,” Boswell said.
Other supervisors, white and black, said they had heard Boswell make other racist comments and that they thought it was inappropriate.
Norwood asked Boswell to publicly apologize for his comments during the Board of Supervisors meeting on Oct. 2. Boswell refused.
On Dec. 3, Boswell was arrested in Philadelphia on disorderly conduct charges during a traffic stop involving another motorist.
Days later, The Meridian Star obtained a video of Boswell from Sept. 5, 2005, recorded by an in-dash camera in a Meridian patrol car.
Boswell, who was not arrested during the exchange with Meridian policemen, uses many expletives and racial slurs during the exchange at JJ’s, a strip club at 121 Russell Drive, where police were summoned to investigate a complaint that Boswell had threatened to shoot someone there.
Police stayed with Boswell until he was able to have someone pick him up because the policemen felt he was too impaired to drive.
In the wake of the controversy over his choice of words, the arrest in Philadelphia and his behavior on the police video, two District 5 residents announced their intention to run against Boswell in next year’s election.
Boswell pleaded not guilty to disorderly conduct in Philadelphia City Court and is scheduled to appear in court on Feb. 21.
In response to the videotape from September 2005, Boswell has said he was at JJ’s as part of an “undercover investigation.”
Boswell said he has spoken to several people about alleged illegal activities at JJ’s, but he could not give a specific example of when he followed up with either the Meridian police or the sheriff’s department about his concerns.