The Stonewall MS killing

One of the killings of an unarmed black man by a white policeman under suspicious circumstances that is now in the news occurred in Stonewall MS, in Clarke County, the county where I grew up.

I probably went to high school with some relative of the mayor there, Glenn Cook. Heck, he might even be a distant cousin or something.

But he doesn't come off so smooth in the interview reported by Zachary Oren Smith in Stonewall Mayor Reacts to Sanders Case, NAACP Wants Inquiry Jackson Free Press 07/23/2015.

This comment, for instance, doesn't show a lot of self-awareness:

Cook said, "There is safety and security for everyone in Stonewall," and that he believes his office is approachable. "Most the people in this town know me well enough to think they can approach me to talk about anyone."

He added, "I've not had one person come to my office to sit down with me and speak to me since the incident."

Well, Mister Glenn, if nobody comes to talk to you, then, uh, how do you conclude that everybody thinks you're totally approachable?

He also makes a don't-think-of-an-elephant gaffe: "'If I was an outsider and I just read a story from some of the local news agency and things that people have posted (online), I would think we were back in the '60s—that's not the case in Stonewall,' he told the Jackson Free Press by phone on Wednesday."

Which reminds people that know anything about this that "back in the '60s," Suthun officials basically said the same kind of things. Hey, the whites and the coloreds all git along jus' fine down heah, but you wouldn't know that from the way that the Yankee press talks about us.

Also, this is probably not the picher you want of your mayor out there if you're trying to defend your cops from suspicions of murdering an unarmed black man for no good reason:

Now, Mayor Cook may be a perfectly decent guy. I haven't followed this case closely and I don't know much about him. But, hey, that's a photo that shouts "smug good-ole-boy white guy."