Gaining access to the
Panolian Archives provided me with an opportunity to peruse the community's news, current events, sports, editorials, elections, and crime. Prior to this access, I had developed a bias based upon Jessica's murder: upon criminal arrests, and how LE seemed to be dealing with that. The
Archives opened my eyes wider.
What follows is just a brief summary of what I found about the Sheriff's Office. I believe some of it is relevant.
Sheriff Dennis Darby was an
honored Mississippi State Highway trooper for 27 years before he retired and
entered into a six-man race for the office of Panola County Sheriff.
On or about November 5, 2010, that race had been resolved into a
runoff of strong differences of opinion between Darby and the then-interim Sheriff, Otis Griffin. Griffin had been an appointed sheriff by the Panola County Supervisors, and had previously been a jailor. Their runoff resulted in a close vote with Darby winning by 137 votes.
Prior to winning his election, candidate Darby (as all other candidates) was interviewed in an October 15, 2010,
Panolian Supplement titled "Race for the Badge".
Of significance from that
Supplement:
After Darby became sheriff, it seems to me that the
Panolian Archives from 2010 to today project his philosophy, with the abundance of drug arrests, drug-related murders, and gangland drug-related shootings.
*Note: If you have followed my links to this point (and read the articles), I believe that you too will have gathered a different opinion -- than was first projected by the beginning stages of the Jessica Chambers Murder -- of Chief Dennis Darby.