Boots on the Ground: Patrick Alexander Confronts Systemic Abuse of Black People in Senatobia
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The Southern Truth 
By Gloria Zuurveen / PACE NEWS
I recently received a text message from Patrick Alexander, and it struck a deep chord. He was referencing the abuse involving a Black woman in Senatobia, Mississippi—my hometown. His words revealed what many already know but too few will say out loud: abuse and injustice are happening regularly in Senatobia. This is the same town where we’ve been reporting on election discrepancies surrounding the Democratic primary vote between Michael Cathey and Allen Tanksley. That razor-thin, 1-point win raised serious concerns, prompting Cathey to rightfully file a protest. But today, Alexander’s message carried a heavy dose of righteous indignation, a call from the soul. He declared plainly:
“The time for silence in Senatobia, Mississippi is over.”
And with that, he called on the people to stand together—for righteousness’ sake.
On Mother’s Day, a disturbing and traumatic incident unfolded when Breshari Faulkner, a young mother, was violently arrested by Senatobia police in front of her children. She was driving her disabled grandmother’s vehicle and parked in a handicap space outside Walmart—a reasonable act on a Sunday meant to celebrate mothers. Instead, it turned into a public display of humiliation, aggression, and brutality that was captured on video and has since gone viral across the globe.
But in the midst of it all, the community has a voice that refuses to be silenced. His name is Patrick Alexander, and he’s making it plain:
Mark Lesure and Patrick Alexander during a press conference where Lesure was beaten by the Senatobia Police Chief in his own home. Photo captured by Gloria Zuurveen
“I’m just tired of all the mess. The community needs to come together. What happened to that young lady, that mother, that woman was dead wrong. Her kids were traumatized, and the police knew it, and they didn’t even care. They took that young lady to jail like she wasn’t nobody in front of her own children on Mother’s Day.”
“It’s time for the citizens to stand up and stop letting these officials think they can do whatever they want with no accountability. We got to stop shopping in a city that don’t care about us. We gotta stop spending money with people who wouldn’t even lift a finger if we were laid out on the street.”
“It’s time for the boots to hit the ground. Not to keep marching and getting the same results, certainly we need to protest as we are with this clarion call but we also need to consider all the complicity in this pattern of abuse to Black people and admonish Black people to hold their money and tell the those from the mayor to the police chief, if you ain’t for the people, you need to go.”
“We not asking no more—we demanding. They think we’re not organized, they think we don’t know our rights, they think we ain’t gonna say nothing. But we tired, and we watching everything now. You ain’t gonna get away with this no more.”
Let’s be absolutely clear about what the Black people of Senatobia are really dealing with: this is a highly religious town, one that wears its Christian values on its sleeve. But despite the praise and prayers, these acts of white supremacy are standing tall, loud, and proud—protected by power, emboldened by silence, and wrapped in a badge of law enforcement. The brutality here isn’t just physical—it’s spiritual. And it’s sanctioned by those who should know better.
Senatobia victim of police abuse according to reports coming out of Senatobia, Mississippi.
The Senatobia Police Department’s decision to release the body camera footage appears to many—myself included—as a strategic move to control the narrative. As Edgar Villanueva explains in his book Decolonizing Wealth: Indigenous Wisdom to Heal Divides and Restore Balance (forward by Jennifer and Peter Buffett, son and daughter-in-law of Warren Buffett), one of the key domination tactics of white supremacy is to manipulate language around the perpetrator’s bad behavior. On page 24, Villanueva explains why he uses the term “white supremacy” instead of racism—because white supremacy explicitly names who the system is designed to benefit, and implicitly, who bears the burden.
What we see on the video of the Senatobia Mother’s Day incident follows this very pattern. The officer’s behavior mirrors a trained method of abuse rooted in white supremacist ideology. It’s a pattern sanctioned by today’s polarized law enforcement culture—and Senatobia, sadly, is no exception. A mother, Breshari Faulkner, was sitting in her car, waiting on her grandmother in a Walmart parking lot, only to be met with aggression rather than understanding. That behavior—on Mother’s Day, no less—is not just shameful. It’s provocative, systemic, and inhumane.
This moment reminds me of my late friend and fearless advocate, Michael Zinzin, founder of the Coalition Against Police Abuse (CAPA) in Pasadena, California. Like Patrick Alexander today, Zinzin was unafraid to challenge state-sanctioned violence. He even won a significant settlement against the government for his unrelenting work.
The Fox 13 Memphis report on May 15 captured the essence: “10 minutes of unnecessary matter.” But beyond that, it was a calculated distraction—an effort to discredit a Black woman’s righteous presence by painting her as aggressive. What the community saw with their own eyes was not law and order—it was violence where there should have been compassion, escalation when there should have been restraint.
As Villanueva said, white supremacy is a bizarre mythology created by people with pale skin to assert they deserve more—more respect, more resources, more opportunity—for no legitimate reason other than skin color. And in Senatobia, it is Black women like Breshari Faulkner who are left to bear that burden, even when they are doing nothing more than waiting in a car, on Mother’s Day, with their children.
As Alexander wrote:
“They would like for the world to look through their lens and hear Breshari cussing and see her defying a “white” officer of the so-called law in hopes that the public would side with them and determine that the physical assault was justified due to noncompliance.”
But cussing is not a crime. Feeling unsafe and asking for another officer is not resisting. And standing up for yourself as a mother when you’re being mistreated in front of your children is human nature, not a threat.
The real threat is a police culture that continues to treat Black bodies like they are disposable. The real question is why are the people of Senatobia still electing leaders who hire officers that arrest 10-year-olds for urinating outside, and throw mothers to the ground in front of their kids over a parking space?
And as Alexander powerfully said:
“What you (SPD) meant to justify your actions only reveals to the people your savage and inhumane methods of violent policing. When the residents of Senatobia develop the COURAGE to stand with those who stand against your injustice, your days are OVER.”
Patrick Alexander is not alone. He is a footsoldier in a bigger movement. A movement that says no more terror, no more trauma, no more tolerance for abuse.
The truth is out. The video is out. Now it’s time for the people to act.
BOOTS ON THE GROUND.
MONEY OUT OF THEIR POCKETS.
VOTES AT THE BALLOT BOX.
Senatobia can no longer hide behind the cross when it refuses to carry justice.
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Thank each of you for sharing this article with us. With knowledge comes power to move swiftly by ones beliefs/convictions in a way that promote fair and equitable results. We must inform the masses that are being ill- treated and unrepresented, so that productive tranformation is visible and tangible to all who are aware or unaware of the slanted justice, like a dark cloud, that hovers over this municipality and its citizens. Transformation must replace conformity to the old ways of doing business in this locality.
Senatobia, MS like many small town have the concept of white privilege embedded deeply. Senatobia has a long history of racism. The police there recently and now operate as a Goon Squad and the community is afraid to speak out. They have a few hand picked hen pecked blacks and they are afraid not to go along to get along and just concerned about their position.
White supremacy is ingrained in every level of government in the state of Mississippi from the smallest towns to the largest cities. White supremacy is a very old and very protected ideology here in America, in Mississippi, in our state capitol (legislature), in the courts, in the mayor’s office, in the city council, in law enforcement , and in the hearts and minds of people who are supposedly elected by the people to represent and serve the people.
More like a black terrorism problem. We don’t have a racial problem we have a problem race that where ever they live the crime rate is high as the sky. Yet we can’t address it cause they pull out the race card asap. Every time I turn on the tv it’s a black person playing the criminal. This is why the problem cannot be corrected , cause it cannot be called as it is, black crime. And when black teens are interviewed they say they carry guns to protect themselves against their own race , the blacks! Talk about not wanting to see the elephant in the room! I agree with all the racism which we still see today, but it’s not an excuse to be a criminal race hindering our pursue of liberty , peace, and happiness. Let’s hold responsible the mother of that 1 yr old for placing the life of her child at risk and causing his death. You can’t drive your car towards police for a car is considered the same as pointing a gun. Cars are lethal weapons.