NOTE FROM MHD: This is a recap of our activities on Tuesday. See Pete’s post on Friday, Adam’s post on Saturday, Jason’s on Sunday and Adam’s post yesterday. Stay tuned each day for more content from Jones County until we go to court on Thursday, September 10th at 1pm .

JONES COUNTY, MS – Today was a day focused more on meeting the good folks in the Jones County and surrounding areas. Our time here has been filled with telling and listening to stories of abuse by Sheriff Alex Hodges’s Deputies. As I stated in yesterdays post, we headed to Hattiesburg for the night. We spent the morning working from the Starbucks there until our haircut appointments at noon. We strolled up to The Studio to met Lisa, who is Corbin McDavitt’s mother, and her co-workers. They were kind enough to give Jason and I a haircut and shampoo before our court date tomorrow. For me this was much appreciated and needed as I have been getting a bit shaggy. The atmosphere was pleasant and the ladies there were interested to hear of our travels and check out our pad, aka MARV. Thanks again ladies!

We could of spent the whole day talking to the wonderful folks there but had to head off to meet Jill Wright for lunch. Jill was a key factor in helping us get released from the Adult Detention Facility this past May. We headed just down the way to the Spicy Pickle to fill our bellies and have ice teas, while getting caught up since we last spoke. She brought the shirts we had picked out from her designs and in return gave her one of our new MHD shirts that are currently on board. While chatting it up we discovered that Mankind apparel was just across the street. So after we departed from Jill, who we will see tomorrow night at our meetup, we headed over to say Hi to Greg.

We entered Greg Wamble’s Mankind store where we exchanged greetings. Greg then handed each of us a bag full of goodies including T-shirts, samples of Mankind shaving cream and cologne, some tea candy and other goodies. We all felt like kids in a candy store with our eyes bugged out as we wandered around looking at his merchandise. The store specialized in products to dress, accessorize and groom men. It was at this time I found some cologne called Anarchy, which Greg then handed us each a bottle. He also told us we could pick out a ring each; expressing the importance of wrist/finger wear to the ladies.  We all then discussed what had brought us in contact in the first place, Jones County Sheriff Alex Hodge. He is also a victim of the JCSD and has recently filed a class action lawsuit against the department. His story is one of police brutality and demonstrates what lengths some with badges will go to get compliance. Due to the nature of his case we were not able to interview him on camera but we will be following his case closely and wish him the best of luck. He is an honest person and hardworking business man that, like most of us, just wants to be left alone.

It took my breathe away to see the generosity of the folks we interacted with. We then headed back to Laurel where Pete and Jason went to the local gym and I headed back to McAlister’s to get some work done. While there I interacted with a nice couple who was out to eat with their kids. I told them about MHD’s near real time documentary and of course what brought us to Jones County. They, like several others, wished us the best of luck and were glad to have us here.