In an executive order meant to “humanize individuals” and “foster systemic transformation,” the mayor of Jackson, Mississippi has forbidden the city’s police force from releasing mugshots of people engaged in officer-involved shootings.

“A mug shot is just one snapshot in time, and cannot be presumed to represent the sum total of any individual’s existence,” said Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, who is affiliated with the black nationalist movement. “Removing the visual dehumanization that occurs when mug shots are used will be the first step we as a city take to engage in a truthful and honest conversation on violent crime.”

The mayor announced the policy change last Monday, following the recent death of a 37-year-old man who was shot and killed by Jackson police officers.

“The last image of any person should not be on the worst day of their life or the worst image that we could possibly provide,” he said.

Lumumba called on law enforcement to “go the extra mile and find an image that gives respect to those individuals who are no longer living on this Earth,” suggesting officials utilize social media or consult with families of the deceased.

There have been seven officer-involved shootings in Jackson, the largest city in the state, since Lumumba took office last summer. The 34-year-old criminal defense attorney won the mayoralty in a landslide, capturing 93 percent of the vote after promising to turn Mississippi’s capital into “the most radical city on the planet.”

Black residents constitute 80% of Jackson’s population.

Chokwe Antar Lumumba ran on the same platform as his father, Chokwe Lumumba Sr., who was elected mayor of Jackson in 2013 but died while in office less than a year into his term. Many of his supporters suspected foul play, including one local politician who speculated that Lumumba Sr. was “murdered.” Such theories prompted Louis Farrakhan to help pay for an autopsy, which determined that the 66-year-old had suffered an aortic aneurysm.

Lumumba Sr., the father of the current mayor, first came to Jackson in the 1970s as a leader with the Republic of New Afrika (RNA) – a revolutionary group that advocated for the creation of a separate, independent black-majority nation situated in the southeastern region of the United States.

Following Lumumba Sr.’s death in 2014, the New York Times reported:

Mr. Lumumba hardly moderated his views in recent years. In an interview last year he continued to defend the Republic of New Afrika. The day after his election, he raised hackles by questioning Columbus’s historical importance. And at his inauguration, he could not resist raising his fist in the black power salute and shouting an old slogan: “Free the Land!”

“Free the Land” is a motto that was often shouted by RNA members, then later adopted by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM) – another black nationalist group that Lumumba Sr. co-founded in 1990.

Since its formation, MXGM has been organizing the residents of Jackson, home of its first official chapter. By 2008, members were making plans to change the system from within. One leader had suggested the group “should run Lumumba and begin training Chokwe Antar – who was then finishing law school in Texas – to run for office in the future,” according to Vice.

Ten years later, Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba acknowledges being a “proud member” of MXGM, which maintains that “the collective institutions of white supremacy, patriarchy and capitalism” have been at the root of black oppression.

Lumumba’s mugshot directive asks the people of Jackson, and its majority-black police force, to reimagine a different criminal justice system.

“We owe it to ourselves to shift the paradigm around violence and crime, while simultaneously engaging in building relationships, examining, updating and creating policies that allow us to humanize individuals and foster systemic transformation,” he wrote.

At the signing of the executive order, Lumumba confirmed that city police would no longer release mugshots of juveniles, according to the Jackson Free Press. The mayor encouraged other municipalities to implement similar reforms.

Follow Jeffrey Cawood on Twitter @Near_Chaos.

Five decades of dealing with political terrorism and hostage and barricade situations have produced a wealth of knowledge about how to prevent terrorist attacks. Some of that knowledge is applicable to dealing with school shootings. Surprisingly, it has not become a meaningful part of the public debate.

Terrorists, like mass shooters, choose soft targets that will generate a lot of casualties, a lot of publicity, and a lot of discussion. Want to deter them? Harden the target, tone down the Klieg lights, and put the shooter’s name on mute.

A target can be hardened in many ways, both physically and psychologically. They are not mutually exclusive, but different components of the same process.

Rather than arm teachers, it is easier to instruct them in how to profile potential perpetrators. The Israelis have become masters at profiling potential skyjackers. That information is known to our authorities and can be applied to instructional materials to equip teachers to identify potential school shooters.

Those teachers with military or law enforcement backgrounds can be trained to carry concealed weapons.

Satellite police stations can be set up in some schools so there is a constant and changing police presence in the schools. In addition, local police can run safety and drug prevention programs in the schools—which many departments already do—and use officers who can relate to and build rapport with students.

The idea here is one used by the British government at mass events. “Adopt a Bobby,” the British called it. Get to know the police officer near you. Become the eyes and ears of that officer. Extend the officer’s reach and ability to acquire information. See something, say something to your personal officer.

Monitor social media. Young people want to brag about past misbehaviors and predict future ones. Where’s the fun unless you can call attention to yourself?

The best armed security is the security you don’t see or even know about. The British have long used such methods in a variety of circumstances. Synagogues, with which I am familiar, have various levels of security, only some of which are visible, but all of which can be instantly mobilized.

Create physical barriers in the schools as part of hardening the target. From metal detectors to the way visitors enter the school, to doors that can’t be entered, schools can be made more difficult to attack.

Hostage negotiators have developed methods to build rapport with hostage takers. These psychological methods can be used to build rapport with and investigate potential violent actors.

Create a climate of inclusion. Exclusion, status hierarchies and bullying motivate outliers to seek vengeance. Anti-bullying policies must be more than a shibboleth.

Just as not all terrorist attacks can be prevented, neither can all mass shootings. And if schools are hardened, the attackers will simply search for another soft target.

At the same time, we can make schools safer. Hardening the target, using psychological profiling, and obtaining better intelligence are good starting points. In the collective memory of police agencies throughout the Western world, there is a lot of vital information that can be applied to mass shootings. It needs to be tapped.

There are more guns than people in America. Even if every semi-automatic weapon could be seized—which it can’t—a trained shooter with a bolt-action rifle can get close to the speed of a semi-automatic. Revolvers have interchangeable cylinders which with practice can be placed into a handgun as fast as a magazine.

Determined shooters will acquire weapons and master them.

The idea is to stop mass shooters by applying what we have long learned from fighting terrorists. First through psychological methods and then by hardening our schools so they are not soft targets.

Abraham H. Miller is an emeritus professor of political science, University of Cincinnati, and a distinguished fellow with the news and public policy group Haym Salomon Center. Follow him @salomoncenter