Jackson Free Press

Jackson Mayor Frank Melton incited the wrath of advocates for the homeless when he used the city's emergency order to enforce a 10 p.m. curfew for the city's homeless population.

Starting last Friday, Melton said police would round up homeless people and take them to Champion Gymnasium, located at 1355 Hattiesburg St., where he said they will be housed and given meals. He said he would use voluntary labor from the homeless, cutting grass and picking up litter on city property, to cover the cost of running the air conditioner in the gym.

Gloria Revies, director of the Department of Constituent Services, said the city hired eight homeless from a list of about 19 visitors of Champion Gymnasium to pick up trash on a 10-day trial basis. They will be working part-time at minimum wage, averaging $200 a week.

"When we went to pick them up, eight showed up. Some of the others may show up as we go through the next 10 days, but we have eight right now," Revies said.

Melton put the city under a state of emergency June 22 in response to the city's rise in major crime compared to last year and recent violence against senior citizens, some of whom have been attacked and beaten in their own homes. Melton has extended his emergency order in five-day intervals since June 22, angering some council members and Duane O'Neill, president of the MetroJackson Chamber of Commerce.

"[D]efining Jackson as being under a 'State of Emergency' is not an attractive headline when selling our area. Let me be clear about the effects of such a statement: This declaration in the City of Jackson has fallout in all the surrounding communities," O'Neill said in a July 13 Chamber newsletter.

Melton already used the emergency order to enforce a 9 p.m. curfew on minors, but the proposed curfew on the homeless irritated people as far away as New York.

Michael Stoops, executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless in Washington, was particularly incensed.

"I've worked on homeless issues for more than three decades in all regions of the country. We document civil-rights violations and the criminalization of homeless issues, anti-panhandling and whatever, but no one's ever implemented a law for a curfew for homeless people. This is the first of its kind of a law that's ever been done before," Stoops said.

"No city has ever tried to do this. This is like Jim Crow laws. You can't be out after dark. Police officers should do law enforcement and more serious crimes, rather than screw around with teenagers or homeless people."

Stoops vowed to "organize an event in Jackson with homeless people, college students and activists from all around the country … to do civil disobedience and protests against such an outrageous plan."

The city has a 10-year plan to combat the city's homeless problem, but Melton said he did not have time to wait 10 years.

Melton did not return calls to the JFP by press time.

Over the weekend, the mayor adjusted the homeless plan by closing Champion Gym and moving the homeless to Billy Brumfield House shelter, a division of Stewpot.

Wilbert Logan, director of Billy Brumfield House, said the new additions provided by the city pushed occupancy past the shelter's 50-person capacity, but Logan said the shelter made space by putting beds where they don't normally put them.

"It's worked out for the last couple of nights," Logan said, adding that he did not know whether the city was enacting a long-term plan involving Billy Brumfield House.

Jackson resident Robert Denny says his business on Highway 80 has been burglarized repeatedly by transients who reside in the city green space between Highway 80 and Terry Road.

"What they do is they live in that area all back there behind these businesses here, and they sleep there, and they stay there, but then they come out and raid this area here at night," Denny said. "I got a job to go to. They don't. So all they do is wait around for me to leave. They've taken thousands of dollars worth of stuff from me."

Capt. Henry Glaze of the Hinds County Sheriff's Department said the territory around Gallatin Street and Terry Road was particularly vulnerable to property crime.

"Now most of the people in this area are nice, quiet people who just want to do their job and go home, but we do have a problem with transients traveling all over this area and victimizing property," Glaze said.

Ward 6 Councilman Marshand Crisler said legal methods for combating the city's homeless problem are in short supply.

"I wish there was a good answer for this type of problem, because I'm not sure if a curfew on adults because they don't have an address and rushing them off to a gym will go unchallenged legally," Crisler said.

Melton later emphasized the voluntary aspect of the curfew, saying officers "have been instructed not to force anyone to come to the gymnasium against his or her will," painting the project as a humanitarian effort.

"By offering our homeless population another alternative to being on the streets all night, we intend to create a setting that will encourage open communication and help us better understand the needs of our homeless," he said in a statement Thursday.

Previous Comments

ID

66678

Comment

Come on now mayor................when you included the homeless under the state-of-emergency proclamation, IMO you have just tried to make this legal kidnapping. If you wanted to do something humanitarian, why didn't you go through more acceptable and proven means? If a person has no money or no place to go, then of course they are going to a place of food and shelter. Why not work with ALL of the homeless shelters and help them to expand their services to accomodate a larger group. I still wonder what liability the city has to anyone that may get sick, injured, become a victim of crime while under the city's emergency curfew. When a person truly wants to help, they don't need the media or a lot of grandstanding with eloquent speeches. They just do as Larry the Calbe Guy says................Get 'er Done!

Author

lance

Date

2006-07-20T08:04:30-06:00

ID

66679

Comment

The Natchez Democrat (!) takes Melton to task over the idiotic homeless curfew: The mayor’s seemingly broad plan involves having the Jackson Police Department enforce the curfew, rounding up homeless and housing them in gymnasiums. The logic, however, is lost on us. First, this is still America and adults should be allowed to walk the public streets at their leisure regardless of the time of day — homeless or not. If the people are loitering or breaking some other law, then cite them for it. But don’t just issue a blanket statement that all homeless will be rounded up. Jackson doesn’t need to have its police department turned into a ghetto Gestapo. If the police force had the time to round up homeless and care for them at night, why not just hit the streets more often and have their presence deter crime? It may not be as flamboyant of a plan as the one Mayor Melton proposes, but we bet it would be a lot more effective and certainly a lot more constitutional. I'm not quite sure what they mean by "ghetto Gestapo," though. Anyone else? Link.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2006-07-20T14:51:24-06:00

ID

66680

Comment

I like the term "Ghetto Gestapo": It could be a catchy phrase for a new rap group OR an accurate description of a policy that feels that there are no rights in the "hood" that police (or quasi-police mayors) are bound to respect.

Author

FreeClif

Date

2006-07-20T15:24:51-06:00

ID

66681

Comment

I'm not quite sure what they mean by "ghetto Gestapo," though. Anyone else? - Ladd I believe that they are alluding to the same type of prison camps used by Hitler. Most of the homeless are found in "the ghetto" so it basically just a street term. Frank only toned down this action becasue of the attention that he recieved via the media. He probably still feels that he is doing the right thing.

Author

rufus

Date

2006-07-22T06:07:34-06:00