Jackson Free Press

Photo caption: Former Mayor Dale Danks addresses the Jackson Crime Summit while an unidentified 10-year-old boy looks on.

"He was man enough to admit he couldn't do it alone," former Mayor Dale Danks said of Mayor Frank Melton at the beginning of a crime summit at the TelCom Center Thursday night. Some 300 people attended the opening night of the summit, which is scheduled to continue with monthly meetings.

After Danks' introduction, Melton took the stage, a 10-year-old African-American boy at his side. Melton asked the TV crews to turn off their cameras and the reporters to turn off their recorders. He said the youth, who he did not identify, did not know his father, had not been attending school and had spent the last three nights at the Henley-Young Detention Center. "And he's already smoking marijuana," Melton declared to the audience, while the boy hung his head and looked down at the floor, his expression frozen.

"I have a 12-year-old over there and a 15-year-old over there," Melton continued, pointing at two other African-American boys at the edge of the stage. Then he turned his attention back to the 10-year-old. "I'll take care of him and make sure he's OK. But my challenge to you is: What are you going to do?"

"I didn't bring this boy up here to embarrass him," Melton explained, "but I wanted to get to your heart."

After Melton's remarks, City Council President Ben Allen took to the podium and said that Mississippi is not so much a state as a club and a family. He noted that it takes time to turn an ocean liner. Like Melton and every other speaker but Mark McCreery, director of SafeCity Watch, Allen's comments focused on rehabilitating wayward youth. "Any of you who have kids know that you have to be patient," Allen said. "You can cajole them. You can spank them. But you just have to keep working with them."

Hinds County Supervisor Doug Anderson praised the city for working closely with the county. He also said that the crime summit needed to focus on how to make a difference in the lives of young people.

"People who never get criticized never get anything done," Anderson said.

The majority of crimes in Jackson and nationally are committed by adults. Young people are far likelier to be the victims of crime rather than the perpetrators. Nationally, juveniles accounted for just 17 percent of all arrests, 16 percent of all violent crime arrests and 10 percent of homicides in 1999, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Neither District Attorney Faye Peterson nor Jackson Police Chief Shirlene Anderson spoke during the main event.

Danks then returned to the podium and introduced Mark McCreery of SafeCity Watch. "He's going to tell you where we are today. Some of it will scare you," Danks remarked.

SafeCity Watch, a private non-profit that has long-standing ties with Melton, was heavily represented at the summit, with a table full of promotional materials just inside the door and two other booths inside. Cards solicited donations from $250 to $5,000. McCreery's presentation got off to a rocky start, however, when his computer crashed. There was a full minute of awkward silence as McCreery struggled with the machine.

McCreery then said that unlike the previous speakers, his presentation would not be "lovey-dovey." "This isn't going to be about how we're going to work together," McCreery said. "This is going to be about the numbers."

He presented a familiar catalogue of failures in addressing property crime, claiming that from 2001-04, there were 10,600 cars stolen in the city but only 62 convictions for auto theft. McCreery called property crime "the quietest crisis." He did not cite sources.

"If we had a window up here, I could point out the abandoned mattress and debris on the street. I could point out the vagrants who are probably breaking into your cars right now," McCreery said. He referred to the "thugs" who steal cars and only get charged with joy riding.

McCreery endorsed the "broken windows" theory of crime prevention, which encourages police to arrest suspects for even minor property crimes, and he mentioned that he worked for former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, whose administration popularized the theory. In New York City, however, the theory was applied in concert with a vast expansion in the number of police officers combined with gun control and more efficient use of policing through ComStat reports.

He also claimed that Hinds County had 96,000 outstanding warrants, as of May 2006, and $30 million in unpaid fines. "We're one of the only counties in America where having a warrant out on you means nothing," McCreery said.

After McCreery spoke, Danks announced the restoration of a program he called "P3." Under the program, drivers of service trucks from various utility and maintenance companies will be trained to call in suspicious activities to the police. "This will give us 1,000 to 2,000 additional patrols," he said.

The summit broke into five discussion groups, focused on the criminal justice system, education, churches, community based organizations and neighborhoods. The main hall dissolved into congestion and confusion as attendees tried to make their way to new conference rooms. "We only have 50 minutes people," Summit Co-Chairman Jimmy Bell thundered. However, attendees were still searching for conference rooms 15 minutes later.

During a break from the work sessions, I noticed three African-American youths playing on the escalators. There were no other adults anywhere near the youths.

"Take my picture," the 10-year-old who was up on stage demanded as I approached. He made a kung-fu pose.

"Are you guests of Mr. Melton?" I asked.

"Yeah," the 15-year-old replied sullenly. He was wearing a black doo rag wrapped around his head.

"What did you think of the crime summit in there?" I asked.

"The stage?" one of them asked.

"No, the stuff people said. The speeches."

"Boring!" the 10-year-old declared fiercely. The other two juveniles laughed.

This is an early version of a story that will appear in print on Sept. 7.

Previous Comments

ID

123097

Comment

My growing fear is that the youths only see Frank as one of them who has beaten the system without changing or being rehabilitated. Why didn't Frank still have the juveniles with him or have turned them over to their parents or other adults. Frank is a terrible role model. One minutes he's tearing up the JFP newspaper to show off to his boys, and the next minutes he's parading the juveniles before large crowds for attention. He used the kids as a shield to keep people from seeing his sorry ass in the raw for what he is - a monumental failure and embarassment.

Author

Ray Carter

Date

2006-09-01T14:02:01-06:00

ID

123098

Comment

Very well said, Ray!

Author

Kacy

Date

2006-09-01T14:09:55-06:00

ID

123099

Comment

why weren't the kids in school?

Author

Kingfish

Date

2006-09-01T14:55:04-06:00

ID

123100

Comment

I'll just jump in here, because Iam listening to Bob Dylan Love and Theft, Mississippi. That's a word we all learned as kids, how to spell it! ha. Dylan, what does he know . what does anyone know. Kids, they are smart. let's help them .

Author

sunshine

Date

2006-09-01T15:00:36-06:00

ID

123101

Comment

ok, I'll sign off. Love and Theft will keep you up at night. Dylan is weird and wonderful. We need that. and he's old, like me. hehe. see y'all at Rainbow. yes, this is an ad. I know, you go there.

Author

sunshine

Date

2006-09-01T15:28:18-06:00