[Kamikaze]  Trash Talking

by Kamikaze
May 25, 2011

Let's put some accurate information onto the turnpike, shall we? Crime in Jackson is down. Dropping. Heading south. It's a slow decline, yes, but a decline, nonetheless. For those of you who liken Jackson to the streets of Medellin, Colombia, during the Pablo Escobar era, I'm sorry to inform you that overall crime has dropped 5 percent since this time last year. Not much I know, but the telling statistic is the fact that violent crime has gone down more than 20 percent within the last year. Those violent crimes that some in our neighboring counties love to hang their hats on? Yep? Those numbers are falling.

The thing I have found the most telling from the recent dust-up about campaign ads is that if you allow someone else to tell your story, it could forever define you. If you don't challenge inaccurate information, then it tends to become truth to the disenfranchised among us who aren't privy to correct stats. It also feeds into the fears and misconceptions folks have about race and class.

Let's be clear! Jackson has its issues. Jackson has crime. But stop trying to paint Jacksonians as slackers who don't want safety for our families. Stop trying to imply that law enforcement in neighboring counties work harder or better than our own. Stop acting as if we're happy with the way things are.

By all means, stop cherry picking the same city crime "rankings" from 2009 and 2010.

Whenever the conversation turns to crime, naysayers invariably point to lists that say Jackson is either eighth or 14th on the list of most dangerous cities in the country. That's all they have.

And unfortunately, that's all some folks need to see. Never mind the fact that the FBI has consistently warned not to use these rankings as an accurate measure of a city's crime or the effectiveness of its law enforcement. Never mind that it has cautioned over and over again that those numbers take into account everything from a murder down to spray painting a school. The numbers are skewed, folks. Loaded. Inflated to scare you.

Mark Sandridge wants to keep Jackson's crime and criminals out of Madison County. And although several folks have told me that he's a great guy (I'm sure he is), I find it hard to discern just how he will do that without profiling—without stopping as many cars with Hinds County tags as his manpower will allow, or tricked-out cars, or vehicles with black kids in them.

His supporters will tell you that is exactly what he needs to do, and some small-minded Jacksonians will applaud him.

My question is, how many jabs do we take before more people stand up and tout the progress we've made? The Jackson Police Department has given the numbers I cited at the beginning of this column to the media. Yet I've seen few headlines about it. As for local TV stations, shame on you for still leading with mayhem at 6 and 10. Shame on you.

As a citizen, I expect those who are charged with leading me, protecting me, to step up and say something when the loudmouth on the playground starts talking trash. We have positive news that we can use to fuel a better Jackson. The people just have to hear it.

And that's the truth ... sho-nuff.

COMMENTS

Page 1 of 1 pages

100 recent comments »