Melton Admits ‘Failure’ on Crime Issue

This is precisely the crisis of leadership not only in the Mayor's office in Jackson, but at the governor's mansion also. Just because you say or think you mean well doesn't make up for sheer ineptitude.

Melton's legal troubles aren't the result of him trying to help people, but from his lack of understanding essential details of his job, like economic development, community development, policy development, and public relations. The fact that he doesn't understand veto and over-riding powers shows that he is not qualified to be mayor of the state's capital city. It baffles my mind that this man got elected in the first place. Yet, I can look around at several areas in this city and state and see the same type of ineptitude and inaptitude in leadership positions. If we want this state to move forward and address critical issues that plague us, we are gonna have to have better, more capable leadership, not ideologues and cult of personality types.

Blackwatch!!!!!!

It takes a man of truly breathtaking stupidity to think that sagging pants are the reason why the city's murder rate has nearly doubled under his administration. In 2005, the year in which Melton took office, there were 38 murders in Jackson. This year, in the third year of his disastrous administration, there have been 73.

In the meantime, Melton dismantled Comstat, which has been used by cities New York, Chicago, and L.A. to greatly reduce their crime rates. The police department has lost--what?--a fifth of the force? JPD's morale has been abysmal, as they watch men like Michael Recio rise through the ranks for enabling Melton's antics while everything around them goes to hell.

But yes, the pants. That's the problem.

p.s.: Regarding the demolition, they actually did find a piece of paraphernalia, namely one straight-shooter crack pipe. No drugs. No evidence of distribution. If the Ridgeway duplex was such an epicenter of drug activity, gathering evidence should have been easy. Didn't Wright have his little drug informer hanging out in the bushes across the street all day and night? Regardless, I think it's safe to say that though the facts are stubborn things, they are not as stubborn as Frank E. Melton.

In a way, this bold pants initiative really brings Jackson full circle. Didn't Melton win office largely on the basis of his folksy Bottom Line commentary? "Pull your pants up and give the earring back to your sister." Ah, clever stuff that. Turns out it was the only card in the deck, however.

This is the man you elected Jackson. If you'll excuse me, I'm now going to step away from the computer and go spit on the ground.

Brian, we're going to post the audio of the press conference. You'll love it. It was remarkable that the only "dramatic step" he could name was the clearly unconstitutional baggy-pants ordinance.

And I assume you caught the part where crime is up because his hands have been tied (by all the annoying laws and law-enforcers, we can assume). It's always someone else's fault. Meantime, young men—many of whom he knows—are blowing each other away here while he's been playing his reindeer games (my seasonal phrase for his silly shenanigans) and pitting them against each other. Because, you know, it's OK to be a criminal if you're his criminal. Or him.

Oh, and when I walked in today, he turned and looked at me, surprised. (I hadn't seen him in a while.) He laughed and said loudly, "I thought I ran you out of town."

I smiled back sweetly and said, "No, but you tried."

And you're right: He's *exactly* the person he's always been, and clearly was during the campaign, and for many years past (remember those nonsensical "Bottom Line" videos and transcripts we had?). I try to tell people over and over again that the community must do some soul-searching on how easily it allowed itself to be fooled. This is way bigger than Melton; what is more important is why/how a community could be so fooled by someone making such absurd promises.

Audio of Melton press conference now added above.

Melton admits his administration's efforts to fight crime is a failure. For once, truer words could not have been spoken. One thought about those "dramatic steps" that should've been taken 20 years ago: why weren't those steps taken three years ago?

I try to tell people over and over again that the community must do some soul-searching on how easily it allowed itself to be fooled.

Nearly four years ago the people of Jackson were being hit with the constant drumbeat by the local media that crime was out of control and that HJ's administration wasn't getting the job done. The voters were hammered to the point of desperation. And in their desperation they turned to a man they didn't fully understand.

Let's hope they don't make that mistake again.

I won't be able to listen to the audio until tonight, but I greatly look forward to it. New Year's will have to wait until I've had some Melton time. He is perhaps the most fascinating and infuriating man I've ever encountered. I would gladly spend a weekend listening to him talk about his experiences and thoughts. But he was a horrible, horrible choice for mayor.

I guess he never got around to filing that long-threatened law suit, Donna? Chuckle.

I completely agree with you that the--cough--bottom line for Jackson is how it was seduced into electing Melton in the first place. And you are absolutely right, Jeff, that local media cheered him all the way to victory. The JFP was the only media source in town that said, "Um, wait a minute. No really, please pay attention to what you're doing!" Donna's column "Jackson, We Have a Problem" should be required reading for all Jacksonians.

Ultimately, I think that racism had a lot to do with why Melton was elected. I think that both black and white people got played by the media and by Melton, who was able to say and do things that the community would no longer tolerate from a white man. I don't mean that people thought this way explicitly. Rather, it's the deep furrows of culture that none of us can quite trace, pulling both blacks and whites in subtle ways that feel like instinct. But it's really history embodied. Racism is not an attitude but rather a structure.

Donna, This may have been suggested or even carried out, but I think that it might make for an entertaining and perhaps powerful piece of journalism to simply publish a numbered list of Melton's promises. The promises could be in quotes and include when and where he said it, and a check mark under a column labeled" "kept" "broken" "pie in the sky" etc. That would easily take up a two-page spread, if not a whole issue. Just a thought.

Keep up the outstanding work.

Thanks, Every. Let us get through the trial (if it happens now), and see what we can do. I've also been asked to publish an extended Melton family/friends tree, which I'll do at some point. I kind of have to figure how to do it online.

Sounds like a job for the iTodd. If he's not building sophisticated Flash illustrations for you, it's time to beat him with a shoe. Gently. But beating all the same.

I've also been asked to publish an extended Melton family/friends tree, which I'll do at some point. I kind of have to figure how to do it online.

If you can pull this off (and I have no doubts that you can), you deserve an award for it.