Ward 4: Of Crime and Passing the Baton
by Adam Lynch
April 13, 2005
Democratic Ward 4 candidates emphasized the importance of stopping crime above all other issues in promoting improvements in their ward. “If you can get a handle on crime, a lot of other things will fall into place,” said radio talk show host Frank Bluntson, 69, who speaks regularly on WOAD’s 4 p.m. Sunday show “Straight Talk.” “We’ve got people getting away with violating the law all the time, and once they think they can just get away with it, it only gets worse. Once they learn that they won‘t get away with crime, then you won‘t have to build more jails to contain them.”
More than 100 people attended the April 4 forum at the St. Charles Avenue Police Academy to hear the Democrats. Redistricting has moved the academy from Ward 4, but the event was held there for tradition’s sake, said moderator Eric Stringfellow, columnist for The Clarion-Ledger.
Democratic incumbent “Bo” Brown faces Bluntson, Hardy Middle School teacher John Avery, 45, and Mississippi Blood Services public relations official Antonio Porter, 36, in the May 3 primary. The winner will face Republican Robert Thompson, 47, in the June 7 election.
Brown, 59, who has served two terms in the $25,000-a-year position, defended his work in the council. “This is not the time to go with inexperience,” Brown told the crowd. “You need experience to keep the ward running.”
Brown spoke of the more than 1,000 dilapidated houses torn down in the last few years and said more were in the works for dismantling, but said the amount of paperwork and effort required often slowed the process, as with any city.
Brown won a close race against Credell Calhoun in 2001. Calhoun has since become a state representative of District 68.
In response to Brown’s call for the efficiency of experience, Porter had adopted an altogether different stance. “I say to Councilman Brown: pass the baton. Pass the baton to the next generation,” said Porter, who ran an unsuccessful bid for a council seat in the 2001 municipal elections.
Avery said he wanted to encourage Jackson residents to spend their money exclusively in Jackson to keep local businesses running, saying that even though Ward 4 residents may only “have pennies,” that those pennies add up to dollars that can readily support local businesses. Avery said successful businesses are the best way to keep the ward up and running.
Avery also said he wanted to press for more home ownership in the ward, adopting a position held by many city elected officials. The city has declared a city-wide moratorium on rental apartments in the belief that rental units discourage long-term preservation of property and bring down neighboring property values.
Bluntson said he wanted to encourage a better working relationship between the city council, citing repeatedly that stand-offs between the two parties, such as the one currently putting the city’s police radio communication system on hold, was stalling development in the city. Thompson says he has regular conversations with at least three members of the Hinds County Supervisors, such as George Smith and Doug Anderson, and claims he will wield his radio voice as a battering ram against forces opposing city development.
Outreach Prism Ministries’ Robert Thompson, the lone Republican, who was not invited to the forum, joined the chorus of candidates claiming all roads to improvement lead to crime control. Thompson said, in an interview, that the city needed a new police chief and better organization within the police department. He also said the elderly and handicapped could be put to commendable use by getting them a telephone and a duty keeping a watchful eye on the neighborhood. He also said the city should consider some re-zoning measures, because some areas earlier zoned for retail may now be more fit for residential use.
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