Mayor Frank Melton of Jackson, Mississippi was elected in 2005 with a tough-on-crime campaign platform. Sure the city of 184,000 has a crime rate that is double the national average, but perhaps the mayor has taken it a little too far.

After gaining national attention for taking part in police raids and roadblocks, Melton pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges for carrying a weapon into a park and a church and no contest to a reduced charge for what would have been a felony - carrying a gun onto the campus of the Mississippi College School of Law. He received a six-month suspended sentence on each count, a year’s probation and a $1500 fine. The plea deal on the reduced felony charge allows the mayor to stay in office.

Melton still faces unrelated charges for a case in which he and his two police bodyguards are accused of ransacking a duplex he claimed was a drug haven. The property owners deny this charge and have filed a lawsuit. The ACLU has also accused Melton of civil rights abuses and racial profiling.

It’s too early to tell whether the Wyatt Earp theatrics are reducing Jackson’s crime rate, but one wonders whether crime in Detroit would go down if Kwame Kilpatrick walked into Greater Grace or U of D Mercy with a shotgun.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 15th, 2006 at 3:23 pm and is filed under Black Folks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.