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Here is a bit of info to show much how things have "improved in Jackson"

City's murder rate 5 times U.S. average
Jabari Crockett, an 18-year-old college baseball player.

Melcenia Bell, a 93-year-old former foster parent.

And John Ferguson, a 14-year-old middle school student.

They were three of Jackson's homicide victims in 2004.

In all, 57 people died in Jackson last year — by someone's hands. Police consider five of those deaths justifiable homicides.

The number of criminal homicides — 52 — were the most in the city since 1998, when 60 people were killed. In 2003, 45 people died in criminal homicides.

Jackson's jump in homicides goes against the national trend for similar-sized cities, where murders dropped 7.7 percent, according to the FBI's preliminary 2004 statistics. Jackson's murder rate, 27.81 per 100,000, is more than five times higher than the national average, records show. The city has 184,256 residents, according to the 2000 Census.

Given the increase, Jackson Police Chief Robert Moore said he expected to see public outrage, though major crime in the city had dropped 21 percent. None came.

"There is no outcry because of where they occurred," Moore said. "Fifty-two people went to their graves, but people aren't up in arms because of who they are and where they were killed."

An analysis by The Clarion-Ledger shows at least half of the victims had prior criminal records. Seventy percent of the homicides, or 37, occurred in low-income areas that surround downtown.

"He was in the living room at the time they started shooting," said DeWitt Weston, 55, of Jackson, looking out the bullet-marred bedroom window of his nephew, 17-year-old David Weston. The shots were fired April 15. The next day, David Weston was fatally shot on Jennings Street.

Forty-two victims were black, nine were white and one was an East Indian man.

"Once you are associated with drugs and violence, the community people do not really sympathize with you as a victim, even in a homicide," said Jimmy Bell, a Jackson State University criminologist. "There is an apathy in this community because people have been desensitized by violence. With three TV stations and the newspaper playing up killings, people expect it to happen and don't see much hope for changing things."

Most victims were gunned down. Some were stabbed. Some were beaten.

The year continued a trend that has seen young people involved in homicides. The average age of those arrested in homicides last year was 24. The average victim's age was 33.

"The number of people being killed is tremendously high for a city the size of Jackson," said Joe Lauderdale, a Jackson resident and board member of the court watchdog SafeCity Initiative. "But I think people here have gotten used to the violence. They are seeing the futility in trying to do anything.

"Nothing will get done until the people in power start jumping up and down and saying, 'We are going to get rid of these urban terrorists who are driving people out of Jackson.' "

Blonda Young Mack, president of Jackson's Washington Addition Neighborhood Association, said there is a cry for help from the police department.

"It's just that Chief Moore or none of his police officers ever come to our neighborhood meetings to listen to us," said Mack, who had a double homicide occur just yards from her home last year. "People have gotten so fed up with the police department that they don't even call anymore."

Moore disputes that.

"I have spoken at more meetings and been open to more citizens than any chief probably ever in Jackson," Moore said. "Our main goal has been building public trust with our department."

But, he admits, the people most likely to kill or be killed aren't the type that often attend neighborhood meetings.

"How do you stop people from killing one another?" Moore asked. "That is a nationwide question. We have not come up with the answers. We are nearly through this entire month and we (have seen one homicide). We haven't done anything different to make that happen. It just comes back to an attitudinal thing that fluctuates."

In most cases, that attitude led to the death of a black person. Eighty percent of the city's homicide victims were black, as were 39 of the 40 suspects arrested. But Derrick Johnson, president of the Mississippi NAACP, said there are no plans to call for talks about reducing violence between blacks.

"Most crimes occur between people who know each other," said Johnson, pointing to Jackson's 71 percent black population as a reason for the number of blacks involved in homicides. "We have come a long way from 10 years ago when crime was out of control under the (Kane) Ditto administration. There were twice as many people being killed as there are now."

Homicide totals in Jackson peaked at 95 in 1994.

Johnson said the black community has not railed openly for change by calling news conferences and holding rallies because those methods are not effective.

"In the black community, speaking publicly about issues is black folks talking to black folks in community meetings and churches," Johnson said. "Nothing gets done by going to the media."

The Rev. Hosea Hines, pastor at College Hill Baptist Church, said black churches need to do a better job of identifying troubled people and offering them conflict- resolution training, especially families prone to violence.

Ten of the city's homicides were the result of domestic abuse and, in at least 30 of the killings, the victim was acquainted with the suspect, according to police.

"The church must focus on human development," Hines said. "I would like to see a system devised where the police could notify the churches after they respond to domestic disturbance cases. That would at least give us an opportunity to counsel them or, if the needs go beyond what we can offer, send them to a more advanced level of counseling."

Part of that counseling should involve discussions about staying away from guns when involved in arguments, Hines said. Guns were used in 44 of the homicides, up from 36 in 2003, records show.

Operation Ceasefire, a joint operation between local, state and federal law enforcement aimed at taking guns from convicted felons, has removed 827 guns from the city's streets and the program has reduced gun violence in other parts of the country.

"Homicides are driven a lot of times by factors that we really can't control," said U.S. Attorney Dunn Lampton, whose office funds the operation.

The capital city saw 52 people die in criminal homicides last year, an increase from 2003. Is there a public outcry to stop the killings, or have residents been numbed by years of violence?

interesting stuff. where did you get that info.?

"How do you stop people from killing one another?" [Jackson Police Chief] Moore asked. "That is a nationwide question. We have not come up with the answers."

Well, no sh-t!

Chief Moore is a complete joke. This is the same guy who once said that Jackson didn't have a gang problem. To bolster his (idiotic) point, he would refer to drive-by shootings as the work of "armed groups" instead of gangs, in press conferences as if they were somehow different creatures.

Now compare Moore's opinion to the results of a poll that a local t.v. station took on the question. ~95% of people polled said "Yes, Jackson does have a gang problem." Something like 4% said "maybe" and only 1% said "no."

Ya think Chief Moore is a bit out of touch???

More Stokes threads:

Jackson MS city councilman Kenny Stokes threatens to slap colleague (and more fun)

Don't ignore supremacist flier, Kenny Stokes' comments

Stokes Rips Ward Lines OK'd by Council [Black Councilman Wants Fewer White Elected Officials]

Probes may follow bribe accusation [by Jackson, MS councilman].

Neither of you warned me about Stokes...lol.
I had to see him for myself.

That's hot info, WKB.
Most enlightening.