Ellington

Todd and I were out at Little Toyko one Friday night having dinner with two other couples. Politically, the left, right and the middle were amply represented among the six of us. So were various perceptions of Jackson. We were having one of those loud, aerobic conversations that bounce blissfully from topic to topic, probably annoying the heck out of the people around us. Our waitress seemed quietly, but distantly, bemused. Then one of our friends said something that made my neck hairs stand up.

"Jackson has so much crime." She meant the city, of course, not the suburbs.

My urban defense mechanism kicked in. "Actually, crime in Jackson is falling steadily. Did you see the statistics last week?" A Nov. 13 report showed that Jackson crime is down 14 percent overall.

Not good enough; a small argument ensued about whether it's safe to live in Jackson. Snippets: "But that's per capita crime." "Those numbers aren't accurate." "...cars broken into...." "Murder is up." Something about whether or not it took too long to get a police chief and wasn't the acting guy good enough and didn't he deserve the job.

Then, one of our friends said, "I had a gun stuck to my head."

Granted, making it personal like that can have an impact. That's what many of us fear the most: You're about to get into your car in a mall parking lot and a masked gunman pops up (from hiding beneath your car, perhaps), robs you and then leaves you dead. It's what all those urban-legend e-mails warn of (falsely; don't pass them along). Such fears, rational or not, make it easy for many people to assume that the neighborhood we live in, Belhaven, is overrun by joyriding hoodlums. Or that it's not safe to even think about going West of Gallatin or State for drinks, or to go to Peaches for lunch, or to Jackson State for a play, or to Medgar Evers Blvd. for a parade, or to Crystal's Lounge to hear Pastrice and Vasti. I find these assumptions plain confounding, but I try to understand why it's difficult for people who fear the city, or the people in it, to believe me when I say that I've never felt safer, and that includes when I'm in West Jackson distributing papers or attending events. The only time I've ever felt afraid in Jackson was one night last summer when a homeless man suddenly appeared on the other side of my car at the Eudora Welty Library to ask for money. I don't normally fear homeless people—they're the weakest of all of us—but he startled me. I cannot think of one other time in a year and a half, and in all of Jackson, that I've been afraid, except maybe when I'm trying to back my little car out from behind some mammoth SUV. But that's a different rant.

In fact, criminal homicide is the only category that's shown an increase this year over 2001, according to FBI Uniform Crime Reports provided by the city. And it indeed sounds scary: up 44 percent. But in actual numbers, that means 18 murders in 2001, 26 in 2002. And the vast majority of them are domestic, or at least committed by someone the victim knew. That's not rationalization; it's just the truth: what most people fear—a random violent encounter—is not nearly as likely to happen as a bad car accident or being seriously injured or killed by someone you love. And we all know that domestic crimes are not limited to so-called "bad" neighborhoods or the city; you're in just as much danger in the suburbs and inside gated communities.

The state of Mississippi is the worst state—here we go again—for men killing women, reports the Violence Policy Center. Ninety-two percent of the women murdered here in 2000, for instance, were killed by someone they knew. Bottom line: Being killed by a stranger in a parking lot in the Jackson city limits should be low on the list of our worries.

So let's talk about the good news in Jackson regarding crime. Overall in the city, rape is down 14 percent, robbery 19 percent, assault 46 percent, burglary 2 percent, larceny-theft 9 percent, auto theft 9 percent and arson 7 percent.

It gets even more intriguing if you look at the only neighborhoods that many of the people who worry too much about crime will actually frequent in the city: Crime is down 8 percent in the 4th precinct in North Jackson. Even better, crime is down 14 percent in Precinct 2, which includes downtown and west past Jackson State. Crime in Northwest Jackson is down 12 percent; down south it's dropped 2 percent.

Of course, any crime is too much. But it happens everywhere—the city, the suburbs and the country (I'll tell you some Neshoba County stories another time). And with tough economic times and trickle-down conservatives running the country, crime will undoubtedly go up alongside the poverty rate, and only the prison industrial complex will benefit. If the economy continues downward we will have to band together to fight rising crime.

But we should not let the scaremongers terrify us out of living and enjoying urban life because of false perceptions. In fact, at the end of our Little Tokyo crime skirmish, our friend actually 'fessed up to a couple points she hadn't mentioned in the beginning. She was held at gunpoint at the mall in Ridgeland, and it was in 1995. "That's not in Jackson, and crime was higher everywhere in 1995!" I exclaimed.

This, quite simply, is a phenomenal city with amazing potential. Crime is steadily dropping, especially as more people get involved again in the heart of the city. If we can reinvest some trust in it, and in each other, it will be a much safer and inviting city for all. As Marie Curie famously said, "Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood."

A good start is shattering those urban legends, once and for all.

Previous Comments

ID

68335

Comment

Funny about the Ridgeland incident- the two people I know who have been robbed at gunpoint were robbed at NorthPark, not Metrocenter. That's always in the back of my mind. I was nervous about leaving the safety of Hinds Co. to see a screening of "Frida" at NorthPark, but made it home unscathed.

Author

John Nielsen

Date

2002-12-13T09:20:46-06:00