Jackson Jambalaya

Some time in the near future, Assistant U.S. Attorney Blumberg will decide whether to retry Frank Melton for demolishing the house on Ridgeway Street. If Mr. Blumberg has any backbone, he will ignore the calls for abandoning prosecuting the Mayor and instead try to hold him accountable for his actions on that Saturday night.

It is understandable many do not want Melton prosecuted as crime has been a problem in Jackson for a long time. Families moved en masse to the somewhat safer suburbs. Elderly are robbed on a regular basis. Thugs place no value on human life as they kill others for real or imagined offenses. Kids selling drugs on street corners. Nightclub shootings. Retired teachers beaten to death. People are fed up and are sympathetic to a loud-talking, hard-charging Mayor who is "doing something" about crime.

Unfortunately, Melton used those feelings to his advantage. Demolishing the house on Ridgeway was never about stopping crime but rather about Frank demonstrating his power. What was on display was not Melton the crime-fighter but Melton the town drunk as his scotch-fueled ego knew no bounds.

Melton the crime-fighter has been a complete joke as its clear he was never truly interested in fighting crime. Millions of dollars in federal grants were lost as Melton allowed the number of JPD officers to drop in large numbers during his term. Melton abolished the drug task force. No arrests for drug sales were made in 2006. Melton refused to release crime statistics until he was sued by the media. Melton sought to abolish the Jackson Police Foundation. He disciplined good officers for merely looking at him wrong and tried to promote officers even though they were not qualified and had not tested for the promotions. Under Melton's tenure, crime has skyrocketed as murders approach the levels last seen in the early 1990's.

If anything, Melton has been pro-criminal in his approach to crime as his actions involving Micheal Taylor prove. Young Michael Taylor. 16 years old when Frank assumed care of him. While under Frank's care he becomes involved in an armed robbery. Frank commits obstruction of justice by keeping Taylor away from Hinds County deputies when they try to arrest him. He graduates to carjacking. He calls the carjacking victim to demand money from her for the car and tells her he is going to rape her and kill her family. For all of her troubles, Melton and Taylor's scumbag mother call the victim a crack user. Some crime-fighting. Get robbed by one of Frank's special children and Frank will then smear you as a druggie and say you had it coming. Frank's buddy Judge Yerger gives him a slap on the wrist in court, setting him free in less than two years. See earlier post: Melton and Soljah Boy

There was a reason the Founding Fathers put the fourth and fifth amendments in the Constitution. The memory of Redcoats entering their homes at will and tearing them up in a Meltonesque manner burned very vividly in their minds as they wrote that sacred document. The Bill of Rights doesn't exist to put handcuffs on law enforcement or help criminals but to protect we the people from drunken mayors like Frank Melton who think because they have a gun and a badge they can do anything they want to do.

If the house on Ridgeway was a crackhouse, all Frank had to do was have his police officers make some undercover buys there, arrest some people for dealing drugs, then move to seize the home. Its not that hard and governments do it all the time (In fact, Brad Pigott did it in the 1990's when serving as U.S. Attorney for the area.). Its one thing for the police to claim strict rules on search and seizure keep them from fighting crime. Its another matter for them to not even try to arrest drug dealers or other criminals. While Melton's lawyer claims his heart was in the right place, its clear the only place Frank's heart was in was in a scotch-fed ego acting like a Black redneck.

Unfortunately, many people don't get it and just see the image of Frank destroying what they THINK is a crackhouse. If Harvey Johnson had done the same thing to a house in Eastover or Rolling Meadows while claiming it has a meth house, one can only imagine the screams that would have erupted on the JT and Dave show. I can remember back in the 90's the same people defending Frank crying bloody murder when the government sent the ninjas and tanks into the Branch Davidian complex in Waco after claiming there were drugs there even though none were ever found. What they fail to see is Frank has been using them all along and is just as much a threat to them as he was to a poor black lady who owned a house on Ridgeway.

If Mr. Blumberg respects his oath of office, he will prosecute Melton for violating the civil rights of Jennifer Sutton. She should not suffer from seeing Frank destroy her property while walking away scott-free. She has just as much right to protection from a drunken Mayor on a rampage with a sledgehammer and his gang as does any resident of Madison or Brandon. Justice demands no less as the Constitution and law exist to protect us from Mayors who watched 48 Hours too many times.