Jackson Mayor Frank Melton Back on The Job

Jackson Mayor Frank Melton

Frank Melton's vigilante style crime fighting almost landed him in prison this week for destroying what he called a crack house. Now the capitol city mayor is switching his focus from crime to economics. MPB's Lawayne Childrey gets reaction to his latest move.

For the past 40 years Rebecca Phillips of Yazoo has made weekly shopping trips to the capitol City but her focus is always on safety.

“I feel so at home in Jackson that I probably am not as cautious as maybe I should be. But the mayor is not suppose to be out tarring houses down and he needs to have a good report with the chief of police and they should take that over.”

One day after the Mayor Frank Melton's federal case ended with a mistrial he held a news conference at city hall. Not to talk about crime issues, but economic development.

“They want to invest first of all in the capitol city and secondly in the south Jackson area.”

That's a far cry from the Melton who's claim to fame may be crime fighting. But for the past 18 months he's left that job to the Sheriff of Hinds County and Jackson Police Chief, Malcolm McMillan.

“He hasn’t interfered with department business. Hadn’t told me how to run the department or made any suggestions about that so he’s been true to his word.”

Just a few blocks away from city hall, Donny Finley doesn't believe anyone understands the plight of his neighborhood as well as Melton.

“Because the crack houses in our community destroying the minds of our children. It’s tearing our community apart. All he’s trying to do is save our children and without them we’ll have no future.”

Monday the Mayor should know if he'll be retried, have the case dismissed or cop a plea. Statistics show that last year Jackson ranked 23rd in overall crime among U.S. cities. For MPB News, I'm Lawayne Childrey.