Just as every cop is a criminal,
And all the sinners saints,
As heads is tails,
Just call me Lucifer,
‘Cause I’m in need of some restraints.
So if you meet me,
Have some courtesy,
Have some sympathy and some taste,
Use all your well-learned politesse,
Or I’ll lay your soul to waste. . . .
— Sympathy for the Devil, Mck Jagger and Keith Richards (1968)
In his autobiography, the philosopher and theologian Augustine wrote that the ancient Greek poet Homer’s “method was to give something of the divine to wicked men, so that crimes should not be called crimes and that whoever was guilty of such things might appear to be following in the footsteps, not of abandoned men, but of the heavenly gods.” The Confessions of Saint Augustine, Book I, Chapter 16 (translation by Rex Warner, 1963).
It seems that sociologists, thoughtless preachers, and well-meaning intellectuals carried the same method into the 20th and early 21st centuries to excuse and dismiss gangsters, hoodlums, assassins, rapists, burglars, murderers, and other lawbreakers including disturbers of the peace.
In recent years when widespread riots and looting were taking place in America, with loss of life and property as consequences, and Jackson was on its way to becoming the (per capita) murder capital of the country, blame for the lawlessness was placed on law enforcement. The answer from the so-called progressive movement was to defund the police. Law abiding citizens suffered in those cities and communities across the nation where police departments were defunded by local governments.
Peaceful people being able to tolerate only so much in the name of “toleration,” public opinion turned against the radical idea. Today, even the most progressive metropolitan parts of California, Illinois, Washington, Oregon and New York have started re-thinking the stupidest of all solutions to crime - - reducing or eliminating law enforcement!
I live in the city of Jackson. What prompts me to write this on a Saturday night are the boom-boom-boom bass vibrations that started penetrating the walls of my home at 10:30 p.m. Only the intermittent roar of motorcycles racing up and down Interstate 55 is louder. With the “music” are the voices of people who are either celebrating or fighting. I can’t tell which. With the common use these days of the “F” word and its conjunctive versions, who knows whether the disturbance is exultant or violent? I dare not venture to the close-by venue for confirmation. There’s a risk of being shot. The neighborhood watch says that the disturbance has been reported.
It has been imagined that we are about to get a real government back in charge of this city with our next mayor who, it’s related, will be joined by members of a city council who have also grown intolerant of the chaotic product of a too-long neglected police department. I certainly hope so.
And I hope that the foul-mouthed, self-centered, ignorant, rude people who have continued to disturb so many originally peaceful parts of this city, including the part in which I sit awake at midnight this evening, are one day rounded up to have their motorcycles and music boxes confiscated, their mouths washed out, and their lower back cheeks kicked. While forced to endure tonight’s latest insanity - - this is not the first occasion (and summer has yet to begin) - - I wonder whatever happened to the noise ordinance that was passed nearly 20 years ago when Melton was mayor.
But there are also ordinances on the books that deal with litter, public profanity, traffic signs and speed limits. These haven’t been regularly executed for even longer than the noise ordinance. Pages of ordinances are worthless if they are not being enforced. Why expect what isn’t working, and hasn’t worked, to work in the future?
There is an alternative to save the good name of the state’s capital and the lives and property of her citizens, something beyond the Capitol Complex Improvement District.
Historically, in addition to Jackson, other cities or towns have served as the state capital, including Washington, Columbia and Macon, Mississippi. The next Legislature can use its statutory power to remove the capital designation from the current municipal corporation and re-designate a new capital. Under the state constitution, this would require “the assent of a majority of the electors of the state.” (Mississippi Constitution, Article 4, section 101.) While I am no expert on the subject, I believe that the Legislature could even repeal or amend the current capital city’s charter under the authority of Mississippi Constitution, Article 4, section 88.
Similar to the U.S. capital city, Washington, D.C., the “new” Mississippi capital would be a district created by the Legislature. As such, the state’s capital would be under the direct jurisdiction of state government. The center of the new capital would be the existing New Capitol building. The district’s laws would be strictly enforced by its police and judges so that law-abiding citizens might live as they should in a civilized society, peacefully and without fear. It would not share jurisdiction with the old city or Hinds County.
Concurrently, a referendum might be held for the citizens of each ward in the present city to vote on remaining in the old municipality or becoming part of the new district. The district capital city would retain the name, Jackson. The remaining parts of the former capital could be renamed Dodge City.
In my opinion, this may be the only answer for a lasting return to politesse in the City of Jackson.
Chip Williams is a Northsider.
