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Interesting little screw-up today in The Clarion-Ledger editorial about the “crime summit” no one paid any attention to. The esteemed all-male editorial board wrote:

First, the location of the summit was not decided until a few days ago. Then it wasn’t well publicized. And momentum from the first meeting was lost when only days afterward Mayor Frank Melton was indicted on criminal charges arising from his crime-fighting methods, diverting attention from crime and toward Melton. (Emphasis added.)

Indeed, one member suggested Thursday that a statement of support for Melton be issued, but it was deemed a side issue. And that’s as it should be.

It seems a crime is a crime unless and until someone endorsed by The Clarion-Ledger is indicted for it?!? And this editorial does beg the question of whether someone accused of committing crimes ought to be saying a damn thing about “crime-fighting.”

Sloppy word choice, Ledge.

Previous Comments

Uh, yeah, that is kind of weird. Old-school Southern Strategy shit, I think, where “crime” refers to a class of people and not to actual, you know, crime. Cheers, TH


Tom, I don’t see where crime is meant to imply any class of people there. On the other hand, Marshall Ramsey was great today. 😀


Did anyone see the report from WJTV about the defense trying to have the DA taken off Melton’s case? If you did, you may have seen the graphic with Peterson on the left side and the mayor on the right. Peterson’s face is darkened and washed out, but Melton’s is bright and sharp. It may not be intentional, but that graphic seems to imply something.


If it were Three (on his side) I could understand. They’ve softpedaled his whole indictment thing from the word “go”. WJTV, however…

Founding Editor Donna Ladd is a writer, journalist and editor from Philadelphia, Miss., a graduate of Mississippi State University and later the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, where she was an alumni award recipient in 2021. She writes about racism/whiteness, poverty, gender, violence, journalism and the criminal justice system. She contributes long-form features and essays to The Guardian when she has time, and was the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Jackson Free Press. She co-founded the statewide nonprofit Mississippi Free Press with Kimberly Griffin in March 2020, and the Mississippi Business Journal named her one of the state's top CEOs in 2024. Read more at donnaladd.com, follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @donnerkay and email her at donna@mississippifreepress.org.