May 28, 2003–Crime is up just about everywhere. That’s not an excuse. It’s just a fact. In 2002, crime was up 7.2% in Ventura County, Calif., for instance, long considered the safest city in the west. Crime is creeping upward all over the South and all over the country. Property crime is invasive–violent crime is horrific. The JFP’s editorial team lives in and around Belhaven and Fondren and Downtown and West Jackson. With every story of a crime committed–whether an armed burglary in a Fondren home, an armed robbery in Brent’s Drug Store or an uncle shooting a nephew in West Jackson–we feel pained and determined to do something about it. We are not immune; some of our staffers have been crime victims. We know how it feels to want to blame.
