Leaders Say City Parks Are Safe
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Police reviewed the criminal activity in the East Jackson park, after Monday night’s shooting near the basketball court at Muse Park. They had reports from eight criminal incidents in Muse Park just this year, which is higher than usual. Since 2009, the average had been just 25 per year. Still, investigators felt Muse Park was still a safe place, and were determined to keep it that way. The Muse Park basketball court was where Antonio Greer said you can always find him. “It’s just the usual, people playing basketball, and then it just got out of hand. I mean, it could be over an out of bounds call, or a foul, it just gets out of hand,” said Greer. Which is what he said he saw during Monday night’s basketball game right before shots were fired, that injured two men. “I mean, some people just hate to loose, their pride is everything,” added Greer. Even though police said an innocent bystander’s face was grazed by a bullet, they still considered the park to be a safe place. “With Muse Park being where it is and the population of Jackson being what it is, I think for the most part, crime is minimal in Muse Park,” said Lt. Tyreece Miller. Lt. Miller said although they did not believe violence was a problem in Jackson parks, they did not want to allow it to become one, and added extra patrols in Muse Park during the busiest times of the day. “We’ve had six robberies over a three-year span, we’ve had one kidnapping, which was domestic-violence related, and we haven’t had a shooting in I can’t recall the last time we’ve had one, and I know we haven’t had one in the last three years,” stated Lt. Miller. Most park visitors we spoke with said they would not let this incident scare them away. “I’m not too bothered by it. We don’t know what the situation was, if it was provoked or if it was accidental, or what happened exactly, so it doesn’t really bother me as far as my safety goes,” said Barbara Harvey.
