Three days ago Dragoman commented on Jackson mayor Frank Melton:
I was stunned to read Melton’s cringe-inducing remarks in this morning’s paper. There seems no end to the man’s grotesquery.
The generally annoying but always intrepid Donna Ladd has weighed in with an interesting article about all this in this week’s Jackson Free Press. In her article, she writes that Officer Washington was found castrated, something I’d not heard. She doesn’t cite any sources for that, but maybe she’s seen the police or autopsy reports.
The bulk of her article, however, breaks new ground in that it recounts the JPD investigations into Melton dating back to the 1980s.
Now this May 13 Jackson Free Press post has led to a disagreement between Donna Ladd and former JPD chief Robert Johnson, who comments,
This is an absolutely false claim. Anyone present at the scene and who viewed Washington’s body will tell you that he was not castrated. You need to do more verification of this claim before continually repeating it as fact. …
I was present at the scene and personally viewed the body along with several other officers and investigators. I would be more than happy to supply you with some of the names of those who were also present at the scene or who have direct knowledge of the facts; anyone of whom would gladly go on the record to refute the “claim” of castration. I challenge any of your sources claiming otherwise to make their claims or themselves known.
I'll direct you to Folo for Ladd's response to Johnson; she doesn't need anymore ink from me.
The JFP, like all alt-weeklies (not to mention many of us bloggers), may always face questions about credibility. Frankly not enough people take the P seriously enough to add it to their must-read lists (disclaimer - I am a reader). I don't know all the reasons behind that, but I can see a few. One of them is troubled attribution. Another is a flip attitude in some cases of deadly serious reportage. Her treatment in this case of online correspondence doesn't strike me as very mature, sensitive or responsible (no one thinks it was necessary to print the exchange online in the first place, right?)
Former Jackson chief cop disputes JFP post on Washington murder | folo
