Meridian Mayor addresses downtown safety concerns

MERIDIAN, Miss. (WTOK) - In a press conference meant to announce and promote the Day of the Dead event this weekend, mayor Jimmie Smith received questions about safety downtown after.

“We had Candy Crawl here yesterday and it was safe,” Smith said. " We’re going to do everything we need to do to protect the public. it’s our responsibility to make sure everybody is safe and we’re going to do what we need to do to do that.”

Day of the Dead organizer Linda Candelo also commented on safety, “During the celebration we are going to have police presence and we also have security to take care of the event.”

Concerns around safety in the city have been growing since the recent run of violent crime here in Meridian.

“We’re going to work hard in making sure that everybody is protected, we take this serious. I mean that’s our job, that’s our responsibility,” Smith said.

The Day of the Dead celebration will be held on Saturday at Dumont Plaza.

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