Posted on 08/01/2010 5:28:57 PM PDT by The Magical Mischief Tour
The town of East St. Louis -- over the border from St. Louis in Illinois -- has always had a reputation for being horrible, and having a police force that's been unable to cope with the criminal element. And now budget problems look set to make things worse, as the city has been forced to reduce its police force.
Saint Louis Today: Rev. Joseph Tracy said he’s tired of going to funerals. And now, he suspects he’ll be going to more of them.
"It’s open field day now," said Tracy, the pastor of Straightway Baptist Church here. "The criminals are going to run wild."
Gang activity. Drug dealing. Cold-blooded killing. Tracy worries that a decision to shrink the police force by almost 30 percent will bring more of everything.
Of course, being in Illinois, there's not much state support on its way, as the state is one of the worst in the nation, fiscally.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Its just a cycle
Is open carry allowed in IL or St. Louis?
Since East St Louis is in Chicago-controlled Illinois, allowing CCW for law-abiding citizens is not an option.
At that point it had been a hellhole for at least twenty years.
It’s been a hellhole since at least ‘62? When was it not a hellhole? 1870?
If they completely abolished all forms of welfare there, they would not need more cops. All the welfare recipients would have to move elsewhere, taking the crime problem with them.
My last employer’s HQ is in St. Louis somewhere of Harry Truman Blvd. At different points I was supposed to go out there to advance in the so called job I had. That, like many other things, never happened.
Considering the caliber of crooks that run the place, maybe it was just as well I never went there. Those people will do anything to screw someone over a dollar.
If I had to make a guess... I’d say it has been that way
most likely since the early 50’s ... or possibly in the late
50’s when the mantra of ‘you own me’ really got a good
hold.
Maybe some other FReeprs out there can comment on when E. St. Louis turned into hellhole central. It’s pretty sad it has been that way for so long.
I think a similar thing happened in Oakland, CA not too long ago. As soon as I heard about that story, I immediately thought of Van Jones, the book “The Coming Insurrection”, STORM, and Greece. Was it all planned?
Funny, isn’t it, how budget shortfalls always require cuts to police and fire departments, instead of say to bureaucrats or daycare workers or city council secretaries?
If there is X amount of dollars to pay police officer salaries and the salaries are Y, and the unions won’t accept furloughs to ensure all officers keep their jobs. Then what other choice does the city have?
Big cities are simply a bad idea.
Every sane citizen will ignore that bs and carry anyway. Better to be judged by twelve than carried by six, as they say.
When I was 3 months old, in January of 1951, my father was hired as a federal meat inspector and immediately assigned to the stock yards in National City, which was/is ajacent to E. St. Louis.
During the 1950s, E. St. Louis was a great place to live, even better than St. Louis. At the age of 10, my parents allowed me take the city bus by myself to meet my dad at his work site. At this time, hardly anyone had air conditioning so all the windows in the house were open, the car keys were in the ignition and the doors were never locked.
During the summer, when I left to play with my friends my mother never worried about me because it was a totally safe place to live and my friends parents were always keeping an eye out, just to be safe. I remember we had an E. St. Louis police officer living in our neighborhood and at a BBQ, he was telling the fathers present that if anyone were ever to “hurt” a child, just hang them and there would never be any repercusions.
We left in 1961 for South Carolina, Memphis and Omaha. When we returned to St. Louis in 1968, my parents selected to live in St. Charles. When I returned to E. St. Louis to look up my childhood best friend I was completely shocked at what happened over the course of 6 short years. The downtown area was 100% blighted with most of the buildings boarded up. A vast majority of the mom and pop family businesses were gone. My dad moonlighted at Wuller’s Drug Store at 14th & Lynch, which amazing was still open, albeit with bars on every door and window. The Wuller’s were just looking for an excuse to retire and leave the area.
In my mind, E. St. Louis is the perfect example of what happens when corrupt politicians take over. They destroy a city and it’s taken over by the criminal element.
When I was 3 months old, in January of 1951, my father was hired as a federal meat inspector and immediately assigned to the stock yards in National City, which was/is ajacent to E. St. Louis.
During the 1950s, E. St. Louis was a great place to live, even better than St. Louis. At the age of 10, my parents allowed me take the city bus by myself to meet my dad at his work site. At this time, hardly anyone had air conditioning so all the windows in the house were open, the car keys were in the ignition and the doors were never locked.
During the summer, when I left to play with my friends my mother never worried about me because it was a totally safe place to live and my friends parents were always keeping an eye out, just to be safe. I remember we had an E. St. Louis police officer living in our neighborhood and at a BBQ, he was telling the fathers present that if anyone were ever to “hurt” a child, just hang them and there would never be any repercusions.
We left in 1961 for South Carolina, Memphis and Omaha. When we returned to St. Louis in 1968, my parents selected to live in St. Charles. When I returned to E. St. Louis to look up my childhood best friend I was completely shocked at what happened over the course of 6 short years. The downtown area was 100% blighted with most of the buildings boarded up. A vast majority of the mom and pop family businesses were gone. My dad moonlighted at Wuller’s Drug Store at 14th & Lynch, which amazing was still open, albeit with bars on every door and window. The Wuller’s were just looking for an excuse to retire and leave the area.
In my mind, E. St. Louis is the perfect example of what happens when corrupt politicians take over. They destroy a city and it’s taken over by the criminal element.
When I was 3 months old, in January of 1951, my father was hired as a federal meat inspector and immediately assigned to the stock yards in National City, which was/is ajacent to E. St. Louis.
During the 1950s, E. St. Louis was a great place to live, even better than St. Louis. At the age of 10, my parents allowed me take the city bus by myself to meet my dad at his work site. At this time, hardly anyone had air conditioning so all the windows in the house were open, the car keys were in the ignition and the doors were never locked.
During the summer, when I left to play with my friends my mother never worried about me because it was a totally safe place to live and my friends parents were always keeping an eye out, just to be safe. I remember we had an E. St. Louis police officer living in our neighborhood and at a BBQ, he was telling the fathers present that if anyone were ever to “hurt” a child, just hang them and there would never be any repercusions.
We left in 1961 for South Carolina, Memphis and Omaha. When we returned to St. Louis in 1968, my parents selected to live in St. Charles. When I returned to E. St. Louis to look up my childhood best friend I was completely shocked at what happened over the course of 6 short years. The downtown area was 100% blighted with most of the buildings boarded up. A vast majority of the mom and pop family businesses were gone. My dad moonlighted at Wuller’s Drug Store at 14th & Lynch, which amazing was still open, albeit with bars on every door and window. The Wuller’s were just looking for an excuse to retire and leave the area.
In my mind, E. St. Louis is the perfect example of what happens when corrupt politicians take over. They destroy a city and it’s taken over by the criminal element.
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