Posted on 07/22/2020 4:19:36 PM PDT by Rummyfan
St. Louis, famously known as the Gateway to the West, has become America’s reigning murder capital and a symbol of urban decay—trends accelerated in recent years by a soft-on-crime mayor and a social justice-minded prosecutor. Last month, the images of Mark and Patricia McCloskey, both armed, confronting protesters in front of their restored mansion in the historic Central West End district of downtown St. Louis previewed what a defund-the-police era may look like. In the aftermath of George Floyd’s death in police custody in Minneapolis, St. Louis, like other American cities, faced a crisis of public order. Businesses were burned to the ground, and looters roamed freely. Four St. Louis police officers were shot in one night. Civic unrest was so widespread that first responders took nearly 30 minutes to reach a 7-Eleven set aflame by rioters. The city’s elected leaders have seemingly abandoned the police.
St. Louis’s current condition reflects a decades-long tumble from growth and prosperity to decline and disorder. Back in its heyday more than a century ago, St. Louis simultaneously hosted the World’s Fair and the summer Olympics. In the later twentieth century, it remained a thriving center for business and culture. While the city retains elite universities and a handful of Fortune 500 companies, its population is less than half its mid-twentieth-century peak, and its crime rate consistently places it within the top-ten most homicidal metropolises in the world. Many large companies are looking to relocate from the area, and city residents have accepted that violent crime is now a part of daily life. Nationally, the region’s civic standing has dramatically eroded, making headlines mostly for bad news, especially, in recent years, high-profile police officer shootings—most notably the 2014 killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, a small jurisdiction within St. Louis County.
(Excerpt) Read more at city-journal.org ...
With a situation this grim, the city desperately needs competent and determined crime-fighters, but St. Louis Circuit Attorney (chief prosecutor) Kimberly Gardner remains focused not on law and order but on social justice—and on bizarre self-aggrandizement. During her short tenure, the circuit attorney’s office has had more than 100 percent turnover, the equivalent of losing 470 years of collective experience. In January 2020, Gardner filed a federal civil rights suit against the City of St. Louis, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, and the St. Louis police union, alleging a racist conspiracy to oust her from office, in violation of the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871. Gardner soon appeared on PBS to declare St. Louis “ground zero” for criminal-justice reform efforts and likened any attempt to hold her accountable to a “modern-day night ride.”
Do not be surprise the St Louis Gateway arch is destroyed one day.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/ct-trav-gateway-arch-kamin-0624-story.html
“ts crime rate consistently places it within the top-ten most homicidal metropolises”
There was a move last year to try to bring St. Louis City back into surrounding St. Louis County or rather the other way round to try get more money for the city, but that went no where. The people didn’t flee to the County to have the City drag them back in.
United States of Africa.
Went to a conference in St. Louis some 10 or 15 yeas or so ago and was not happy with the venue. Seemed like they rolled up the streets at 6 and everyone went home. Only a couple of decent local places to eat. I did like the Cardinals stadium though. Well back when I still was a fan of major league sports. So much is going to pot.
> There was a move last year to try to bring St. Louis City back into surrounding St. Louis County or rather the other way round to try get more money for the city
It was also to launder the city crime stats so the city would look better from the outside! What a damned stupid reason to burden the county. Idiots around me in the county were touting that. I wish only they, not all of us, would suffer the consequences of their bad voting patterns.
Too many generations of miseducated people are allowed to vote. They kicked out the long-time prosecutor who clear Darren Wilson, and put in would-be child psychologist Wesley Bell. I took a D primary ballot just to oppose that!
Only a couple of decent local places to eat.
The irony of it all was that the City pulled out of the County back in the late 1800s so that wouldn’t have to spend its money on the country bumpkins in the County. I believe they got it written into the state’s Constitution. So fast forward two or three lifetimes and the City wants all that sweet, sweet county money.
I believe there were some who said opposition to the reunification were doing it for ‘racist’ reasons.
For those who don’t know, for many years a Federal Judge required county schools to accept students from the city to pay for the sins of segregation. The state was required to shoulder the costs. Busing you might think, but many actually took taxis to and from school. I’ll bet a lot of county residents grew tired of the “diversity” in their kids’ schools.
“Homeless” encampment in its future
Thanks.
> ‘racist’ reasons.
The word has lost all meaning.
Tough shit.
The word has lost all meaning.
I got my Masters in living in Dangerous City Life in St. Louis in the summer of 1960. I had gone to work with a major company with a training center in St.Louis after being graduated. The company provided a furnished apartment for new hires/trainees in the downtown. The safety officer gave us lessons of what/who to avoid after dark and on weekends. We laughed at him in private. After a couple of shootings and robberies, we didn’t laugh anymore.
I had my parents send me my 22 semi auto pistol. I kept it in a sachel/brief case in the day and wore it at night if I went out.
I dated another employee, and she lived in East St. Louis. She would not allow me to pick her up or drop her of after dark for my safety.
Later I became friends with the safety officer, a retired Marine. He tried to teach all of us to be aware of our surroundings and to beware of others who might be dangerous.
He was my Phd in surviving in big cities by being aware of who/what was around you. Also, what times of the day were stupid times to be out as a single white guy on the street.
He said the 22 pistol was the 1 murder weapon for the mafia.
He taught me and others to have a couple of birdshot as the first rounds and then hollow points. Also, to carry a spare clip with hollow points.
I’m right handed and my left eye is my dominant eye. On a firing range he taught me to shoot with both eyes open, with a pistol, rifle or shotgun. Thanks to him, I am an excellent shot with pistol, rifle and shooting trap/skeet or whatever.
He gave great advice on how to check out a future apartment/condo/home/office.
How to check it out at noon, 2 pm, 5 ish and at night. During the work week and during the week end. I have used his advice for decades and several moves.
So , St Louis was starting to go to hell back in 1960! One can only imagine how much like a 3rd world $**thole it is now.
What makes StL so “interesting” is that very safe areas are just a couple of blocks away from no-go zones. Going to a Cardinal’s game, my car’s GPS sent me across the river to East StL. By the time I got back across the river, I was maybe four or five blocks north of where the Rams used to play, maybe 15 blocks from Bush Stadium. Not a good area/neighborhood at all.
There’s always a very heavy police presence when the Cardinals play and I don’t think they’re all there for traffic control.
> There’s always a very heavy police presence when the Cardinals play
A few years ago, a guy wanted to open a business next to the stadium where people could check their guns for a fee.
I think he got stopped in his tracks by the corrupt local government.
A couple of years ago, they put up an iron fence around the entrance to the Muny, and started wanding people.
A few months ago, the mayor illegally declared all city parks to be child care facilities.
Now we have the McCloskeys accused of a felony for pulling guns on a violent trespassing threatening mob.
I’m not going in to the city any more.
We don’t go into Oakland or GaySick Frisco and haven’t for years.
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