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 hes tired of going to funerals. And now, he suspects hell be going to more of them.
"Its 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 ...
Yeah — it makes one shudder to think of all of those seat belt citations that won’t be written..
Anarchy will reign supreme....
/sarc
I wonder if the idiots in IL will keep electing Dems ...so they can keep up all the great hope & change.
Let the Reverend tell his parishioners to “arm thy self”.
Thw place was a hellhole back in the late 90’s . I doubt if things have improved since then.
It will be like Road Warrior, all spiky shoulder-pads, mohawk hair, and eye-liner, which means some really great film-making, I must say.
I remember going to a convention in St. Louis in 1996, part of the urban redevelopment council I participated in visited East St. Louis as a case study. Incredibly awful even then, home values were dropping and the city’s main source of revenue was property taxes. The homes were being taxed at 14% of their value, every one was leaving and the place was a dilapidated mess. Worse yet, policemen were fired for selling the spare tires from the trunks of their squad cars because the city didn’t honor a pay hike they’d been promised for years.
Sounds like its gonna be a target rich environment zone for the armed, law-abiding citizens!
Hmmm. Is gun ownership allowed? If so, and I were a resident of East St. Louis, I’d be arming myself, and learning how to use said firearm, right about now.
So nothing will change.
Mark
The answer is for all citizens to open carry a 12 gauge.
...here’s some photos
http://www.pbase.com/cincyimages/east_st_louis_illinois
IIRC escape from new york was filmed in east st loius. I guess it’s been a hell hole for quite a while
I wonder how much of the city welfare budget was cut before they cut the cops?
You're locked in here with *me*.
Abolish state and federal taxes within the city and see how fast entrepreneurs will rebuild it.
I was in St. Louis in 1962. East St. Louis was a ‘no go’ zone...
and I was told why -— EXACTLY for the same reasons it is a
hell hole today. ...so, this is not new. I would venture to say
that taking the police out of that pit will not change the murder
rate one bit.
Razmataz
There was a truck stop near the race track. Nasty neighborhood. Driving through the city, there was block after block of boarded up buildings.
OH NO!!! We need to raise taxes immediately!
F*ckers. If they did away with private perks, they could keep more cops.
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