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Criminals To "Run Wild" After East St. Louis Slashes Its Police Force
Business Insider ^ | 08/01/2010 | Business Insider

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 ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events; US: Illinois
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To: jospehm20
I used to call on the little brewery in Belleville. To get there required a quick run through E. St. Louis.
Man...I kept my doors locked !
21 posted on 08/01/2010 5:50:41 PM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (Impeachment !)
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To: The Magical Mischief Tour
could be a new Mad MAX movie..
call it; "MAD SHABAZZ"..
22 posted on 08/01/2010 5:52:22 PM PDT by hosepipe (This propaganda has been edited to include some fully orbed hyperbole....)
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To: The Magical Mischief Tour
so the tax payer who lives there got screwed by the dem politician, who sold out the voters in the early to mid 80’s to the teachers, police. high way department and so forth by ramping up salaries, pensions, health care until death, and so on. Debt is of no concern to the municipal - state worker. Raise your taxes, business can just pay more.

Its just a cycle

23 posted on 08/01/2010 5:54:57 PM PDT by reefdiver ("Let His day's be few And another takes His office")
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To: hal ogen

Is open carry allowed in IL or St. Louis?


24 posted on 08/01/2010 5:57:19 PM PDT by Jack Hydrazine (It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine!)
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To: The Magical Mischief Tour

Since East St Louis is in Chicago-controlled Illinois, allowing CCW for law-abiding citizens is not an option.


25 posted on 08/01/2010 5:57:36 PM PDT by PapaBear3625 (Public healthcare looks like it will work as well as public housing did.)
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To: csvset
Thw place was a hellhole back in the late 90’s .

At that point it had been a hellhole for at least twenty years.

26 posted on 08/01/2010 5:58:05 PM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: Razmataz

It’s been a hellhole since at least ‘62? When was it not a hellhole? 1870?


27 posted on 08/01/2010 6:00:08 PM PDT by Jack Hydrazine (It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine!)
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To: dbwz
F*ckers. If they did away with private perks, they could keep more cops.

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.

28 posted on 08/01/2010 6:01:12 PM PDT by PapaBear3625 (Public healthcare looks like it will work as well as public housing did.)
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To: john drake

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.


29 posted on 08/01/2010 6:03:33 PM PDT by wally_bert (It's sheer elegance in its simplicity! - The Middleman)
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To: Jack Hydrazine

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.


30 posted on 08/01/2010 6:04:24 PM PDT by Razmataz
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To: Razmataz

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.


31 posted on 08/01/2010 6:07:51 PM PDT by Jack Hydrazine (It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine!)
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To: The Magical Mischief Tour
I am guessing they haven't cut “social programs” one red cent.
32 posted on 08/01/2010 6:14:32 PM PDT by TexasFreeper2009 (Obama = Epic Fail)
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To: The Magical Mischief Tour

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?


33 posted on 08/01/2010 6:16:22 PM PDT by camerongood210
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To: The Magical Mischief Tour

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?


34 posted on 08/01/2010 6:16:32 PM PDT by Redbob (W.W.J.B.D.: "What Would Jack Bauer Do?")
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To: The Magical Mischief Tour

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?


35 posted on 08/01/2010 6:22:04 PM PDT by dbeall
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To: The Magical Mischief Tour

Big cities are simply a bad idea.


36 posted on 08/01/2010 6:23:25 PM PDT by SWAMPSNIPER (The Second Amendment, A Matter Of Fact, Not A Matter Of Opinion)
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To: PapaBear3625
Since East St Louis is in Chicago-controlled Illinois, allowing CCW for law-abiding citizens is not an option.

Every sane citizen will ignore that bs and carry anyway. Better to be judged by twelve than carried by six, as they say.

37 posted on 08/01/2010 6:23:33 PM PDT by Windflier (To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
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To: The Magical Mischief Tour

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.


38 posted on 08/01/2010 6:24:07 PM PDT by cgchief
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To: The Magical Mischief Tour

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.


39 posted on 08/01/2010 6:24:24 PM PDT by cgchief
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To: The Magical Mischief Tour

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.


40 posted on 08/01/2010 6:24:28 PM PDT by cgchief
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