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 ...
I’m reading the autobiography of a Chicago detective from 1901. Demographics and crimes are almost identical to today (swap crack pipes for opium pipes and use a more polite term for the descendants of slaves). If anything the crime was even worse than today. Chicago had about 700,000 residents and 90,000 arrests per year according to his book.
Spread from Detroit.
East St. Louis is where Clark Griswald and his family ended up and asked for directions in the movie “Vacation” on their way to Walley World.
Remember when he said to the bro, “Hey Holmes”
Yea, its improved, they have their man in the White House.
A cop once said - talking about these lost hoods in American cities - that the only cure is to bulldoze them flat and fence them off. I don't know that I would disagree.
Did E. St Louis happen to turn black between the time you left and the time you went back to visit? Time to stop giving Obama’s people a free pass on the destruction they deliberately wreak.
East St. Louis is Detroit’s end game. Sort of the Illinois version of Gary, only worse. A hellhole of liberalism which voted 99.99% BHO.
I was given a tour of East St. Louis one Saturday night back in the mid-1990’s. Gangs of men were walking through the streets and yards diagonally taking the most direct path to where ever they were going with no thought of using sidewalks or respecting private property. Every inhabited house was a barred fortress. We drove past a police station which had a fenced yard packed full of squad cars since none of them were out on patrol. You could literally drive on the wrong side of the road and run stop signs and red lights since there was no legal authority at all. It was a very sad and scary portrait of a failed welfare state.
Worse than today, eh? I’d certainly like to see it get better in the future from where we are today.
Methinks the author means, "over the border fron St. Louis in Missouri."
There's an old song called "Brady" -
"Down in St. Louis at Twelfth and Carr,
Big Bill Brady was a tending bar.
In walked Duncan with a star on his chest,
Duncan says, 'Brady, you're under arrest.'
CHO. "Brady, why didn't ya run?
Brady, ya shoulda run.
Brady, ya shoulda run,
When ya seen Black Duncan with his Gatling gun.
"When all the girls heard that Brady was dead,
They went downtown and they put on red,
A'marchin' down Main Street singin' this song:
'Brady's struttin' in Hell with his Stetson on.'
"Brady went to Hell, lookin' mighty curious.
Devil says, "Where ya from?" "East St. Louis."
"Take off your coat and step right this way,
'Cause I been expectin' you every day.'"
There are lots of other verses. I learned the song from Carl Sandburg's American Songbag. The song is based on an actual murder that occurred around 1880. But I imagine that the situation didn't develop overnight, so 1870 is a distinct possibility. The post-Civil War turmoil led to law enforcement problems in a lot of places.
Sounds like Anacostia in D.C.
Agreed.
Obviously a lack of midnight basketball opportunities.
Wow! And here I was just exaggerating!
Police and Fire departments are bureaucracies.
We got along fine for 400 years with out police departments. You got stuff? You protect it. And, you protect you and yours.
Fire ‘Companies’ were private. You got a fire? Guys come and if you had a fire insurance mental tag on your building, companies competed to put out the fire and back charge the insurance company. No insurance? Either it burned, or the companies put it out and charged you. Your choice.
Loved the Steely Dan version.
Unleashing the hords on the American public as planned
Unleashing the hords on the American public as planned
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