Posted on 02/10/2015 8:52:39 AM PST by reaganaut1
...
Murder rates have fallen sharply in most of the country. But St. Louis is one of a few major cities, including Memphis and Washington, where the number of homicides jumped last year. It is also one of several cities, including Baltimore, Detroit, Gary, Ind., and New Orleans, where violent crime, concentrated in low-income minority neighborhoods, has remained stubbornly high, though down from the crack-driven peaks of the early 1990s.
The start of the new year was equally violent.
On Jan. 15, shaken by six murders in five shootings overnight, the city’s mayor, Francis Slay, called for more police, more surveillance cameras, more certain penalties for carriers of illegal guns and stronger gun laws, declaring: “Crime is the absolute No. 1 priority in the City of St. Louis.”
A seventh person was killed on the afternoon of the mayor’s news conference.
Why St. Louis suffered a major setback in a year in which many cities saw further progress is hotly debated. By all accounts, the proliferation of guns among young men here is beyond control, turning petty insults, neighborhood rivalries and drug disputes into lethal melees of attack and reprisal that can occur in waves. There was a 33 percent rise in homicides last year, to 159, compared with 120 in 2013 in this city of 318,000.
Jennifer M. Joyce, the city’s circuit attorney, or prosecutor, an elected position, complains that in St. Louis, the illegal possession of a gun is too often “a crime without a consequence,” making it difficult to stop confrontation from turning lethal.
At the same time, deeper social roots of violence such as addiction and unemployment continue unchecked. And city officials also cite what they call a “Ferguson effect,” an increase in crime last year as police officers were diverted to control protests
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
If more of the welfare queens could master the art of keeping an aspirin between their knees crime rates would plummet.
It would be difficult to believe that the big city would be worse than the little, across the river neighbor.
the illegal possession of a gun is too often “a crime without a consequence”...
No ones going to take the guns away from the boys in the Hood...
I think I see the problem. Perhaps they should change their mission statement to "Crime prevention is the absolute No. 1 priority in the City of St. Louis."
Fixed that. Next problem please.
Don’t you just love the language of the left - St Louis crime is stubborn. I suppose “”Black on Black violence remains high” would have been too insensitive.
Demographics of the city could be a factor.
Yeah, there’s some “correlative factor” that “St Louis” just can’t seem to see.
Here in Wisconsin there are many millions of guns. Yet outside of Milwaukee the homicide rate is equivalent to many European cities/countries with strict gun control laws. Why is that?
Leni
Same thing here in the Ozarks, lots more guns than St Louis but not as much crime.
There is nothing in St Louis that a good coating of fire wouldn't fix.
Nah, blame Harold Ramis (RIP) for that [racist] scene in “Vacation” when Clark Griswold gets lost in St. Louis...
But they changed their name to the Wizards...
No, East side is not as violent as the city. The problem is the gangs in the city and north county, especially the Vashon area Bloods. M Brown was a Blood wannabe, at least. His stepfather is an affiliate. The City of St. Louis is populated by poor angry clueless black folks, poor elderly white folks, and rich folks with private security. Crime stats are a joke in the city; real crime downtown is twice what’s reported. Hipsters LOVE to live in the city, until the first child is born.
Kinda like having a mayor named 'Francis Murder-Death-Kill', isn't it...
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