It is an online petition of support for Mokwa.

Why a police chief would need or want this kind of on-your-sleeve “support” (more accurate term: fealty) is very odd and to say the least does not exactly inspire confidence.

One thing’s for sure, his lush of a daughter should sign that petition, pronto…it’s the least she could do in exchange for playing real-life demolotion derby with Other People’s Cars with a BAL of .17….

“Wait, does not St. Louis have an anti-corruption police? Who’s job is solely to find and persecute corrupt police officials?”

ROTLFMAO.

Eeep. Toronto’s been going downhill for over a decade now. I’m not going to lay blame on the cause, but suffice it to say that the city’s boldly going forth and fixing that which doesn’t need it, while ignoring at its peril the slow-moving trainwrecks in progress.

So it’s charming, albeit a bit quaint, that some people still look up to my adopted hometown.

At least they didn’t shoot any unarmed children, and that’s really the best we can hope for anymore.

1) The Independent City of St. Louis is *not* part of St. Louis County (though it is surrounded by said county and the Mississippi River.) In areas where a county government would normally function, another office in the City does so — so, St. Louis City has both a Police Department and a Sheriffs Department.

2) To make things worse, the St. Louis Police Department is, in fact, a *state* department, not a function of the City — created by the state in 1861. So, the City Government has very little real control over SLPD — esp. in terms of management, the Police Chief is chosen by the Governor, not the Mayor.

In other news: In Tennessee and other “zero tolerance” states, if they find even a seed or tiniest fiber of cannabis in your vehicle (which I am told they will often vacuum for) then presto: Your vehicle is theirs, even if you still have to make payments on it for the next 7 years! This has led to targeting of newer and larger vehicles for such “drug busts”. Instances of individual corruption aside, clearly there is some very unjust stuff on the books here. It’s not just a darned shame. It’s a travesty.

I hate cops.

Until then, the remainder of the rich Republicans will continue making large amounts of money off of, and winning local public office on the basis of, such policies.

They don’t need to find anything, arrest anyone, or, as is often the case, convict anyone.

Politically, you might have to wait until next January, when the climate for reform is (possibly) friendlier, but a crowd-sourced investigation in the meantime might turn up something legally actionable.

My first car (11 year old Pontiac Grand Le Mans) was stolen (two weeks after I bought it). Was woken up by the police phoning to tell me they’d recovered my car. I didn’t even know it had been stolen yet, and it kinda freaked me out. I asked them to dust it for fingerprints and such. They said sure, but it’ll take three to four weeks before they could get around to it, and the daily fee for having a car impounded is $75. I was like “It’s evidence, how can you charge for that?” But they would not budge. In 9 days it would’ve cost me more in impound fees than the car did two weeks prior! Still had to pay the towing fee and impound fee for one day (ended up being a little over $200, or roughly 1/3 of the price of my car!), even though it was recovered a few blocks from my house and if they’d just called I would’ve walked over and driven it back home. The cop I spoke to in the auto theft dept. said I should consider myself lucky they didn’t wait three days (or weeks I guess!) to call me to rack up the fee even more. That still pisses me off, and it’s been…almost 20 years. Damn.

They let a random asshole just walk in and say he was a cop from another city there to help them with the drug problem. Then for a few months he rode along and even caused many raids and busts (aka robberies) where he repeatedly broke every rule in the book.

They excessively check for grass over 8″ in height, then they call the county, they come out and fine you and give you a week to cut it. Let say you are on vacation, I was. Well if you dont comply and get every blade of grass under 8″, you get a court date of course, but the best part? They call their buddies who then immediately mow your grass without your permission for a mere $160! I have a 20×20′ hunk of property front and back. I was told they actually get a kickback from the mowing company… BUT WAIT…. IT DOESNT STOP THERE….

The sheriff evicts people right? Well guess what happens if they show up and you arent home, they again call their buddies, who immediately show up while the paid company is removing the items and setting them on the curb. The “buddies” of the sheriff, basically show up and pretend the stuff is theres then they haul anything of value away for later dividing amongst themselves.

What else. Ah a friend of mine had her car hit-and-runned while it was in front of my house being worked on. It broke down a week and a half before but in a parking spot. In the week it took me to fix it, her tags went out, literally it was 2 days out of registration. When we called the police I left her outside to deal with it. She came in balling her eyes out saying, the police checked her plate and informed her if he had to write up the complaint about the hit and run, he would also have to give her a $200 no registration ticket. The fat lazy fuck didnt want to do paperwork.

What else. Ah ever since St louis hitting #1 worst city last year, the police have been not writing most things up. They will find reasons not to, they will literally lie to you and pretend to make a report, only to find out there was never a report. I have a lawsuit going because I was in an accident (not my fault) and the police didnt even write up the accident report. When my lawyer requested a copy, they delayed/denied/detoured/distracted, then about 4 months later they showed up at my doorstep asking me to remind them about the accident so they could make a report!!! WTF?

Dont even get me started on police brutality in this city. My first year living here I bought myself a new mustang and was installing the alarm which kept going off. Police came and I was tackled and handcuffed, during that process I managed to get a hand free and I whistled for help from my friends/neighbors. About ten of them came out and started yelling at the police. Because of this the cop deliberately handcuffed me incorrectly causing partial loss of the use of that hand for over a year. In fact it still bothers me when carrying heavy objects. Basically a handcuff is designed to have the hinge on the side of your wrist, he had the hinge on the bottom and the clasping part on top of my wrist. Clamped so tightly my wrist literally seperated, hand turned purple and went numb, a numbness that lasted for a month or two steady. When the white shirt got there I screamed at him to look at my hand, he did and instantly released me. Then the cops all left. The next day the same asshole pulled me over and again arrested me for nothing. This time he said they had a report that my brand new(used) car was stolen, even though I had fresh temp tags. Again he manhandled me, and purposefully hit my head on the door frame, at least he didnt wrongly cuff my already sore and bruised wrist. I was released on all (bullshit) charges.

What else…. In regards to the towing thing. HAHAHA Its been a long time coming for them to get caught. There is also a kickback on towing. The police use a specific towing company, when they call the price for a tow and storage go up astronomically, what they dont tell you in this post above is that they actually confiscate valuable cars in less than a month because the towing/storage fees get out of control in no time. Put it this way, I have lost 2 cars to the city. One wasnt worth the $640 they wanted for 3 nights of storage and towing, the other was towed from my driveway/yard while I was out of town. I lost a $5000 car to them because I wasnt going to pay just under $2000 to get it back. A close friend had the exact same thing happen to him. So basically if you live in st louis, misery(missouri), than good fucking luck being an honest citizen and keeping the pigs off your ass. Its getting so that you can no longer avoid legal issues by simply not doing anything wrong.

If you were planning on moving to st louis, please reconsider. I would leave in a heartbeat if I had the chance.

Aha. The John Yoo defense, where you get your own lawyer to say you are not a criminal. If this is valid, it’s sort of surprising that *anyone* is in prison.

Just plain false. I used to live in St. Louis county. I moved about 5 years ago. The U-city loop, Forest Park, the Central West End, Downtown, Soulard, etc. are all “past” (i.e., east of) Hanley Rd. I frequented all those locations even before I could drive. So did all my friends. Do white residents of the county forbid their children from attending Cardinals games?
____

I remember one bad thing about the cops in STL county. I worked at an ice cream shop. It always bothered me that the cops got free ice cream anytime they wanted (even when off duty) just by showing their badges. The abused this so much that they would bring in groups of people and expect us to make free ice cream for the whole bunch. What jerks.

Ms Mowka, as featured in the original St Louis Dispatch story seems to be a bit of a problem child.

Thanks.

As it turns out, I DID find it- in the back of a pickup, in a parking lot, miles from my dorm. One-in-a-million chance. I deflated the truck’s tires and then went off to find a cop. They showed up and gave me my bike, but they wouldn’t get the seat out of the (unlocked) cab of the truck. That required a warrant, and then after it was confiscated, it spend over a week in an evidence locker.

The thief had my bike for two days- the cops kept the seat for three weeks. And the thief didn’t even have to replace the lock he cut.

BITCHIN CAMARO, BITCHIN CAMARO
I ran over my neighbors
BITCHIN CAMARO, BITCHIN CAMARO
Now it’s in all the papers.
My folks bought me a BITCHIN CAMARO with no insurance to match;
So if I happen to run you down, please don’t leave a scratch.
I ran over some old lady one night at the county fair;
And I didn’t get arrested, because my dad’s the mayor.

- Bitchin Camaro The Dead Milkmen

icy slope. these guys should do time.

Granted, St Louis has many problems, but they are no different than nearly any other large city in the US. The corruption of cops and neglect of school officials is everywhere in this country. If you wanna see how a city is supposed to operate, go to Toronto or Vancouver. It’s depressing to see how well everything operates there and then have to come back to the states.

#46, you seem to attact all kinds of attention. Either you’re drawing it on yourself somehow, or you are the unluckiest man in the room. I must point out that most of the problems you mentioned occured outside of St Louis City. Oh, and if you are dying to leave so badly, what’s keeping you here?

@ #9 BUDDY66:
The “initiative” has had no sort of publicity other than a low profile article on local news websites. I live just five blocks away from what is arguably the worst neighborhood in south St. Louis. I haven’t noticed any change in the police activity in the area. And I regularly drive through this area during the “golden hours” of 1-3AM.
Conversely, I did talk to someone the other day who lives in the heart of the minno-mob territory (being minnesota ave. between miami and gravois) saying they witnessed a shooting last friday night just one house up from hers and she called the police and they arrived in about five minutes. Which is very impressive for around here. So I think they are simply increasing the number of officers patrolling these trouble areas. But when asked for a description of the shooter she was kind of stuck. Most of the thug kids (usually ages 12-20) in the area have all conformed to a sort of uniform of a white tall tee and jeans or khakis. However another close friend of mine who lives just ten blocks south of this area witnessed a kid shoot six rounds into a crowd of other kids sitting on their porch (drinking and smoking. which is a practice I regularly partake in at various places around the south side) and called the police and no officers showed up at all. Probably since no one was killed and/or it wasn’t in their focus area.

AND

@ #13 DOUG NELSON:
For the degradation of our neighborhoods we can blame our aldermen and I guess ourselves. My alderman Craig Schmitt, who has his heart in the right place, has done nothing but hurt our ward. With various sanctions and requirements for opening late night businesses. Granted you open a bar and you will get a few drunken stragglers on the street but you also get people on the street after 9 PM!!! And a mass amount people on the street at night is more eyes and less crime. Just some of his imposed requirements for opening a bar/club in the ward is having 30-40 percent of your income come from food sales as well as requiring to offer in upwards of 70% off street parking based upon your occupancy rating. For this to happen most of the existing properties would have to buy the adjacent property and tear it down for a parking lot. Oh, and don’t get me started on how he tried to get all businesses serving alcohol to put up cameras with direct web access granted solely to Mr. Schmitt. Things like this simply cause anyone wanting to open a business in this area to look elsewhere.
Oh, and I agree about the A.B. buyout. Granted they won’t immediately shut down the iconic south city factory, but it is a 156 year old complex and per area capita I would assume the most costly to run. After a buyout by InBev, I’d give it at most 10-15 years before the close it down.