urbanSTL

bonwich wrote:

gary kreie wrote:What benefit do we get from being accredited?

Our criminals can graduate to federal offenses without having to take any tests.

I guess that is one way to cut down on crime. The state will not let you become a professional criminal without a license.

framer wrote:^Ouch. No offense, but that sounds more like a Scrutinizer joke.

CS and I have both dined on the crux of the biscuit.

gary kreie wrote:What benefit do we get from being accredited?

Lawsuit protection for the department (you can sue the officer, but it is much harder to sue the department when they are accredited), much lower department insurance rates, lower homeowner insurance rates.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metr ... 326ab.html

Well, here we are at the crossroads. Dutchtown can go the way of the Northside or it won't. Which do you prefer? The murder of the old Asian man and the home invasion killing of the newspaper editor who moved to Dutchtown from St. Peters were enough to get people in action.

Dutchtown - first in robberies, burglaries and auto thefts. The reason it's first in those categories is because there are still some people there left to terrorize.

Dutchtown is pivotal. It sets the tone for what will happen to lots of other areas on the South Side in the future, imo.

To me, whoever takes Dutchtown takes the City.

It certainly feels like we are teetering on the edge. We'll see what this summer brings.

But I can tell you that there are still a lot of people left who care -- honestly, most of them care a lot more than I do. I'm just too cynical.

But the point is, there are a lot of people who care, and who are doing all they can. But what do they really need to do? It's twofold. Drive out the human trash, and simultaneously attract decent, law-abiding home buyers. We can all do our part to keep our property up and keep our streets clean. But every day I have to walk out front and clean up cigarette wrappers, empty soda bottles and rap snacks bags. Those are my favorite. But now, with all this bad press, how are they going to get anyone to buy and fix up any of these properties?

There has been a big jump in car breakins in Soulard recently. As you mentioned they have been more random and destructive than we are used to seeing. The thieves have been breaking into cars that don't have any visible valuables, or breaking out a window and not stealing anything at all.

On a related note the Soulard Restoration Group is having a neighborhood watch seminar on June 22nd for anyone that would like to get involved. The SRG is trying to start a program similar to the ones in Lafayette Square and Dutchtown.

Ha! If you wanted to borrow my car Count, you could have just asked!

Man shot at Malles Sunday night...actually the dark parking lot across the street.
These bars need to have security, period! Thugs prey on people in vulnerable places, like this parking lot. Bad news for this area...

http://www.kmov.com/news/local/Man-shot ... 77799.html

If you thought Quitno was bad, you'd better pray this doesn't go national:

Three Marines attacked downtown

jmstokes wrote:

bonwich wrote:If you thought Quitno was bad, you'd better pray this doesn't go national:

Three Marines attacked downtown

Didn't happen. Piss poor reporting by KSDK.

I'm not doubting you, but care to elaborate?

bonwich wrote:

jmstokes wrote:

bonwich wrote:If you thought Quitno was bad, you'd better pray this doesn't go national:

Three Marines attacked downtown

Didn't happen. Piss poor reporting by KSDK.

I'm not doubting you, but care to elaborate?

"Talked to the Marines this AM. A Marine was NOT stabbed in Downtown St. Louis. Erroneous reporting." - a tweet from Kara Bowlin, Slay's press secretary about an hour ago.

Stay tuned. That Tweet may be disingenuous, or it may simply have been constrained by the character limit.

The latest from the P-D:Slay aide questions Marines' story

A couple of excerpts:

By Wednesday morning, the police description of the incident had changed from a robbery and stabbing to a robbery alone. The knife that stabbed the victim in the first report "poked" him in the second, an injury so minor it didn't require medical attention. Police added attribution to every sentence in the second release, pointing out this was what the Marines said, not what they had found in their investigation.

Through the morning Wednesday, Rainford went on the offensive, posting messages on Twitter that challenged broadcast news stories.

"Not sure how this made the news," he wrote to the radio station KMOX's report. "But it didn't happen."

"Did not happen," he wrote two minutes later, to the television station KSDK.

By 11 a.m. Wednesday, Rainford had posted five times on the subject, each message more incredulous than the last. The final message read: "The marine was not stabbed. Two of the three of them were too drunk to even know what happened."

And I'd like to see this fleshed out more:

This is far from the first time city officials have gone on the offensive to combat bad publicity about crime.

Rainford has a perennial spat with crime-ranking publisher Morgan Quitno Press, which has dubbed St. Louis the country's "most dangerous city" more than once.

In 2004, Rainford called Morgan Quitno "charlatans." In 2005, it was "worthless." And in 2006, when St. Louis was named the most dangerous city on the day of the Cardinals' 2006 World Series parade, Rainford branded the company president "this guy who's working in his pajamas and his bare feet in his mother's basement on his PC."

In the aftermath, business leaders said a company bringing 1,500 jobs to St. Louis changed its mind, and a major convention had to be persuaded to stay.

I have a difficult time believing CQ press was the sole determining factor in moving 1500 jobs to the city; I might believe the convention. Either might have been using the negative press to try and work a better deal. But that's an intriguing statement, and IMO one that that's worthy of more attention than a casual mention in a story about a mugging of a couple of drunk kids that may or may not have been armed.

-RBB

The STL media is a joke and should be embarrassed by this episode. They are a weakness in this city and I wonder if they will ever realize it.

downtown2007 wrote:The STL media is a joke and should be embarrassed by this episode. They are a weakness in this city and I wonder if they will ever realize it.

Yeah, the "media" ought to be really embarrassed for directly reporting what was contained in a police report.

And the Slay administration shouldn't be embarrassed for saying that a robbery, which the CHIEF OF POLICE says happened right in the middle of downtown, "didn't happen."

This is, by the way, the second significant crime that has occurred pretty much out in the open in the area in front of Union Station. So you're a convention planner and you're considering a convention that will cause delegates to be spread out from the Hyatt to the Union Station hotel. What do you tell them -- don't walk between the two hotels late at night?

What about if you're staying at Union Station and you've got one of those 5:30 am trains out or one of the 12:30 a.m. trains in. Do you tell people not to walk to their hotel?

Not to mention: These three guys reported a crime, and up to this point, except for the Chief, it appears that everyone who has been quoted in City government has been treating them as having been the wrongdoers.

They got drunk, were asked they wanted to purchase a watch, mouth off to the watch salesmen, and even though they are supposed to be experts on hand to hand combat got their butts whopped. It's was a drunken fight that happens daily across America. As more and more info comes out the Marines look worse and city hall looks right in the eyes of people covering the story.

The reason a big deal was made about this is because it draws a lot of attention and is very cheap for news outlets to produce. High margin story that shouldn't have been a story.

Yeah, the "media" ought to be really embarrassed for directly reporting what was contained in a police report.

KSDK reported a stabbing, which wasn't the case, so while City Hall maybe be going a little overboard (and who can blame them), you're telling me the reporting by KSDK was accurate and correct and in no way sensationalist or "disingenuous"?

Knowing this story could have consequences, KSDK should have investigated further and got the whole story before putting it on their website.

From what I saw yesterday, the Post didn't have the story on their website until they had additional facts that were missing from the KSDK story...like someone actually decided to get more information before posting it for the world to see.

So, setting your disdain for city officials aside and the chip on your shoulder, I'm confused how you can be so outraged by their spin when KSDK's reporting was inaccurate as well.

KSDK really messed up and should be called on it. And City Officials shouldn't be saying things didn't happen that did. I see mistakes all around and plenty of blame for all parties involved for the way this story has been handled.

All that said, it's still a shame these men got mugged, Marines or not. Sometimes it seems like the trash is just never going to go away.

There is no positive spin for this story, but there's a huge difference between someone getting mugged and someone getting stabbed.

downtown2007 wrote:They got drunk, were asked they wanted to purchase a watch, mouth off to the watch salesmen, and even though they are supposed to be experts on hand to hand combat got their butts whopped. It's was a drunken fight that happens daily across America. As more and more info comes out the Marines look worse and city hall looks right in the eyes of people covering the story.

The reason a big deal was made about this is because it draws a lot of attention and is very cheap for news outlets to produce. High margin story that shouldn't have been a story.

FWIW, most Marines aren't experts in hand to hand combat. They've all had training, but only to a minimal extent. Although the mugging was unfortunate, much worse things happen to Marines off their bases in Camp Pendleton, Camp Lejeune, etc. So, it seems this has been overblown by many parties. I agree with a lot of what bonwich says though. I think Rainford was overly sensitive but can sympathize with him.

I believe Marine Week was in Boston and NYC in prior years. I don't doubt for a minute that similar incidents may have happened there but would not have been reported unless there was a serious injury. I don't fault the media for reporting a "stabbing" as that is what the police report said, but it is an indication of our small-marketness that this is what passes as major news for our town.

I think Charlie Brennan was on target this morning.... walking around drunk in any downtown is an invitation for trouble but Rainford shouldn't be publicly blaming the Marines. The city's message should have been thankfulness that nobody was hurt and remind the public that public drunkenness late at night is not a safe practice.