Other than what has been described as an "assault" on a 15-year old, it's not clear to me what actually happened to necessitate the arrest of 25 people. Did all twenty-five people assault the 15-year old? Was the "assault" actually horse-playing and the police over-reacted.
^I agree. Why can't people visit downtown just for the atmosphere, scenery and to people watch? Why must they be a "legitimate customer" for any business? Now, if the teens are causing problems for other visitors and businesses - I get it. Purge the troublemakers.
Purge them from downtown or any other neighborhood. They need to understand that they must behave themselves.
While I was not there, for twenty-five people to be arrested seems like a overreaction dragnet. To what extent were 25 people involved? Was the "assault" between a few people and the rest observed? Did they all participate?
Not that the police are wrong, because they are damned if they do, and damned if they don't, however it would be interesting to hear the teens side of the events.
arch city wrote:Other than what has been described as an "assault" on a 15-year old, it's not clear to me what actually happened to necessitate the arrest of 25 people. Did all twenty-five people assault the 15-year old? Was the "assault" actually horse-playing and the police over-reacted.
The story is very vague.
In my experience if police want to arrest you, they'll find an excuse.
My guess is they were worried about the crowd becoming unruly, shades of the Delmar Loop a couple years ago, Wash Ave last year, etc. Probably just trying to nip this sort of activity in the bud before summer comes. At least I hope that's what's happening.
yikes... and the Klan descends on the comments. some lovely people out there in the St. Louis exurbs.
It's pitiful how cowardly some of those people are, saying the things they're saying under the banner of anonymity. I feel like if you really want to speak your mind, you should at least have to put your name with it so that society can judge you accordingly and you can live with the consequences thereof.
At any rate, as a downtown resident, I'm glad that the police are cracking down hard on this behavior.
Okay now it's clearer to me since more media reports have covered the incidents.
The LaClede's Landing incident was stupid. Just stupid. One person or a few people can ruin it for everyone. If I were the parent of the shooter or marijuana possessor, violence would have begotten violence because I would have whupped their asses. I then would have called juvenile authorities on them myself.
Regarding the latest incident near Broadway, if they were blocking sidewalks as well as disturbing the peace by fighting or by observing and/or instigating a fight - they should have been purged from downtown.
While I don't always trust police actions, I say bravo to them for quelling the disturbance.
Great move by the police. Set the tone that this crap will NOT be tolerated before the summer months kick in and it escalates into something more serious. Kudos to Dotson.
As a downtown property owner it is paramount that our visitors feel safe and comfortable. No tolerance for anything less.
A warm springlike day is a great for getting out and connecting with your neighbors and trading stories about all the criminal activity that happened on your block during those cold months when everyone was cooped up inside.
Just an update with comparison of previous year:
5,562 index crimes have been reported through March 2013; 5,687 through March 2012. The difference is largely due to crimes against persons, which declined 20% from the previous year. However, a 10% increase in larceny (e.g. car break-ins) swallowed a lot of that decline. In headline crimes, homicide is holding steady, rape is up, robbery (both armed and regular) are down a good bit. April is usually a slow month for homicide and that held true for April 2013; the rain and cold might depress the May numbers a bit.
That doesn't necessarily depress larcenies though, as I have a personal anecdote of a friend who had her car broken into during the downpour a couple nights ago in Clifton Heights. Seriously, who breaks into beat up Corollas for a tape deck stereo in the middle of a rainstorm?
It's great that there is such a thing as STL-TV but it's time for this to go full-time streaming online and get some more cops in the city to stop these fools from crawling in my neighbor's windows and send them to jail or Spanish Lake or something.
I'm happy to see Slay is doing what he can on this issue but the staid bureaucracy is being resistant.
^ this is a tough one. 13 more cops would be nice, but I am of the camp that citizen engagement is extremely important and the City has a long way to go. What I'd like to see is a thorough review of how that money from license fees could best be used to inform citizens, perhaps by reallocating some of that money that currently goes to the station to IT investments so that the city can put more streaming, documents and functions online. Perhaps if people and companies can do business with the city more efficiently as a result, we also may have more tax revenue to go to more police.
I like how the article link is outdated since additional shooting sunday night.
I have seen MULTIPLE articles during the past 4 months on these crazy weekends in Chicago. But of course Chicago will not be ranked as a crime city at all since they dont report their numbers.
Is it time to stop reporting our crime stats so we are not longer ranked? How much money do we actually get for reporting the #s to the FBI?
