urbanSTL

audac1ty wrote: Yeah, I assumed that would be the controversial part of it. Personally, I have no problem with people paying for a level of police service that they desire. Make it all fee-for-service as far as I'm concerned. I realize however that that's not a typical or mainstream position.

Aside from the issue of saying that poor people don't deserve police service, what happens when the adjacent neighborhood becomes a den of heroin gangs or whatever kids do these days? A checkerboard of disconnected police services is not in anyone's best interest.

I hope that these multiple homicides are not becoming a trend here in St.Louis.
The vacant blighted homes act as a sanctuary for these kinds of sick minded people who kill at will.
At the end of the day their dirty deed has hurt every hard working St.Louisan.
Thats why i think getting more immigrant migrants to invest in North St.Louis could curb such cowardly acts as these senseless slayings of people
North St.Louis has too much blight harboring these criminals that give them ample amount of time to do what they need to do.

MarkHaversham wrote: Aside from the issue of saying that poor people don't deserve police service, what happens when the adjacent neighborhood becomes a den of heroin gangs or whatever kids do these days? A checkerboard of disconnected police services is not in anyone's best interest.

Well, IMO, no one deserves any services they don't pay for, police or otherwise, but that's a different argument altogether.

I think that, practically speaking, it almost makes sense to consolidate security (public or private) in areas that are already thriving and make them as safe as reasonably possible. Once those areas gain a reputation for low crime and high economic activity, people will be more willing to move in and, in theory, the "good" areas slowly expand and gentrify the "bad" areas.

Having a half-assed police force spread too thin to actually do anything because half the city doesn't generate enough revenue to actually pay for one doesn't help anyone in the long run. In the past month alone there have been multiple muggings and a carjacking on the same block as my office in the CWE. That's unacceptable in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the city.

Whether or not someone can afford to pay for the police has more to do with the structure of society than their own personal choices, so it doesn't make any sense to say that someone doesn't deserve services they can't afford. St. Louis' history of institutional racism is to blame for people's inability to afford basic services. You can't wall people off in a poor ghetto and then complain that those people don't earn enough to pay their fair share. The wealth that exists in St. Louis has been earned in large part by exploiting those people to whom the wealthy don't wish to provide decent services.

MarkHaversham wrote:Whether or not someone can afford to pay for the police has more to do with the structure of society than their own personal choices, so it doesn't make any sense to say that someone doesn't deserve services they can't afford. St. Louis' history of institutional racism is to blame for people's inability to afford basic services. You can't wall people off in a poor ghetto and then complain that those people don't earn enough to pay their fair share. The wealth that exists in St. Louis has been earned in large part by exploiting those people to whom the wealthy don't wish to provide decent services.

or you can just choose to live in a walkable suburb.

^^ reason a Maryland Heights Capt. is commenting is because he was the lead for the Major Case Squad

http://www.majorcasesquadstl.org/#home

Which is the best current example that one unified police force could work

Turns out it spans the Big Muddy as well.

Meanwhile, in West St. Louis County:

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crim ... 054b2.html

Wonder how much violent crime would drop if the region stopped buying drugs in the city. Yet another special responsibility the region bequeathes onto the city and then wonders why the city spends so much and can't get crime under control.

NYT - Crime Spike in St. Louis Traced to Cheap Heroin and Mexican Cartels

On one recent afternoon, young men moved quickly from parked car to parked car as part of prearranged meetings. They passed small packages wrapped in wax paper through open windows in exchange for handfuls of cash. In fewer than five minutes, the line of cars — some with Illinois and Kentucky license plates — and the dealers were gone.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/03/us/cr ... rtels.html

Interesting trends.
I wanted to look into homicides during the warmer months in the city.
The below graph shows the difference between each month and that years January. For example, June 2009 had 11 more homicides than January 2009. Interesting how quickly that trend changed between 2011 and 2012. In 2011, every month saw more homicides than January of that year. In 2013, only one month had more homicides than January.

http://m.kmov.com/article.html#!/116862 ... 9dac0e121d

Just a reminder that Illinois plates does not mean they are from Illinois. In the hood, it is very common to get plated in Illinois and avoid the fees in Missouri. It is much easier and faster in Illinois. Big problem that nobody seems to care about.

^^Avoiding missouri personal property tax is also very common in West County and more affluent neighborhoods as well as at Lake of The Ozarks where $500k+ boats are common place.

moorlander wrote:^^Avoiding missouri personal property tax is also very common in West County and more affluent neighborhoods as well as at Lake of The Ozarks where $500k+ boats are common place.

Yes.

Yep. Definitely not just a crime perpetuated by low-income people. I know plenty of people who could afford to pay the tax who find a way around it through a relative or some such thing.

Am I wrong to call it a crime?

They got Capone for not paying his taxes.

What the hell?


Person wounded in shooting on Wash. Univ. Danforth Campus
http://fox2now.com/2016/04/20/wash-univ ... son-alert/

^ Shooting inside the WashU bubble. Definitely not good. One of the few institutions in STL that can attract people from outside the region to live, work, and study here.

One of the tweets says it was a Cherry Tree Cafe employee that was hit not a student. Either way I hope they're ok. And I hope they weren't up to no good.

^ Source?