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PostOct 08, 2009#951

DeBaliviere wrote:
ThreeOneFour wrote:I also understand that with the murder of Gina Stallis, this has been a messy topic at times over the last couple of days, but I think it's difficult to expect people to completely take their emotions out of the equation after such a random and violent crime like this occurred.


The one major difference between this crime and the crime articles that the STLToday posters spout off their nonsense about is that we're all smart enough to know the difference between random and non-random crime. The totally random nature of this incident makes it hit a lot closer to home for most of us than the majority of incidents in which victim and suspect know each other.


Agreed. The rage and desire for justice to be met is one common thread between these comments and STLToday, but other than that I see few other similarities.



On STLToday the KKK sympathizers are pouncing upon this instance to claim that any white person who doesn't move far far away from anyplace with a substantial minority population is begging to be made the next victim.



Some have actually blamed the family themselves for living in that normally quiet neighborhood.



The commenters on this forum realize that the family struck by this crime is one that contributed to the city and worked to make it a better place. It is very disrespectful to the family that worked so hard in the community to use this tragedy to further their anti-city, anti-minority rants.



However, on the issue of capital punishment just being opposed to the death penalty does not mean you are necessarily lenient on murdering thugs. I support the death penalty in cases like this, but I would be just as happy knowing he would never get out of prison (a REAL prison--where he is terrorized and made to do back breaking work)
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PostOct 08, 2009#952

a REAL prison--where he is terrorized and made to do back breaking work)


Is there such a prison. Most prisons have TV, gyms, basketball courts, handball courts, beds to sleep in for hours...etc...etc...They are havens for gangstas to do business and hang with their boyz...If there is a prison that requires back-breaking work, I have never heard of that. I guess the definition of back-breaking work is left to each individual's interpretation.
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PostOct 08, 2009#953

DeBaliviere wrote:The one major difference between this crime and the crime articles that the STLToday posters spout off their nonsense about is that we're all smart enough to know the difference between random and non-random crime. The totally random nature of this incident makes it hit a lot closer to home for most of us than the majority of incidents in which victim and suspect know each other.


Exactly- it is a major difference indeed.



We, the people on this forum, are also smart enough to know that crimes, random or not, can happen anywhere. What I find especially troubling about Ms. Stallis' death, and what I think deserves more attention, is the leniency with which sentences are handed out. She may still be alive today if Mario Coleman received something even remotely close to an appropriate punishment for the crimes he committed. How can we truly be confident in our safety, and how can our city ever turn away the tide of violent crime, if the courts system essentially deposits the rounded-up criminals back on the streets with no more than a slap on the wrist?


DogtownB&R wrote:It also hits very close to home for me when I go by Gina's home everyday, see her sons toys on the porch, see the Halloween decorations on the door and her car out front, knowing that she will never walk into her house with her 2 sons again...for what?? A TV, $90 & some jewelry. Those thugs could have just taken the loot and left without shooting.



It is also hard to stand on my porch and see the family there, cleaning out her house, likely carrying her outfit for the funeral on a hanger. The family hugging out front, friends bringing gifts over ther to console the family while they clean out her house. The candles lit on neighbors porches. Shall I go on.........Maybe if some of you saw this, you'd know why I feel the death penalty should not be illegal.


Wow...I didn't realize you lived so close to Gina. It's been a long time since I last saw her, mostly because my family and I are more active now at Immaculate Heart of Mary (where our son goes to school) than at St. Raymond's Cathedral, although we still attend Mass at both churches alternately.



Because of my church's teachings, I am opposed to the death penalty, and I think there are other problems with it as well (the expense, the lengthy and costly legal challenges, the idea that it's actually an easy way out versus life in prison, and the theory that it may not be the deterrent that it's purported to be). However, when I think of Mario Coleman, I think I could certainly make an exception in his case.
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PostOct 08, 2009#954

^^Agreed. Prisons need to be far more punitive than they are now. Again, I support the death penalty, just trying to play devil's advocate here.



I hate the stereotyping of the opposition that goes with these hot button issues from both sides (i.e. if you are opposed to abortion you are some bible beating hick or if you are opposed to the death penalty you are some criminal coddling 60's liberal)



Regardless of whether or not one is eventually put to death by the state their experience in prison should be one that makes them wish daily they had never ever committed the crime that put them there.
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PostOct 08, 2009#955

Threeonefour wrote:
Wow...I didn't realize you lived so close to Gina. Merely thinking about it all is heartbreaking enough. It's been a long time since I last saw her, mostly because my family and I are more active now at Immaculate Heart of Mary (where our son goes to school) than at St. Raymond's Cathedral, although we still attend Mass at both churches alternately.


Few doors up from me...sad to see the happenings there since this unfortunate incident happened.


However, when I think of Mario Coleman, I think I could certainly make an exception in his case.
=D>
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PostOct 08, 2009#956

According to Charlie Brennan this morning (obviously not an authority, but I am sure he checked these facts), St. Louis city is approaching 100 murders this year (someone on here has the actual number). Know how many murders there are so far this year in Tokyo, a city of an estimated 12-13 MILLION PEOPLE? According to Brennan, there have been eleven murders in Tokyo this year. Eleven. Why is this? Japan has capital punishment too, though I am sure they use it less than we do. What drives this discrepancy? How can we, little old St. Louis, or any other mid-sized American City blow a city the size of Tokyo out of the ***** water year after year after year with our murder rate? I don't get it.
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PostOct 08, 2009#957

DOGTOWNB&R wrote: :roll:


Roll your eyes if you want to, but I also do not support the death penalty. I like to think we can come up with ways that reduce crime by the same amount or more than the death penalty would that do so by a way other than adding to the killing.
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PostOct 08, 2009#958

^Those people respect law and each other. They must perceive us as savages here in the US. C



Comparing the US to any other country regarding crime would produce very inaccurate data. We are a free country,where people can choose to murder and commit crime. We have an enormous population. How many 'true' democracies have as large a population as the US. We also have guns all over our streets, bad drug problems and large metro areas with large poor neighborhoods full of these drugs and gangs. So many factors create the crime issues we have here. I feel more stringent laws and a tougher death penalty would deter some crime. The lack of respect for life is truly scary. Something has to be done. Criminals do not fear prison or our legal system. Watch those Nat Geo shows. Those criminals do not care. That is the prevailing view of the average street criminal.
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PostOct 08, 2009#959

TGE-ATW wrote:According to Charlie Brennan this morning (obviously not an authority, but I am sure he checked these facts), St. Louis city is approaching 100 murders this year (someone on here has the actual number). Know how many murders there are so far this year in Tokyo, a city of an estimated 12-13 MILLION PEOPLE? According to Brennan, there have been eleven murders in Tokyo this year. Eleven. Why is this? Japan has capital punishment too, though I am sure they use it less than we do. What drives this discrepancy? How can we, little old St. Louis, or any other mid-sized American City blow a city the size of Tokyo out of the f***ing water year after year after year with our murder rate? I don't get it.


Because you're comparing apples and oranges. Japan is an ancient country with a large homogeneous population. America is a young country and a big messy melting pot with continued immigration. Plus 20% of our population is decendant from people abducted from their home continent and forced to work as slaves.
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PostOct 08, 2009#960

I get where you're coming from Dogtown and realize that emotions are running high.



That said, your statement that "we are a free country, where people can choose to murder and commit crime" is a bit dramatic. Yes, in extremely repressive governmental systems with homogeneous populations, people fear to commit crime. I get that much. But simply because Americans are "more free" (are we really?) does not explain a higher crime rate.



If anything, our endless devotion to the ideal of the "free market", combined with a longstanding tradition of exclusion based on race/ethnicity, has produced most of the problems. As I said before, Brazil and the U.S. are both very diverse countries, both industrialized, both with incredibly high crime and violent criminals. What it comes down to is that having absolute chasms between the rich and the poor in society is not sustainable. Or, at least, it creates these very-low-to-no-income ghettos that produce desperate people whose only job opportunity is the drug trade or, if they've got a clean record and it's a good economy, some low wage service jobs.



I think the only way to truly curtail crime from the top-down would be repressive laws in which we surrender lots of freedom. You know...like, say, you're not allowed to own a gun under any circumstance and we'll conduct regular searches to seize them. We could revert to public executions (as in, in the street), with beheadings. We could use torture and use the media to indicate that that's the fate of would-be criminals. For 99% of Americans, these measures are horrific, barbaric, and anti-democratic. More than that, these measures seem to suggest the way to stop bloodshed is to shed some blood.



I think that mentality breeds resentment toward government, especially when the impacts of the punishment disproportionately affects one group...as, say, the death penalty does for African-Americans. Moreover, that mentality ignores the fact that most of these kids are literally two steps above braindead. Whether it's drugs, lead paint ingestion, profound underdevelopment emotionally and socially, untreated depression and mental illness resulting from both genetics and upbringing, etc...these are not exactly rational decisions being made. That's different from saying that they're not aware of what they're doing when they commit murder. But I would hardly label these "decisions" in the sense of the rational choice theory.



I personally do not think that the government has any right to take any one's life. If it's a crime for me to do it, it should be a crime for the government too. Murder is murder.
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PostOct 08, 2009#961

The fact that we are a "free country" doesn't cause this sort of problem. Anybody can kill anybody in any society, "free" or not. The things that keep people from doing it are cultural forces such as concepts of morality, taboos, norms, as well as culturally-informed self interest, such as fear of punishment in the real world, or in some form of afterlife. So, from an anthropological standpoint (and this is a problem rooted largely in anthropology and sociology), I am interested in the cultural factors that exert influence over people in non-violent, less-violent, and even more violent societies.



One point I would like to make, and this is not a gun control argument, but I think that a lot of murders (possibly this recent one included) are essentially accidents in the sense that the perpetrators probably would never have had the balls to invade a house full of people like that if they had not been emboldened by their guns, AND, the altercation would almost certainly not have turned fatal if no guns had been present. I am talking about a complete gun vacuum (not advocating it, just gaming it). I contend that if the perps did not have guns, they wouldn't have carried out the crime the way they did, and the murder (let alone the shootings) wouldn't have happened.



Japan is culturally (now) highly pacifist and essentially unarmed--pretty close to a real gun-vacuum. Following WWII, the country was essentially completely disarmed (you can thank SCAP MacArthur for that). Still today, the vast majority of crooks don't have guns and the regular people don't have guns either. (I know, I know, they are all powerless to resist the oppression of a tyrannical government, but stay focused on the crime aspect; they do not have our legitimate fear of only the criminals being armed). As a result, petty criminals (unorganized robbers, burglars, etc) think twice about putting themselves in a situation where they could be physically harmed because they do not have the asymmetrical power advantage conferred by a gun. Even if they do decide to commit a crime that has the potential to turn violent, the chances of somebody dying as a result are greatly reduced when no guns are involved. In the USA, criminals are empowered by the possession of a gun; they feel safer because of it and therefore are more likely to put themselves in a potentially violent situation because the chances of THEM getting hurt are reduced. The more potentially violent situations that occur, the greater the chance for violence. When things get violent, it is much more likely that somebody will end up on ice if a gun is present than if it isn't. Not saying that we can or should become Japan, or we can/should disarm, but it is an interesting study.
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PostOct 08, 2009#962

That said, your statement that "we are a free country, where people can choose to murder and commit crime" is a bit dramatic


I think by free, I mean that our legal system has so many loopholes, that the consequences do not deter the criminal. What is the worse case scenario for the average murderer, life in prison, off the mean streets and he/she will likely live instead of dying. In the rare occasion death many years later. What is there to deter crime, when you can get away with a lot of things in the hood? It is a war zone and that hardened mentality comes to fruition with the Mario Coleman's of the world. Does it have to do completely with democracy, no. I was off in my wording. Does it have to do with a broken legal system, gun 'outof'control, drugs and social disparity, yes...It just so happens that our country harbors some of the most violent criminals on the planet. How many more innocent people have to die, before people demand and achieve change. Analyzing this issue back to the days of slavery or at all, does not fix the current mess we are in. Are these problems going to destroy this country someday, as our population swells over the next 50 years???
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PostOct 08, 2009#963

Yes. yes they will.
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PostOct 08, 2009#964

For what it's worth, I am truly terrified, not due to random violence, but due to what I sense is a seething rage in the general populace at all of "this", and not just here in St. Louis. We are fighting two wars on the other side of the planet and it's starting to look like a quagmire, due yet again to OUR elected officials. We are printing more money than we ever have before, tax revenues are declining, Communist China is buying up all our debt... for now, Gold is over $1,000.00 an ounce, sound financial minds are expecting hyper-inflation (the likes of which most of us have never seen), baby-boomers have seen their savings wiped out, the younger generation can't get jobs, gun sales are through the roof, you can't buy ammo, government bail out after bail out, waterboarding, wiretapping, TSA strip searches, health care debacles, software companies that refuse to open their e-voting machines, ACORN scandals, Tea-baggers, Belleville school assault, Chicago murder of students, and the other radicals on both sides fueling the fire with their outside extremest views, all the while people like me with their tin-foil hat are sitting here watching this unfold.



People, this is how revolutions start. This horrific act is the type of catalyst that gets the majority of the ordinary, middle-class, people enraged enough to go absolutely apesh*t. That's what scares me most, is that we have let this occur, because we as a people have failed in our DUTY as citizens to hold our government accountable to US. People are slowing awakening to this and the more they see, the angrier they'll get. Eventually, somewhere something will happen and I fear that it may tap into that seething rage and explode.



I hope to God I'm wrong and that we can come to our senses before some mindless sh*t starts raining down around us.

PostOct 08, 2009#965

Oh my God... surely this has to be wrong...



Another Judge Riley Case:



0722-CR02624-01



Date: 03/17/2007 Code: 3249500 Disposition: Guilty Plea - 09/18/2007

Description: Trafficking In Drugs In The Second Degree { Felony A RSMo: 195.223 }

Sentence: Suspended Imposition of Sent.

Sentence Date: 09/18/2007 Start Date: 09/18/2007 Length: 3 Years

Text: The Court suspends imposition of sentence. Defendant placed on probation for a period of three years under the supervision of MBPP to run CC with count II

Start Date: 09/18/2007 Assigned Length: 3 Years Completed Date: 01/07/2008



Description: Possession Of Controlled Substance Except 35 Grams Or Less Of Marijuana { Felony C RSMo: 195.202 }

Sentence Date: 09/18/2007 Start Date: 09/18/2007 Length: 3 Years

Text: The Court suspends imposition of sentence. Defendant placed on probation for a period of three years under supervision of the MBPP to run CC with count I

Outcome: Suspended

Start Date: 09/18/2007 Assigned Length: 3 Years Completed Date: 01/07/2008





AND THEN...

0922-CR02900-01

Date: 06/08/2009 Code: 1201000

Description: Robbery - 1st Degree { Felony A RSMo: 569.020 }

Description: Armed Criminal Action { Felony Unclassified RSMo: 571.015 }

Description: Robbery - 1st Degree { Felony A RSMo: 569.020 }

Description: Armed Criminal Action { Felony Unclassified RSMo: 571.015 }

Description: Robbery - 1st Degree { Felony A RSMo: 569.020 }

Description: Armed Criminal Action { Felony Unclassified RSMo: 571.015 }

Description: Robbery - 1st Degree { Felony A RSMo: 569.020 }

Description: Armed Criminal Action { Felony Unclassified RSMo: 571.015 }

Description: Robbery - 1st Degree { Felony A RSMo: 569.020 }

Description: Armed Criminal Action { Felony Unclassified RSMo: 571.015 }

Description: Robbery - 1st Degree { Felony A RSMo: 569.020 }

Description: Armed Criminal Action { Felony Unclassified RSMo: 571.015 }

Description: Robbery - 1st Degree { Felony A RSMo: 569.020 }

Description: Armed Criminal Action { Felony Unclassified RSMo: 571.015 }

Description: Robbery - 1st Degree { Felony A RSMo: 569.020 }

Description: Armed Criminal Action { Felony Unclassified RSMo: 571.015 }

Description: Robbery - 1st Degree { Felony A RSMo: 569.020 }

Description: Armed Criminal Action { Felony Unclassified RSMo: 571.015 }

Description: Robbery - 1st Degree { Felony A RSMo: 569.020 }

Description: Armed Criminal Action { Felony Unclassified RSMo: 571.015 }

Description: Atmp-Robbery - 1st Degree { Felony B RSMo: 569.020/564.011 }

Description: Armed Criminal Action { Felony Unclassified RSMo: 571.015 }

Description: Robbery - 1st Degree { Felony A RSMo: 569.020 }

Description: Armed Criminal Action { Felony Unclassified RSMo: 571.015 }

Description: Robbery - 1st Degree { Felony A RSMo: 569.020 }

Description: Armed Criminal Action { Felony Unclassified RSMo: 571.015 }

Description: Robbery - 1st Degree { Felony A RSMo: 569.020 }

Description: Armed Criminal Action { Felony Unclassified RSMo: 571.015 }

Description: Robbery - 1st Degree { Felony A RSMo: 569.020 }

Description: Armed Criminal Action { Felony Unclassified RSMo: 571.015 }

Description: Robbery - 1st Degree { Felony A RSMo: 569.020 }

Description: Armed Criminal Action { Felony Unclassified RSMo: 571.015 }

Description: Robbery - 1st Degree { Felony A RSMo: 569.020 }

Description: Armed Criminal Action { Felony Unclassified RSMo: 571.015 }

Description: Robbery - 1st Degree { Felony A RSMo: 569.020 }

Description: Armed Criminal Action { Felony Unclassified RSMo: 571.015 }



Please tell me I'm seeing things wrong here...
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PostOct 09, 2009#966

gopher wrote:For what it's worth, I am truly terrified, not due to random violence, but due to what I sense is a seething rage in the general populace at all of "this", and not just here in St. Louis. We are fighting two wars on the other side of the planet and it's starting to look like a quagmire, due yet again to OUR elected officials. We are printing more money than we ever have before, tax revenues are declining, Communist China is buying up all our debt... for now, Gold is over $1,000.00 an ounce, sound financial minds are expecting hyper-inflation (the likes of which most of us have never seen), baby-boomers have seen their savings wiped out, the younger generation can't get jobs, gun sales are through the roof, you can't buy ammo, government bail out after bail out, waterboarding, wiretapping, TSA strip searches, health care debacles, software companies that refuse to open their e-voting machines, ACORN scandals, Tea-baggers, Belleville school assault, Chicago murder of students, and the other radicals on both sides fueling the fire with their outside extremest views, all the while people like me with their tin-foil hat are sitting here watching this unfold.



People, this is how revolutions start. This horrific act is the type of catalyst that gets the majority of the ordinary, middle-class, people enraged enough to go absolutely apesh*t. That's what scares me most, is that we have let this occur, because we as a people have failed in our DUTY as citizens to hold our government accountable to US. People are slowing awakening to this and the more they see, the angrier they'll get. Eventually, somewhere something will happen and I fear that it may tap into that seething rage and explode.



I hope to God I'm wrong and that we can come to our senses before some mindless sh*t starts raining down around us.


I hear what you're saying, but to give you some perspective let's look at what America had to face in the first part of the 20th Century--Jim Crow laws, child labor, unsafe working conditions, unsanitary cities, tyrants emerging in Europe, riots and violence towards a burgeoning immigrant population, etc., etc.



Billy Joel had a point when he sang "the good ole days weren't always good and tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems".



I know this is getting terribly off topic, but on a rainy glum day just remember to keep your chin up and focus on the positive. And ignore those folks on the radio who make millions with a constant stream of outrage and nostalgia for an America that never really existed.
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PostOct 09, 2009#967

As my Australian buddy told me, "If Blagojevich had done that in Australia, they'd be outside his house day and night until they locked him up."



In America, he roams free, signing book deals and traveling the TV circuit with a set trial date of June 3, 2010 - arrest date December 9, 2008). Land of the free.



A revolution is upon us. Or not. But I hope so.
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PostOct 09, 2009#968

gopher wrote:For what it's worth, I am truly terrified, not due to random violence, but due to what I sense is a seething rage in the general populace at all of "this", and not just here in St. Louis. We are fighting two wars on the other side of the planet and it's starting to look like a quagmire, due yet again to OUR elected officials. We are printing more money than we ever have before, tax revenues are declining, Communist China is buying up all our debt... for now, Gold is over $1,000.00 an ounce, sound financial minds are expecting hyper-inflation (the likes of which most of us have never seen), baby-boomers have seen their savings wiped out, the younger generation can't get jobs, gun sales are through the roof, you can't buy ammo, government bail out after bail out, waterboarding, wiretapping, TSA strip searches, health care debacles, software companies that refuse to open their e-voting machines, ACORN scandals, Tea-baggers, Belleville school assault, Chicago murder of students, and the other radicals on both sides fueling the fire with their outside extremest views, all the while people like me with their tin-foil hat are sitting here watching this unfold.



People, this is how revolutions start. This horrific act is the type of catalyst that gets the majority of the ordinary, middle-class, people enraged enough to go absolutely apesh*t. That's what scares me most, is that we have let this occur, because we as a people have failed in our DUTY as citizens to hold our government accountable to US. People are slowing awakening to this and the more they see, the angrier they'll get. Eventually, somewhere something will happen and I fear that it may tap into that seething rage and explode.



I hope to God I'm wrong and that we can come to our senses before some mindless sh*t starts raining down around us.




calm down
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PostOct 09, 2009#969

JuiceInDogtown wrote:As my Australian buddy told me, "If Blagojevich had done that in Australia, they'd be outside his house day and night until they locked him up."



In America, he roams free, signing book deals and traveling the TV circuit with a set trial date of June 3, 2010 - arrest date December 9, 2008). Land of the free.



A revolution is upon us. Or not. But I hope so.


Why? Because you are still sore you lost an election?



Blago was removed from office by impeachment under the terms of the Illinois consititution. He didn't use the state police to hold onto his office like tinpot dictators do. He'll get his day in court and likely do at least some prison time.
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PostOct 09, 2009#970

gopher wrote:For what it's worth, I am truly terrified, not due to random violence, but due to what I sense is a seething rage in the general populace at all of "this", and not just here in St. Louis. We are fighting two wars on the other side of the planet and it's starting to look like a quagmire, due yet again to OUR elected officials. We are printing more money than we ever have before, tax revenues are declining, Communist China is buying up all our debt... for now, Gold is over $1,000.00 an ounce, sound financial minds are expecting hyper-inflation (the likes of which most of us have never seen), baby-boomers have seen their savings wiped out, the younger generation can't get jobs, gun sales are through the roof, you can't buy ammo, government bail out after bail out, waterboarding, wiretapping, TSA strip searches, health care debacles, software companies that refuse to open their e-voting machines, ACORN scandals, Tea-baggers, Belleville school assault, Chicago murder of students, and the other radicals on both sides fueling the fire with their outside extremest views, all the while people like me with their tin-foil hat are sitting here watching this unfold.



People, this is how revolutions start. This horrific act is the type of catalyst that gets the majority of the ordinary, middle-class, people enraged enough to go absolutely apesh*t. That's what scares me most, is that we have let this occur, because we as a people have failed in our DUTY as citizens to hold our government accountable to US. People are slowing awakening to this and the more they see, the angrier they'll get. Eventually, somewhere something will happen and I fear that it may tap into that seething rage and explode.



I hope to God I'm wrong and that we can come to our senses before some mindless sh*t starts raining down around us.


You obviously live in a different world than I do. Not saying none of those things on your list do not and have not happened, but nothing out of the ordinary is going on these days. It's all happened before and we pulled through just fine. Maybe I'm just more optimistic in my daily life than some others are.
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PostOct 09, 2009#971

dweebe wrote:
TGE-ATW wrote:According to Charlie Brennan this morning (obviously not an authority, but I am sure he checked these facts), St. Louis city is approaching 100 murders this year (someone on here has the actual number). Know how many murders there are so far this year in Tokyo, a city of an estimated 12-13 MILLION PEOPLE? According to Brennan, there have been eleven murders in Tokyo this year. Eleven. Why is this? Japan has capital punishment too, though I am sure they use it less than we do. What drives this discrepancy? How can we, little old St. Louis, or any other mid-sized American City blow a city the size of Tokyo out of the f***ing water year after year after year with our murder rate? I don't get it.


Because you're comparing apples and oranges. Japan is an ancient country with a large homogeneous population. America is a young country and a big messy melting pot with continued immigration. Plus 20% of our population is decendant from people abducted from their home continent and forced to work as slaves.


I am not comparing them, I am intrigued by a comparison of them. If I read your answer right, the US has more murders because we are only 233 years old, we have people of different races here, and the 144 year old legacy of slavery makes people kill each other. Interesting take.
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PostOct 09, 2009#972

How about a general lack of personal responsibility or honor?
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PostOct 09, 2009#973

And now, it's time for some predictable excuse making. That should make our streets safer... :roll:


Suspect in deadly home invasion had 3 convictions



By Carolyn Tuft

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

10/09/2009



ST. LOUIS -- A man accused of terrorizing a family in a deadly home invasion had three felony convictions but avoided long incarceration because they were non-violent offenses, a prosecutor said Thursday.



Relatives of the nurse killed in the crime, Gina Stallis, 34, were bitter that the justice system failed them, her uncle said after a funeral attended by at least 500 people, including Mayor Francis Slay.



“He shouldn’t have even been out of prison to do this,” said the uncle, Mark Whitrock. “His judge should be held accountable. It’s time the judges wake up and change things. This is out of control.”



Continue reading>>>


The judge responsible for this pathetic attempt at justice finds it unethical to speak about this situation. Well, that's just great, since I find it unethical to let a lowlife thug like Mario Coleman back onto the streets after multiple felony convictions.



Here's our so-called justice system at work: Coleman was first convicted of burglary, for which he received a suspended imposition of sentence with probation. That, IMHO, is outrageous enough, but what's even more troublesome is the fact that Coleman was not considered to be a felon after receiving the SIS. So then, when he was charged with unlawful use of a weapon less than two years into the initial probation period, he received another suspended sentence and another two years of probation, and once again, he was not considered to be a felon!



Let me get this straight: Coleman committed two felony crimes, one of which was during a probationary period. The "solution" was more probation, followed by 120 days "shock incarceration", which is probably every bit as gimmicky and ineffective as it sounds. Had he been sentenced to actual prison time, he wouldn't have had a chance to commit the second offense, and Gina Stallis would still be alive. So as a poster on the Coptalk forums said, this practice (which isn't all that uncommon according to people I've talked with in law enforcement) is like yelling "Stop in the name of the law, or I'll have to yell stop again!".



So does anyone want to reassure me now that the streets of St. Louis are no less safe than they are in other places? I realize violent crime, even rare and random occurrences like this tragedy, can happen anywhere. I also love St. Louis, plan to stay here indefinitely, and I desperately want it to succeed. But how can the SLMPD ever turn the tide of violent crime in St. Louis even if they do all they can to make the streets safer, only for the so-called justice system to turn jail cells into revolving doors that simply deposit thugs like Mario Coleman back onto the streets? I think it's time to revisit Missouri statutes that make these loopholes possible, or the SLMPD's ongoing efforts to fight violent crime may be all for naught.
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PostOct 09, 2009#974

I am certain that overcrowding in the prisons plays a large role in the light sentences/use of SIS and "probation" for offenders that really should be incarcerated. Therefore, release every person in jail for a non-violent marijuana-related "crime." Use the newly created space to lock up creatures who have been found guilty of burglary and weapons violations like mario coleman so they can't kill innocent people.
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PostOct 09, 2009#975

TGE-ATW wrote:I am certain that overcrowding in the prisons plays a large role in the light sentences/use of SIS and "probation" for offenders that really should be incarcerated. Therefore, release every person in jail for a non-violent marijuana-related "crime." Use the newly created space to lock up creatures who have been found guilty of burglary and weapons violations like mario coleman so they can't kill innocent people.


100% agree! Weapons charges need to get you automatic jail time.



I'll vote for any politician with the nards to be in favor of decriminalization of marijuana laws!
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