As a young girl laid in her bed, butterflies swarmed in her belly with anticipation of the first day of school that awaits when she opens her eyes. A freshman no more, young Shaneick Golden would be starting her sophomore year at the V.
But her dreams of walking the halls of Vashon were violently interrupted when a loud noise and a sharp pain opened the 15-year-old’s eyes. A bullet pierced her back as she slept on her living room couch. By nothing less than the grace of God, the hot metal stopped short of her heart and lodged tight in her ribs — too close, the doctors say, to safely remove. So when young Golden does finally make it to school for her first day, she will carry with her, inside her, a bullet and a reminder that in her neighborhood there is no safe place from the terror of the gunmen that run the streets of north St. Louis.
My story today is not about the violence that is all too common in our city, and which has unfortunately defined St. Louis for many, many people. My story today is about the response to that senseless violence, a response that is too common, and which has unfortunately defined St. Louis for many, many people.
“They don’t care. Point blank,” says a neighbor of mine, not specifically about Golden’s shooting, but whenever we discuss the city’s response to the violence that plagues our neighborhood.
“They don’t give a fuck unless it happens to them, in their neighborhoods,” he says.
If you believe the responses to the story of Golden’s shooting on the daily newspaper’s website, you’d have to agree with my neighbor’s pessimistic assessment.
“This is a cultural problem wherein thug behavior is lauded and cooperation with the authorities is frowned upon,” writes “CrabbyAbby” at STLToday.com. “Until the residents of these neighborhoods rise up united against thugs, gangs, druggies, etc. and let them know they will report the criminal, no longer be intimitated or paid off with dirty money, and take back their neighborhoods, these daily shootings will continue.”
“Rise up against the thugs”? CrabbyAbby is expressing a point of view that is common among people who do not live in these areas. It is a view that is often expressed in the comments section of this website too when I write about city violence. It is the view that northside violence is northsiders’ problem and exists because northsiders don’t take control of (and responsibility for) their neighborhoods and their violent neighbors.
This view is both ignorant and offensive. In hearing it, I can imagine how the average Iraqi feels when he hears American leaders on television saying that Iraqis need to get their act together and get a functioning Democracy in place ASAP, that they need to hurry up and get their infrastructure rebuilt so the country has 24-hour electricity, that they need to hurry up and end the government corruption so aid money directly benefits the poor and not corrupt politicians.
The hypocrisy is laughable. In demanding these people take full and rapid responsibility, the American pundits take none. The same is true here.
The security situation in the Hyde Park, O’Fallon Park, and Fairground Park neighborhoods (and many others), is more a result of City government and police department policies than it is the fault of the Golden family or families like theirs.
FACT: The City of St. Louis is the owner of more drug houses than any drug dealer in St. Louis. When it comes to slumlords, Paul McKee doesn’t hold a candle to the City’s Land Reutilization Authority. In the 3rd Ward, where Hyde Park is located and where Shaneick was shot, the city is holding onto entire blocks of vacant, unsafe buildings. Land banking, they call it. And what is happening inside these buildings between when city employees come to cut the grass every four to six weeks? The drug trade.
FACT: The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department has surrendered parts of this city to drug dealers and thugs. What would happen if I drove my 2009 Cadillac Escalade over the curb and onto a grassy hill in Forest Park? What would happen if I blasted the newest Young Jeezy track as the summer sun reflected off my 30-inch rims and a steady stream of people made their way to and from my passenger side window? You know what would happen.
Not since the worst days in this city’s history have drug dealers behaved that brazenly in the Central West End, since before there was a “Central West End”. But there are parts of the city that are reminiscent of “Hamsterdam” from HBO’s “The Wire”, where drug activity is so open that the lack of police activity sends a clear message to the good residents that live in these neighborhoods: “You’re on your own.”
You’re on your own. That’s the underlying message relayed from the comments of “CrabbyAbby” on the Post’s website, and also in comments from Mayor Francis Slay and former Police Chief Joe Mokwa when they voiced outrage over St. Louis being labeled as “most dangerous” in national surveys. That’s just “some neighborhoods”, they say. Surely not the neighborhoods of their constituents.
But what about the good people who do live in these neighborhoods? They are, by the way, the majority of people living in these neighborhoods. For them — for us — St. Louis is most dangerous. Many of them vote. Many of them pay taxes. Many of them don’t want their kids to live their whole lives in these neighborhoods. And none of them want to see their kids die.
What responsibility does a government take in defending its people against domestic terrorists like the young, armed men that control some of our northern streets?
What responsibility does a government take for a girl like 15 year-old Shaneick Golden, who couldn’t even make it to attend her first day at her underperforming high school because she lives in a war zone just 3 miles from City Hall?
What responsibility? Ideally, a lot.
Your piece was very nice except for the Paul Mckee/Underperforming HS. Sounds like a pro-Mckee/voucher thumbs up. Paul Mckee is LRA/LRA is Paul Mckee. The Alderman of the 3rd ward, Mr Bosley, has said it many times. When the time comes that Mckee is ready to build LRA properties that are being landbanked will go to him. But the 3rd ward residents want to believe that they are safe because the big bad wolf is not huffing and puffing at their door. That’s another story. However they are fed up with the violence that is plaguing their streets and they want it to stop. I challenge them to police themselves. Begin to take back their own. When I hear people say this would not happen on the South side that is not true. The South side has violent crime as well. However, some South side neighborhoods have active neighbors that police their own. I live on the North side and we police our own. So it is possible to do it anywhere. I think comparing the NS to SS has gotten old. We are all city residents. As such we must love where we are and make the most of it. We must learn to live not just exist. I know that it is hard because the image of the Northside is always negative but we have a history in St Louis that goes beyond failing schools and crime. I encourage all to seek a community organization that appeals to your needs and join. Embrace the views of others and bring something back to your community.
Posted by Northside rez | 19. Aug, 2008, 10:48 AMYour two main contentions here seem to be:
(1) White St. Louis doesn’t seem to care about St. Louis city’s black population.
(2) The St. Louis City Police Department (mostly white) also doesn’t care about certain neighborhoods.
Yet, if this weren’t the case, I bet you would be the first person complaining about how white people are “picking on us,” and how the cops are engaging in racial profiling.
Posted by Puggg | 19. Aug, 2008, 11:06 AMYou lost me on this one too. Sounds like the same game you tried in the past. Why is the blame game the only route. We all get it, you don’t like city hall and we are growing tired of your tirades. City hall and the police respond to those neighborhoods’ who organize and police their streets. Blaming the cops and city hall but not taking any responsibility will continue to get us nothing.
Posted by Henry | 19. Aug, 2008, 1:40 PMFor a police officer busting drug dealers is fun. As a former St. Louis City police officer on the north side I can say we were never told not to patrol areas. We were however undermanned at times.
We often utilized tips from narcotics hotlines to help in making these arrests.
It is going to take a joint community/police effort to change.
Posted by John | 19. Aug, 2008, 2:23 PMI have to agree with the other comments here. I live in North City and I seem to be the only one in the entire neighborhood who ever calls the police. I call any time I see a person where they have no business being. I call any time I see a group of people gathered where they don’t belong. You tell me that if you called when that dealer pulled up and started selling, that no-one would respond? Give them the damn plate #, give them a description, start taking some personal responsibility instead of crying that no-one does it for you.
Because I used to call at least once or twice a day the drug related traffic in my neighborhood is way down and I don’t have to call as often now. It’s not a problem that’ll go away because we still have parasitic slum-lords doing their thing (the scourge of St. Louis). You have to take some action on your own here, the police aren’t psychic. It isn’t all Whitey.
Posted by Shawn | 20. Aug, 2008, 9:20 AMI have a few questions, maybe someone knows the answer to: Is the number of police force different on the south side than it is on the north side? What is the difference between the condition of the LRA properties the year before they were purchased by LRA, and a year after they were purchased? In terms of local, state and federal funding, does north or south side get more money? What about entitlement programs, are south or north siders using more government public assistance programs? How many neighborhood organizations are in the north side compared to the south side? Jobs are important too, but to get a job you need transportation. Is there unequal access to transportation in different areas of the city?
Posted by good points | 20. Aug, 2008, 4:43 PMI’m mainly interested in the responsibility aspect of this conversation. The government provides for thousands of St. Louis of households, (north and south). They provide section 8, food stamps, government subsidized health care, home repair, medical insurance, grant funded light bills, and free back to school supplies(funded by gov grants), free day care and headstart, and aftercare, and yet they are not doing enough? How much more does the government need to do?
Posted by subsidized | 20. Aug, 2008, 5:06 PMThe police need policing. I’d like to see an in-depth analysis of SLPD manpower allocations by geography. I suspect the allegations of “de-policing” are true, based on widespread anecdotal reports I hear from around the community. But insights and proof based on quantitative facts are the next step. Is anyone doing this work? UM-St. Louis’ criminal studies experts would be one source, real investigative journalists (if there are any left in St. Louis) another.
Posted by margie | 24. Aug, 2008, 12:01 AMWait ONE DARN minute…Get your facts straight…Bosley’s Ward Organization, Neighborhood Council, has a great deal of properties too. Have you seen Adelaide north and south of West Florissant…Almost three complete blocks of dilapidated, vacant empty homes once occupied. Look at the Black and white SIGNS that say, “Call NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL if you want to develop.”
They are doing a bit of land banking also…why haven’t these homes been rehabbed…they also perhaps want a little something, something under the table. Perhaps.
Wake up people…its’ not just about BLACK or WHITE. If we must attack Paul McKee, we must also attack the Roberts Brothers. Noticed how much property they’ve purchased on Dr. MLK, Aldine and oh, have you priced some of the condos at the Old Enright Middle…some go for $350,000. I am proud that there are some African Americans who can afford them. Wake up Black Folk, Wake up. This city needs developing YESTERDAY.
While we’ve been looking at some of these conditions over the past 35 years, we should have been buying property instead of the blink, blink, spinners, Escalades and the like. Heaven help us!!!
Posted by Jael | 24. Aug, 2008, 5:01 PM