“Most Dangerous” Again

COMMENTARY

We observed back in January that the 20% increase in St. Louis’ crime rate coincidently matched the proposed pay increase for Police Chief Joe Mokwa. Perhaps now that St. Louis has once again been crowned the most dangerous place to live in America, the Mayor and his fellow police board members will pay more attention to how and where Mokwa assigns St. Louis’ finest.

St. Louis is more than just downtown. There are places in our city that have been completely left out of the revitalization occurring just a few miles away. And it is no coincidence at all that these are also the places where most of our young people are dying.

Also back in January, Mayor Francis Slay wrote on his blog, “as most of you know, many neighborhoods in the City are very safe places today. However, as the stats make too clear, a few neighborhoods are not.”

Wouldn’t it make sense then in the 10 months since those words were written that those “unsafe areas” would have seen a surge of police patrols, a strong and permanent presence of officers to show both residents and criminals that crime would no longer be tolerated?

But ask anyone who lives in the 5th, 6th, 7th, or 8th districts and they will tell you that has not happened.

Maybe it’s as they say in national politics: We’d rather fight them over there than over here.

Could it be that the spirit of the Team Four Plan still exists in St. Louis? When faced with limited resources, protect downtown and the southern neighborhoods first?

True or not, when it comes to politics, crime, home-buying, home-building, and property values — perception is reality. And the numbers don’t lie.

What remains to be seen is who will accept responsibility and if the problem of “a few neighborhoods” will be seen as the problem of the entire city — and indeed the entire region. Because it is.

UPDATE: Police Chief Mokwa was on the news Monday night responding to this “Most Dangerous” label. He said if you asked his officers, they would tell you St. Louis was a safe place to live.

Maybe he’s forgotten those public meetings earlier this year on the issue of lifting the civilian residency requirement. Just behind the city’s schools and affordable housing, “crime” was one of the most cited reasons Police Department employees gave for wanting to move out of the city.