The St Louis Contrarian

Providing Independent and Intelligent Insight on St. Louis Public Policy Issues

Archive for the category “crime”

15 Nov 2020

Groups face strong headwinds in push to stem violence in St. Louis | Law and order | stltoday.com

Experts believe the effort to curtail gun violence starts with sustained public funding and initiatives whose effectiveness can be measured over time.
— Read on www.stltoday.com/content/tncms/live/

This was a good article today in the St. Louis Post Dispatch. It provided good examples of the terrible violence in our community and the frustrations of those trying to deal with it. The article did lack context, any analysis, or recommendations. It highlighted all the agencies and organizations trying to improve things. That perhaps was my greatest disappointment, all kinds of small agencies are trying to do things with few resources and little coordination. Written by Paul Dribin

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31 Oct 2020

More About Messy Rollout of New Police Private Sector Initiative

www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/memo-outlines-plan-for-top-secret-joint-st-louis-city-county-policing-venture/article_a1c80454-4d50-527c-9918-1ff122aee5d5.html

This is looking like a cluster fuck

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26 Sep 2020

Prosecutor Gardner Adds More Officers to Bad List

www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/another-15-st-louis-police-officers-added-to-top-prosecutors-exclusion-list/article_ed63a124-4f75-523a-930c-b994e67fc6a0.html

This whole story has never made sense to me. Circuit Attorney, Kim Gardner has excluded a certain number of police officers from the list of whom she would take testimony or use as witnesses. Two things. Either they are not so bad and Gardner is being vindictive, or they are bad and should be fired. I guess it may be the power of the union. Written by Paul Dribin

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25 Aug 2020

The Dangers of Criminal-Justice Reform | City Journal

How the growing trend of criminal-justice reform for its own sake will make policing riskier—and the city less safe
— Read on www.city-journal.org/dangers-of-criminal-justice-reform

An excellent balanced article which puts the whole subject in perspective. There seems to be no discussion in the whole police reform movement about the responsibility of the individual offender in this process. Paul Dribin

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10 Jun 2019

City considering an anti violence program

www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/look-at-violence-like-a-disease—program-to/article_8c89bd1c-0b50-5154-a8f8-98412a1b6d77.html

This needs to happen. Crime is ruining the city

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03 May 2019

Criminal Background Checks for Housing

I am noting a disturbing trend among liberal well meaning people regarding criminal background checks in housing. Landlords including the federal government have for years screened for previous criminal activity on the part of a potential tenant. These screenings have been mandated by HUD and have been held up in court as a reliable indicator of potential problems.

Now various government entities are passing laws making such checks illegal. This is misguided and will result in more damage to properties, more evictions, and higher rents for good tenants. I agree that criminal activity of a non violent nature committed years before should be excepted. I also believe that an ex offender who is participating in programs offered by organizations such as the Criminal Justice Ministry should also be approved. Written by Paul Dribin

Posted in affordable housing, crime, hud, low income housing tax credits, poverty, public housing, rental housing, section 8 housing | Leave a comment
02 May 2019

Leaders of Metrolink Crime Activities Indicted

www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/metrolink-is-safer-today-than-yesterday-after-indictment-of-a/article_8c5aa9fc-896a-5746-a43d-7da2bca8cc75.html

let’s see if this makes Metrolink safer

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29 Apr 2019

Good Article About Criminal Justice Ministry

www.stltoday.com/news/local/columns/tony-messenger/messenger-merger-of-two-st-louis-prison-ministries-draws-attention/article_46b58ae6-30b8-58f0-81a6-a4304790939d.html

Posted in affordable housing, crime, homelessness, poverty, Uncategorized and tagged | Leave a comment
11 Mar 2019

Crime and Vacancies

I have attended various task forces of the Vacancy Collaborative in St. Louis. What I find fascinating is that no one in the group has defined why there are a large amount of vacancies in St. Louis. The answer is really quite simple; crime, crime, crime. There are several facts which back my assertion:

1. The parts of St. Louis that have a reasonable crime rate do not have significant vacancies and tax foreclosed properties sell quickly

2. The areas that have high crime rates have a high number of vacancies.

What is troubling to me is that no one seems to want to talk about this. It would be as if a discussion about lung cancer deaths did not include the problem of smoking.

Written by Paul Dribin

Posted in crime, economic development, homeownership, st. louis and tagged , , | Leave a comment
14 Feb 2019

Garbage Research

I continue to be appalled by some of the garbage research that gets published in the name of social science and urban development. A recent one was published by The Brookings Institution titled The Devaluation of Assets in the Black Community. This is certainly a provocative title.

The research presumed to show that single family homes in the black communities are worth less than comparable houses in white communities. This is something that is hardly a surprise. These differences can be explained by lots of reasons, most prominently crime and schools. The authors made elaborate adjustments to properties and concluded there must be other reasons than the usual real estate ones for the difference in price. That difference of course was race.

If they could have shown comparable neighborhoods where everything was the same except race they could have made a point. Of course, they didn’t do any such thing.

My real problem is the concept of devaluation which assumes there is a proper value for any piece of real estate, or anything else. I could argue my house in St. Louis is devalued compared to San Francisco. These comparisons are meaningless. In St. Louis, black families moved out of historically black neighborhoods in huge numbers for reasons I stated, safety and good schools. Hardly surprising. Written by Paul Dribin

Posted in crime, homeownership, Racism, st louis county, st. louis, suburbs and tagged , , | Leave a comment

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