11/26/2014 11:11 AM
The unrest of the last 3 months is about 3 miles from my facility and I live about 6 miles on the north side of it. Bad deal from the start with a young man losing his life by an officer. In the beginning the police lost the narrative. It was a broad daylight shooting with an unarmed teenager no matter what the circumstances. The minority community no matter what the evidence proves believe police are heavy handed and the system is unfair.
He was shot with his hands up was the cry of a few witnesses which spread like wildfire and has has since been refuted by a number of witnesses but the narrative lives on, sans NYC, LA, around the world spread by social media. Evidence shows that he was moving toward the officer, at least 25-30' before his final resting place. Not compliant like most officers ask in an apprehension situation.
The protesting I understand, I support their right to do so peacefully but I am a pro-police person which means we would be up a creek in the end without them. We have probably 50% average officers, 25% great and probably 25% guys who should be sheet--canned but we have that in all walks of life.
The area where all this has taken place was the power base of St. Louis politics and power base for a long time. Anyone who was anyone in our city was from this area, political and business leaders. Demographics began to change as the outer suburb ring began to form and then began the onset of white flight. My wife went to HS in that area in the mid-60's no african americans in her school. By 1980, AA was the dominant race. Got out of college in 1980 and the area I live in now was still fairly dominant white with some AA living in the area. By late 80's and early 90's white flight began to move out to a newly burgeoning county further out away from the AA dominated areas. Large apartment complexes in the Ferguson and north county area had vacancies and began offering Section 8. I can't blame AA from the city want to move out to the county. Schools were terrible in the city and the murder crime rate in STL was climbing rapidly. Whites who were living in these complexes moved out as did homeowners. The demographics changed as then did the income levels of the area. Chain stores closed and less and less became available. More poverty built then more crime took over. With this increased crime rate came a high police presence and so on. In the end, the cities tax base dropped, housing was cheap and value of homes have not rebounded back as quickly as more affluent areas. Reductions in budgets, removal of community policing programs 5-6 years ago.
Our governor has been inept at best. They said they planned for worst case scenarios. In my mind, worst case scenarios was rioting, looting and burning in downtown Ferguson and West Florissant Rd where he was shot. Lo and behold, that's what took place. The commander in charge of County police said after the burning occurred, we could never have imagined this kind of issues. What, did you actually say that. I thought it could even be worse. I did not think we would have 55 deaths like the Rodney King verdict but I feared we would have 5-10 opportunistic murders which did not pan out thankfully.
Whats going to happen. I don't know. I guess things will slow, hopefully some changes will be made but to improve the minds of racists on both sides of this issue will be past our lifetime. Ending poverty within these neighborhoods, improving education, reducing our municipal fiefdoms from 90 or so to and more manageable level. The municipal court system in our area basically is a taxing body for these communities, adding more and more debt. I always say if you don't break the law, you won't get a ticket. No doubt there are some bad characters in the departments that do target and create issues for everyone.
I do know the problems in our area and the demographics do hurt our club. People from lilly white areas do not want to be a member of a club in a more urban environment to say it politely. Our club has the opportunity to move like others out further into the county in the 50's but chose to stay. Smart move, well maybe not when it comes to memberships.
Hopefully, violence stays low as does damage over the next few weeks. I think we will be living with protests for a while but it is getting cold which might change their tactics. Lets just hope in general that all of us treat one another a little better in the future.