Violence Explodes (St. Louis, Ferguson, Poplar Bluff: loft, crime, neighborhood)

[FrankMiller]

Drawing conclusions based on a handful of violent crimes is ignorant. Like deciding a coin is lopsided after a half-dozen flips.

[MUTGR]

Originally Posted by FrankMiller

Drawing conclusions based on a handful of violent crimes is ignorant. Like deciding a coin is lopsided after a half-dozen flips.

Mayor Slay must be overreacting then, because he's asked for 160 additional police officers at a cost of $10 million - and that was before the most recent spate of murders.

[FrankMiller]

Originally Posted by MUTGR

Mayor Slay must be overreacting then, because he's asked for 160 additional police officers at a cost of $10 million - and that was before the most recent spate of murders.

Reacting to perception rather than reality is his job, for better or worse.

But in any case, StL certainly has a crime problem, in the sense that it has crime, and crime is undesirable. The whole "StL is falling off a cliff!" panic meme is way overblown, but that doesn't mean we can't or shouldn't improve public safety. It's possible to address problems without insisting that St. Louis is becoming a real-world Mad Max setting, as some are wont to do.

[BioMechanical]

Sad, but it's not exactly new. When I was a kid in the late 80's and early 90's downtown was like Beirut. Reading this board the last few years I have seen people that are new to St. Louis post time and time again how they can't understand why long time residents of St. Louis county don't like coming downtown. This is why. They were here when times were much worse, and these old stereotypes are hard to kill. Especially in times like these when the media is blowing this story up. It's a big city, crime is going to happen, unfortunately.

It's so much better down there now though. 2014 saw a spike in violent crime, but tensions were high this year all over the metro. I hope they get some more cops down there. That's all they can do.

Pro Tip: If someone sticks a gun in your face, give your stuff up. Your stuff can be replaced. Your life can't be.

I just shook my head when I heard those teens tried to struggle with that gunman last week, and got killed in the process. Same thing that happened to that girl in the central west end a while back. I assume they must have panicked, but in both situations they would most likely still be alive had they not tried to fight over personal property

[flynavyj]

St. Louis is an absolute mess. This city has plenty of problems, whether it's crime, racial issues, police issues...it's ugly, and I'm absolutely sick of it. The region needs true leadership, a plan on how to restore peace to the city...we're going ot need some tough answers too...

How do we combat crime?
How do we fix public relations?
How do we address racial inequality?
How do we address poverty?
How do we move forward as a unified region?

[aliasfinn]

Originally Posted by flynavyj

St. Louis is an absolute mess. This city has plenty of problems, whether it's crime, racial issues, police issues...it's ugly, and I'm absolutely sick of it. The region needs true leadership, a plan on how to restore peace to the city...we're going ot need some tough answers too...

How do we combat crime?
How do we fix public relations?
How do we address racial inequality?
How do we address poverty?
How do we move forward as a unified region?

I see the St.Ann Police made the news tonight.
Mistaken identity.

[mjtinmemphis]

After living in several cities, I don't see St. Louis as anymore dangerous than other city. At the same time we can't downplay the crime.

Ferguson kind of blew things up in everyone's eyes and that's unfortunate.

We should always look for ways of improving the city and the positive thing is St. Louis is admitting that there are problems that needs to be resolved and they can't hide behind fancy sky scrapers and flower pots.

[Caesarstl]

Originally Posted by MUTGR

Mayor Slay: crime is STL number 1 issue.

Slay: Crime is STL's no. 1 issue

I agree mayor. One of these shootings was at Tucker and Chouteau at 8:17 a.m. Lots of commuters using that route that time of the morning.

The change in language from Slay and the prosecutor's office is pretty stunning:

Circuit Attorney's Office looking at unique ways to combat gun crime | KMOV.com St. Louis

One of Jennifer Joyce's top prosecutors says the city is "..on fire." It seems they've gone from downplaying crime to admitting it is basically out of control.

Originally Posted by Dawn10am

I ran into that on my way into work downtown this morning. Had to pull over no fewer than 3 times on my way down Chuoteau due to emergency vehicles and cops were redirecting Tucker traffic down 14th. Didn't seriously affect my commute, but still. One assumes one wouldn't have to deal with a homicide at 8:17 on a Thursday morning.

Three charged in separate slayings in St. Louis : News

Caught. Turns out this one, and another, was a guy shooting his ex (her new bf was hit too)...

[MUTGR]

Originally Posted by BioMechanical

Sad, but it's not exactly new. When I was a kid in the late 80's and early 90's downtown was like Beirut. Reading this board the last few years I have seen people that are new to St. Louis post time and time again how they can't understand why long time residents of St. Louis county don't like coming downtown. This is why. They were here when times were much worse, and these old stereotypes are hard to kill. Especially in times like these when the media is blowing this story up. It's a big city, crime is going to happen, unfortunately.

It's so much better down there now though. 2014 saw a spike in violent crime, but tensions were high this year all over the metro. I hope they get some more cops down there. That's all they can do.

Pro Tip: If someone sticks a gun in your face, give your stuff up. Your stuff can be replaced. Your life can't be.

I just shook my head when I heard those teens tried to struggle with that gunman last week, and got killed in the process. Same thing that happened to that girl in the central west end a while back. I assume they must have panicked, but in both situations they would most likely still be alive had they not tried to fight over personal property

My recollection is different and during that time period I was either in college or a new graduate who went out a lot and spent a fair amount of time downtown or places like the landing. I always felt safe downtown. Now, downtown was more empty, you didn't have the lofts, and Washington avenue wasn't developed, etc. So in some respects downtown is in better shape BUT now there appears to be more violent crime downtown, armed robberies, downtown residents being assaulted/robbed, rolling shootouts in broad daylight, etc.

[chicagobear]

Originally Posted by MUTGR

My recollection is different and during that time period I was either in college or a new graduate who went out a lot and spent a fair amount of time downtown or places like the landing. I always felt safe downtown. Now, downtown was more empty, you didn't have the lofts, and Washington avenue wasn't developed, etc. So in some respects downtown is in better shape BUT now there appears to be more violent crime downtown, armed robberies, downtown residents being assaulted/robbed, rolling shootouts in broad daylight, etc.

I worked in downtown St. Louis in the 1980s and never felt unsafe at all, even though it was not very lively.