St. Louis Observer: December 3, 2021
Former SLMPD, municipal officers sentenced to federal prison; $500 cash assistance for City residents coming soon; largest City parks to get basketball courts
Editor’s Note
This week’s Observer is longer, but each story below provides a critical perspective in the overall fight for abolition and racial equity.
Covering both the shorter holiday week and this week’s news, a lot has happened since our last issue, especially for police and prosecutorial accountability. As several former police officers have been sentenced for their brutality and crimes against civilians, pay attention to the judges issuing those sentences. To the prosecutors advocating for those sentences. Even to what the criminal defense attorneys propose. We live in a country with two legal systems: one for those with privilege, and one for those without.
Now more than ever, the disparities within the courts are underscored between white and Black, police and civilian, the wealthy and the poor. An officer can be caught on multiple security cameras, beating an unarmed Black man during a protest, and walk away with less than a tenth of his recommended sentence and the ability to shave off the time he did receive - with “good” behavior. The court that released Kevin Strickland is the same one that locked him away for 43 years, and the same one that fought to keep him locked up. The legal system that oversaw the convictions of William Bryan, Greg McMichael, and Travis McMichael for the murder of Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, Georgia, is the same legal system that allowed Kyle Rittenhouse to walk free after killing racial justice protestors in Kenosha, Wisconsin, with an assault rifle that he was not legally allowed to possess - both instances captured on video and with eyewitnesses denying that any of the white men charged were acting in self-defense when they committed those murders.
Money, power, and race all shape the influences of our very political legal system, whether or not we care to admit it. And the idea that white men who perceive a problem with Black people can legally grab a gun and to cause chaos and trouble, only to claim self-defense - that’s just history repeating itself, as we’ve seen during Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the Civil Rights Era.
In this regard, our legal system remains unchanged and, with laws as currently written, will always insulate white supremacy and the power that it holds.
In the News
Police and prosecutorial accountability in the courts
The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department has settled a federal civil rights lawsuit, filed by a photographer who was trapped by a police kettle during 2017’s Stockley Protests. The photographer was beaten until he lost consciousness, dragged through the street by police, and repeatedly pepper-sprayed by SLMPD officers and his camera was ripped from his neck as he identified himself as a member of the press. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch/Robert Patrick]
The State of Missouri has been in federal court since 2017 to defend its Department of Corrections’ unconstitutional parole practices - namely, that the State was sending thousands of Missourians back to prison without providing due process rights, such as adequate notice of alleged parole violations, providing a hearing to dispute parole violation allegations, or allowing persons to be represented by an attorney during parole proceedings. Despite clear findings that the State has violated the civil due process rights of thousands of parolees, Attorney General Eric Schmitt nevertheless has appealed the federal court’s decision. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch/Tony Messenger]
The embattled Missouri Department of Social Services is preparing for a potential surge in the number of children serving in state youth treatment facilities, following the implementation of the 2018 law known as “Raise the Age,” which barred prosecutors from automatically charging 17-year old children as adults in the criminal legal system. Adherence to the law has been left to “interpretation” of the individual judicial circuits, where prosecutors have claimed that lack of funding for juvenile courts has forced them to try children as adults. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch/Kurt Erickson]
St. Louis County prosecutors have agreed to dismiss charges against former Ladue police officer Julia Crews, who shot a Black woman in a Schnucks parking lot in 2019. Both Crews and the victim participated in a voluntary “restorative justice” mediation program through the court; the victim settled separately with the City of Ladue, which agreed to pay her $2 million as part of the victim’s federal civil rights lawsuit. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch/Joel Currier]
The Cole County prosecuting attorney has dismissed misdemeanor charges for four protesters who were arrested during demonstrations outside the Governor’s Mansion in 2020. Jefferson City police have been accused of attacking the peaceful protesters while they participated in a “die-in,” laying on their stomachs on the ground in front of the Governor’s Mansion before police began shooting projectiles at them. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch/Kurt Erickson]
St. Louis City prosecuting attorneys have dropped sexual assault charges against a former SLMPD officer John Stewart, who was accused of forcing a woman into committing a sex act while on duty in 2015. Stewart was alleged to have entered the woman’s apartment and coerced her into committing the act after he was called to her residence to respond to a stolen vehicle; previous Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce had declined to file and pursue charges against the officer. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch/Katie Kull]
An SLMPD officer found guilty for his role in the beating of a fellow Black officer during the 2017 Stockley Protests has been sentenced to 366 days in federal prison. Dustin Boone’s sentence is approximately one-tenth of the recommended sentencing guidelines recommended by federal prosecutors and U.S. District Judge E. Richard Webber added the extra day so that Boone is eligible to earn “good time” credit to reduce his sentence further. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch/Robert Patrick]
Former St. Ann police officer Ellis C. Brown, III, has been sentenced to six years in federal prison after being found guilty for beating and kicking a man while he was being arrested and held down by another officer. Federal sentencing guidelines recommended 108 to 120 months; U.S. District Judge Audrey Fleissig sentenced Brown to 72 months. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch/Robert Patrick]
Honoring Black history in St. Louis and beyond
St. Louisan Josephine Baker was inducted into the French Panthéon mausoleum on Tuesday, becoming the first Black woman to receive national honors as an artist, resistance fighter, and civil rights activist. Baker was a Mill Creek Valley resident who witnessed the racial violence of the 1917 East St. Louis riots, citing this as one of her main reasons for immigrating to France and furthering her career there. [St. Louis Public Radio/Alex Heuer]
The Griot Museum of Black History will launch its newest artist-driven project, Black HerStory, bringing attention to the contributions made by Black women in the St. Louis area. Focusing on Black activists like Mary Meachum and Pearlie Evans, the museum and artists further plan to install monuments and street markers throughout the City to recognize the women highlighted in their project. [St. Louis Public Radio/Chad Davis]
Expanding City, state social safety nets
The City of St. Louis has announced eligibility criteria for $500 direct cash assistance payments, issued with funding received through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). Approximately 9,300 payments will be distributed to St. Louis City residents and their families, after the application portal opens on December 18. In order to qualify, applicants must earn 80% or less of the area median income ($47,550 for an individual), be a City resident for at least one year, and have lost income due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [St. Louis American/Dana Rieck]
The St. Louis Real Estate Tax Assistance Fund, a coalition of private and public entities, will administer real estate tax relief for families at risk of foreclosure starting this spring. Although the City Collector of Revenue generally leads efforts to evict families from their homes for real estate property tax delinquencies, the office has joined nonprofits, development corporations, and banks, in an effort to disrupt the cycle of poverty caused by foreclosures. [St. Louis Public Radio/Sarah Fenske]
Further reading
The City’s two largest parks - Forest Park and Tower Grove Park - have received a $250,000 grant to fund the installation and/or restoration of basketball courts within the parks. The lack of basketball courts has been seen by social justice activists as racially-motivated with the intent to exclude Black and Brown people from visiting primarily-white neighborhoods. [St. Louis Public Radio/Rachel Lippmann]
The State of Missouri is at risk of losing nearly $2 billion in federal education funding received through federal COVID-19 relief programs, meant to address learning loss and to develop summer and after-school education programs for children struggling due to the pandemic. State Republicans have declined to work in coalition to allocate the federal funds, jeopardizing local school districts if they are not appropriated by March 24, 2022. [Missouri Independent/Rudi Keller]
A new Missouri law, signed by Governor Mike Parson, has allowed employers to pay persons with disabilities sub-minimum wages, impacting thousands of workers at “sheltered workshops.” Missouri has the second-highest number of sheltered, or segregated, workshops in the country, with more than 95 facilities run by 87 nonprofit organizations across the state paying disabled workers wages as low as pennies per hour. [Missouri Independent/Madison Hopkins]
St. Louis is expected to welcome 50 to 100 Afghan refugees each week through the end of the year, with 125 new residents already here and working with the International Institute to settle into their new city. St. Louis is expected to receive 1,000 refugees in total, with 300 resettling in Columbia, 100 in Springfield, and 550 in Kansas City. [Missouri Independent/Rebecca Rivas]
As the City of St. Louis finally received the necessary funding to construct a north-south MetroLink line, transit activists have expressed concerns about the City’s bus system collapsing amidst a driver shortage and suspended bus routes. Activists and transit experts alike have cited to recent census data that has shown that the majority of bus commuters are Black and Brown while an estimated 61% of light-rail commuters are white. [St. Louis Public Radio/Evie Hemphill]
Although a new Missouri law has stipulated that jails and detention facilities must provide feminine hygiene products to women at no cost, not all facilities have followed this law. The Department of Corrections has had its policy to provide period products since 2019, echoing federal prison policy, but there is no compliance or follow-through with the individual facilities to ensure that funds received under this policy are used to provide period products to women, according to DOC spokeswoman Karen Pojmann. [Missouri Independent/Tessa Weinberg]
An initiative to pass ranked choice voting statewide seeks to amend how Missourians vote in primary and general elections. The proposal seeks to address the “lesser of two evils” choice that voters frequently face, and would further strengthen voting security by requiring all electronic voting machines be tested and certified before use, requiring a paper trail of individual votes in each election, and requiring that representatives of all political parties be present when paper ballots are counted. [Missouri Independent/Jason Hancock]
Quote of the Week
“When she arrived, she was first surprised like so many African Americans who settled in Paris at the same time … at the absence of institutional racism. There was no segregation … no lynching. (There was) the possibility to sit at a cafe and be served by a white waiter, the possibility to talk to white people, to (have a) romance with white people…[i]t does not mean that racism did not exist in France, but French racism has often been more subtle, not as brutal as the American forms of racism.”
Black French scholar Pap Ndiaye, an expert on U.S. minority rights movements, speaking to the Associated Press on the induction of St. Louis-born Josephine Baker into the French Panthéon.
Legislative & Legal Update
City of St. Louis
BB 19, introduced by Ald. Joe Vaccaro (Ward 23), would establish a Detention Facility Oversight Board for the St. Louis City Jail. The bill was perfected on November 23.
BB 101, introduced by Ald. Vollmer (Ward 10) and President Reed, would allow the Board of Aldermen to redraw their own ward boundary lines in consideration of voter-approved ward reduction and recent census numbers. The bill was passed by the Legislative Committee on November 22 and a vote of the full Board is expected in the coming week.
BB 118, introduced by Ald. Jesse Todd (Ward 18) would allocate $1.1 million received under the federal YouthBuilds grant program, distributing the first $80,000 received to SLATE. This bill has been referred to the Ways & Means Committee, which next meets on December 2 at 11:00 a.m.
BB 119, introduced by Ald. Todd and Ald. Ingrassia (Ward 6), would repeal the City’s current loitering ordinance and would provide a legal defense for the amended criminal charge of loitering. This bill has been held in the Public Safety Committee since November 16, 2021, and the next meeting was scheduled for November 30.
BB 132, introduced by Ald. Bret Narayan (Ward 24), would repeal local ordinances related to the possession of cannabis and paraphernalia in the City of St. Louis. The bill further would reorganize law enforcement priorities and amend the standards of “probable cause” & “reasonable suspicion” used by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. The bill was passed by the full Board of Aldermen and delivered to the Mayor’s Office for signature.
State of Missouri
The Missouri State Legislature is on recess until January 5, 2022.