The St. Louis Observer: August 6, 2021
Local, federal eviction moratoriums extended; high demand for City intentional encampments; Mo. Corrections Dept. ends 30 year contract with Corizon Health
Editor’s Note
“Antics.” “Righteous-sounding aspirations.” “Not necessarily for the right reasons.”
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch Editorial Board used these words to describe Congresswoman Cori Bush’s direct action to call attention to the expiring eviction moratorium, a protest that started last Friday and successfully ended on Tuesday with federal officials announcing the extension of the moratorium. Rep. Bush slept on the stairs of the U.S. Capitol building to call public attention to Congress breaking for vacation while more than 11 million people faced possible eviction, following the lapse of the moratorium. Rep. Bush’s activism quickly spread, with other members of Congress joining her on the stairs, pressuring colleagues to take action, and amplifying the message that something needed to be done.
Tuesday’s success is what is meant by “doing the work” -- taking direct action through a number of tactics in order to advance a cause or message. “Doing the work” can be writing letters to a newspaper editor or opinion pieces, donating to a candidate, participating in a protest, or even running for office. But it can also mean self-education, sharing your own knowledge with others, or participating in a social media storm.
There is no “right” way to be an activist. Sometimes “antics” are the only way to advance “righteous-sounding aspirations,” especially when those actions are taken for the right reasons.
In the News
Police & prosecutorial accountability and transparency in the St. Louis area
The City of St. Louis relocated around 140 detainees from the City Justice Center (CJC) back to the Medium Security Institution, also known as “The Workhouse,” last weekend. Citing to six recent uprisings, involving detainees breaking out of their cells and being pepper-sprayed by staff, Public Safety Director Dr. Dan Isom stated that the transfers were made as the CJC continues overdue repairs and renovations neglected by the previous mayoral administrations. [Riverfront Times/Daniel Hill and Riverfront Times Staff; KMOX/Sean Michael Lisle]
A federal civil rights lawsuit has been filed against St. Charles County police, alleging that three officers stopped a 68-year old man without probable cause, beat him, and arrested him when he was attempting to pick up his son from a traffic stop. James Setchfield, who uses a cane or walker following a stroke and who was recovering from eye surgery, stated that he was pulled out of his car by Officer Scott Ronald and was beaten by Ronald as supervisor Sgt. John Williams watched and failed to intervene. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch/Robert Patrick]
A former St. Louis Police Department officer has been sued in federal court for the 2019 beating of a Black man while the man was handcuffed in police custody. Brandin Neil is accused of assaulting Bryan Boyle on camera at a Crown Food Mart gas station; Boyle’s lawsuit points to another brutal beating involving Neil at Wheelhouse several months before his own assault. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch/Robert Patrick]
St. Louis County Police Department, following the retirement of former chief Mary Barton, now must reckon with its historic pattern of racial and gender discrimination. Barton’s replacement, acting chief Lt. Col. Kenneth Gregory, becomes the first Black man to head the department, despite evidence presented in another discrimination lawsuit that demonstrated Gregory’s bigoted attitude toward the LGBTQ community. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch/Tony Messenger]
A St. Louis County Police Department forensic technician has been charged with two felony counts of hindering prosecution. Tameah Foley was charged Wednesday after helping a murder suspect evade police for three days before the man was arrested. [KMOV/Nicole Sanders]
St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner has requested that the Missouri Attorney General be appointed as special prosecutor in three high-profile death penalty cases in the City of St. Louis. Gardner, who previously has called the death penalty a “tool in her toolbox,” has asserted an unspecified conflict of interest in prosecuting the three men. [KSDK/Christine Byers]
Witness tampering charges against a St. Louis Police Metropolitan Department sergeant have been dismissed by a St. Louis City judge. Sgt. Jatonya Clayborn-Muldrow was charged after trying to dissuade a woman from filing a sexual assault complaint against another St. Louis Metropolitan Police Office, but charges were dropped after prosecutors failed to meet the statute of limitations to file. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch/Joel Currier]
Eviction moratorium extended federally, locally, following protest by Congresswoman Cori Bush
Congresswoman Cori Bush demonstrated the power of direct action by staging a 5-day protest on the steps of the U.S. Capitol to call public and media attention to the lapsed eviction moratorium, resulting in the federal government extending the moratorium for more than 80% of the country. Generating nationwide publicity and rising public pressure, Bush cited her own experiences with homelessness following an eviction and said “our work isn’t done.” [Missouri Independent/Laura Olson and Adriana Figueroa]
Following this week’s CDC order to extend the federal eviction moratorium, St. Louis City Circuit Court Presiding Judge Michael Stelzer has extended the local moratorium through October 3. But despite CDC orders, the City of St. Louis has ordered 126 evictions and there is a pending legal action against Judge Stelzer and St. Louis City Sheriff Vernon Betts for violating the first CDC eviction moratorium. [Missouri Independent/Rebecca Rivas]
In the meantime, as a response to the inaction by the Board of Aldermen, St. Louis City Mayor Tishaura Jones has allocated $1.5 million to expand the City’s ability to process rental assistance applications. Activists occupied the Mayor’s Office on Monday to bring attention to delays in processing requests and issuing rental assistance payments, with more than 3,000 eviction cases currently pending in the City of St. Louis. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch/Rachel Rice]
Environmental activists, EPA look to local leaders for bi-state solution to contamination
Missouri Beyond Coal, a St. Louis-based coalition focused on improving health outcomes through environmental justice, led a bi-state protest to bring public attention to heavy air pollution that disproportionately impacts local Black neighborhoods. Demanding change in how Missouri and Illinois leaders separately attempt to address toxic environmental conditions, the coalition of multi-racial multi-generational activists rallied on the McKinley Bridge, which straddles the Mississippi River, to call on elected officials to take concrete action to resolve the regional issue. [St. Louis Public Radio/Eric Schmid]
The Environmental Protection Agency has ordered Cahokia Heights, Ill., to take immediate action to prevent drinking water contamination caused by excessive flooding and sewer overflows. The emergency order comes after two lawsuits and public pressure on city leadership to take action under the Safe Drinking Water Act. [St. Louis Public Radio/Kavahn Mansouri]
Missouri Dept. of Corrections plagued by COVID outbreaks, drops contract with Corizon Health
The Missouri Department of Corrections has reported multiple COVID-19 outbreaks throughout numerous facilities in the state, citing staffing shortages, lack of testing, overcrowding, and the highly transmissible Delta variant. The DOC requires inmates to be vaccinated in order to receive visitors, but DOC staff are not required to be vaccinated and mask and social distancing policies are rarely enforced. [St. Louis Public Radio/Jamie Jiang]
Hundreds of millions of public funds are in jeopardy as the State of Missouri has terminated its contract with Corizon Health, the notorious medical services provider of three decades. The contract to provide medical and healthcare services was instead awarded to Clayton-based Centene, through its subsidiary Centurion Health. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch/Kurt Erickson]
Further reading
Missouri’s HIV transmission criminalization law finally has been reformed after 30 years, reducing the charge to a Class D felony and increasing the burden of proof for prosecutors. The reformed law “also avoids singling out HIV as a uniquely dangerous or transmissible disease,” although activists still note that criminal prosecution may prevent people from regular testing to determine HIV status. [Missouri Independent/Sophie Hurwitz]
Camp Cole, an intentional encampment established by the City of St. Louis, has experienced high demand for placement and resources. Camp Cole was established as a low-barrier facility, where residents are not required to obtain employment or stop using drugs and have access to St. Patrick Center staff, resources, and life necessities. [St. Louis Public Radio/Emily Woodbury]
Gun violence in St. Louis and Kansas City is on the rise, especially in neighborhoods with blighted acres of abandoned properties and vacant lots. Public health researchers have found that blighted properties have an impact on the risk of gun violence and improving factors like income, housing, food insecurity, and education, can help to decrease violent gun crimes. [Missouri Independent/Kaitlin Washburn and Humera Lodhi]
The website STLMugshots.com has been sued after the site posted the mugshot of a teenager who was arrested for a misdemeanor DUI. The owner of the website, Edmund Tauk, was audio-recorded in his attempt to extort the teenager’s father for money in exchange for removing the mugshot from the site. [Fox 2 News/Chris Hayes]
A report on the distribution of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program (TANF) has determined that the program routinely failed to provide cash assistance to Black women with children. Research from the report further found that Black families are likelier than white families to live in states with the weakest TANF programs, serving fewer families and even targeting Black families by excluding unmarried parents or working within specific industries. [Missouri Independent/Adriana Figueroa]
Quote of the Week
“We are a rapidly dying species as far as Black farmers are concerned. So I feel like it is definitely a weight on my shoulders — not only my shoulders, but other young Black farmers as well — to continue on this legacy of Black farming.”
Lorenzo Powell, a sixth-generation Black farmer from Fulton Missouri. Powell was interviewed by St. Louis Public Radio this week to discuss the challenges faced by Black-owned farms in Missouri and the jeopardized federal assistance to Black farmers who historically have been discriminated against and denied equal access to USDA funding and support.