The St. Louis Observer: June 4, 2021
Veiled Prophet’s future uncertain; new investment in affordable housing missing tenants’ bill of rights; SLMPD continues brutality without accountability
Editor’s Note
This Memorial Day, we remembered the victims of violence at home and abroad. This week marked the 100 year anniversary of the bombing of “Black Wall Street,” a thriving Black business district in Tulsa, Ok., where nearly 250 people were murdered by a white mob. In one month, we will commemorate the 114 year anniversary of the East St. Louis Race Riot, just one day before that year’s Veiled Prophet Fair, where a white mob murdered nearly 100 Black men, women, and children, and displaced more than 6,000 Black folks. These are just two of countless post-Reconstruction assaults on Black wealth by white reactionary forces in this country’s long history. Reparations for both events have not been paid to this day.
This is to say nothing of the uncounted victims of poverty and economic violence in the City. New investments are being planned for direct relief for families, affordable housing on the northside, and a new SLDC Director has been appointed who has said that investment and economic justice will be a priority for him and his administration. Still, people live under the thumb of the most violent police forces in the country and political prisoners remain behind bars. In their memory, we continue to fight to divest from policing, prisons, and militarism, and invest instead in our communities.
In the News
National attention drawn to Veiled Prophet Society’s history of racism, classism in St. Louis
Ellie Kemper faced scrutiny for her participation in the Veiled Prophet Ball in 1999, once again sparking debate about the history of racism, classism, and violence of the city’s elite society 1 [KSDK / Abby Llorico]
Public support for the Veiled Prophet-sponsored parade, fair, and ball continues to decline. Priceless heirloom tiaras like the one Kemper was given were stolen from the Missouri History Museum in 2018. To date, they’ve not been recovered [Riverfront Times / Danny Wicentowski]
Questions remain about this year’s plans for the Veiled Prophet Parade, on which the Jones administration has not yet commented. In its first guest piece, The Observer covers the history of the first KKK, St. Louis’s Veiled Prophet, argues that the City of St. Louis should reject the Veiled Prophet’s permit application + ban the event from the city moving forward [The St. Louis Observer / Devin O'Shea, Chelsea Merta]
City plans investments in affordable housing + economic relief but without municipal tenant protections in place
Judge Michael Stelzer approved a plan to extend the City eviction moratorium to June 30, extending protection for tenants from eviction under certain conditions [KMOV / Uncredited Author]
Ald. Ingrassia’s proposed eviction moratorium extension remains stuck, pending a hearing in the Public Safety Committee. The moratorium would still not apply to all tenants or tenants allegedly involved in criminal activity [Ald. Ingrassia, Ward 6, BB 22]
Judge Michael Burton extended St. Louis County’s eviction moratorium, previously scheduled to expire May 31, to June 30 [St. Louis Post-Dispatch / Nassim Benchaabane]
Housing rights advocate Shanah Poole-Jones, working to connect tennants to resources in advance of the end of the St. Louis County eviction moratorium, was sued for discussing living conditions with tenants by Norwood 2020. She and her team have filed a motion to dismiss the charges [St. Louis Post-Dispatch / Tony Messenger]
Mayor Jones’ Stimulus Advisory Board released its draft recommendations on Tuesday, including a proposed investment of $31 million in housing assistance and homeless services through a combination of rent/mortgage relief, direct support for shelters, and wraparound services [Office of the Mayor, Recommendations on ARPA funds]
On Wednesday, Mayor Jones + Alderwoman Tina “Sweet T” Pihl announced that a deal was reached to reallocate $1.8 million from the City Foundry TIF into a community benefit agreement, with funds to be invested in affordable housing on St. Louis’s North Side. Recipients or affordability requirements have yet not been specified 2 [St. Louis Post-Dispatch / Jacob Barker]
On Thursday Neal Richardson, a tax credit executive at US Bank, was named as Otis Williams’ replacement as Executive Director of the St. Louis Development Corporation (SLDC). SLDC is the nonprofit agency that oversees several city investment and development incentive programs. He noted “addressing the historical barriers, the economic inequities and closing the racial wealth gap, and creating opportunities for everyone to participate in the economic system” will be his top priority [St. Louis Public Radio / Corinne Ruff]
Proposals to establish permanent, municipal-level tenant protection through a tenant bill of rights, as has been done in Kansas City, have not yet been proposed. Homes For All St. Louis is currently conducting outreach and collecting feedback for such an initiate [Homes for All]
Continued abuse without accountability or consequences highlights COB’s failure to reign in police violence
Cortez Bufford was murdered in Carondelet in December 2019 by a member of SLMPD’s Mobile Reserve Unit (SWAT), Lucas Roethlisberger. To date, Circuit Attorney Gardner has not filed charges or called a grand jury to investigate Roethlisberger’s role in Bufford’s murder and the case has not been sent to the Civilian Oversight Board. Parents worked with The Intercept + Invisible Institute to uncover the case [The Intercept / Alison Flowers, Sam Stecklow]
A St. Louis City judge acquitted officer William Olsten of assault for macing three protesters at a protest by Busch Stadium in 2017, including current State Representative Rasheen Aldridge and independent livestreamer Heather DeMian [St. Louis Post Dispatch / Joel Currier]
A judge ruled that racist text messages by one defendant can be disclosed to the jury in the trial of Dustin Boone and Christopher Myers, two SLMPD officers accused of beating undercover Black SLMPD officer Luther Hall during the Stockley Protests of 2017 [Riverfront Times / Doyle Murphy]
Despite massive police presence and millions of public & private dollars poured into public safety, Downtown St. Louis continues to struggle with policing, effective measures to curb years of violence [St. Louis Post Dispatch / Austin Huguelet]
Further Reading
The mother of a CJC detainee spoke with Sarah Fenske to discuss ArchCity Defenders’ civil rights lawsuit against the City of St. Louis for macing detainees, depriving water, & abusing pre-trial detainees through “ad seg,” or solitary confinement. [St. Louis Public Radio / Chad Davis]
St. Louis Public Safety Director Isom and reps of St. Louis County are in talks to share jail capacity for pretrial detainees in cases of overcrowding. The Workhouse is scheduled to close by 6/30, no plans have yet been reported to release any of those held pretrial by the City or Circuit Attorney’s office [St. Louis Post-Dispatch / Nassim Benchaabane]
A report co-authored by reps from SLMPD’s Crime Analysis Unit found that ShotSpotter technology produced evidence strong enough for a police report to be filed less than 1% of the time, adding to the evidence against the efficacy of SLMPD’s surveillance contracts + casting serious doubt on its continued operation in the FY22 budget 3 [St. Louis Post-Dispatch / Erin Heffernan]
The Board of Alderman is set to begin debating the most recent proposal to regulate city use of data collecting surveillance technologies, which would require that SLMPD, other city departments, tax districts, and other taxpayer-funded organizations track their use of data collecting tech and report racially disparate impacts of its use [Missouri Independent / Rebecca Rivas]
Legal scholars are sounding the alarm on a promising new law that provides wrongfully convicted individuals with a legal pathway to freedom but allows the Missouri Attorney General to become a participant and obstacle in that process [Missouri Independent / Rebecca Rivas]
Quote of the Week
Devin O’Shea and the Observer Editorial Board in our first guest-written piece, called on Mayor Jones to deny the Veiled Prophet Parade’s special event permit and expel the rebranded parade glorifying white supremacy out the City for good:
Every worker, no matter their race, looked up at the Veiled Prophet on the first float, standing next to a butcher and bloody block, and understood that although the Klan had been forced into hiding, they were still looking at a Klansmen. Plausible deniability of White supremacists in the media carried the Veiled Prophet, a secret society formed to suppress multiethnic working-class rebellion, long after he should have been crushed.
Legislative Update
Ways & Means heard testimony from Public Safety Director Isom and Fire Chief Dennis Jenkerson regarding the proposed public safety FY22 budget this week. Questions included the number of current personnel with police and fire departments, use of reserve funds, and promotional opportunities. The next meeting is scheduled for tomorrow, Saturday, June 5, where public testimony will be accepted [Pres. Reed, BB 1]
Ald. Bosley + Page introduced a zoning overlay for the area around the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA), the “Geospatial Protection Special Use District,” including updated use restrictions, the prohibition against investment by foreign governments and uses that threaten “national security” [Ald. Bosley, Ward 5, BB 51]
The TIF Commission met to review a proposal to amend approved uses of the City Foundry TIF in Midtown, where the mayor’s policy director Nahuel Fefer and Alderwoman Tina Pihl announced a deal had been reached on a community benefit agreement of $1.8 million for affordable housing [City Foundry RPA II, 2nd amendment]
Take Action
This Memorial Day, we remembered those still locked up for standing against police crimes when it wasn’t easy.
Noted Ferguson Uprising protester Josh Williams is a political prisoner from St. Louis County who was 19 years old when he was sentenced to 8 years in the Missouri Department of Corrections following evidence-less, wrongful convictions of arson, burglary, and theft. He was criminally charged by ousted St. Louis County prosecutor Bob McCullough, the same attorney who failed to indict Michael Brown’s murderer (and was alleged to have “thrown” the legal proceedings). In addition to the lack of evidence involved with Josh’s conviction,
Josh was an on-the-ground activist who helped spark one of the largest movements against police violence in modern history. His unjust and harsh sentence was an attempt by McCullough, and other white electeds in St. Louis County, to intimidate the Ferguson Uprising movement and to make an example out of him. This is one of the most egregious & blatant examples of white supremacy in the St. Louis County criminal court system. But Josh continues to be a target, being moved to solitary confinement at Potosi Correctional Center (a max facility) at the start of the George Floyd protests and has been wrongfully held in “ad seg” for more than a year and without just cause.
Help us support Josh by taking the following three steps:
Call Warden Paul Blair at Potosi Correctional Center at 573-438-6000 and demand that Josh be released immediately from administrative segregation & isolation (5 minutes);
Sign up for updates on Josh’s case (30 seconds) & send him letters of support (10 minutes);
Call Wesley Bell’s office at 314-615-2600 and demand that the St. Louis County Conviction and Incident Review Unit re-open & re-examine Josh’s wrongful convictions obtained under Bob McCullough’s racist administration (5 minutes).
The Veiled Prophet Ball, Parade, and its ties to white St. Louis has previously been covered by local and national media for the last decade. For more information you can read The Atlantic in 2014.
This follows the mayor’s veto of two central corridor tax abatement bills in early May: A $80 million market rate apartment complex in Grand Center and a $900,000 commercial rehab in Midtown, in response to calls from the SLPS Board of Education to reign in tax incentive abuse by the City. More information here.