The St. Louis Observer: May 28, 2021
The St. Louis Observer: May 28, 2021
Lawsuit alleges inhumane living conditions, abuse by City jail staff; #moleg considers emergency session over City’s police budget cuts; fights over civilian jail oversight
Editor’s Note
Welcome to the inaugural edition of The St. Louis Observer. In the tradition of the original St. Louis Observer in the 1830s, we are a newsletter committed to expanding and investing in coverage of the fight for police & prison abolition in St. Louis, Missouri.
Our City has the chance to reimagine public safety outside of policing, prisons, & jails. After 257 years, we have elected Tishaura Jones, the City’s first Black woman Mayor who has, to date:
Defunded one of two city jails, the Medium Security Institution (“MSI”, or “the Workhouse”);
Defunded 150 unfilled police officer positions (SLMPD’s “slush fund”); and
Cut the City’s white police union out of decision-making at SLMPD.
She’s kept her promises to center racial equity, reimagine public safety, and is charting a new course for the next 100 years of our City’s history. We are committed to supporting and investing in critical coverage of the struggle to build a city beyond mass incarceration for all people of St. Louis and the broader public. Follow us for updates.
In the News
Public pressure continues to rise as ongoing civil rights abuses, violations in the City’s Department of Corrections facilities
Arch City Defenders launched a federal lawsuit against the City of St. Louis alleging water deprivation, excessive use of mace, abuse of detainees by DOC personnel. Reports note detainee reports of lung damage, exposure to COVID-infected cellmates [Riverfront Times / Doyle Murphy]
Reports from outstate note similar ongoing failures to enforce COVID-19 containment plans inside state prisons, including corrections officers not following COVID protocols, insufficient healthcare access, lack of PPE [Missouri Independent / Jamie Hobbs]
These are the kinds of conditions that the St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones’ (D) first executive order, which gave the Civilian Oversight Board jurisdiction to review complaints by detainees of city jails earlier this year, was intended to investigate [Office of the Mayor, EO1]
Two St. Louis aldermen introduced two bills to roll back the jurisdiction of the Civilian Oversight Board to investigate conditions in city jails, in a bid to either delay or preempt these investigations [Ald. Vacarro, Ward 23, BB 19; Ald. Collins-Muhamad, Ward 21, BB 29]
State Republicans try to block police funding reforms in Kansas City
Civil rights organizations in Kansas City met to express support for Mayor Lucas’s (D) + the City Council’s plan to redirect $42 million in KCPD funding to a special “Community Services & Prevention Fund” fund. The move would require that KCPD submit a request for funds needed to continue operations of the fund, which would then need to be negotiated and approved by the City Manager and state-appointed Board of Police Commissioners [Kansas City Star / Glenn Rice]
Missouri Republicans have called for a special session to weigh in on the local measure, possibly to consider increasing Missouri’s state-mandated minimum required local budget allocation for police from 20%, where it stands today, to preempt. They are currently in recess, unclear at this time if the session will be organized [Missouri Independent / Jason Hancock]
Earlier this month, the Missouri state legislature passed a measure giving private citizens standing to sue cities that cut police budgets more than 12% relative to other departments. This may come into play during hearings [Missouri Independent / Rebecca Rivas]
Miscellaneous
A private autopsy engaged by the family of a Black teenager, Derontae Martin, who was found dead in the house of James Wade in Fredericktown, MO in April, conflicts with initial police reports that gunshot wounds were self-inflicted. The investigation is ongoing [KSDK / Christine Byers; DailyKos / Marissa Higgins]
Despite ongoing problems with ShotSpotter accuracy and reliability, St. Louis County municipality Glasgow Village (directly adjacent to North City) has received a $318,000 “donation” from the Police Foundation to expand the program within one square mile [St. Louis Post Dispatch / Erin Heffernan]
Initial data from the Cure Violence program has shown that violent crimes (including gun-related homicides and aggravated assaults) are declining in specific City neighborhoods where the program is implemented [St. Louis Post Dispatch / Mark Schlinkmann]
Rep. Chad Perkins (R) has been accused of raping an intoxicated teenager while on duty as a police officer in Pike County, MO in 2015 [St. Louis Post Dispatch / Kurt Erickson, Jack Suntrup]
The United States Supreme Court rejected a request to review an 8th Circuit decision that a man, Ernest Johnson, be executed by lethal injection that will almost certainly result in painful interaction with his cancer medications. Johnson had requested appeal + execution by firing squad [Missouri Times / Kaitlyn Schallhorn]
Quote of the Week
Walter Johnson recounts the Observer’s history in his “The Broken Heart of America:”
“The lynching of Francis McIntosh transfixed the nation. Elijah Lovejoy, who would later become celebrated as the nation’s first (white) antislavery martyr, detailed the murder and its aftermath in a series of articles published in his newspaper, The St. Louis Observer. By the end of May, the reaction to his reporting had forced Lovejoy to leave St. Louis for Alton, Illinois, across the Mississippi. In November of the following year, a St. Louis mob followed Lovejoy across the river to set fire to the Illinois warehouse where he kept his press. When Lovejoy tried to save the building from burning, someone shot him; as he lay dying, the mob carried his press down to the banks of the Mississippi, broke it into pieces, and threw it in. No one was ever convicted of his murder.”
Legal & Legislative Updates
Hearings on the FY22 budget, which includes cuts to corrections & unfilled officer positions, continued at Ways & Means.
Alders heard testimony from Departments of Streets, Parks, Health, others. The next hearing will include testimony from the Public Safety Director on June 2-3 [Pres. Reed, BB 1]Ald. Ingrassia’s bill to extend the city’s eviction moratorium for tenants under certain circumstances is still pending a hearing at the Public Safety Committee. The city’s court-ordered moratorium ends this Monday, 5/31 [Ald. Ingrassia, Ward 6, BB 22]
Ald. Rice introduced legislation to regulate police department use of data gathering surveillance technologies is to be introduced in general assembly [Ald. Rice, Ward 8, BB 31]
Ald. Vacarro’s bill to create a new Detention Facility Oversight Board is still pulled, pending work with the mayor’s office, undermining the Mayor’s order listed above [Ald. Vacarro, Ward 23, BB 19]
Ald. Collins-Muhamad introduced a bill to change the name of the Civilian Oversight Board, created in 2015, to the Police Conduct Review Commission, undermining the Mayor’s order listed above [Ald. Collins-Muhamad, Ward 21, BB 29]
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