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DannyB (5839)
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Creator of horrible puns I try to inflict on people daily. I haven't been voluntarily or involuntarily committed to a mental institution yet -- as far as I can tell. Despite programming in Java.
Gary Indiana.
3 dead, 7 wounded after shooting at block party in Gary
[ . . . . ] Marquise Hall, 26, from Lafayette, Indiana, Ashanti Brown, 20, from Olympia Fields, Illinois, and Laurance Magnum, 25, from Merrillville, Indiana were all pronounced dead on the scene by the Lake County Coroners Office.
Some of the gunshot victims self-transported to area hospitals -- others were transported by ambulance, police said.
Due to the enormity of the scene, mutual aid was requested from surrounding police agencies.
3 dead, 7 wounded after shooting at July Fourth block party in Gary, Indiana, police say
GARY, Ind. – Gunfire during a July Fourth block party in northwestern Indiana left three people dead and seven wounded early Tuesday, police said.
Why does the USA have a problem with gun violence? I wonder why that could be?
Some will deny the problem exists. Others will runaway from the problem. Some will hand wave it away . . . oh, look, a shiny! Maybe we can get Alex Jones to say it is all a hoax and the victims made it all up. (BTW, how's that defamation case going?)
If a state has a well regulated militia it would seem that they would have adequate training, marksmanship and be a mentally stable person before being entrusted with a firearm.
The age of men is over. The time of the Orc has come.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by turgid on Tuesday July 05 2022, @09:09PM (6 children)
Today was a warm, sunny day, and at lunch time I had reason to go out for a drive. I was going to collect a shopping delivery. I had the B-52s playing on the car stereo, the sun was sparkling on the sea and there were even sheep sleeping in the road. Perhaps life isn't so bad after all? Then I remembered those people who had just been shot dead. They would never get to feel like this again. Their families and friends would forever have such experienced diminished by their loss. What for? Why does everyone need guns?
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 5, Interesting) by DannyB on Tuesday July 05 2022, @09:38PM (5 children)
Repost from my prior journal entry:
Trump-backed Illinois candidate says ‘let’s move on’ just hours after parade shooting [independent.co.uk]
Republican senator Darren Bailey is being backed by ex-president Donald Trump
I'm sure the families of the dead victims, and all the wounded victims are all in agreement that we need to just forget this and move on. It is just too embarrassing to Republicans to allow an issue like this to be public.
Then why, oh why are you a Trump supporter and supporter of Republican policies and candidates?
While Republicans can get over Trump's sexual assaults, affairs, and vulgarity; they cannot get over Obama being black.
(Score: 4, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday July 06 2022, @02:37PM (4 children)
That's MULTIPLE Jul 4 mass shootings, son!
Hell, we're in the dozens now!
July 4 weekend marred by more than a dozen mass shootings [axios.com]
(Score: 3, Funny) by DannyB on Wednesday July 06 2022, @02:50PM (3 children)
That means there are more shootings that we need to quickly 'move on' from. I'm sure the victims and their families would agree with the Trumpster that this all should be swept under the rug. Quickly. Before anyone gets any idea about trying to fix the problem we obviously have.
While Republicans can get over Trump's sexual assaults, affairs, and vulgarity; they cannot get over Obama being black.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday July 06 2022, @02:56PM (2 children)
Yep, we're approaching light speed for moving on!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 07 2022, @01:42PM (1 child)
"Yep, we're approaching
lightwarp speed for moving on!"FTFY
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Thursday July 07 2022, @05:37PM
Warp speed only exists in Demorcat Run SciFi Series!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by dalek on Tuesday July 05 2022, @09:47PM (43 children)
In your previous journal, I was debating gun control with Runaway and mentioned the violence in Gary. I had no idea that there was a mass shooting there when I posted those comments. It's a weird coincidence that I was debating this with Runaway just hours ago.
Unlike cities in Illinois, local authorities can't do a whole lot about guns in Gary. They can restrict the use of guns in their city but aren't able to create restrictions on possession of guns and ammunition. Indiana state law preempts any local laws and prohibits additional gun control beyond what the state allows. Indiana has a big problem with straw purchases, too. That's when someone who can legally purchase a gone does so, but with the intent of selling the gun to someone who would be prohibited from making the purchase themselves. Gary is basically a suburb of Chicago, and one with a much violent crime rate than Chicago. A lot of guns from straw purchases not only are used for crimes in cities like Indianapolis, but make their way to Chicago gangs, which do operate in Gary. Indiana is a big source of illegal guns in Chicago, and local authorities in places like Gary really have their hands tied by state law. They've enacted stricter gun control only to have it overridden by state law.
Unlike the shooting in Illinois, there don't seem to be a lot of details published about this mass shooting. I don't see any reporting about if this was a deranged person, a gang-related shooting, or something else.
Gary has a very high violent crime rate, far higher than Chicago. East Saint Louis is a similar city, with a much higher violent crime rate than Saint Louis. And Saint Louis is ranked at the top of the most dangerous large cities in America. Basically, industry collapsed in these cities, the factories closed up, and the people who could move away did. The people left behind are generally impoverished and black. When you concentrate poverty, don't have jobs available, and and just leave people in decaying cities, you get very high crime rates. In Lake County, Indiana, you have some fairly affluent and very white cities like Crown Point just miles away from Gary. There's a huge amount of segregation both economically and racially. Again, when you concentrate poverty in one area, you get very high crime rates like you see in Gary and East Saint Louis.
We can do much better, both in terms of gun control and fixing the conditions that allow for cities like Gary and East Saint Louis to have such high poverty and crime rates.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest just whinge about SN.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday July 05 2022, @09:59PM (21 children)
But . . . OMG . . . I hear that nowhere on Earth has higher violence than Chicago. And I learned form the prior discussion you are referring to that . . . (shhhhh!) Chicago . . .
(pokes head up, looks carefully both ways, then slinks back down . . . )
in whispered voice . . . I hear that Chicago is Democrat controlled! OMG! What is the WORLD COMING TO!
I only heard of the Gary shooting when I looked at news articles today. Was up too late watching fireworks.
So if Chicago has been taken over by Democrats, as suggested by someone, I would ask but they ran away, and those Democrats are able to take on human form and appearance, then how oh how could anywhere else on earth have a higher violent crime rate than a Democrat controlled city like Chicago!?!
While Republicans can get over Trump's sexual assaults, affairs, and vulgarity; they cannot get over Obama being black.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 05 2022, @10:35PM (2 children)
I guess that's the partisan response you expect when you treat political parties like football teams.
I follow an 18 team league. If parties were like football teams then the two dominant parties would be the teams most passionately hated by spectators from the other 16.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by DannyB on Wednesday July 06 2022, @02:39PM
It's the kind of partisan response when one party has become comedy and no longer can be taken seriously.
Once upon a time, Republicans believed in:
* the rule of law
* limited government
* strong national defense
* prosperity and opportunity brought by low taxes and fiscally conservative policies
But here we are today.
Let's have an authoritarian government that is concerned with what people do in their bedrooms, who they marry and what kind of health care women can receive -- even if the mother's life depends on it. And it is perfectly okay if a congress critter who doesn't know what is an ectopic pregnancy, wants no exception to allow abortions in the case of a life threatening ectopic pregnancy.
And back on topic, we have a serious gun violence problem in this country. Yet one party won't even acknowledge it exists, let along work towards any constructive measures that might diminish this problem.
I would also point out in the past two years the crazy insane right wing threads I have been involved in where crazy people didn't think Covid-19 is a big deal. Now in hindsight . . .
COVID was the leading cause of death in Americans ages 45-54 in 2021 [arstechnica.com]
About 1 in 8 US deaths were from COVID-19 between March 2020 and October 2021.
I guess one MILLION+ dead Americans is not enough. (from Covid-19)
So please don't lecture me about not treating politics seriously when one side has become a comedy team.
While Republicans can get over Trump's sexual assaults, affairs, and vulgarity; they cannot get over Obama being black.
(Score: 4, Informative) by DannyB on Wednesday July 06 2022, @02:55PM
Let me also add to my above post.
Texas educators want to rebrand 'slavery' as 'involuntary relocation'.
Talk about Orwellian Newspeak from 1984.
While Republicans can get over Trump's sexual assaults, affairs, and vulgarity; they cannot get over Obama being black.
(Score: 2) by dalek on Tuesday July 05 2022, @10:47PM (16 children)
In fairness, the leaders of Gary, the mayor and city council are Democrats. Saint Louis hasn't elected a Republican as mayor in many decades and the board of aldermen is comprised of all Democrats. Finding information about the political affiliations of the leadership in East Saint Louis hasn't been as easy, but I fully expect their leaders are also Democrats.
The Republican position seems to be that if only they were elected in these cities, if they had more police on the streets, it would solve the problems. They would be wrong. The solution is to address the problems of concentrated poverty and lack of jobs, but there's only so much power the local leaders have to do any of this. They can't compel the factories to reopen. The lack of industry and the generally impoverished populations result in low tax revenues, meaning that the leaders don't have the funds to implement possible solutions. The mayors of Saint Louis, East Saint Louis, and Gary don't have the ability on their own to reverse the white flight that created the problems in those cities.
Putting more police on the streets won't necessarily make things better, particularly if the residents don't trust the police. Ever been to Ferguson, Missouri? Ferguson and many of the cities around it don't really feel dangerous, especially during the day. There are a lot of very large and beautiful homes around there. The University of Missouri-Saint Louis is about a mile south of where the riots occurred. Before the university opened in the 1960s, the campus was a country club. Ferguson was actually a very affluent area just a few decades ago.
The riots had a lot to do with local residents distrusting the police, and the death of Michael Brown caused tensions to boil over. To be clear, the people who burned buildings, vandalized property, and looted stores absolutely should be prosecuted for their crimes. But the underlying issue is that many of the residents, particularly black people living in that city, just didn't trust the police. There are several small cities in the area that are pretty much ticket mills. When residents don't trust the police, adding more police won't reduce the crime. It might make things worse if residents don't expect to be treated fairly by the police, or if they feel the police are just there to be a source of revenue. The police need the cooperation of residents to solve crimes and get criminals off the streets. While truly violent criminals should be in prison, it's not generally a solution to just send more criminals to prison for relatively minor crimes. As with more policing, it has the potential to make the situation worse. I know, this journal isn't about Ferguson, but it's a great example of why Republicans don't have the solution and could make things worse in these cities.
Yes, cities like Gary are run by Democrats. But Republicans don't have the solutions. Their proposed solutions might well make the situation worse instead of better. Blindly adding police and prosecuting more people won't fix things. The solutions require addressing the issues with poverty, lack of jobs, lack of education, and other factors that cause crime rates to be high.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest just whinge about SN.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 05 2022, @11:53PM (2 children)
Poverty and violence is the cause they elect Dems - voting the maxmin.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 06 2022, @12:52AM
Ah, I see the rightwing moron chimes in. Thankfully no one has much respect for the opinions of traitorous deplorables.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 06 2022, @04:33AM
lesser of two evils
(Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Wednesday July 06 2022, @04:58AM (12 children)
It could help. Keep in mind that weak law enforcement, while not the entire problem, is a big part. And more police on the street, actually enforcing useful laws, would help strengthen that law enforcement. You aren't going to ever attract industry or wealthier population if all you have to offer is high crime.
I think this dynamic is a typical outcome of said weak law enforcement. It becomes a triage situation with enforcement at the whim of police and their masters.
I agree. This blind application of law enforcement can't by itself fix the many flaws of society, but you can't get rid of police. They are a necessary evil because of our flaws. We have basic needs of security from each other which police and similar organizations can address in a relatively fair manner.
My take is that a lot of this problem is simply people living in bad places. Even if it isn't possible to fix places like Gary, we can always move people out of Gary. Less people means less harm. That's always been one of the benefits of the US - the ability to leave bad situations for better opportunity, whether it be an escape from poverty or tyranny in another country or somewhere else in the US.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 07 2022, @12:13AM (11 children)
B-b-b-but, I thought you libertarian types were of the opinion that all problems could be solved through negotiated contracts!!!
So, I take it that you are an advocate for ethnic cleansing? How very special!
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday July 07 2022, @02:18AM (10 children)
Because making them stay in Gary would be so much better?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 07 2022, @02:34AM (9 children)
You do realize you tacitly admitted to condoning ethnic cleansing right?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday July 07 2022, @02:42AM (8 children)
Nope. You didn't realize it either. In fact, this is the opposite of ethnic cleansing since everyone, not just approved ethnicities, can move to where the opportunities are, rather than be trapped in dead end places like Gary.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 08 2022, @10:29PM (7 children)
Khallow's advice used to be so good, men would pay money for it. But now, I fear, we really need a khallow cleaning, because he is becoming something of a dead end shit-hole libertarian. Like Ron Paul, the ideology is just a cover for racism.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Saturday July 09 2022, @12:13AM (6 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 09 2022, @01:09AM (5 children)
Who are you responding to, khallow? Have you come down with a case of janrinokitis? Not healthy, not being able to take constructive criticism.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Saturday July 09 2022, @03:07AM (4 children)
Look what it did to you! Anonymous trashposting! Sad.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 10 2022, @10:17AM (3 children)
I am worried about your increasing ties to white superists, khallow. Your ethnic cleansing proposal seems rather Proud Boy-ish.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday July 10 2022, @01:30PM (2 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 11 2022, @01:14AM (1 child)
Sorry pal, I was the one that asked if you realized you endorsed genocide, the other ACs just trolled you. My comment was a snide joke based on your phrasing but you got defensive instead of asking how the hell your post could be endorsing ethnic cleansing.
"So, I take it that you are an advocate for ethnic cleansing? How very special!"
"Cause that would be so much better than living in Gary?"
Do you see the grammatical issue? I think the OP of the ethnic cleansing question was just poking your rightwing views of "just move" instead of addressing real problems, and the cleansing was poking the qqqrazy end game Republicans are actively working towards. Bootstraps!
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday July 11 2022, @04:57AM
Because it was a stupid, insulting question. There was no sense in wasting my time asking "how". The answer wouldn't matter. You showed your colors here.
(Score: 5, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday July 06 2022, @05:56PM
There are 16 US cities that are move violent than Chicago. [wikipedia.org]
Here's the list down to Chicago:
St Louis MO, Detroit MI, Baltimore MD, Memphis TN, Kansas City MO, Milwaukee WI, Cleveland OH, Stockton CA, Albuquerque NM, Indianapolis IN, Oakland CA, San Bernardino CA, Anchorage AK, Nashville TN, New Orleans LA, Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday July 06 2022, @12:41AM (7 children)
The 'deranged person' descriptor seems to fit this one. He has posted all sorts of crazy on his social media channels. I've read that he had ties to Trump, and in the next link, he has ties to Antifa, a socialist party, and other leftist groups. I'm not believing any of it yet. The only thing that seems accurate is, the cops have tons of social media postings complete with cartoons and videos of mass murder. That, and the claim that he has planned this shooting for months seems believable.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by dalek on Wednesday July 06 2022, @03:08AM (4 children)
Is that about the Gary shooting or the Highland Park shooting? I haven't seen any information at all about suspects in the Gary shooting. The information might make sense about the Highland Park shooting because there is a suspect, and police have released some information about the suspect. However, information about the Gary shooting seems very sparse.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest just whinge about SN.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 06 2022, @03:37AM (2 children)
Runaway cannot keep up with all the mass shootings. He is hoping that they are in Democrat occupied territory, because Runaway is something of a Palestinian, or an on-line mass-shooting competitor. Gary, like Philly, just goes to show that if there are more guns, disagreements escalate into mass casualty events. So much for the "armed society is a polite society" arguments. And Runaway is packing. Ignorant moron.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 06 2022, @05:17AM
Guns are very noisy, the polite thing to do is use a silencer
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 06 2022, @02:45PM
Runaway is something of a Palestinian.
Don't you mean Philistine?
(Score: 1) by Runaway1956 on Thursday July 07 2022, @12:35AM
My reply was in reference to the Highland Park shooting. Sorry, I wasn't aware of the Gary shooting when I posted.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 07 2022, @12:18AM (1 child)
Could we perhaps put this meme to rest now? I mean, as far as I'm aware "Antifa" doesn't actually exist, except perhaps as a bogey man that lives inside your paranoid imagination.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 07 2022, @12:30AM
The key words. There are many things you don't know about. This is just one of them.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Magic Oddball on Wednesday July 06 2022, @01:32AM (4 children)
The reports I'm seeing now say that the police had been called to his home twice in 2019, once when he attempted suicide and once when a family member reported that he was repeatedly threatening to "kill everyone." In the second instance, the cops took "16 knives, a dagger, and a sword" from his home, but didn't do anything else. (I wonder whether the knives were just standard kitchen knives, or if they were designed for combat.)
He's not totally deranged, though: he has been planning the attack for months, and disguised himself as a woman immediately after shooting in order to escape by joining the fleeing crowd.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Magic Oddball on Wednesday July 06 2022, @01:34AM (3 children)
Oops -- wrong shooter, that was the guy who shot up the July 4th parade, not the other guy.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 06 2022, @07:50AM
Yes, we know. Runaway was just getting all excited again, like he does when these things happen.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday July 06 2022, @02:43PM (1 child)
The guy clearly planned this. The ideal example of someone who should not be allowed to possess a firearm. The reason why there should not be loopholes allowing him to obtain a firearm.
While Republicans can get over Trump's sexual assaults, affairs, and vulgarity; they cannot get over Obama being black.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday July 07 2022, @02:19AM
What was the loophole here?
(Score: 5, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday July 06 2022, @03:08PM (7 children)
Top 5 cities by violent crime rate:
St Louis, MO, (R) Governor
Detroit, MI (D) Governor
Baltimore MD, (R) Governor
Memphis TN (R) Governor
Kansas City, MO, (R) Governor
So right off the bat you can see the majority are in states that voted for Trump in the last election.
80% of them have a Republican governor.
The idea that this violence is happening primarily in "Democrat Run States" is a blatant lie.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday July 06 2022, @03:10PM
[citation] [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by dalek on Wednesday July 06 2022, @09:41PM (5 children)
The argument was that the cities were run by Democrats. Let's look at the top of the list. It is an accurate description of Saint Louis. They haven't had a Republican mayor in many decades. There are 28 aldermen on the board, all Democrats. It's run by Democrats. That said, it is a very short-sighted and inaccurate description of why crime is so high. From living in the Saint Louis area for about 20 years, I know the reasons are a lot more complicated.
Saint Louis isn't part of any county at all. Saint Louis County is a completely separate entity. Saint Louis has been an independent city for almost 150 years, with its boundaries fixed in state law. Many other cities can annex surrounding areas, which increases population and tax revenue. These are probably also going to be areas that have relatively low crime rates, which would improve the overall statistics. Saint Louis cannot annex surrounding areas. Kansas City can, but not Saint Louis.
As with many cities, Saint Louis is very segregated. The origins of this are in redlining, but the segregation still exists today across the Delmar Divide [wikipedia.org]. There's a big difference in racial demographics and socioeconomic status from south Saint Louis and north Saint Louis, with the north having a much larger black population, more poverty, and higher crime rates. South Saint Louis has a majority white population whereas almost all of the people in north Saint Louis are black. Although the laws that created this situation are gone, the segregation hasn't gone away. There's less affordable housing south of Delmar, and residents in north Saint Louis have a hard time getting banks to lend money to them so they can move out.
Saint Louis City was once very prosperous and was at one point the fourth largest city in the United States. They didn't want to support the surrounding county, which is why they became an independent city, a decision that we now look back on as short-sighted. Like many cities in the Midwest, the factories that once supported the local economy closed decades ago. The people who could afford to move into wealthier areas and into suburbs have done so. The people who couldn't afford to do so have been left behind in poverty, poor education, and a lack of jobs. As I've said, concentrating poverty causes high crime rates, which is exactly what happened in north Saint Louis. Businesses don't want to move into those areas because of the crime, making it hard to improve the situation.
As with Chicago, a lot of the violence in Saint Louis is gang violence. Prior to the 1990s, each of the large gangs had some territory, they made plenty of money selling drugs, and there wasn't a lot of violence between gangs. Drug enforcement in Saint Louis was very effective during this period, breaking up the large gangs and disrupting their operations. Now, the gangs are far more fragmented, selling drugs is less profitable, and there's a lot more violence between the more fragmented gangs and in retaliatory killings [stltoday.com]. Of course, the reason these gangs exist and people are selling drugs is because the factories closed up and the jobs went away. That's a motivating factor in why people start selling drugs. Policing created some of these issues, trying to address a drug problem and inadvertently creating a worse violent crime problem. That's why I keep saying that a heavy handed police presence isn't the solution.
Another factor here is that Missouri law not only prohibits Saint Louis from enacting their own gun control but also prohibits Saint Louis and other cities from enforcing federal gun laws [cbsnews.com]. Put another way, state law mandates that Saint Louis is a sanctuary city with respect to gun control. Of course, that makes it harder for police to address violent crime in Saint Louis. This is a law that was passed by a Republican legislature and signed into law by a Republican governor. A couple of decades ago, Missouri was a much more moderate state. It hasn't been that long since Bob Holden was governor, and before him, Mel Carnahan. But the state has taken a hard turn to the right, particularly in the past decade. Many of the problems in Saint Louis go back far before the current turn to the right, but the state isn't helping matters.
Simply throwing more police at the problem won't help, particularly if residents don't trust the police. The police need the cooperation of residents to help solve crimes and get violent criminals off the streets. Saint Louis has invested money in hiring "interrupters [apnews.com]," who try to intervene and stop violent crime before the police have to get involved. It's a form of law enforcement but isn't as heavy handed as just throwing more police at the problem and putting more people in prisons. Saint Louis has actually seen a significant decrease in murders as a result of the program. It won't solve the problem completely, but lowering the crime rate is a first step toward perhaps getting more businesses to move in and create jobs.
This is a lot more complicated than just saying that Democrats or Republicans are in charge and assigning blame.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest just whinge about SN.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Thursday July 07 2022, @05:35PM (4 children)
Sure seems like Cherry Picking if you need to go all the way down to the 'frikken city council to find any Democrats!
Agreed, my schtick is more about disabusing disinformation than assigning blame.
(Score: 2) by dalek on Thursday July 07 2022, @06:59PM (3 children)
I get that you're trying to point out flaws in blaming Democrats and pointing to cities with Democratic mayors.
The last Republican mayor of Saint Louis was Aloys Kaufmann; he left office in 1949. Missouri's 1st congressional district includes all of Saint Louis City and most of northern Saint Louis County. The county overall is fairly moderate, but the demographics and voting trends of the northern part of Saint Louis County are fairly close to those of Saint Louis City. The district is represented by Cori Bush and is rated D+29 in terms of partisan lean. There really isn't much of a functioning Republican Party in Saint Louis City, where they often don't even have candidates on the ballot for alderman from many wards, or even in the mayoral election.
It's easy to criticize someone else's policies, particularly when you're not putting candidates on the ballot and proposing solutions of your own. Despite the alarming crime statistics, most of the people in north Saint Louis are law abiding citizens. If Republicans want to influence policy in Saint Louis, they should start by running a few candidates for aldermen, go into north Saint Louis, and convince voters that they can create jobs there. Republicans would probably get a lot more votes by telling the people they're going to open the doors to businesses and factories instead of prison cells. Put people to work and the crime will start to go down. Yes, violent criminals should be in prison. But any good solution needs to address putting people to work so they don't turn to crime in the first place.
I know that khallow says that people can just move out. In principle, yes. In practice, not really. Many of the people in north Saint Louis wouldn't be able to get the credit they need to move out, and they might well have trouble finding affordable housing in other areas. Again, that's why it's necessary to create jobs, particularly good enough jobs to meaningfully impact people's standard of living.
I think that's how Republicans could make inroads into Saint Louis, but it starts by getting candidates on the ballot and offering real solutions. But it's easier to throw stones instead of actually trying to win over voters.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest just whinge about SN.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 07 2022, @08:55PM
"affordable housing"
What is that?
(Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Monday July 11 2022, @05:01AM (1 child)
I'm right too. It's been obvious for decades that creating jobs would help these regions, but that didn't happen. Rather than pursue a course of action that has failed for longer than most of us have been alive, it's time to consider the US's strengths in this very matter - namely moving people out of bad situations or regions.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by dalek on Monday July 11 2022, @05:30AM
First, the AC who accused you of ethnic cleansing or something like that is just a troll. I assume that relocating will be voluntary, but would take the form of assistance to help people relocate. As I suggested, I think many people living in very high crime areas would like to move to better neighborhoods but lack the financial means to do so. If I understand correctly, the effect of your proposal would be to address the financial barrier by relocating residents in these neighborhoods to areas with lower crime and better access to jobs. Is that correct? If so, I don't have a problem with this.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest just whinge about SN.