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XPost: talk.politics.guns

On 19 Jan 2022, Kurt Nicklas <namblamember@gop.org> posted some news:ss9akj$f5ap$36@news.freedyn.de:

Is Rand Paul going to be president?

After a visiting Tennessee teen lost her legs Saturday night in a downtown crash caused by a speeding traffic violator, local officials were quick to assert that this kind of lawlessness doesn’t reflect what St. Louis stands
for. No, it’s exactly what St. Louis is: A place where criminals go unprosecuted, where speeders and red-light runners go unchallenged by
police, and where law-abiders fear for their lives at just about every
street corner. And because top St. Louis officials respond with
incompetence amid rampant lawlessness, while voters don’t hold them accountable, this is exactly what St. Louis stands for.

First, though, let’s not lose sight of the primary tragedy at hand. Janae Edmonson, a high schooler from Tennessee, was with her parents for a Dome
at America’s Center volleyball tournament. In an instant, her life went
from promising athlete bound for college to one of cruel uncertainty. She
will never walk again on her own legs. A young life full of promise will,
for the foreseeable future, be filled with crushing challenges and
constant struggle. She and her family deserve every ounce of support and
every dollar of donations that St. Louisans can send their way.

The Edmondson family’s lives have been turned upside down because, police
say, 21-year-old Daniel Riley was left free despite 50-plus bond
violations related to his arrest for a 2020 robbery. Riley somehow got the
idea that he could drive around town at ridiculous speeds, ignoring
traffic signs and plowing through intersections. Riley somehow got the
idea that the bond restrictions limiting his movements and requiring him
to be monitored at all times didn’t really apply to him.

“That person should not have been in that car,” said Jeff Wismer, the
assistant director of Janae Edmonson’s volleyball club. “That person
should not have been behind the wheel Saturday night.”

Riley had Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner to thank for his freedom because,
once again, she couldn’t be bothered to do her job. Riley had Mayor
Tishaura Jones to thank for having so defanged St. Louis police that they
no longer appear to be enforcing the most basic of traffic laws. Riley had
St. Louis voters to thank for putting an incompetent like Gardner into
office — and then reelecting her to the job despite her record of gross mismanagement.

Now Gardner’s incompetence is the talk of the town in Murfreesboro,
Tennessee, as local television stations recount Riley’s multiple bond violations, the fact that he was supposed to be under home arrest, and
that Gardner’s office failed to notify the judge in his case that he was
in violation so his bond could be revoked.

It’s also the talk of the town in St. Louis and Jefferson City. Jones now demands “accountability” and says Gardner has “lost the trust of the
people.” The state Senate president called on Gardner to resign. Greater
St. Louis Inc. Chief Executive Jason Hall stated Wednesday: “The ongoing failures of the Circuit Attorney’s office — with regard to the individual involved in this case as well as a litany of other cases that have not
been brought to justice — are unforgivable.”

Gardner’s office appears to have lied about circumstances that originally
led to the postponement of Riley’s trial. A prosecutor dropped the case
and refiled it, claiming at a hearing that the robbery victim had died.
But the victim was alive and present for the hearing. It’s exactly this
kind of nonsense that bolsters the Missouri Legislature’s case for
appointing a special prosecutor to relieve Gardner of major duties.
Despite recent assertions by Black leaders, the bill before the
Legislature has nothing to do with Gardner’s skin color and everything to
do with her inability to keep dangerous people off the streets.

News wire stories will spread across the country recounting how a young
woman’s life has been ruined because of it. With each newspaper story and
news broadcast in cities like Murfreesboro, Americans will begin to get
the message that St. Louis is a city to be avoided at all costs. And since Edmonson’s trip here was associated with the dome and convention center,
the reputation of that complex, now undergoing an expensive expansion,
will be attached to the fact that wanton criminality has destroyed a young woman’s life.

Kitty Ratcliffe, president of Explore St. Louis, said in a written
statement that the incident was “reckless” and “not reflective” of St.
Louis.

She’s wrong. This entire nightmare is absolutely reflective of the dangers faced by residents and visitors alike: pedestrians mowed down while
crossing the street in Tower Grove South, robbed at gunpoint or carjacked,
or having to run for their lives amid a spray of bullets downtown.

Ask Jones and Aldermanic President Megan Green what their solutions are.
The answer will be something as mind-numbing as what Jones issued on
Tuesday: “Our city can and must do a better job of working together to
hold those who endanger our communities accountable. Traffic violence is
an issue that impacts our entire city. … I remain committed to major investments in street and pedestrian infrastructure to keep our city safe
no matter how they choose to get around — walking, biking, driving, or
using public transit — as we also explore enforcement solutions.”

Note those final words: “explore enforcement solutions.” Explore means she
and other officials still are in the thinking, analyzing, hoping and
wishing phase of some vague action to happen sometime down the road. “Enforcement solutions” is Jones’ way of not saying the word policing.
Because she’s made clear she does not want more and better policing to be
a part of the solution. She has embraced the defund-the-police movement,
axed the police recruitment budget and done the minimum possible to help
law enforcers confront the criminals menacing St. Louisans and visitors.

A teenager has lost her legs. And her tragedy absolutely is reflective of
St. Louis and its leadership.

<https://www.stltoday.com/opinion/editorial/editorial-gardners- prosecutorial-incompetence-yields-tragedy-for-a-visiting- teenager/article_1f71450f-1069-547f-b643-bd0fc6a0852a.html>

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