'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.'
'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.
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.
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.
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.'
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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