There was another botched carjacking attempt in St. Louis the other day...
Police said officers were responding to a shots fired call at Chouteau Avenue and South 7th Street when a man stepped in front of their SUV while it was traveling eastbound on Chouteau Avenue shortly after 3 a.m. After the SUV came to a stop near the intersection at South Tucker Boulevard, the man walked to the passenger side and pointed a gun at the officers.
He ran away after he realized the vehicle he was attempting to carjack belonged to police. The officers told dispatchers what happened and provided a description of the man and the direction he ran. Officers who responded to a subsequent "officer in need of aid" call located the man about a block away. He was taken into custody in the parking lot of a nearby restaurant.
In reply to stuart in mn :
And then the prosecutor's office declined to press charges against the carjacker, despite the fact that he already has outstanding charges for domestic assault and first-degree property damage:
https://www.foxnews.com/us/st-louis-prosecutors-decline-charges-suspect-carjacking-police-car
In reply to bluebarchetta :
Can someone explain this to me? I don't understand why things like this are not prosecuted, and at least in my head, it seems like this approach (at least where it is very prevalent) has resulted in skyrocketing crime with no obvious consequence. I get that there is a general movement to reduce how many people are in jail and whatnot, but I just don't get this particular approach.
gearheadE30 said:In reply to bluebarchetta :
Can someone explain this to me? I don't understand why things like this are not prosecuted, and at least in my head, it seems like this approach (at least where it is very prevalent) has resulted in skyrocketing crime with no obvious consequence. I get that there is a general movement to reduce how many people are in jail and whatnot, but I just don't get this particular approach.
My guess is one of two things: Either there is some bigger picture reason that they didn't press charges, or else this is just basic incompetence of the DA. The people that I personally know around St. Louis are, for the most part, diametrically opposed to everything this DA has done - and that includes various people that basically encompass the political and social spectrums, though still very much an anecdotal sample size (4 couples, 8 people). At the risk of floundering this, there is a reason that St. Louis is the murder capital of the country, with a rate that is about 3.5x more than Chicago's.
He clearly made a mistake. He was trying to carjack a citizen, not a cop. That was clearly not intended.
Why would you prosecute someone who clearly made a mistake?
It's yet another example of treating the symptom, not the problem:
- Too many people in jail? Put fewer people in jail: Problem solved!
- Too much crime? Don't arrest people for crimes. Crime rate drops to zero: Problem solved!
- Rent and gas too expensive. Give people money to pay for rent and gas: Problem solved!
- Man goes to doctor with broken leg and is in great pain. Give man pain killer: Problem solved!
The absurdity of this approach of course is that not only does this approach not solve the issue at hand, it almost always makes that issue worse!!! (see homeless problem for another prime example)
I will just add a bit less of a snarky comment:
I think "their" (DA ect.) thought process on this is a model of treatment rather than punishment. Everyone is pretty aware that prison has very little rehabilitation to it. It's mostly punishment. You put someone in prison long enough, they effectively become worthless to society (see Brooks in Shawshank Redemption).
There is only one issue.... they seem to be missing the viable (proven to work) "treatment"!!! I really see no evidence of this other then just letting them out, or not prosecuting.
Prison, as it is, can very much have a reforming effect as a secondary effect though. A drug addict in prison normally has no access to the drug, so they have to clean up, and some will realize this is better way to live.
Wow...derailed in one post.
Woody (Forum Supportum) said:Wow...derailed in one post.
Probably a new record.
I'll admit I didn't even click the link the first time around; I just assumed the second post was about the video. I'm impressed how effective that parking brake was! I know my 20+ year old stuff wouldn't have put up much fight.
Woody (Forum Supportum) said:Wow...derailed in one post.
Sorry about that...I thought I was just adding another absurd criminal, I didn't know the rest of the story.
mtn said:At the risk of floundering this, there is a reason that St. Louis is the murder capital of the country, with a rate that is about 3.5x more than Chicago's.
Well, you're right about Kim Gardner being universally reviled, at least. I still think a reform-minded DA could be a very good thing in most cities including St. Louis, but they actually have to be a good lawyer as well. Missed on that one. She's likely to lose her law license pretty soon.
As for your statement regarding St. Louis being the "murder capital of the country", it ignores the fact that St. Louis proper is only about 300k people and is probably the American city that white flight (and for that matter, middle class black flight) hit the hardest, possibly excepting Detroit. Most crime is pretty heavily linked to socioeconomic status. You get a bigger city like Chicago/NYC/anywhere with more affluent areas that are actually in the city limits, and the data smooths out quite a bit. I would be willing to bet if you go neighborhood-by-comparable-neighborhood with any other big American city, you would see fairly similar results. But that wouldn't produce nice clickbait headlines, would it?
I regret having started this thread.
My apologies to (almost) everyone.
E36 M3load of community service. No, you don't get buttraped in prison. You DO get to pick up trash in a ditch for 6 months. I'll bet that would make an impression. I mean, they don't seem to be very good criminals, maybe they'll try a different profession?
In reply to Woody (Forum Supportum) :
Not your fault. Who would have thought?
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