St. Louis CofCC Blog

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One of the most underrated gifts and favors in modern human civilization happens when somebody gets to see their own self, (and by “self,” I mean it in both an individual and a collective sense) through the eyes of others.

Take about 45 minutes and watch this. This is a series on the UK’s Sky TV Network, where Ross Kemp came to St. Louis as part of his series of documentaries on street gangs. Antonio French has parts 1-4, while you’ll have to jump to YouTube itself for part 5. From there, you will find links to Ross’s other exposes, including black gangs in London.

Even though Kemp, like most of the mainline media reporters in white countries, is politically left-of-center, and genuflects to deindustrialization, guns and “racial divisions” during this St. Louis reporting, anyone with two eyes, two ears, a brain and a shred of intellectual honesty will come away with the truth. You get the implication from Kemp’s words that St. Louis’s blacks were all well-behaved angels before the mid-to-late 1980s when the L.A. street gangs swooped in and set up shop here. The version I buy is that there have been black gangs and clicks around St. Louis for a long time, but the media publicity and glamorization of the “Crips-Bloods” feuds in the mid-to-late 1980s gave St. Louis’s gang-bangers ideas on how to brand themselves.

Something that surprises me, though, is the fact that Ross is seemingly aghast and dismayed by the relatively young ages of black gang members, gang violence perpetrators and victims. From watching his reports on black gangs in London, their members don’t look any older on average; one would think that he would have been used to that thing by the time he came to St. Louis.

One notable difference between the gangs of St. Louis and the gangs of East St. Louis (Kemp did not go to ESL) is that, despite the fact that a mere river separates the two cities, St. Louis’s gangs are more like LA’s, and ESL’s are more like Chicago. This is because black convicts from ESL obviously go to Illinois prisons, and therefore mingle with their brothers in crime from Chicago.

Also remember this: It wasn’t that long ago that Walnut Park and Wells-Goodfellow were far different neighborhoods, that were very livable for the working middle class, and had nothing approximating street gangs. Something changed.

Baton Rouge Advocate:

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Mayor Ray Nagin said he worries that killings send the message that the city is dangerous, but the news also “keeps the New Orleans brand out there.”

Nagin, whose city has recorded at least 117 murders this year, told WVUE-TV it’s a “two-edged sword.”

“It’s not good for us, but it also keeps the New Orleans brand out there, and it keeps people thinking about our needs and what we need to bring this community back. So it is kind of a two-edged sword,” he said, according to a station transcript. “Sure it hurts, but we have to keep working everyday to make the city better.”

A car company whose vehicles were recalled every week would “keep its brand out there.” Only people would know that the given car company makes lemons. For sure, I am not of the opinion that horrendous publicity is better than no publicity.

Omaha World-Herald:

Mayor outlines ideas to quell Omaha gun violence

Mayor Mike Fahey wants to add surveillance cameras in violent areas, boost the Police Department units that serve those neighborhoods and stiffen local gun laws in response to the spike in gun violence that has left nearly 40 people wounded in shootings since July 1.

Those must be some pretty nasty guns. Then again, it seems like guns in many major urban areas are committing acts of violence. I wonder what it is about cities that makes guns behave so badly.