St. Louis CofCC Blog

No Christmas Trees at Missouri State University this year.

Remember, Gov. Blunt threw the entire influence of his office to drop the name “Southwest” from that institution’s name a few years ago. Since he’s so interested in their affairs, maybe he should say something about MSU’s own salvos in the War on Christmas.

UPDATE 2 PM: Reversed.

This story is a bit old in internet time (November 11), as I found it on St. Louis Cop Talk, but it’s still a worthy read.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

Jennings takes back the streets

Jennings — In the summer and fall of 2005, Jennings had a big problem: Street gangs were terrorizing the city.

“The gangs almost ballooned overnight,” said Dave Joyce, a detective with the increasingly outflanked Jennings police. “There was just shooting after shooting after shooting.”

Of the 12 murders from 2004 to early 2007, each involved an illegal gun. Seven were gang or drug-related, as were all 31 nonfatal shootings, Joyce said. Residents were becoming afraid to step outside.

Much of the violence came from the turf of a gang that called itself the “10-20 Murderville Crips.”

When its members saw something they liked, they took it, police said. When they wanted to do something, they did it. They bought or stole pistols, assault rifles and bulletproof vests.

The gang was even dealing with a broker offering a military land mine and perhaps hand grenades, upping the ante as local officers and federal agents already knew of a plan to ambush police.

(snip)

Three were linked to murders in St. Louis, one matched an armed robbery and one was used in the 2006 shooting of a St. Louis police officer. Police also recovered assault rifles used in four drive-by shootings in St. Louis and St. Louis County.

As early as 2003, police had found a hit list on the wall of an abandoned building, naming four Jennings officers. Police have since found other such lists.

In interviews before and during the collaboration with ATF, gang members told Jennings officers about specific plans to assassinate police. The plans included sniper rifles, assault weapons and a home-made tire spike strip.

Investigators worried that grenades or a Claymore anti-personnel mine might complete the gang’s arsenal.

Joyce said some gang members had told officials, “We have plotted out ways to set up ambushes and murders of police officers. And we have discussed specific officers that we would like to do this to.”

The investigators also learned that gang members were as interested in the cops as the cops were in the gangsters — gathering information about who did what in the department, and calling the station to find out who was on duty, Joyce said.

The gang even had the name, vehicle description and workplace of one officer’s girlfriend.

The interesting angle here is that the black gangs in Jennings (and presumably elsewhere) are becoming more audacious, more bold, and more virulently anti-police.  I have predicted for some time that this would happen, and I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that these gang members have been receiving advanced training somewhere else, and bringing the knowledge back to the streets.

Otherwise, the tone of this article is that the Federal government and its law enforcement is the only institution that can solve the problem.  (That seems to happen a lot).  Unfortunately for Jennings, convictions of felon-in-possession and selling-to-felons don’t draw life terms in prison, and eventually, they’ll be back on the streets.  And while they’re incarcerated, new gangs will coalesce in Jennings.  After all, just as soon as you chop down weeds, more pop up.

In this case, the Federal government has a band-aid, not a solution.

KSDK-NBC-5:

Latest Incident Of Violence At Hazelwood Prompts Response

Two Hazelwood high school students have been taken into custody after a gun was reportedly fired outside of Hazelwood Central High School.

The incident happened after school hours on Monday night.

Charles McCrary, a former St. Louis police officer and safety director for the St. Louis Public School District, was hired to deal with a series of threats and violence in the Hazelwood School District. McCrary was hired for three months at $100 an hour for 20 hours per week.

Since October, there have been five bomb threats in the district and two guns have been found — one was loaded.

(snip)

Over the next three months, McCrary said he’ll visit every school in the district. At the end of that time period, he’ll present the school board with a new safety plan.

Whatever this new “safety plan” is, I’m sure it has already been thought of and implemented in other places.  And yet, the Hazelwood School District finds it necessary to dump superlawyer hourly compensation rates on this affirmative action flunkie.

Charlotte Observer:

Community colleges ordered to let in illegal immigrants

RALEIGH — North Carolina’s community college system has ordered the state’s 58 campuses to admit illegal immigrants, overturning a policy of letting the heavily enrolled schools set their own rules for handling undocumented applicants.

David Sullivan, the system’s top lawyer, dispatched a memo this month telling the community colleges that state regulations require the schools to admit illegal immigrants who meet the schools’ basic requirements of being either a high school graduate or an adult in need of skills training.

(snip)

The state’s community colleges focus on training and retraining the work force, usually through skills and trade education. Melinda Wiggins is executive director of Student Action With Farm Workers, which helps children of migrant farm workers get into high school and college. She said barring illegal immigrants from community colleges penalizes youths who were brought to the United States as children.

Funny, Mike Huckabee let out the same bromide last night during the YouTube debates.  He and Melinda Wiggins must be distant cousins.

If you snuck into Mexico and took your children with you, do you think anyone there would be jonesing to allow your children to attend Mexican colleges and universities?  Would there be the Mexican equivalents of Melinda Higgins and Mike Huckabee worried about “penalizing youths?”

Community college executives said the admissions guidelines won’t cost the state. Illegal immigrants must pay out-of-state tuition, $7,465 for a full class load, which is more than the actual cost of providing the education, $5,375, the officials said.

And where will these children of these financially destitute farm and factory workers come up with $7,465 a year?  It may not cost the state of North Carolina, but it’ll cost you.