St. Louis CofCC Blog

Yesterday was a record day for traffic on both this medium and my personal snark machine, the Countenance Blog (though I probably come off a little more snarky even on this medium than I should). The reason for so much traffic is painfully obvious. People were not only reading my timeline of Thursday night’s shootings at Kirkwood City Hall, they were also reading anything on either blog that mentions Kirkwood or Meacham Park, mostly about the Kevin “Rock Head” Johnson case. That said, I’m not exactly happy — I would give all that traffic back to bring back the human beings.

Still, I was expecting the increased traffic to yield a lot of responses, and I was expecting most of them to be hate mail. While I did get a lot of responses, I didn’t get much vitriol. Someone named “Kimberley,” in her usual leftist rant about the “evils of racism,” said that he was going to have her church pray for the CofCC and all its members. While she’s at it, she can put in another prayer for us to get a lot more members that her church would have to pray for in the future.

Someone who used an expletive for a name gloated about how Mitt Romney’s dropping out means the end of “white racism.” Just how is the failure of a Presidential candidate who delusionally bragged about marching with his father in civil rights marches, who came out against the Confederate flag, and who said that education is the solution for inner city ills (like nobody has ever thought of that before), is supposed to mark the end of “white racism” is beyond me. Therefore, you with the expletive for a name, your blog-reading privileges are hereby revoked.

Beyond those two, I received mostly “ataboys.” But these three stand out the most.

Darrell writes:

Excellent job of reporting on the massacre of five White people last night in Kirkwood.

We had the same cowardly act (albeit of five women) by an African in Tinley Park, Illinois (12 miles from me) six days ago.

If one person in that city hall in Kirkwood or at the Lane Bryant in Tinley has a concealed weapon, the carnage isn’t nearly what it turned out to be.

We’re still wondering who the victims at that Lane Bryant are. (UPDATE: The five killed are three white and two black, the one that survived and is giving clues to the cops is white). Actually, in Kirkwood’s case, while I agree with your statement, there was extra armed security and cops in that meeting, because they knew “Cookie” Thornton would show up. I highly doubt that a CCW permit-holder actually carrying inside that meeting would have precluded the murders and shootings that happened any more than the cops and security guards there did. This makes the gravity of Thornton’s acts even more chilling.

Tommy writes:

Small correction for your blog entry http://stlcofcc.wordpress.com/2008/02/07/shooting-at-kirkwood-city-hall/

“And this is probably how he was able to fire 15 rounds inside the meeting room, because law enforcement is allowed to have pistol clips that fire 15 shots, unlike non-felonious civilians, who have a 10-limit thanks to the 1994 Crime Bill.”

Modern pistols do not use “clips”. They use magazines.

http://www.thegunzone.com/clips-mags.html

The 1994 Crime Bill sunsetted in 2004. Civilians can now legally purchase magazines of a capacity greater than 10 round.

Sorry, Tommy. This was, as George Wallace called it, a fox paw. Also, the 1994 Crime Bill, for the decade that its gun restrictions were in effect, did not prohibit the possession or ownership of 15-round magazines, they merely prohibited the sale of magazines that hold more than 10 rounds to civilians. There was, for that decade, a seller’s market on pre-1994 15-round magazines.

Anita writes:

Being from the Kirkwood area near meacham park, I can’t see this as the racism that everyone wants to claim. I have never heard of your organization, thus I am unaware of your commitment to segregation or race relations. Meacham Park was annexed because of the money that will be collected from the businesses that basically bought out the community and the taxes and other financial benefit that Kirkwood would gain. I think that is a no brainer - Sam’s, Wal-Mart, Target, and other businesses encouraged Kirkwood to annex Meacham. That’s a lot of money for the City of Kirkwood to pass up. Meacham, although a black community in the past, is not the community it was in the past (since only a few streets are left anyway), and the majority of new residents to that area are not black.

As far as Cookie’s position - the man snapped. Why do sane people try to explain the insane? I had not seen Cookie for several years, obviously in those years his state of mind had changed. He was a very joyful fellow, and seemed to get along with everyone of all colors. Please place responsibility on the individual that committed the crime…not the entire community.

As far as Mike Swoboda being racist - that is ridiculous. He is a dedicated community service person, and did not play the race card in the over 20 years that I have known him. He helped people of all races and creed.

Instead of everyone trying to blame someone else for this crime, blame Cookie Thornton for the deaths of these people.

Even though you’re probably right about Kirkwood wanting to annex Meacham Park merely to turn it into retail space, it’s not entirely retail space. In my opinion, the cost far exceeds the benefits.

Your missive about Thornton “snapping” is the reason why I’m not willing to call them racial hate crimes for sure. The reason I bring it up is that if the races are reversed in this tragedy, the Powers That Be would have already concluded that they were, and would be searching for evidence pointing that way, and raising money based on that premature conclusion.

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