The secretary of a state for a state is one of those elected positions only understood by regular voters, a category which is – tragically – a minority of the American public. To be fair to the majority of Americans who could not tell you what exactly the secretary of a state for a state doe…
Bridgett Floyd, the younger sister of George Floyd, looked out into the sea of faces at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. on Friday, August 28 — the same spot and date the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech 57 years ago.
St. Louis’ criminal justice reforms are under direct attack from Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, with the help of some powerful local, state and federal accomplices.
Just two weeks after his victory in the August 4 Democratic primary election, St. Louis County Executive Dr. Sam Page fired Hazel Erby as the leader of inclusion for the county.
Just before midnight on December 22, 2012, St. Louis City Officer Steven Pinkerton saw an African-American man at the QuikTrip parking lot, at 3410 South Kingshighway Blvd., and thought he was a robbery suspect, according to Pinkerton’s statement in the police report.
The top of the ticket for Missouri Democrats was uneventful in the primary election on Tuesday, August 4.
Dr. Sam Page, who was appointed interim St. Louis County executive by his colleagues on the County Council last April, was approved by county voters in the Democratic primary on Tuesday, August 4.
In a contest between two highly qualified first-time candidates, Rich Finneran won the Democratic primary for Missouri attorney general over Elad Gross. With 3,501 of 3,574 precincts in the state reporting, Finneran was up 55.1% to 44.9%, a margin of nearly 50,000 votes.
The EYE rarely focuses on Alderman Jeffrey Boyd in any citywide election because he’s more bluff or stalking horse than actual candidate.
Thank you for the invitation. However, I distinctly remember that your editorial board at the Post-Dispatch made a decision in July 2016 not to endorse in county races other than circuit attorney. In case you forgot, here’s a link to the editorial where you said “the only candidates we would…
Let’s start with the good news.
The St. Louis County Police Department is going to get a Public Safety Review funded by Civic Progress companies and the Regional Business Council, with no tax dollars spent on the review.
It turns out that sparks can fly at a candidate forum conducted over Zoom, even when conducted by clergy who declare to the candidates that they “will not tolerate character attacks” or “any messiness in this forum.” That was the warning given by the Rev. Darryl Gray, political advisor to th…
As I sat in my bed on June 10 recuperating from a surgery that many women, especially black women, experience daily, I received an email from Tod Robberson, editorial page editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. As I read the email I was once again reminded of the utter disdain and toxic masc…
St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell’s new Conviction and Incident Review Unit has sprung its first wrongly convicted person from prison.
Yesterday, I yelled at my sons.
Nicole Galloway – the Missouri state auditor running for governor as a Democrat – said the Minneapolis Police officers responsible for the killing of George Floyd “should be held accountable.”
The St. Louis County Police Association endorsed Mark Mantovani for St. Louis County executive in the upcoming Democratic Primary, which will be held on Tuesday, August 4. The police association represents 1,300 St. Louis County Police employees.
“I have never seen anything like it.”
During the height of New York City’s climbing COVID-19 cases and deaths in March, the city formed a rapid response coalition. The goal was to lower the death rate among low-income communities and seniors with chronic conditions.
This week’s Political EYE is a guest column by three engaged academics: Bandy X. Lee, Harper West, and Kevin Washington. Bandy X. Lee is a forensic psychiatrist at Yale School of Medicine and president of the World Mental Health Coalition. Harper West is a licensed psychotherapist in Clarkst…
Many people are saying that nothing will ever be the same after COVID-19, but the EYE is watching a few things not change. We still have death, taxes and Tim Fitch – who doesn’t want to pay taxes for racial equity, he keeps saying in various ways from his bully pulpit on the St. Louis County…
Absentee voting by mail is coming to Missouri in 2020 – if a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Missouri, and Missouri Voter Protection Coalition prevails.
The August 4 primary election for Missouri secretary of state won’t be very eventful, with only one candidate each filing in the Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Green and Constitution parties. The Republican candidate is the incumbent, John R. (Jay) Ashcroft. Running as a first-time candi…
Guardians of the status quo – like Missouri’s Republican Attorney General Eric Schmitt, the reactionaries at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and St. Louis Public Safety Director Jimmie Edwards – are doing what they always do when their systems of power are called into question: they are resorti…
On March 19, according to the Ethical Society of Police (ESOP), St. Louis Police Chief John Hayden issued a directive authorizing division commanders to order officers to continue routine, invasive policing during the COVID-19 pandemic at their discretion: “A commander has full discretion to…
On Thursday, March 19 – six weeks before the previously announced retirement of St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar – the Board of Police Commissioners announced his replacement. It will not be the county’s first black police chief, as many in the community pushed for (and more than one…
The official response to the COVID-19 pandemic is an ongoing illustration of the maxim to be careful what you wish — or whom you vote — for.
A federal judge ruled on Thursday, March 5 that the City of St. Louis’ ordinance on “impeding” traffic was unconstitutional — throwing out a law that city police have used to justify arresting, macing and tasing citizens at Ferguson and Stockley verdict protests.
(Story was updated on Feb. 27 with Ferguson Mayor James Knowles’ response, which was sent after the newspaper went to press on Feb. 26.)
Former Mayor Vince Schoemehl is going full throttle in support of 20th Ward Alderperson Cara Spencer, who recently announced that she is going to run for St. Louis mayor in 2021. Vince was a strong supporter of current Mayor Lyda Krewson, St. Louis’ first woman mayor, but since Lyda teamed w…
St. Louis County Police Chief Jon M. Belmar announced his retirement on Monday, February 10 after nearly 34 years of service, six of those as police chief. He will leaves the department at the end of April.
Ferguson resident Felicia Pulliam approached the microphone at the January 14 Ferguson City Council meeting, and she began her public comment with just two words: Jeffrey Blume.
This guest Political EYE column by Chief Justice George W. Draper III of the Supreme Court of Missouri was edited from his State of the Judiciary address delivered Wednesday, January 22 during a joint session of the Missouri General Assembly.
It’s St. Louis, so of course there is a white police officers’ association and a black police officers’ association. Both released an official statement addressing the federal lawsuit filed by Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner alleging racial bias in the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Departm…
Updated at 1/14/19 at 10:58 a.m. to add response from City spokesman.
This story is part of a collaborative-reporting initiative with St. Louis Public Radio supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. It was reported by William H. Freivogel and Mimi Wright.
This guest Political EYE is part of a collaborative-reporting initiative of St. Louis Public Radio supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. It was reported by William H. Freivogel and Mimi Wright.
It’s not often that longtime police accountability advocate John Chasnoff, co-founder of the Coalition Against Police Crimes and Oppression, agrees with Jeff Roorda, the business agent and mouthpiece for the St. Louis Police Officers Association. But they agree that it would not be a good id…
Another St. Louis police officer has been indicted in the arrest and assault of black undercover cop Luther Hall during a protest downtown in September 2017. St. Louis Metropolitan Police Officer Steve Korte, 42, is accused of violently beating Hall and lying to the FBI about his involvement…
St. Louis officials allegedly violated the law when they closed public records and public meetings regarding the airport privatization deal, according to a lawsuit filed on Friday, December 6 by transparency advocates.
November 14 was Mayor Lyda Krewson’s birthday.
It’s Thanksgiving time, when Political EYE gives thanks to those politicians whose tireless service and disservice makes this column possible all year long.
It is bone-chilling to read how undercover cop Luther Hall was beaten and arrested on September 17, 2017.
Source: Cameras: 2019 video camera audits submitted by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and the Street Department to the city’s operations director Homicide data: St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department Income and race data: US Census Map by Kuang Keng Kuek Ser and Taylor Eldrid…
As expected, Alderwoman Megan Ellyia Green (D-15th award) is running for the state Senate seat being vacated by term-limited state Senator Jamilah Nasheed (D-St. Louis). And, as expected, her announcement on Monday, October 14 sparked a heated conversation about a white candidate trying to w…
Thirteen community groups (undersigned below) issued the following open letter to St. Louis Public Safety Director Jimmie Edwards.
What do St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson and U.S. President Donald Trump have in common? The same thing their first directors of Communication, Koran Addo and Sean Spicer, have in common. They all inherited from their predecessor a media list that included The St. Louis American – and then elimi…
Missouri Chief Justice George W. Draper III gave a stinging rebuke to Missouri lawyers in his address at the joint annual meeting of The Missouri Bar and the Judicial Conference of Missouri on September 19. This is edited from his remarks.
More than 340 St. Louis Metropolitan police officers are named in a class-action lawsuit filed todayagainst the individual officers and the City of St. Louis, alleging the unlawfully pepper spraying, beating and “kettle” arrests of more than 120 people on Sept. 17, 2017.
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