Violence is killing our city. Over 2,000 people are shot every year in St. Louis city. Nearly 200 are murdered. Between the day Francis G. Slay became mayor and the day he leaves the office in a few weeks, over 80,000 more people moved out of the city. One of the top two reasons people move out of the city is the rate of violent crime; the second is the quality of our public schools.
The top job of the next mayor has to be reducing the rate of violent crime in our city. And so I’ve made this promise to the people of St. Louis: If as your mayor I can’t significantly reduce the number of people shot and murdered in our city, then I won’t seek re-election. That’s how serious I take this responsibility and how serious I am about making this city and all of our neighborhoods safe.
I know it can be done and I know how to do it, because I’ve done it before.
When I became an alderman in 2009, my ward was leading the city in homicides. The 21st Ward had more homicides than any other ward. So what did we do? Did we ignore the situation and instead try to highlight the positive things going on in the ward?
No, we treated it like a crisis. I publicly called attention to the situation as often as I could. I worked with the police chief at the time, Dan Isom, to target the blocks where most of the violence took place. I brought new technology to the area, launching the city’s first ward-wide surveillance camera program. I walked every block of the ward, helping to organize new and revive old block units.
And within 24 months, we lowered homicides by 80 percent in my ward.
A year ago, I published my comprehensive crime plan for the city. You can read it today at my website, www.antoniofrench.com. This is a plan that can be implemented on day one of my administration. It calls for firing Police Chief Sam Dotson and conducting a national search for a new police chief, one with experience reducing violent crime in cities the size of St. Louis and working to restore the broken trust between the police department and the black community.
My plan also calls for targeting our economic development resources in the 15 neighborhoods (12 in north St. Louis, three in south St. Louis) that account for 60 percent of the city’s violence. This includes incentives to rehab vacant buildings and start small businesses.
My promise to the people of St. Louis comes from my deep belief that we have to start taking care of the neighborhoods of this city and the 315,000 people left here. For too many of them, St. Louis is a violent place where lives are tragically cut short on a regular basis. As your mayor, I promise to change that. And if I fail, I don’t deserve to keep the job.
So on Tuesday, March 7, please come out to vote. And I ask that you vote for me to be your next mayor. Thank you.
Antonio French, 21st Ward alderman, is a Democratic candidate for mayor in the March 7 primary election.
