What makes the people we elect to public office flagrantly disregard our expressed concerns and abandon our interests? I would submit that nine times out of ten-as I always suggest you do-follow the money. Let’s check out a few concerns on the local and state levels.
St. Louis voters have been crystal clear that they wanted their police to live in the city in which they service and that they favor local control of the police department.
The residency policy that required police must live within the city limits was overturned in 2005 by the Police Board of Commissions. We don’t elect this board but the elected governor appoints them. Last November, nearly 80 percent of city voters said they favored local control of the police department. The bill to establish local control passed in the House but is mainly being filibustered by elected officials who don’t even live in St. Louis city. Among the black legislators, the debate disintegrated into name-calling and threats which included throwing a homophobic tag on Senator Maria Chapelle-Nadal as some kind of insult. Calling someone gay, whether it’s true or not, with the intent of denigrating them should be offensive to all progressive-minded people.
The St. Louis Police Association (STLPOA) has always tried to set themselves apart from other worker organizations; asserting themselves as some kind of protected class may back-fire on them in the long run. All city employees are required to live in the City yet they got special provision to disregard that policy. How do you think other city employees feel about that? They have broken laws, disregarded policies including their own, and have never really put forth any real effort to bridge the growing gulf of distrust between them and the neighborhoods they serve. Seeing the handwriting on the wall with the inevitability of local control passing in the near future, the SLPOA is now negotiating with the Mayor’s office around issues such as collective bargaining and pension changes.
With the attacks on the public sector in Wisconsin, the state tried to pull the police and firefighters out with a treat bag but the two groups stood firm in solidarity with the other unions and associations that represent workers around the state. These public safety employees have stood should to shoulder with clerical workers, teachers and other workers. They understood that it was the ole divide-and-conquer tactic but they also understood the importance of solidarity in a battle such as this. The SLPOA seems not to understand this, making it a challenge for those who support organized labor to stand with them. And since they’ve moved out of the city, the power of police to influence their neighbors or elected officials has diminished. Their lobbying bucks are what’s keeping them in the game now, not people power.
Proposition B was passed by voters in the last state election; it called for significant reforms in the dog breeding industry. Disregarding Missouri’s infamous moniker as the Puppy Mill Capitol of the country, the industry’s lobbyists scored a victory when the legislature wiped out key elements of the law. Prop B supporters are poised to trigger a referendum on the issue; other civil libertarians are talking about filing a lawsuit about the constitutionality of the legislators efforts to blatantly ignore the will of the people.
Gas and food prices are escalating; city and state budget deficits seems to automatically mean that social and educational programs get the ax. The cries for relief that we expect to get from paying all those taxes is falling on deaf ears. We just can’t afford to grease the palms of the hierarchy of officials that we have elected whose ears are attuned to the lobbyists of industries and corporations who continue to make our lives miserable. We need to tell them to get with the program for the people who elected them, not the few bearing gifts. Meanwhile, we must organize around multi-pronged strategies to make them feel the heat of our demands.
