As the news trickles out about the latest push to return the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department to its citizens, there are growing concerns about Mayor Slay’s role. Local control is inevitable and maybe imminent. Our major tasks now are to make sure the state and local legislation are in sync and that the necessary checks and balances are in place locally to ensure accountability and transparency.
I have heard from many who think it will be déjà vu if Chief Isom has to serve at the will of a dictatin’ and retaliatin’ mayor. The same mayor was responsible for abruptly ending the stellar career of Fire Chief Sherman George, the City’s first African-American fire chief. That ugly saga continues.
Instituting a civilian review board and wrestling the control of the department from the governor’s hands has been the mission of the Coalition Against Police Crimes and Repression. The group of organizations and concerned citizens was originally founded in 1983 after the shooting death of Marilyn Banks. Their efforts resulted in the establishment of a trust fund for Banks’ surviving children, the firing of Joseph Ferrario and, for the first time ever, the indictment of a white police officer for the death of a black citizen.
The group disbanded once its goals were achieved but was resurrected in 1996 with the police shooting of young Garland Carter.
CAPCR decided that trying to seek justice for every citizen assaulted or killed by the police did not address the systemic problems. The group climbed in the locomotive of the local control train and started moving down the track. Other genuine allies (about 120 endorsers of local control) hooked their car up to the train.
Bringing up the rear in the caboose is the mayor and his cronies. Remember that order because it is important to know it is a citizen-driven activist initiative.
One blow to the local control movement was the discovery in the City Charter that, should St. Louis get local control, the police department must be administered within the Public Safety Department. The only way the City Charter can be changed is through a challenging process that requires a majority vote from city voters.
In order to truly appreciate this historic moment in St. Louis politics, you must think beyond Slay and current Public Safety Director Charles Bryson. You must see yourself as a change agent in City politics that rids itself of these two parasites. We can’t keep complaining about their continued abuse of power without seriously changing the guard.
Alderman Terry Kennedy, a proponent of local control, reminds us that bringing the authority home is just “good governance.” The police department’s budget is about one-third of the City’s overall budget yet there is little control over what the department can or cannot do with it. The Board of Alderpeople can only send smoke signals to Jefferson City when the police department engages in immoral, unethical and, yes, even illegal actions.
Dr. Kenneth Stone from the City Comptroller’s Office underscored the fiduciary astuteness of local control when he testified at a recent hearing on the bill at the Capitol. Stone identified nearly $5 million in savings if duplicative operations, like human resources, were eliminated under the new plan.
From an organizer’s viewpoint, you must find a way to level the playing field. There’s going to be a fight whether the police department is under city or state control. There’s no silver bullet to minimizing corruption and police brutality. Would you prefer to find the governor and make your case every time the department or the police board abuses their power – as in the recent case with Police Commissioner Bommarito running interference for his drunken nephew who bypassed jail to get a police ride to his uncle’s restaurant? Or would you prefer to take your concerns to your alderperson and, if needed, organize direct actions at City Hall or the mayor’s home?
I urge you to get informed and involved in this important issue. State Representative Jamilah Nasheed has introduced HB 1601 and Senators Robin Wright Jones and Joe Keaveny have introduced SB 675 and SB 643 respectively. All of them – I repeat ALL of these bills – keep the police pension fund as is, under the state’s jurisdiction. No local foxes will be allowed to guard the House of Pensions.
St. Louis has not controlled its police department for over a century. It’s time to write a new history.