There is no pleasure in being correct about something when it is a serious matter involving the apparent criminal abuse of public trust and personal property. But the Post-Dispatch’s admirable investigative reporting on the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department is giving credence to the worst we have suggested about the preferential treatment of former Police Chief Joe Mokwa – and what appears to be a rampant disregard for the rule of law in City politics.
When the administration of Mayor Francis G. Slay was cooperating with Firefighters Local 73 to undermine then Fire Chief Sherman George, City officials were consistently willing to call attention to the slightest appearances of irregularity in the leadership of the St. Louis Fire Department. Not only were the Post-Dispatch and local TV news networks willing to report these minor allegations time and again, they often seemed to be manipulated by the mayor’s office. As we reported at the time, George was mystified at how quickly reporters would come calling about documents sent to him by the mayor, sometimes only moments after the documents arrived on his desk.
Meanwhile, the Police Department under Mokwa was caught in a long series of compromising, now-familiar incidents (under-reporting rape statistics, “losing” money from an evidence vault, profiteering on World Series tickets, etc.). Though these incidents were dutifully reported in the mainstream media, each report was attended by quotes from the mayor and his fellow police commissioners pledging confidence in Mokwa rather than questioning his ability to lead or calling for an investigation – quite unlike the relentlessly critical treatment George received. Each time, the police issue would be dropped quietly, while the persistent needling of George was resumed.
Our hunch is that at least some of the Post’s motive to find and report the unpleasant truth was influenced, recently, by two factors – the paper was in sore need of a major investigative series after the (somewhat mysterious) abandonment of its County fire district series, and no journalist can resist the whiff of what seems to be good, old-fashioned organized crime. (This is not to argue that Metropolitan Towing is Mafia-connected; however, if an operation is organized in its commission of crime that is, by definition, organized crime.)
On behalf of the rest of St. Louis, which views with sadness and dismay the decline of the Post as a legitimate, comprehensive news source, we welcome and applaud the indispensable contribution to the community of its current investigative series, which is providing an invaluable public service in uncovering what may be a deep, corrupted relationship between a City vendor, the leadership of the police department – and who knows who else?
We urge local editors and news directors to look back at their past coverage of Mokwa, Slay and the rest of the police board in light of what Post reporters are uncovering (which may or may not pale in comparison to what ongoing, coordinated federal investigations and a State audit are uncovering). We were the ones saying, all along, that all is not as it seems with Mokwa and the police department – or, rather, that things are every bit as bad as they seem. Once the Post applied its investigative muscle, their reporters proved us right. For some time, we have been saying that all is not right with the administration of Francis Slay and how it flouts the City Charter. We urge the Post to let its reporters question and investigate the mayor and his advisors with the same objectivity and zeal they are now bringing to bear upon the towing scandal.