The recent series in the Post-Dispatch about the city police’s handling of rape cases paints a disturbing picture of the leadership of the St. Louis Police Department and the city itself. The silence from Mayor Francis Slay’s office is appalling. It stands in sharp contrast to the loud noises from the Slay administration several years ago when the city’s fire department was experiencing a series of unfortunate accidents. Slay and the St. Louis Police Officers Association have been quiet as church mice about these stories that show the department’s callous disregard for assaults on women. This disgusting lack of response reinforces the need for an independent and elected civilian review board to oversee the police. It also makes the EYE wonder what it would take for Joe Mokwa to lose his job or, for that matter, to receive a public reprimand. Would he have to kill or rape someone himself?