Dr. Ernest Evans Examines Violence In STL In The Aftermath Of Ferguson And Possible Implications For Kansas City!!!

TKC NOTE: For quite some time we've talked with Dr. Ernest Evans regarding his research on crime trends, today he pens an important essay on the topic of crime that could hold lessons for Kansas City proper in one way or another. You decide:

Dr. Ernest Evans: Crime Crisis in Saint Louis

The city of Saint Louis is in the midst of a major crime crisis. In the six month period Aug. 1, 2014 to Jan. 30, 2015 there have been 104 homicides in Saint Louis; in contrast, in the six months before Aug. 1, 2014 there had been 57 homicides--in the past six months the city's already quite high homicide rate has nearly doubled.

In explaining the ongoing crime disaster in Saint Louis one has to make reference to a concept in criminology known as "de-policing." 

In modern American society police officers are required to do, and to do on a regular basis, a most politically Incorrect thing: Use force against black people in the course of enforcing the law. And, as any veteran police officer can tell you, there is no such thing as a "nice" takedown: They all look terrible on camera. Given this painful but all too true political reality, if police officers are going to have the morale and motivation to fight crime in black neighborhoods they must be given assurances that if accused of racism they will get due process and fair media coverage. When they do not get such assurances, out of sheer self-survival they abandon the streets of black communities. Nature abhors a vacume--so the gangs and criminal elements take over these streets and crime explodes.

The classic recent case of "de-policing" is the post 2001 crime crisis in the city of Cincinnati. In May 2001 a white police officer in that town shot and killed a black teenager. There were several nights of rioting and civil disorder. No one was killed and the property damage was not too severe; but in this heated environment there were public meetings where there were angry calls for "swift justice" with "no legal niceties." The local press corps was like most of the nation's journalists--they were so terrified of being accused of being racist that they did not cover the controversy with even a pretense of fairness. The local cops got the message: If accused of racism, forget about due process and fair media coverage. And, they reacted by abandoning their duties in the black neighborhoods of the city. In consequence, crime in these neighborhoods exploded, as the following statistics of homicides in Cincinnati show:

2000: 15 homicides 2001: 55 homicides 2002: 64 homicides 2003: 71 homicides 2004: 64 homicides 2005: 79 homicides

2006: 89 homicides

It must be stressed that this major crime surge in Cincinnati all involved black victims of violence: In the years after the May 2001 riots homicide totals in Cincinnati for whites/Asians/Hispanics did not increase significantly--the massive surge in the number of homicides was due to black victims.

The massive surge of violence in Saint Louis is due to the mishandling of the Ferguson tragedy by most of the nation's journalists, politicians and political activists. Michael Brown's death was a terrible tragedy--whenever someone dies at age 18 there is a great sense of sadness about a life cut off much too soon. And, I can fully understand people feeling that Off. Darenn Wilson did not act properly in this case and that he should have been charged with a felony. However, and this is the big however, we are a nation of laws, and our Constitution in the 5th and 14th Amendments guarantees the right of due process to everyone. Off. Wilson's guilt or innocence was decided the way it is supposed to be decided: In a courtroom before a judge and a jury. There were quite unsubtle attempts to influence the decision of the Grand Jury deliberating Wilson's actions by threatening violence if he were not indicted. Quite correctly, the jury defied these threats and made what it felt to be the right decision--as the great Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said of the jury that was intimidated into convicting the innocent Leo Frank in 1913: "Due process does not become due process by securing the assent of a terrified jury."

The threats of rioting did not get Off. Wilson indicted--what they did do was convince every cop in the Saint Louis area that if they were charged with racism they could forget about due process. So, out of sheer self-survival they have stopped doing their jobs in black neighborhoods and in consequence violence in these neighborhoods has exploded--all of the surge in homicides in Saint Louis since Michael Brown's death on August 9, 2014 has come from black victims.

In response to this major surge of homicides in the black neighborhoods of Saint Louis there have been a variety policy suggestions. The police department wants to hire more officers, a lot of the local politicians want tighter controls of the sale of guns, and some community activists have called for jobs programs for unemployed youth. All of these proposals have merits of their own, but they are not going to stop the violence. If Saint Louis wants to end the bloodbath in its black neighborhoods that the Ferguson tragedy unleashed, there is one step that must be taken and taken soon: The city's political class must affirm that ours is a nation of laws and that everyone will get due process if accused of a crime--and that "everyone" includes white cops accused of racism.
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