I’m all for more police. I suspect that the pension obligations far exceed the funding for the existing (police, fire & teacher) retirees, if St. Louis is like just about every other city / state / fed pension. So, it’s probably not so much that we just need money for more officers; we don’t even have money for those no longer working. I’m guessing you can either arm yourself or get the heck out.

Welcome to St Louis where the murders are occuring every day,
The police are present and ready to fire just don’t make them angry
and start that running, those free donuts and coffee will get
cold and stale and the whipping that you will receive from them
is worse than jail. The Mayor reads the news and shakes his head.
Will there ever be peace so that he could sleep soundly in his bed?

Barry, where do you start taking the police from and send them to concentrate on the crime in north St. Louis? Do you take them from downtown or south St. Louis and leave these neighborhoods unprotected?
The city doesn’t have the “bucks” to keep people on the payroll at the license collectors office, provide basic services for the residents, or supply one neighborhood more police presence than the rest.
If it is safer for troops to be in Iraq, maybe some of these males will do something for their country, join the military and get off the streets.
Go look at who is buying guns and ammunition at the local sporting goods or hardware stores. You can have the whole police department riding through the north St. Louis neighborhoods, but it doesn’t stop people from buying guns.
The “killing fields” you talk of have spread to downtown, south and west St. Louis,or have you missed other recent articles in the paper?