Put blame for triple homicide on Market Street where it belongs
There was something especially sickening about three young men being gunned down on Market Street early last Friday.
According to news reports, they had just left a nightclub called Club Society on South 21st Street. Their vehicle was stopped at a traffic light at Market and 18th Street when a car pulled alongside. At least two people opened fire.
The three men in the SUV — Allen Jones, 32, Dawon Moore, 27, and Byron Blassingame, 27, all of St. Louis — were found dead in the vehicle, which rolled and came to a rest just past a bus stop outside of the Main Post Office.
This is downtown St. Louis at its most imposing and monumental. The shootout occurred at the locus of what historically has been one of the city’s most prominent public parade routes. The intersection lies in the shadow of Union Station, up the street from City Hall, the Old Kiel Opera and the old Municipal Court House, flanked by Memorial Plaza.
It is a grand gateway to the Gateway to the West.
We may have become inured to senseless outbursts of horrifying violence — over drugs, a grudge or domestic problems. But a triple homicide at 2 a.m., gangland style in the middle of Market Street?
Unthinkable.
An old St. Louis cop, nearing retirement, told us that we should run a banner headline that just says “Stop it!”
He said he doesn’t want to read about how what happened on Market Street could be attributed to failing public schools or households with absent fathers. He doesn’t want to hear grim-faced police officials announcing the department is going to assign umpteen additional officers to District 4, which covers downtown — as though a cop on the beat could have prevented such a tragedy.
There’s a logic, of course, to what the cop said. We take comfort in compartmentalizing disturbing crimes, especially those that occur in prominent public places. The post-mortem ritual is to marshal facts that tend to minimize the sense that it might happen to us. We note how the shooting occurred in the middle of the night and the victims were targeted rather than random.
We search to understand or rationalize social conditions that lead to this kind of violence. That ultimately might be the only path to preventing violence over the long run.
But the exercise becomes counterproductive if it is intended simply to process the unpleasantness out of mind — or worse, to use a sensational crime to bash people who call St. Louis home.
Anonymous commentators flooded the local blogosphere last week with cowardly, misinformed remarks about how what occurred on Market Street confirms that the city, including downtown, is a dangerous jungle.
Tell that to the thriving commercial district on nearby Washington Avenue or thousands of new residents who have made downtown home in recent years.
The brutal murders that occurred on Market Street were inexcusable acts by bad people capable of striking anywhere.
We can’t always prevent such crimes, but we can push back against those who seek to compound them by bashing the district, neighborhood or community where they occurred.
To such thoughtless members of the community, we say: Stop it!
The only problem I have had with Market Street was with the vagrants who beg and urinate by the doorways of Kiel. What happened here has no relation to that. It was a random (maybe, maybe not) act of violence.
Your headline says to put the blame where it belongs - then, you proceed to blame nobody. The fact is, while the vast majority of city residents of all races are honest and law abiding, a few bad apples have spoiled it for the rest of them.
It is because of these few thug criminals that so many people have fled the city, and even parts of the county, moving on to St. Charles and Jefferson counties. It is because of these few thug criminals that people in many areas have bars over their windows, and sleep with one eye open, ready to hit the floor. It is because of these few thug criminals that thousands of people, many of whom have little to spare, spend $30 a month on an alarm system.
But how silly to suggest that, because the Post-Dispatch says “stop it” in an editorial, even as much as a single one of these thugs will change his ways. News flash: Thugs don’t read the Post-Dispatch.
In fact, there is one person in America who could speak directly and frankly to those who are the cause of our urban crime problems: President Barak Obama. It was my hope that he would make urban crime a priority of his administration, and that our first African-American President would be the one to finally deal with this issue. So far, Mr. Obama has not delivered.
But while thugs don’t read the Post-Dispatch, elected officials do. Perhaps one of them will ask Mr. Obama to make a priority of dealing with the issue that has resulted in incarceration, injury, and death, for thousands of African-Americans every year. This would be a greater legacy than the AIG bailout, a most important contribution than taking over General Motors. This would be something that would truly change our country in a most important way.
PS - “Dealing with urban crime” does not mean taking guns away from law abiding gun owners, taxing ammunition, or otherwise picking on hunters, sportsmen, and people who own guns for self-defense. I mention this because when you talk about reducing crime, that’s often the only “solution” certain political groups can come up with.
Let me get this straight, weekly shootings and other violent crimes are not enough to prompt you to write an editorial, but rude commentators are?
gosh, how convenient. So Barack Obama should step up to the plate to deal with increasing homicides of young black males in St. Louis, but the man whom city residents elect to find meaningful solutions should get a free pass? Of course, I am talking about Nick Kaskoff’s future county supervisor Francis Slay.
brobill, If it were just a St. Louis problem then it would be a Francis Slay problem. It is a problem present in every urban area of the country which makes it a national problem.
I wouldn’t hold out any hope of Obama changing the thought process of the gangsters. He spent a few years “organizing” the community of South Chicago and they still continue to kill one another on a daily basis.
King Slay and Chief Isom don’t seem too concerned. I haven’t seen one quote from either of them on the recent killings. I do, however, remember Chief Isom saying he didn’t think it was in the best interest of the public if people who could carry guns legally, did so. Soon, only the criminals will have weapons.
AJ, when it happens everyday in your city, you become numb. Slay and Isom are so used to nightly killings that have been happening for years on end, that 3 more isn’t going to ruffle the feathers.
Amazed,
I’m wondering why the Major Case Squad wasn’t activated to investigate this killing. If it were a white family in from West County or from out of town there would be an uproar to get the case solved.
Compare this case to the killing of the mother and two kids in Columbia. Three people dead is all I see but yet every resource is being put into that case. Is the same effort being applied here?
This was “unthinkable?” No, it was inevitable. You all obviously haven’t been paying attention.
AJ - It has been explained several times when and why Major Case is called out and why certain areas do not utilize Major Case. Either you are trying to stir things up or you haven’t been paying attention either.