St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner Has Resigned
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What her stepping down means for law and order and the call for gradual reform
My sincere condolences to the family and friends of the assistant circuit attorney who recently lost their life to a car accident.
America’s criminal justice system is a mess.
Always has been.
The modern mess is evidenced by the in-custody murders of George Floyd and others, videos of police officers planting evidence, testimonies from officers about how they were prevented from or targeted from whistleblowing about the failings of fellow officers, people being eaten alive by bugs in jail cells, the ways the FBI reports law enforcement units/precincts have been infiltrated by hate groups, convictions of judges for conspiring with prison owners to “fill the beds” by sentencing Black youth and adults to incarceration instead of parole or community service, innumerable recorded incidents of abuse and/or misuse of force against white, black, and other stakeholders, decaying prisons and inhumane living conditions, evidence of racial bias in ticketing and data showing Black offenders have higher bail amounts than other citizens (and even sanctuaried noncitizens) who have been accused of the same or less significant offenses.
A. Mess.
To address the mess, voters in urban areas (meaning predominately Black metroplexes) showed up to the polls and elected justice-minded prosecutors/district attorneys.
The people voted in reform-minded prosecutors like Larry Krasner of Philadelphia and Kim Gardner of St. Louis, to name a few. The newly elected were charge with one task: Fix it!
But can they?
Ferguson…
St. Louis is of particular significance in the push for “criminal justice reform.” The death of Michael Brown — a young resident of Ferguson Missouri sparked a political implosion. Brown’s death, and the questionable grand jury processes for his killer, shone a spotlight on the relationships between law enforcement and Black residents…highlighting some ethical concerns about prosecution and Black community safety.
Ferguson became a case study of how some police departments surveil and over ticket poor…
