Surprise: Washington Post Shifts Blamestorms Trump Admin Over St. Louis Shooting Case

by William Teach | September 22, 2017 7:06 am

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The Washington Post Editorial Board has decided to have a snit fit over the case of St Louis officer Jason Stockley shooting and killing Anthony Lamar Smith. The headline read St. Louis is what happens when the Justice Department won’t do its job[2]. The editorial spends 3 paragraphs giving the briefest of overviews of the case, certainly not enough to make a truly informed decision (though they do provide a few links), as the judge who found Stokely not guilty had to make his decision (note: I think Stokely is guilty. Perhaps not 1st degree murder, but, certainly some level of murder).

They also forget to mention[3] Smith’s criminal history, his fleeing arrest, and what the judge had to say in the decision.

It then moves on the reports that police were chanting “whose streets? Our streets”, something I mentioned as well, but, let’s consider, there is only one report of this. There doesn’t seem to be video of this. One would think there would be one video with audio, what with all the smartphones. But, this has made the WPEB apoplectic.

The police department says it’s investigating the chant. But in the wake of Mr. Wilson’s ruling, officers’ co-opting of a slogan often adopted by protesters of police violence sends a signal to black St. Louisans that law enforcement views them as adversaries, rather than as a community deserving protection.

Well, the community, or at least a certain section which is responsible for the bulk of crime in St. Louis, seems the police as adversaries to start with. But, none of that is really the point

The Justice Department declined to press charges against Mr. Stockley during the Obama administration. Yet despite Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s disdain for police reform, the facts as they stand in St. Louis are more than enough to merit federal review of the city’s police force. In a sign of Mr. Sessions’s priorities, the Justice Department announced— coincidentally, on the day of Mr. Stockley’s acquittal — that it would roll back a program designed to assist local law enforcement with reforms. That stranded the St. Louis County Police Department, which had sought help following the 2014 killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson within county lines. Mr. Stockley’s case is one more reminder of how much is lost under a Justice Department that refuses to rise to the task.

Gotta love it: this occurred during the Obama admin, they didn’t do a thing about (nor should they have done anything, IMO), but, the blame is shifted to the Trump admin and Jeff Sessions. The program is being changed from trying to get a community which hates the police and often refuses to help the police to one which helps the St. Louis PD do more traditional policing, such as “arresting violent criminals, breaking up gangs, and making drug busts.” That’s per the Buzzfeed link in the above paragraph (St. Louis County Police Department).

Buzzfeed goes on to note that not one report on the program was published since the inception of what was called the COPS program under Obama, nothing which states whether it was even effective.

But, hey, let’s blame Jeff Sessions, because why not?

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove[4]. Follow me on Twitter @WilliamTeach[5].