We noticed this headline last night on KMOV.com, but after a second we realized we always notice this headline on KMOV.com. Think of the time it saves to just always have this same headline on the home page! If someone calls you on it you’re only wrong for a max of like 30 minutes. It’s brilliant.
[Editor's Note: So since the time of this story's writing last night, another story broke about a baby being found dead in a dumpster. Certainly a sad story, and one we may cover in a separate post. However, if you feel yourself getting pissy on this story simply because the word "dumpster" is a common thread, take a deep breath and read our story, slowly, so it sinks in, past the crazy parts of your brain. The post below uses St. Louis' focus on random trash dumping to illustrate it's lack of focus on violent crime where the real problem is...I wish we could think of an example of violent crime we need to stop...oh yeah, how about a freaking baby being found in a dumpster! This morning's news is sad and odd in the way it lines up with my example here, but if anything, it strengthens my point. Feel free to hate it/us if you'd like to still remain crazy though.]
You can say a lot of things about St. Louis: they’re incompetent when it comes to crime, the school system sucks so bad kindergarteners are starting to say “You know what? I’m good. I’ll just have a stray cat take me under it’s wing instead.” And the population is dropping faster than Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Q factor. However, you can’t say that St. Louis isn’t tough on illegal trash dumping. This is a menace that must be stopped!…probably. We feel like we should be high on this because the city is clearly focused on it, so we feel like it’s a big deal…are we missing something? Freaking trash dumping?! We’re worried about illegal trash dumping?
People caught red handed dumping trash illegally in St. Louis. They’re taking their trash behind homes and just leaving it. News 4 first told you about this last month and this time, News 4′s Lindsay Bramson was there when when police swooped in.
Oh god! Lindsay don’t take on these dangerous assignments! You know how your mother and I worry!
In the last 4 months, 75 hidden cameras have caught hundreds of people trashing the city of St. Louis.
What?! 75?! 75 cameras and they’re all pointed at stupid dumpsters? Oh by the way, this seven year old girl was shot in the head, how many cameras were pointed at the playground?
Sgt. Ron Hasty with the St. Louis Police Department says ”these are the type of people that are out here riding around dumping in our neighborhoods and they’re not even properly licensed.”
No license?! Wow that does sound serious. You are so busted you piece of crap dumping scumbags! You are so gonna be in deep for this now! Oh man, it is on! We caught you and you are going to get it! …ok, so if you just wanna sign here and then go pay your fine at the window, I think we’re square.
“It makes you feel sick inside” says one south city woman who has trash dumped behind her home constantly.
A seven year-old girl got shot in the freaking head and a 71-year-old man was beaten severely, robbed and has now died, but yeah, no one likes to walk by a stinky full dumpster. Totally makes us sick too.
Ok, yes, we realize this is a problem and one that should certainly be on the list of things to fix around here, but is it really something that generates this kind of bile with all the other issues this city has? Having cops patrol your neighborhood to watch for guys throwing crap away in your city-owned dumpster is a problem. But it sounds pretty good compared to not feeling safe when you walk down the street, or having to spend your whole dinner downtown wondering if your car will be there when you get back. Maybe spend some money on cameras making sure people don’t end up in the dumpster and we’ll worry about old tires after that.
via KMOV
In a report by Blythe Bernhard on STLToday.com:
Youths in the city are killed by gun violence more often than in any other city except New Orleans, according to federal data released Thursday.
…and New Orleans doesn’t really count since it’s like those tennis shoes that got really wet one weekend. Sure you kept them, but you’re not wearing them any more even after they dried out because now they smell funny.
The city’s gunshot murder rate for 10- to 19-year-olds is more than three times the average for major cities, according to the latest data available from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
…a survey last year by St. Louis Children’s Hospital found that two to three times more gunshot and stabbing victims are treated at the hospital compared with other urban children’s hospitals.
Ok…ok…that sounds bad…but why do they always have to phrase it all negative like that. What not say “St. Louis youths begin unsanctioned population control program?” …which is still not the best thing they could be doing with their time, but at least it sounds like they’re experimenting. Why are we always focusing on the kids for that matter? Try this one for size: “St. Louis hospitals not getting better at saving gun shot victims despite all the practice” It’s all about spin! …well that and all the gun fire.
Quintin Gray was found guilty and sentenced to 25 years for beating his girlfriend’s 3-year-old little girl to death back in early 2008. Gray is now appealing that charge and though he isn’t exactly refuting the vicious beating he laid on the little girl, he is offering a reason as to why the beating happened.
He was trying to give the girl CPR and he just isn’t very good at it! Apparently the line between firm thrusts to the chest the for resuscitation of a child is just one bad instruction from punching her in the face repeatedly and whipping her with a belt.
Gray’s mother, Kimberly Wallace, 43, is a part-time nurse at St. John’s Mercy Medical Center. She said the 911 dispatcher can be heard instructing her son to use his palms for CPR when she should have instructed him to use his fingers.
Authorities said Miyannah died of blunt force trauma. Her liver was damaged and a large amount of blood had pooled in Miyannah’s abdomen, according to the doctor who performed the autopsy.
She said the injuries were like those found in a car accident and consistent with a sudden, forceful impact like a punch or kick, not compressions of the chest or stomach.
Mrs. Wallace is so right on. If someone told us that we should be using our palms for chest compression instead of fingers, we would have thought to ourselves: “Does ‘palms’ mean punch her in the face over and over again? What about name-calling or yelling? Any of that help?” Geez, we aren’t all doctors that can understand complex medical jargon like “palms” and “bashing someone’s head against stuff isn’t a viable CPR chest compression option.”
The appeals court’s ruling is expected anywhere from two to six months, plenty of time for one of Gray’s cellmates to practice a little “CPR” on him.
via STLToday
The killer was trying to hide in Chicago, but St. Louis police found and charged him with first-degree murder, stemming from a altercation five year ago. Andre McAfee is accused of killing Charles Barnes in early 2006 by beating him repeatedly with a skillet.
Court documents say McAfee hit Barnes in the head and on his body with the skillet several times, and that McAfee’s DNA was found on the handle of the blood-covered skillet that was found next to Barnes’ body.
That sounds like a horrible way to go. No one should ever be killed with a device that’s main goal is to bring happiness to the world by cooking various forms of pork products. We hear you can also cook other things in skillets, but we don’t recommend it. Actually, we don’t recommend killing anyone with it either, but if we had to pick one thing to focus on, it would be the former. We don’t care what people tell you, no one wants french toast instead of bacon. Only French people probably, but they hardly count.
After the McAfee’s extradition to St. Louis, he was arraigned and released. Apparently the judge thought that taking a man from Chicago to St. Louis counted as “time served”. However the Mayor is petitioning to have him jailed with in the city limits to kick off his “Every Warm Body Counts!” campaign for the 2020 Census.
via STLToday
Pro Tip: Always check your bag of weed before giving up the money. It may drive you to shoot a guy.
Ryan Harris (right) paid Michael Maybearry (dead) $20 for a bag of weed, got home, found the bag was empty. That made Harris angry, so angry the first thought through his mind, as told to police was: “I gotta kill this guy.” Harris sounds pretty highly strung. He really could have used that weed!
Harris allegedly fired two rounds through the back of Maybearry’s rear window as Maybearry drove away, and Harris drove after him. Once on southbound Old Highway 21, Harris pulled beside Maybearry and fired six rounds into the driver’s side as the cars were moving, court documents say.
Maybearry crashed into a ditch and hit a tree. Harris went to the car and found Maybearry inside groaning. Harris told investigators that he demanded his money back, but Maybearry said he couldn’t move.
“Dammit it dude! Give me my $20 dollars back!”
“Well ok. You just shot me and drove me off the road in to a ditch, so I’m having some trouble reaching my back pocket right now. Things hard enough to reach in your car even when you haven’t been shot and been in a wreck you know? Stupid jeans pockets. Am I right?! …anyway, I’m bleeding pretty bad here and it was just $20 bucks, so if you could just give me a hand…”
Harris said Maybearry aggressively grabbed his wrist when he reached into the car and Harris fired three more rounds into him.
Real nice.
Harris said Maybearry’s hand released in a “weird” manner and Harris knew he was dead, court documents say.
“Weird” like as though he was just shot in the chest three times? That kind of weird? You don’t have many pets do you Ryan?
via STLToday
