[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

A 55-gallon drum was found, rusted and broken open, spilling it’s contents of white powder in to a St. Louis alley in Ward 11. Of course, people were frightened. What was the white powder? Is it anthrax? Have the terrorist gotten lazy and started just throwing partially open barrels out of cars after their big boss is busy floating in the ocean, which has to sting with all the salt water in that head wound.

First responders cordoned off the area, tested the material and discovered that it wasn’t dangerous. It was a type of gelatin. Firefighters and police were on the scene for about three hours. Once finished, they marked the barrel as safe and contacted the health department to ask someone to remove it.

Three hours to determine it’s just gelatin and when they do, they just put a sticker on it or  something and left it there. They probably could have stood it up or put it in a dumpster…eh…whatever. The real question is: What can we do about any possible future rusted barrels full of gelatin? We can’t let this happen again! Won’t someone think of the children?!

The mayor’s office said it’s attempting to catch people dumping trash, city-wide. Last winter, the city set up 40 hidden cameras in alleys and neighborhoods in north St. Louis to catch those illegally dumping trash.

A spokeswoman in the mayor’s office said the city plans to expand the pilot program late summer or early fall with 120 new cameras. She said the cameras can be moved to different areas and the new program will help cover Ward 11, where the barrel was dumped this week.

So far the pilot program using hidden cameras to stop trash dumping is going great. Except for that one time when they had almost had a perfect shot of a guy throwing away an old couch but right before he came in to frame a kid was gunned down in a drive by attempt and all we could see what the face of his killer. Total ruined the shot with more wasted footage. Makes you so angry you start to wonder if this project and all the money we had to take from the city’s orphanage was really worth it.

via KMOV

Annie Cooper is 70 and when you make it to that age, it is your job to shit on everyone that hasn’t made it there by being as grumpy and annoying as possible, always finding a way to make every little thing in to a slight against you personally. That’s gotta be a great feeling, and we can’t wait until we graduate to that lofty position. Back to Annie though, she’s mad because the city is charging her $11/month more for trash pickup and the addition of recycling dumpsters. So mad, she’s suing the city, and pissing off her Alderman who seems completely confused by the whole thing.

Oh and since she’s 70 and everything little slight is blown out of proportion, she’s already pulling the race card.

Cooper thinks the city’s not providing enough trash and recycling bins in her neighborhood, north St. Louis’s 22nd Ward. And yet she’s still being charged the new $11-per-month trash fee.

The city is providing such services, Cooper said, to residents in wealthier — and whiter — wards.

Cooper said she took a ride recently through the Central West End, Soulard and south St. Louis. “They have so many trash bins, it made me sick. It made me hurt,” she said. Her entire block is serviced, she said, by trash bins only at the ends of the streets.

Ok, maybe on the surface this looks bad. We’re all pretty aware of the city government’s plot to not allow black people to recycle things, but let’s be fair and see what the city has to say…

In the meantime, Ward 22 Alderman Jeffrey Boyd is incensed. He used the trash funds to put cameras up in alleys and combat illegal dumping — a far worse problem, he said. He’ll get alleyway recycling bins when the city has an education program for residents — no use putting them in if residents aren’t sure how to correctly use them.

We’re not usually in the business of patting city officials on the back, but frankly, that sounds like a pretty well thought out plan and response. Cameras in North City do sound like a better option than a few extra recycling bins that, as he eluded to, are just going to be trashed anyway. Also, we would imagine that if she’s right and there are actually more bins in the Central West End, it’s probably because it’s far more densely populated than the area in North City she lives in. In fact…

…there are only three houses on Cooper’s side of the street, he said. And just two are occupied.

Case closed! Doesn’t matter though, the crazy old lady is still going to get her very own recycling bin near her house according to Boyd, which once again proves that if you bitch enough, someone will cave and give you what you want. It works for returning that broken VCR to Wal-Mart and it works for sex…yup sex. It took a few tries, but eventually she took our money.

Cooper’s not going to win completely though. The city will now turn the camera on her street corner ever so slightly. You know what happens to North City houses in the surveillance camera’s blind spot? Bad things man…things way worse than mixing recyclables in with common refuse.

via STLToday

Screen grabbed last night. Hank Hill added a little later.

“Clean the Lou” 2010 is in our review mirror, but if you weren’t aware it was the first annual event of forming teams and cleaning up different areas of St. Louis.

On Saturday, September 25, we held our very first Clean The Lou. More than 30 teams and many others across the metropolitan area worked tirelessly to clean up streets, alleys, parks and more. We made some great progress but there’s more to do.

The 2011 event is already set for October 1st, but if you feel like picking something up before then, it’s probably cool.

…except if you see a half-full can of Diet Mountain Dew at Union and Pershing in the Central West End. It’s ours. We promise to come back and finish it at some point.

You can get more info via their website CleanTheLou.com and their Twitter account @CleanTheLou

The free ride might be over for St. Louis city residents who have been living the good life with “free” trash pick up.

On Wednesday, city leaders released a proposed budget that includes a provision for homeowners to pay $8 a month for trash services. The city said the move would raise $10 million in the next budget.

City leaders claim that many county residents currently pay for trash service. In some communities, trash collection costs homeowners up to $20 a month.

…and do those county residents also have to give 1% of their income over to their local government every year? Ok, great. Douchebagsayswhat?

We here at Punching Kitty are all for the city relieving it’s monetary woes, but potentially picking up less trash because someone didn’t pay their bill is a slipper slope to Detroit. Make your money, but keep picking up all the trash you can as often as you can. You accidentally compact a bum? Eh, it happens.

Also, maybe trash pickup shouldn’t be all that much of a focus right now. Things seem to be going pretty good there. Oh by the way I drove past four kids in the street at 11am on a Tuesday being taught how to hunt for food by a ferrel dog, but yeah, lets make sure that trash pick up is making the bank.

via KSDK