By Steve Sailer
08/08/2020
Homicide statistics in St. Louis, next door to Ferguson, MO, were perhaps the first fairly big city to reflect the Ferguson Effect of rising homicide numbers in the First BLM Era. If you stare closely at this graph of homicides in the city of St. Louis, you can see that homicides were notably more frequent from late 2014 through spring of 2020 than in the half decade before BLM debuted at Ferguson (August 2014).
But in St. Louis, the Ferguson Effect is dwarfed by the Floyd Effect in June (33 homicides) and July (54) of 2020.
From St. Louis Today:
Feds launch St. Louis anti-crime initiative as homicide rate climbs
Robert Patrick, Rachel Rice Aug 7, 2020
ST. LOUIS — A controversial federal initiative targeting violent crime will bring 50 federal investigators and a $1 million grant to St. Louis, U.S. Attorney Jeff Jensen said Thursday.
Jimmie Edwards, St. Louis public safety director, said he sought federal help after a surge in homicides and other shootings in St. Louis in the last two months. Edwards said there were 32 homicides in June and 53 in July, and an understaffed police department had a backlog of suspects being sought for those crimes, including 20 homicide suspects and several dozen more being pursued for crimes “just as heinous,” he said.
“Violent crime in St. Louis is intolerable lately,” Jensen said at a news conference Thursday. Jensen said that the federal investigators will be supplemented by Missouri Highway Patrol staffers, and Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt will lend two prosecutors to handle cases.
Jensen said Operation Legend will target violent offenders, gangs, so-called “active shooters” and fugitives. There will also be additional resources to respond to shooting scenes.
He declined to say how long the program will last, saying he didn’t want people to wait out the enhanced federal presence.
Responding to criticism of the program elsewhere, Jensen said the investigators will not be protecting federal property or responding to protests. Operation Legend is not “protection of federal buildings, protection of federal properties,” he said. “It’s not riot police. It’s not officers wearing fatigues. This is purely a violent crime effort. An effort to reduce the terrible murder rate we have seen lately.”
Critics have questioned the legality of the federal response to protests in Portland, Oregon, and said it led to more violence.
St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardner
Who is backed by George Soros’s money.
said in a statement that she is “concerned about bringing more federal agents to the City of St. Louis given their recent behavior in Portland, Oregon, where officers stopped people without probable cause and interrupted peaceful protesters without warning. My office will hold law enforcement agencies accountable if they violate the rights of people who live in our community.”
Jensen said the announcement was not related to Gardner’s victory in the Democratic primary Tuesday, which essentially guarantees her reelection in the heavily Democratic city. He said the plan was in the works for some time. …
After the news conference, Parson, Krewson and other officials exited through the front doors of headquarters where no protesters were gathered and ducked into cars that sped away. Protesters ran into the street in front of police headquarters moments later and blocked traffic.
Protesters attempted to block another car they mistakenly thought was carrying Jensen, but minutes later a line of police officers on bicycles pushed protesters back to let the car pass.
St. Louis is one of eight cities where the operation has been announced.
The operation was first launched July 8 in Kansas City. Sometimes referred to as Operation LeGend, it was named in honor of 4-year-old LeGend Taliferro, who was fatally shot in June while asleep in his Kansas City home.
Officials announced July 22 it would be expanded to Chicago and Albuquerque. Cleveland, Detroit and Milwaukee were added to the list July 29. Memphis then was added along with St. Louis. …
Critics say that federal and state officials, including Parson and President Donald Trump, are trying to shift the public’s focus to violent crime instead of an economy devastated by the coronavirus pandemic and a series of failures to adequately contain the spread of the disease.
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