Green Continues to Back Civilian Review Board
ST. LOUIS, January 24, 2006—The following is a first person statement from St. Louis Comptroller Darlene Green. Comptroller Green has supported Alderman Kennedy’s civilian review board plan since its inception and wishes to reaffirm that support at this critical juncture in the legislative process.
“Police officers are a vital part of our community. They risk their lives every day to uphold the law and protect our neighborhoods. But situations inevitably arise where citizens disagree with the amount of force used by police. It’s times like these when a fair and objective review board is necessary to uncover the truth. Holding police officers accountable for misconduct is an important part of building trust within the community and moving St. Louis forward.
“Alderman Terry Kennedy’s legislation creating a civilian review board will not only benefit the city, but the entire region. I commend Kennedy’s character and resolve in standing firm on electing the board majority. I urge the board of aldermen, mayor and police chief to embrace board bill 69 and endorse Alderman Kennedy’s legislation. Creating a civilian review board in St. Louis with an elected majority, investigative powers and proper funding is long overdue.”
I wrote on my blog (click St Louis Oracle below) about Kennedy's civilian review bill passing committee, and an alert anonymous poster noted that one of the four districts for electing members was not contiguous. This has been brought to Kennedy's attention, and I presume it will be fixed, because the fix is easy.
Posted by St Louis Oracle on Tue., Jan 24, 2006 at 7:20 PMI hope Terry Kennedy is responsive to adjusting the districts. Who knows-- if not fixed, the error could be used as one excuse (albeit a rather lame one) for white aldermen to vote against the bill.
For example, a bill opponent could spin that the bill had good intentions but still needed further refinement as it contained erroneous language such as non-contiguous districts. However, by bringing the matter to attention prior to the bill's perfection and passage, there will now hopefully be one less excuse for opponents.
Posted by Brian on Wed., Jan 25, 2006 at 8:41 AMI bet what happened is nobody noticed how dramatically the boundaries of the 25th ward changed after 2002 redistricting. It used to include the Kingshighway Hills neighborhood, but that's now part of the *new* 10th ward.
Because of the population growth in the Dutchtown area, the 25th ward became just Dutchtown, dropping that western half of the geography. A big change that most people didn't notice in the midst of the debate over moving the 20th ward south and the 10th ward west.
Posted by Joe Frank on Wed., Jan 25, 2006 at 10:22 AM
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