St. Louis Mayor's Press Conference On Violence Interrupted By Gunshots

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In some parts of the country, violence is really just a way of life. While it’s not as bad as it is in other parts of the world–South America and Africa have far more of it per capita than anywhere in the United States does–it’s bad enough. It’s bad enough that most everyone agrees that something has to be done.

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One such place is St. Louis.

The Mayor recently held a press conference to talk about the city’s violent crime rate. It was…interrupted.

Gunfire interrupted Mayor Tishaura Jones as she was talking at an event about efforts to reduce violent crime.

Jones was at the event in South City with Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas, the focus was on how both cities can combat violent crime and what they can learn from each other.

“Oh isn’t that wonderful,” Jones said as the shots rang out. “Well I hear gunshots in my neighborhood every night. My son and I fall asleep to the lullabies in the distance every night cause I’m the first mayor in over 20 years to be born, raised and still live in north St. Louis, and it’s unfortunate, yes I heard it, but I didn’t flinch because I guess it’s a part of my life now.”

Jones later tweeted that St. Louisans should be desensitized to the sound of gunfire.

“This shouldn’t be normal! We shouldn’t become desensitized to hearing gunshots in the distance,” Jones wrote. “I showed this to my son and he thought people were shooting at me!”

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There’s a certain irony to the interruption, that’s for sure.

However, people like Jones think gun control is the answer. She’s already stated that she thinks her city should be able to pass gun control in spite of the state’s preemption law. In fairness, if she’s hearing gunshots every night, I can understand why. After all, the media doesn’t seem interested in presenting any kind of alternatives to gun control, so why would she even know they exist?

Yet they actually do exist.

In fairness, Jones was supposedly talking about some of those ideas. However, since she apparently ran on defunding the police, I wouldn’t expect her to take all the steps needed to address the city’s problems.

Instead, she seems interested in pushing the typical agenda that’s actually soft on crime, then blame everyone and everything else for the problem. Sure, there was gunfire during her press conference. She says she hears it every night, though I’m actually skeptical that she hears it that often. If she did, she’d have moved long before now, especially with her having a child.

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No, she hears it often enough, I’m sure, but not that often. Still, it’s not like a politician is known for honesty, especially in a city like St. Louis.

Frankly, the gunshots may have done her a favor. They might have interrupted her from saying something really stupid, which I have no doubt would have happened soon enough.

Then again, would the press actually cover the stupid? My guess is that they won’t. They’ll protect Jones just as they amplified the presence of gunshots during the press conference rather than focusing on the substance of what Jones was there to suggest.

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