If The Cops Won't Respond, The Residents Will

I'll be honest. There are places around this world that just scare me and that I avoid like the plague. East St. Louis, Illinois is one of those places. When the phrase "urban decay" was first coined, the author had the image of East St. Louis in his or her mind.

However, when enough good people say enough is enough, it is a sign of hope. As the video below describes, one neighborhood in East St. Louis has gotten fed up with the level of crime in their neighborhood and the lack of police response. Rather than to be dependent upon the police for their protection, the residents have started to arm themselves.




Kurt Hoffman, the St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner, looks at the story here.

East St. Louis Mayor Alvin Parks, apparently hoping to be reassuring, tells us that the city "is investigating" the complaints of slow police response (when there is any police response), and assures us that "they have a plan to curb crime in that area."

Well, Mayor--it seems some residents have a plan, too. Of course, one problem with the residents' plan is that they are attempting to implement it in Illinois, where armed self-defense in public is utterly prohibited.

This is the same Mayor Parks that said a year ago that people don't have the right to bear arms except within their homes.

You have the right to bear arms, but you have the right to bear them within your home, not on the streets, not in your cars, not inside stores.

One of the tragedies of the recent elections is that Pat Quinn was elected Governor of Illinois instead of Bill Brady. Quinn, who is anti-gun, has vowed to veto any law that would extend concealed carry to the citizens of the State of Illinois. Brady had said he would have signed such a law. One must wonder if Pat Quinn has enough courage to go alone, unarmed, and without his State Police escort to East St. Louis. I sincerely doubt it. However, I have no illusions that Governor Quinn, like Mayor Parks, will continue to tell these good people that guns are bad and that they should rely upon the police for their protection all the while tut-tutting about the level of crime in East St. Louis.

Frankly, if anything is going to done about crime and violent criminal actors in East St. Louis, it will be at the hands of a resident like Rowena Howard and not due to any efforts by a politician like Alvin Parks or Pat Quinn.