I thought the cops had learned not to fuck with the gays?

[KaraBulut]

Maybe they didn't get the memo in St Louis?

Police crash SUV into St Louis gay bar and arrest owner for assault

Driver reportedly said he was trying to avoid hitting a dog at first, then trying to avoid a parked car, before crashing into bar

www.theguardian.com

Police crash SUV into St Louis gay bar and arrest owner for assault
Driver reportedly said he was trying to avoid hitting a dog at first, then trying to avoid a parked car, before crashing into bar

An LGBTQ+ bar owner in Missouri who was jailed after police accidentally crashed a cruiser into his establishment is facing charges filed against him by prosecutors – albeit ones that were quickly reduced amid a public outcry over the case’s circumstances.

“Nobody should have to go through this – going from being a victim to going to have to defend yourself, your family and your business,” James Pence, whose husband, Chad Morris, was arrested and charged, told reporters at a news conference on Tuesday in their home town of St Louis. “That’s not what the police are here to do.”

Morris, 37, was closing up BarM, his and Pence’s drinking establishment, with one of their employees early on Monday when a police sport-utility vehicle plowed into the front of the business.

Two St Louis metro police department officers in the middle of completing their rookie probationary period were in the cruiser at the time of the wreck. In a subsequent report cited by local news station KTVI, the cruiser’s driver claimed he feared “he was traveling too close to a parked car” and overcorrected, leading to an accident.

 

[Peloso]

They were rookies? Then this will be a watershed moment in their careers as young nazi fucks; either they will be held accountable or they will get their badges and go on to be JUST LIKE ANY OTHER COP.

This is awful, but I'm not a bit surprised. Hate never dies, and I firmly believe that a percentage of men become cops specifically for the power and authority it will give them over groups or people they "disapprove" of.


Are you not a thinker? Were you born with no special gift or talent? Are you good at being obstinate and most comfortable when engaging in altercations? Does working hard on meaningful or complex tasks disagree with you? Rejected by the military? Then the Police Force might be the perfect career! Enlist now!

 

[KaraBulut]

So far, in the press reports, there have been 3 different excuses for the accident:

"Swerved to avoid a dog in the road".

"Overcompensated to avoid a parked car."

"Distracted by the police scanner screen."


If you or I crashed our company car into a bar after midnight, we would have been taken to an emergency room and told to pee in a cup or give a blood sample. The cops weren't drug tested.

 

[gsdx]

So far, in the press reports, there have been 3 different excuses for the accident:

"Swerved to avoid a dog in the road".

"Overcompensated to avoid a parked car."

"Distracted by the police scanner screen."


If you or I crashed our company car into a bar after midnight, we would have been taken to an emergency room and told to pee in a cup or give a blood sample. The cops weren't drug tested.

Yeah. I hate the way those damned park cars suddenly jump into the middle of the road right in front of me!

 

[Peloso]

Has anybody questioned the dog? He's a witness and dogs don't lie.

 

[KaraBulut]

.... dogs don't lie.

They do but you have to say it in the right tone of voice.

 

[fabulouslyghetto]

So far, in the press reports, there have been 3 different excuses for the accident:

"Swerved to avoid a dog in the road".

"Overcompensated to avoid a parked car."

"Distracted by the police scanner screen."


If you or I crashed our company car into a bar after midnight, we would have been taken to an emergency room and told to pee in a cup or give a blood sample. The cops weren't drug tested.

Americans let the beast grow too big, now it has many heads and there's really nothing we can do to stop it.

 

[KaraBulut]

Americans let the beast grow too big, now it has many heads and there's really nothing we can do to stop it.

Well, the other side of that argument is that St Louis has the highest per capita gun death rate in the US. It's 76.4 deaths per 100,000 residents.

Most Americans think that Chicago and San Francisco are the most unsafe cities in the US. Those two cities aren't even in the top 10. People living in St Louis probably want more police and more aggressive policing (although the State of Missouri continues to liberalize gun laws instead of trying to address the problem).

https://www.axios.com/2023/10/16/america-gun-deaths-crime-south

https://www.itv.com/news/2023-06-06/120-children-shot-in-the-past-year-in-the-us-gun-violence-capital

Which makes it even more maddening that the police department is arresting victims of a crime while making excuses for their police officers who damaged a gay business. The business is going to have to sue the city to get reimbursed for the damage which will likely take years to work its way through the court system.

 

[cityboy-stl]

Update: The stupid city is now talking about condemning the property the city police damaged, instead of taking responsibility and repairing it.

City Threatens to Condemn Bar:PM Building Over Damage Caused by Cops

A police SUV slammed into the LGBTQ bar on December 18

www.riverfronttimes.com

 

[rareboy]

The police will get away with it.

 

[KaraBulut]

Update: The stupid city is now talking about condemning the property the city police damaged, instead of taking responsibility and repairing it.

City Threatens to Condemn Bar:PM Building Over Damage Caused by Cops

A police SUV slammed into the LGBTQ bar on December 18

www.riverfronttimes.com

The police will get away with it.

The County Executive and Mayor are Democrats. The Mayor is a Black woman who was previously a county comptroller and a member of the Missouri legislature.

This will get cleaned up before election. They need the gay vote.

 

[cityboy-stl]

The County Executive and Mayor are Democrats. The Mayor is a Black woman who was previously a county comptroller and a member of the Missouri legislature.

This will get cleaned up before election. They need the gay vote.

The County Executive is a Democrat, but this is outside his jurisdiction. He is also a doctor, an anesthesiologist, btw. Voters in the County cannot vote for City offices and vice versa.

The Mayor is not up for reelection until April 2025. She was Treasurer in the City, her father was a Comptroller in the City. Neither served in the County.
The President of the Board of Aldermen is also a woman and a very progressive Democrat, as are most of the aldermen.

So I suspect you're right, they might get this cleaned up. But the police chief is stonewalling it and won't release the body cams. The police do not look good.
The politicians need to put more pressure on the police, and the City bureaucracy is a mess. I'm hoping this letter was more of a snafu than anything nefarious.
I don't know what they could be doing behind the scenes, though. If anything.

 

[NotHardUp1]

St. Louis seems a LOT like the Philadelphia of the Midwest. That aside, this reinforces the comments I have made over the years about the texting while driving duality in drivers.

There are drivers who can and do text and drive very well, and do not have accidents, or near misses. Just like those who read maps, or Garmin, or GPS, or those who eat, or drink, or get things out of the car console, there are drivers who know how and when to do anything other than two hands on the wheel, and they do it well.

Then there are the others. They don't know their lights on on hi-beam even after oncoming alerts them. They creep along at slower speeds in high speed traffic because they are being "careful" while talking on their phones. They wait at intersections when they have the right of way because they don't know traffic laws and think yielding is safer than proceeding, causing confusion and sometimes causing crashes. They stay back three car lengths when stopped in a turning lane, and when the light changes, are still texting away, causing those behind them to miss the light. It's THOSE people.

But, despite all the insurance companies, lawyers, and police shrieking in absolutes, cops are some of the worst traffic offenders out there WHEN they are the latter ones above. They drive talking on their mobile phones, never hands free. They speed without a police call need. They violate traffic laws for convenience. They are distracted watching girls, the computer display on the console beside them, and they input on the keyboard while driving.

A very, VERY likely scenario for this crash is that the driver was inputting on that keyboard, or talking on his cell, or texting, and looked up to think he was about to crash with the parked car BECAUSE he was going too fast as well. The city is busy trying to cover all that up, but the lawsuit will prevail, and the city will get by with sealing it after they pay the settlement.

 

[KaraBulut]

The County Executive is a Democrat, but this is outside his jurisdiction. He is also a doctor, an anesthesiologist, btw. Voters in the County cannot vote for City offices and vice versa.

These jurisdictions where "the city is the county and the county is the city" are always confusing. Reading the story, it sounds like the letter came from the "Public Safety Department" which is a weird amalgam of police, fire and because it's so related to fire/police, the building code enforcement division.

So, a rookie from the police public safety division drives into a gay bar and demolishes the facade, then an inspector from the building code public safety division sends a letter saying, "You have 60 days to fix the damage that our sister division caused".

In my mind, I can picture the mayor picking up the phone, calling the head of the Public Safety Department and saying, "Fix this. I don't want to see another story about your department and this bar."

So I suspect you're right, they might get this cleaned up. But the police chief is stonewalling it and won't release the body cams. The police do not look good.

This is the kind of stuff that managers get fired over. Nothing pisses voters off like news stories about government bureaucratic stupidity.

Stories like this is why we need good journalism at the local level. The local news has really been going after the city leaders on this nonsense.

 

[KaraBulut]

And it seems like Washington state is wanting to get in on the fun. The State raided gay bars in Seattle and ticketed men who were shirtless or wearing jockstraps. State law in Washington state prohibits alcohol from being served in strip clubs, so the officers raiding a leather bar in Seattle used this to claim that employees and patrons were displaying their nipples and buttocks during the raid.

https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/seattle/liquor-and-cannabis-board-addresses-community-outrage-over-potential-lewd-conduct-violations-at-seattle-gay-bars/281-232994d7-6f77-4097-b2e4-31340ba00431

Community members expressed concern over recent inspections of prominent gay bars by the Washington Liquor and Cannabis Control Board (LCB) on Wednesday. The LCB was looking for evidence of "lewd conduct" during the inspections over the weekend.

Bar owners were advised Friday and Saturday that LCB enforcement officers observed violations of the law, which requires that certain body parts of patrons and employees be covered. A coalition of gay bar owners and several prominent LGBTQ+ activists from Seattle, including Dan Savage and Terry Miller, issued a statement on Instagram expressing concern about what they referred to as “raids” at the LGBTQ+ nightlife venues, noting they agitate decades-old tensions between the community and the LCB.

View this content on Instagram

View this content on Instagram

 

[rareboy]

Jesus...the US is totally back to the pre-Stonewall days.

 

[belamyi]

Fasten your seatbelts.