Mayor Jones of St. Louis Says Business Owners Should Be Accountable for Crime

Sometimes politicians say some very confusing things that leave little to question about why things never get better. "We have a lot of violence around convenience stores and gas stations," said Tishaura Jones, the Mayor of the city of St. Louis.

But what's her solution? To look for ways to hold business owners accountable.

Isn't crime the business of the police? And don't business owners and their businesses contribute to taxes that pay for policing? What exactly can business owners be held to account for if their store is robbed or a customer is accosted in their parking lots?

It's backwards thinking. The Mayor is in charge of the police and she is directly responsible for handling crime in her city.

I am wondering what it is she thinks that a business can do to "reduce crime," or even "police" its own business? Or why she thinks the onus falls on their shoulders for what happens at the hands of criminals? Or moreover, why it should?

If there is one thing business owners should do, it is to force the Mayor to do her job and protect not only her citizens, but the businesses who operate within it. Those businesses are what provides jobs and commerce to bolster the city's economy.

Beyond that, when crime is rampant and people don't feel safe, it actually hurts those businesses. There are some places that may have terrible reputations for crime around them that many people won't even patronize for fear something may happen to them.

If there is anything to question, clearly it is to ask Mayor Tishaura Jones exactly where her head is at?

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All Right Illinois, Let Me See What You've Got

As I have been told since recently transplanting to southern Illinois about the winters, it's all a matter of perspective. Or in other words, it's a matter of what you are used to. Still, being from the Milwaukee, Wisconsin region of the country, my wife and I still find much humor in the pandemonium that breaks out when there is a call for any of that white stuff to come along around here.

That's snow folks.

In fact, about a couple of weeks ago there was a little bit of that white stuff that fell on the Missouri side of the Mississippi River, and while watching the news reporting my wife and I actually thought we had somehow landed onto a comedy skit from the likes of Saturday Night Live.

There was a reporter with a semi truck in the backdrop with a dusting of snow covering its hood and windshield. I could actually still make out the wipers. He stood, microphone in hand, with an umbrella, trying his best to shield himself from a treacherous wind.

"Already folks an inch and a quarter of snow has fallen and street crews are working around the clock to keep up."

What?

Imagine the horror if that inch and a quarter of snow might advance to say, an inch and a HALF!

Granted, while Wisconsin is no Eastern coastal state the likes of New York, or even New England for that matter, we still get our fair share of snow during the winter months, and not having a snow blower handy, and at the ready is almost impossible to imagine. In some years we have gotten 160 inches or more of the white stuff. We of course brought ours with us when we moved, but it has been—thus far—sitting lonely and abandoned in our garage for the entire duration of the winter.

Until now.

We brought her out, fired her up, and made sure she was ready to go. Because southern Illinois, in the St. Louis metro area, is expecting a dumping of at least 6-8 inches of the white stuff. Had our neighbors caught us in the act I suspect they may have been fascinated and perplexed all at the same
time.

What on earth is that contraption you've got there?

The looks on their faces would be akin to the amazement of watching the Wright Brothers take their first few seconds of flight, and somehow with my fantastic machine I could enjoy a short-lived moment of being accelerated to a God, or a great magician the likes of Houdini.

So Illinois, we're ready for whatever you have in you to dish out to us. Bring it on! We've got this. Let me see what you've got. Snow fall if you dare, and little Illinois snowflakes prepare yourself for a ride through my tines and out of my chute, and let's get this thing done.

Me And My MTD Snow Blower and the Blizzard of '011, A Rant