St Louis Crime Stats

       Sam Dotson, the St Louis City Chief of Police, proudly trumpeted a drop in the city's crime rate in 2016. Only... most serious crimes, including robbery, assault, rape, attempted murder, et al., were up. Property crimes, however, were dramatically down, mathematically driving the overall crime rate lower. (BTW, this methodology cynically equates a stolen bike with murder.) Remarkably, the amount of murders remained the same (better hospitals - poorer marksmanship?)

        I suspect St Loo did something similar to LA: they cooked the books. Years ago, the Los Angeles police were ordered not to take reports of crimes; a non-existent budget shortfall was the stated reason. To no-ones surprise, crime dramatically decreased - in the reports. Murders were a bit harder for the pencil-whippers, as it was difficult to ignore all those nasty corpses leaking all over the place. The LAPD, affectionately known as LAP Dogs, had to report that murders were higher that period. The Chief failed in his bid to become LA's mayor, but soon became a much loved and corrupt inner city councilman.

       Here in the Loo - Chief Dotson was quick to blame everything on the official whipping boy of failing gubermints everywhere: Itz da guns!

       Dotson had designs on the mayor's office in 2017, hoping to ride his record as a crime fighter. However, the CTRL-Left city board of aldermen threatened the top-cop's job if he ran. He courageously quit the race to keep his job a little longer.

       Dotson would have been a poor choice for mayor - the other candidates are worse.