A cancer survivor’s guide to the 2020 presidential election
@stlouisamerican
@stlouisamerican
See page A4
St. LouiS AmericAn The
CAC Audited FEBRUARY 20 – 26, 2020
91 years serving, empowering and advocating equity in St. Louis
Vol. 91 No. 48 COMPLIMENTARY
stlamerican.com
reimAgining PubLic SAfety
An ‘aggressive call’ for nonviolence Coalition plans marches for peace on MLK Boulevards in STL and ESL By Sophie Hurwitz For the St. Louis American On Monday, February 24, the Peace Be Still coalition will hold two parallel marches in St. Louis and East St. Louis to kick off a week of advocacy for peace. Each march will be held on the city’s respective Martin Luther King Boulevard. Both marches will occur at night. “A coalition of community-based organizations, churches, night club owners,
barbers, rappers, singers, former gang members and drug deals have banded together to call for a week of peace,” they announced in a press release. “Martin Luther King Boulevard was chosen because it bears the name of Dr. King, but it was also chosen because that’s where the gunshots are taking place,” said James Clark, vice president for Community Outreach at Better Family Life and one of the See PUBLIC SAFETY, A6
Lamar Johnson and conviction integrity 45 elected prosecutors argue that Missouri Supreme Court should grant new trial By Rebecca Rivas Of The St. Louis American
James Clark
Marty K. Casey
Get rid of Roorda The Justice Coalition protested at the St. Louis Police Officers Association office at 3017 Hampton Ave. on Monday, February 17, demanding the removal of Jeff Roodra, its business agent and spokesman. Roorda has publicly called for St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner to be removed from office “by force or by choice.”
Does an elected prosecutor have the authority to correct the wrongful convictions of their predecessors? Last week, 45 elected prosecutors from around the country signed and submitted a brief to the Missouri Supreme Court fervently arguing that they did. “When an innocent person becomes enmeshed in the gears of that system, the officials empowered by the public to turn on the machinery are not powerless to turn it off,” they state in an amicus Lamar curiae brief filed on Johnson Monday, February 10. “It would be a perverse system indeed if elected representatives may ask the courts to imprison innocent citizens but not to free them.” The brief was submitted as part of the Lamar Johnson case, which the Supreme Court is currently reviewing and is being closely watched by elected prosecutors See JOHNSON, A7
Photo by Wiley Price
‘I would love our congressman to stand with the people’ Cori Bush wonders why Clay backs McKee on stealing Homer G. Phillips name
See CLAY, A6
Monitor reports little progress on police training and community engagement By Sophie Hurwitz For the St. Louis American
By Rebecca Rivas Of The St. Louis American Zenobia Thompson was serving as a head nurse at Homer G. Phillips Hospital when she became a leader in the fight to keep city leaders from closing the iconic black teaching hospital. It was a fight she lost, alongside a strong coalition of hospital employees and activists in 1979. Now she is on the frontline again fighting to keep developer Paul McKee Jr. from tarnishing the legacy of this black institution by naming his proposed three-bedroom hospital and freestanding emergency department the “Homer G. Phillips Hospital.” McKee
Ferguson ‘largely stagnant’
Photo by Vincent Lang
“He could pay tribute by taking care of his properties,” Cori Bush said of Paul McKee Jr. appropriating the name of Homer G. Phillips Hospital. “Pay tribute that way.”
Two areas that were part of its agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice have “remained largely stagnant,” according to consent decree monitor Natashia Tidwell: police training and community-police engagement. In March 2016, the City of Ferguson entered into a consent decree with the DOJ. In that document, Ferguson agreed to overhaul many aspects of the city’s governance, particularly around policing See FERGUSON, A7