By Antonio D. French
Filed Monday, November 13, 2006 at 12:30 PM
Several arrests were made after as many as 25 simultaneous fights broke out at the St. Louis Galleria mall yesterday. According to KSDK Channel 5, the new Metrolink expansion is partly to blame for the violence. Labels: Crime, Media_Watch
"More people, easier access to the mall from all areas of the City and County," Richmond Heights police Sgt. Marty Votaw told Channel 5. "Whenever you make easier access and you get larger crowds, you're going to have more crime."
KSDK reporter Erin O'Neill said, while Sunday's fights were an isolated incident, Richmond Heights police "have noticed an increase in other crimes such as car break-ins since the opening of the Metrolink extension."
In related news... Last week, KMOV Channel 4 did a two-part not-to-be-missed investigative report on the most dangerous places to park your car downtown.
14 Comments:
Could this kind of thinking be why north St. Louis will be the last part of the region to get Metrolink service?
11/13/2006 12:51 PM
No, but this kind of thinking assumes that those supposedly commiting the crimes are from North St. Louis and why St. Charles voted down MetroLink.
Every mall in the County, including Plaza Frontenac, has transit access. As such, it's fairly obvious that there isn't any correllation between how much transit service is provided and how much crime takes place at a mall. But now I can just hear the lazy armchair-analyst also blaming St. Louis Centre and Union Station's failures on MetroLink too.
By far, I am the most upset that a top police official would scapegoat MetroLink. But then again, Richmond Heights is already guilty of "this kind of thinking." RH requested limited access to its station, such that nearby residents immediately southeast of the station or even patrons to adjacent Tropicana Bowl can't walk to/from MetroLink.
11/13/2006 1:00 PM
There was no Metrolink expansion from the Richmond Heights Police Station to the Galleria Mall when the Richmond Heights police brutality beat down our current Fire Chief Sherman George's wife in a case of false identity and accusations.
Furthermore, I don't think any of the police officers involved were from North St. Louis either, and there were plenty of Richmond Heights officers and mall security officers participating in this spectacle against a little woman that weighs less than 100 pounds.
Richmond Heights police officers have always been racist and they don't want blacks, hispanics, or any people of color at that shopping mall.
There will be many more fights at that shopping mall, the West County shopping mall, and any shopping that is accessible to the youth.
The "time out" generation has gotten on the loose, and they are coming to a mall near you to whipp some azz! Beware, be careful, and don't let your children go to the mall by themselves, unless they can fight. Any parent that doesn't follow this rule will have a child returning home with a royal azzwhipping. Hell, they may even have to install metal detectors at every mall entrance, to prevent a shooting in the future. The shopping mall has way to much open access without security measures, and police better recognize this before an incident occurs. An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure.
Meet me at the Spruill's-it's going down, meet me at the Formula-it's going down, meet me at the Plush-it's going down, and meet me at the mall-it's going down.
This is a sad indictment on our young people and older adults that raised them!!!!!!!!!
11/13/2006 3:58 PM
This is complete bullshit.
First of all, in order to access the Galleria from the Metro one must cross Brentwood Blvd., which is not exactly easy. Second, the Galleria always had mass transit, its called MetroBus for the misinformed. Third, this is a baseless accusation meant to cater to the suburban crowd who is afraid that Mass Transit will allow inner-City blacks to steal their TV's. Or even worse, the blacks might move in to your exclusionary zoned neighborhood! Property values automatically drop and white flight begins again!
In reality, mass transit reduces spatial mismatch, thus gives these lower income individuals access to jobs. They have equal opportunity for the American Dream.
Did they forget that Richmond Heights receives much of its revenue from the sales tax that the Galleria provides? The more shoppers the better, especially when they do not require expensive parking lots!
This is the same anti-density mass transit propaganda we heard when St. Charles voted down Metrolink. It is sad we still hear it today.
Complete sensational bile and I would expect nothing else from the St. Louis Media.
How can we expect to be a great City when we have such an uneducated and completely dishonest Media? Do they possess any scientific research and is there any empirical evidence? What does it say when people actually believe this disinformation? If they bothered to do any research, they would see the empirical benefits that mass transit provides!
11/13/2006 10:07 PM
I was not suprised when seconds into watching the KSDK interview with a RH police officer, that "Metrolink coming to town" would be cited as a reason for the "110% increase in crime" at the Galleria. I wouldn't expect anything less than an ignorant statement such as that one.
Firstly, 110% increase compared to what?
Secondly, it was not like "outside people" could not go to the Galleria before Metrolink. There were (and are) several buses that let off directly across the street from the mall--hell, the old Clayton Bee would drop off passengers in the Famous-Barr parking lot.
And lastly, why the shifting numbers on how many people were involved in fighting? It went from an epic brawl of 100 to 25 to 15 to 9.
This city will continue to shoot itself in the foot if it continues to be reactionary instead of proactive. This city's "racial obsession" and unwillingness to look for anything but the easy answer will be its downfall and why we will continue to deal with these issues of crime, injustice, and lack of progress.
11/14/2006 10:24 AM
TV News: Metrolink Traffic causes Orange Julius Shortage, Movie Tickets also Scarce.
Has anyone asked the retailers at the mall what THEY think of the Metrolink expansion? Has anyone ask I can't imagine that more traffic = less dollars.
What is it with mall politics and race in this town? Anyone else remember the Union Station viasco of a few years ago?
11/14/2006 11:11 AM
Well, I'm a white middle-class professional living in the City, and the last time I went to the Galleria I rode MetroLink. I didn't realize that Richmond Heights didn't want city residents taking MetroLink to spend our money at the Galleria. I had been thinking how great this method would be for my Christmas shopping, but I'll be happy to spend my money elsewhere.
11/14/2006 11:42 AM
*****Conspiracy Theory******
Multiple fights break out across the mall…
Sounds like some ORGANIZED crime.
Could the Westfield mall folks be making a power play?
Like they did to get rid of the aldermen in Sunset Hills that were using eminent domain to make room for a competing mall chain?
Sun Set Hill s has a whole new set of alderman and Westfield bank rolled the anti-eminent domain group that ran the negative campaign against them.
If people don’t go to the Galleria they only have 5 other malls that are owned by Westfield to choose from.
If mall chains where people Westfield would be thugs
11/14/2006 12:16 PM
Since we don't have the option to predict election outcomes - for a while at any rate - permit me to make this prediction:
We're going to hear more about crime at the Galleria now that Metrolink is operational.
Why?
They now have a perfect excuse.
Remember, just because incidents aren't reported in the media doesn't mean they haven't occured. Most would be surprised - if not shocked - at the amount of low level criminal activity that has occured there over the years. However, virtually none of it made the news thanks to the close cooperation between the Galleria and the RH police.
A friend of mine used to work for RH and had plenty of stories that never made the news. The City of RH was too concerned about how the negative publicity would affect people's perception of the city as well as the mall.
Now that RH has a "perfect excuse", I suspect we'll be hearing more.
11/14/2006 3:13 PM
It's not a perfect excuse. It's an act of idiocy and ignorance that will only hurt the Galleria and Richmond Heights and the whole region.
A few years ago, after the do-rag debacle (Union Station and other malls banned do-rags), I was at the Galleria. I saw a girl sitting on a bench wearing a do-rag. Being the busy body that I am, I politely asked the mall cop who was standing idly not six feet from her whether or not I had heard correctly that they had just banned do-rags at the Galleria. He said yes they had. I thanked him and went into a store nearby, shopped, came out, and saw that he was still chatting with someone while the do-rag chick continued to chill on the bench. He apparently never saw her, despite the fact that she was right in front of him. I can only assume that it was because she was white.
11/14/2006 4:56 PM
A Muslim friend of mine was attacked in the Galleria parking garage not long after 9/11, as they tried to pull the hijab off her head. You are completely right that just because incidents aren't reported doesn't mean they haven't happened.
11/14/2006 7:43 PM
Oh, Please! Malls traditionally have higher incidences of auto theft, shoplifting, and other lesser mentioned crimes, because the location is called the mall. Boosting at the mall is a time honored tradition practiced by every American from rich old grannies out siezing excitement to geeky pinheads trying to get that Windows Upgrade past security sans triggering the alarm. High schooler adolecents and the internet preditors who pursue them note malls as the primary territory for scoping sex and scoring drugs. Where else are gay senators and dignitaries from Homeland Security going to finally meet if we close off access to the mall?
Saint Louis Metro Transit has historically provided employees, patrons, and criminals alike with curb-service to these shopping destinations. Racially, the demographic breakdown detractors presented of criminal activity does not consistently support this presumptive racist finger-pointing put forth as an excuse for not promoting public transit service in deference to cleaning the environment, ending suburban sprawl, and lessening traffic from the city to these far flung locales. Bad, very bad!
So, let's not curb public transit. Too many employees and honest, GOD-fearing shoppers with no criminal intent reply on the bus and the train to get anywhere in Saint Louis County, including the Malls. Instead, what say we go forward with the kind of crime prevention and prosecution that makes malls as targets a lot less attractive to these vandalous, ill-mannered little evil-doers, so as to move on with our shopping. You might also want to make these out-of-touch parents a tad bit more accountable for their misbehaving brats who are too commonly allowed to loiter at malls, that unspoken designated babysitting service for the masses of races, creeds, colors, and economic walks of life in America. Please note that all these brats don't use the MetroLink to go to the Galleria. No, some actually use mom's Volvo to ding six or seven parked cars in the Galleria parking garage.
11/15/2006 1:59 PM
I hate to ask this, but did the lawbreakers come to the galleria by way of metrolink?
Metrolink doesn't cause crime at the galleria, people do, but to be able to refute the critics would be nice.
11/16/2006 12:39 PM
The REAL story:
25 Consecutive fights broke out at the Galleria yesterday when 25 white men from Richmond Heights, Brentwood, Ladue and West county took swings at metroUsers in an attempt to prevent crime from making its way from the "inner city" to the sacred sanctuary of the Galleria.
11/20/2006 8:50 AM
Post a Comment
<< Home