Earlier this month, the Missouri attorney general’s office secured first-degree murder convictions for Eric Lawson, who murdered his ex-girlfriend, her mother, and his 10-month-old infant son. He shot and killed Breiana Ray, who was 22 years old, and her mother, Gwendolyn Ray, who was 50, and then set fire to the apartment, locking the door behind him and killing by smoke and fire his son, Aiden.
In close cooperation with law enforcement, we were able to bring Lawson to justice and ensure that he paid for the brutal and violent acts that robbed three people of their lives and ripped them out of the lives of their loved ones.
What sadly gets lost in the discussions of criminal justice reform are victims such as Breiana, Gwendolyn, and baby Aiden.
Last year, in the city of St. Louis, we saw a 50-year high for murders: 262 people were murdered in the city. The vast majority, more than 90%, of those who were murdered were black. Seventeen children under the age of 17 were killed. This year, through the end of April, St. Louis has seen 69 homicides, putting the city on track to shatter last year’s record-setting numbers.
If the city of St. Louis were a country, we would have the highest homicide rate per capita of any other country in the world. A review of government homicide data reveals that the city of St. Louis has a higher murder rate than Honduras, El Salvador, South Africa, Venezuela, and Mexico. In fact, homicides in the city of St. Louis are 17 times greater per capita than those of the United States as a whole.
Where are the outrage and the calls for justice for those victims and their families? After all, they weren’t just statistics, numbers on a crime dashboard; they were real human beings with families, friends, and loved ones.
Instead of outrage for the forgotten victims of violence, we hear repeated calls to defund the police, a move that would undoubtedly embolden the dangerous criminal element that plagues our cities. Is this really the solution? To put fewer brave men and women on our streets to protect our lives and our property? To decrease the number of law enforcement who can investigate and help prosecute those who have cut short the lives of our fellow human beings? To expend human lives on an experiment that may not work?
Defunding the police may sound good in a campaign ad and be popular among criminals hoping to take advantage of the lessened police presence, but it will have real, grave consequences. Defunding the police will affect real people and their families and will likely have a long-lasting, negative impact on the economy and growth of the St. Louis region and the entire state of Missouri.
It’s an idea that should have been discarded on the editing room floor. And while some say that it is just a saying and that it doesn’t really mean actually defunding the police, we should take those who use the phrase at their word. By saying “defund the police,” they really do mean defunding the police.
For example, in St. Louis, the budget proposed by the mayor strips $4 million from the Police Department budget and eliminates almost 100 police officer positions. This move was celebrated by Missouri Democratic Rep. Cori Bush, who said, “Today’s decision to defund the St. Louis Police Department is historic. It marks a new future for our city.”
Unfortunately, the “new future for our city” will mean more death, violence, and destruction.
And on the other side of the state, in Kansas City, where there were a record number of murders in 2020, the mayor and County Council last week approved taking over $40 million directly out of the Police Department and putting it toward social workers and community outreach.
This isn’t a “refocus of resources”; it is defunding the police. So, defunding the police is no longer rhetoric or a campaign slogan. It has actually happened, right here in the heartland. Missourians who have borne the brunt of vicious violence year after year will have no reprieve.
There is no doubt we can do more to provide more educational and job opportunities and foster an environment in which community and family are the center, not greed, anger, and addiction. We should work together to find innovative solutions to these issues so that we are lifting up our communities and shaping a better future for our children and generations to come.
However, there are also very real crimes that we rely on our law enforcement to solve day in and day out. We rely on our law enforcement to keep our communities safe from those intent on doing harm to others, protect our children from violence, shield victims of domestic violence, and seek justice for those who have fallen victim to violence.
As I travel around Missouri, I have enjoyed the great privilege of meeting many of our brave men and women who every day put their own lives on the line to protect and serve each of us. I’ve presented my office’s “Back the Blue” award for acts of valor, deeds of kindness, commitment to community, and, tragically, final acts of bravery as some gave the ultimate sacrifice.
In the conversations that I have with law enforcement, I hear about the challenges of the job. There is the need for more resources for robust training and the time to conduct the training. Given the extraordinary stress officers are under on a daily basis, they need more attention paid to and funding for mental health treatment. And they need more funding, not less, to retain and recruit more men and women at a time where they are denounced, maligned, and targeted themselves for violent actions.
We are at a crossroads. Many are leaving the noble profession of law enforcement. Many who would have signed up are simply deciding to do something else. Now is not the time to defund those who serve and protect. We should emphatically reject the dangerous experiment of defunding the police. We need more of these brave men and women protecting and serving our communities to keep them safe so that all of us, regardless of ZIP code, can pursue our dreams, our happiness, and the American way of life.
Eric Schmitt is the attorney general of Missouri.
