Missouri Democrats sold out Black colleagues by going along with retro crime bill
This, for those of you who’ve been wondering, is what systemic racism looks like: Of the eight Democrats who serve in the Missouri Senate, all five nice liberal white lawmakers negotiated with Republicans and wrestled with their consciences and then, with frowns and heavy hearts, voted for Gov. Mike Parson’s back-to-the-90s, put-them-away-for-life crime bill. You know, because it could have been worse, even though they sure did hate that part about child defendants.
And Missouri’s three Black senators, all of whom are Democrats, too? They also negotiated. They also fought hard to make the bill better — and then voted against this pernicious piece of legislation, which by the way would have done nothing to curb crime. Because they weren’t willing to sacrifice any 14-year-olds.
The Senate bill the white senators supported is dead now, and various pieces of it will be voted on separately in the House, so they’ll get another chance to do the right thing. But how all of this happened in the first place explains a lot, not only about how Jefferson City works but how not-bad people keep making the same not-good mistakes.
State Sen. Lauren Arthur, one of the Democrats who voted “yes” on the Senate bill, said in an interview that “in retrospect, I regret we didn’t have a conversation as a caucus beforehand.” But what was there to discuss, right? Somehow, they all knew exactly what to do.
“There’s a perception that white Democrats abandoned their Black colleagues” when that wasn’t the plan at all, Arthur said. It is what happened, though.
Another Democrat who voted yes, John Rizzo, said, “These are the sort of Sophie’s choices we’re given.” In the William Styron novel “Sophie’s Choice,” a survivor of Auschwitz can never forgive herself for choosing which of her two children to send to the gas chamber. Only, Parson isn’t a Nazi guard, and unlike poor, doomed Sophie, Rizzo and his colleagues had the option of choosing not to surrender any children.
Rizzo said one thing that convinced him to go along was the argument from the governor’s office that a juvenile who gets a hearing on whether to be tried as an adult can then get the help he needs. “I’m not taking up for them,” he said of the governor’s negotiators, “but they feel like with a hearing, they can find out mitigating factors. That was one of the justifications.” Justification is right; could anyone believe that’s how it would really work?
And just how did the governor reward Rizzo’s cooperation? By announcing on Monday that the package he and the others had just voted for could and would be made even worse.
In case anyone still held out hope that this whole cynical exercise was about something other than exploiting racial animus in an election year, Parson removed all doubt with a new proposal, which is aimed solely at Kim Gardner, St. Louis’ first Black circuit attorney.
“I want to be clear,” Parson said. “This is not about taking away authority.” Translation: This is all about taking away authority.
He wants to allow the state attorney general’s office to prosecute murder cases in St. Louis, though not in Kansas City or Springfield, where the homicide rate has also been getting progressively worse ever since Missouri’s Republican lawmakers relaxed the state’s gun laws in 2007, 2014 and 2016.
Our county prosecutor shouldn’t be sidelined either, mind you, but as former U.S. Senator (and former Jackson County prosecutor) Claire McCaskill asked in a tweet, “Why just St Louis City? Why not all the small county prosecutors who have no experience in homicides? Why not Jackson County that also has record homicides? Racist BS.“
Why yes, it is.
As is adding to the list of violent crimes for which teens 14 and up can be certified as adults. Why aren’t we looking at ways to save kids instead of looking for more ways to throw them away?
During the House debate on Monday, Democratic state Rep. Ian Mackey noted that Black boys are 10 times more likely to be tried as adults than their white counterparts. Which makes you wonder how much Black lives really do matter.
“Every Democratic senator fought against that provision,” said Arthur, who now seems to feel just as betrayed by the governor as Black Democrats were by their white colleagues. “It feels like the governor was negotiating in bad faith.”
After Parson’s announcement, Rizzo texted his contact in the governor’s office and said he couldn’t believe this was happening, when he’d thought they had a deal. The answer he got back, Rizzo said, was, “The governor called an audible. Basically, the governor changed his mind.”
Still, the Democrats had been able to get some concessions, Arthur said, such as making sure teen convicts were not incarcerated with adult convicts. And there were good things in the bill, she said, “including our Kansas City mayor’s top priority,” money for witness protection. Rizzo also mentioned that aspect of the bill: “When the mayors of St. Louis and Kansas City are telling you, ‘We need the witness protection part,’ if you vote no, then you’re voting no on that.”
Actually, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas does not see it that way. In an interview, he said sometimes he is seen as too willing to work with Republicans, too, but “at least I haven’t tried to throw more 14-year-olds in jail.” The Senate bill, he said, combined “some provisions that will do nothing and others that are sad and a real threat. It has witness protection language I like, but when I saw the child defendant thing, I told my staff, ‘I will not be testifying on the bill.’ ‘’ (A lobbyist for the city did testify in favor of the bill, though, and spoke on witness protection funding.)
Even from a strictly political perspective, the mayor said, he doesn’t understand why white Democrats all voted for Parson’s bill: “Jill Schupp is running for Congress, but the others aren’t.” Schupp, who is running against the incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Ann Wagner, put out a news release touting her bipartisanship in voting as she did. Democratic state Sens. Gina Walsh and Scott Sifton also voted for the bill.
Asked if he regrets his vote now, Rizzo said though “the optics of it were very poor, everybody voted their district.”
Either way they’d decided, he said, “you’re going to get beat up for one thing or another thing.” Which is an excellent reason to vote your conscience.
“The bill is far from over,” Rizzo said. Which means Missouri lawmakers still have a chance to reject any legislation that would, as Lucas says, throw more 14-year-olds in jail.
This story was originally published August 12, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
