☕ Morning fam,
Just weeks after watching Lewis Reed, former President of the Board of Aldermen, Ald Jeffrey Boyd and protester tuned Alderman John Muhammad report to federal prison, Black St. Louis once again finds itself in the midst of another national embarrassment after Kim Gardner’s incompetence is one again put on display, this time resulting in a young visitor from out of town here to attend a volleyball tournament loses her legs after being run over by a criminal out on bond that violated house arrest over 100 times.
And it gets worse. Kim Gardner did what she does, lying to cover her ass and releasing one of the worse political statements since Nixon’s “I’m not a crook” in response to local and national criticism prompting demands for her resignation and an ultimatum from the MO Attorney General, resign by noon today or face removal.
And so ends the progressive movement in St. Louis after years of failure and squandered opportunity. Exactly how I #toldja it would end. The progressive movement from the Mayor Jones to BOA President Megan Green to state Rep Rasheen Aldridge were just as slow in their response, mistakenly thinking Kim’s latest kerfuffle resulting in harm was business as usual and they could ignore public sentiment until business leaders started breaking ranks.
In their greatest test, in a time that demanded courage they failed miserably issuing strongly worded statements that stopped short of calling for Gardner’s resignation showing their inability to police their own. This months after refusing to demand the resignations of Reed, Boyd & Muhammad after their federal indictments. Instead the mayor solicited prayers for their family.
Green, Reed’s replacement in one of her first acts oversaw the board, still under federal investigation with more indictments to come vote to double their salaries.
State rep Aldridge, their hand picked successor to Bruce Franks (who resigned in scandal) and a failure in his own right that sabotaged/misled the protest movement sought to distance himself from Gardner. You may remember Aldridge sabotaged the #ResignLyda movement by misdirecting the movement to support Gardner going after the McCloskeys turning them into martyrs and political props used to solicit campaign donations.
Kim Gardner is done. The progressive movement is done. There’s been a shift. This time is different and now the spotlight is on progressives and other Dem leaders from Cori Bush down that vouched for Gardner.
The movement is done, shitting away what little credibility they had post Ferguson on supporting Gardner over victims.
No tears.
