☕Morning fam,
All the usual suspects are out in full force in the aftermath of last week’s school shooting, Dems pointing fingers at Republicans even though St. Louis is a Dem run city, the nonprofits and clergy are back, visible because being visible in the aftermath leads to grants. They are all on code, expressing fake outrage at issues stemming from decades of the Dem Party failing the black community throughout the region, black leaders, orgs and clergy failing their own and of SLPS failing black students and their parents.
The first thing the mayor did in the aftermath wasn’t to vow to look into why a disturbed young man would return to a school that failed him and go on a shooting spree or get with other regional leaders who’ve had to cancel classes due to threats to discuss warning signs and how to prevent another school shooting as one would think a mayor that ran on being a single mom of a black son would do, no, it was to blame the Republicans legislature’s response to increase in crime and homicides resulting from defund and soft on crime policies.
Lots of attention being paid to in the aftermath, none of this concern before it got to this point. News reports show police had been called to the troubled youth’s home on several occasions, the last time because his mother wanted the gun later used in the school shooting removed from her home. Police simply gave it to someone legally authorized to have a gun and washed their hands of the issue. We know the rest.
What we don’t know is how long had Orlando Harris’ mother tried to get him treatment. How long is mental illness was a factor? Did any of the schools he attended up until graduation know about his illness? Were warning signs ignored? Simply blaming the Republican legislature will not prevent another school shooting or mass shooting involving young people.
Funding ineffective nonprofits and programs will not prevent another mass shooting. This is not about blame, if it were there’s more than enough of it to go around. This is systemic failure, the school failed to see how troubled he was during his tenure. Police failed to take his mother’s concerns seriously enough to remove the deadly weapon all together. No one is talking about what could have been done different.
We’re seeing the same response we saw at the last mass shooting of young people Christmas Eve 2010. The same response to Ferguson, stunt for the media, politicize the tragedy with nonprofits and clergy lining up for a big payday. More doing the same things expecting a different result.
Doing the same things produces the same, if not worse results.