A sad solution in North St. Louis

Today, Jake Wagman at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that an alderman from the City's north side, Quincy Troupe, is actively encouraging law-abiding residents to buy guns and learn to use them to defend themselves since he no longer has confidence that the police department can or will protect citizens of his ward.

In the car this afternoon/evening, I heard Mark Reardon interviewing Troupe on KMOX.  Troupe seems fed up with the violence in his ward.  And who can blame him.  The Post reported that there were nine homicides there in the first ten months of the year.

But Troupe seemed more frustrated with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department's response to the rampant violence.  Response times for reported crimes are so slow that the department is becoming irrelevant in Troupe's ward.  Some constituents, he claimed, aren't even calling the police anymore to report crimes because doing so would do no good.

If the police can't - or won't - defend you or your family, what is a responsible person to do?  There is only one answer and it is clear - do the job yourself.

The solution is sad, but Quincy Troupe can't think of another one.  Unfortunately, neither can I.