It’s no secret by now that over the last few years, a rash of “progressive” prosecutors have been elected to office across the United States. Many times, funded by groups linked to George Soros, a billionaire activist whose Open Society Foundation funds various progressive causes around the world.
Surprise, surprise, it’s been a total disaster for America’s cities. New York, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and many other places have suffered under the thumb of pretenders. A cruel joke, indeed, played on some of the most vulnerable in our society, working-class families, minorities (who these social justice prosecutors claim to care about) and, increasingly, middle-class Americans.
St. Louis, Missouri, which has one the highest per capita murder rates in the United States, fell victim to this scam — and its citizens paid dearly for it. Circuit Attorney, Kim Gardner, whose tenure was plagued with scandal, incompetence, and failure, resigned in May 2023. Gardner was forced to leave after the Missouri Attorney General filed a lawsuit to remove her from office for “failure to prosecute existing cases; failure to file charges brought by police; and failure to confer with and inform victims and their families about the status of cases.” After Gardner resigned in disgrace, the Attorney General’s office was forced to step in and operate the Circuit Attorney’s office.
Missouri Governor, Mike Parson, appointed Gabe Gore to replace Gardner and appears to be turning things around. Gore says his office has prosecuted 45% more cases than his predecessor did in the same six-month period in 2022. Gore has attacked the backlog of cases numbering around 6,700, resolving about 2,500 of them — mostly violent offenses.
Gore made clear that “[t]here’s no type of crime that we are looking the other way on. “We are enforcing the laws. We don’t accept the notion that as a citizen of the city of St. Louis you have to accept a certain amount of property crime, or what people would refer to as petty crime, as a cost of living in the city.” Well, how refreshing. A prosecutor concerned with — prosecuting crime! He’s enforcing the law, and is mindful of the quality of life of his constituents.
Gore, who announced in December that he will seek a full term in 2024, has reportedly hired 24 new attorneys to fill vacant positions (after scores of prosecutors left what a St. Louis judge called Gardner’s “rudderless ship of chaos“). He has secured a partnership with the St. Louis U.S. Attorney’s Office to assist in prosecuting homicide cases. Finally, while Gore inherited 250 homicide cases, his office has resolved 53, even as 37 new homicide cases have come in while in office.
The lesson here is: a prosecutor’s office is a vehicle of state — empowered to prosecute criminal cases made by law enforcement officers, in an effort to uphold the rule of law and deliver justice as prescribed by its dictates. A prosecutor is not a social justice warrior; he is a criminal justice warrior. He is not a political activist; he is an elected fiduciary of the public interest. He is not a tool of unaccountable, ideological forces; he is a servant of the law, without fear or favor.
The people of St. Louis deserve better. Hats off to Gabe Gore. He seems to get it.
John Q. Prosecutor