On the verge of re-instituting jury trials, the City is back to Phase 1 after two employees, one in the Civil Courts Building and the other in the Carnahan Courthouse, tested positive for the virus.
While the courts take a step back from opening, Governor Parson is trying to do a run-around Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner. He believes that Gardner is not doing enough to combat violent crime, and is trying to get a resolution passed that would allow the Attorney General’s Office to have “concurrent jurisdiction” in homicide cases. In other words, the AG’s Office would essentially take over the prosecution of murder cases in the City.
Ms. Gardner, continuing her successful poor-Kim narrative, claims this is all a political, racist, and sexist plot against her and her reforms.
In all this chaos associated with the 22nd Judicial Circuit, I am reminded of a lesson from Book 1 of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Chaos, he wrote, might be the best possible starting point for anything worthwhile.