The View From The Cheap Seats
By Jerry Haferkamp
It is seldom that an opportunity arises that there is any reason to compliment the St. Peters Journal. They never, ever report on misdoings in the St. Charles city administration. I don’t recall any questioning about who is responsible for dumping thousands of dollars of taxpayer money (in the form of new trash containers) into the weeds. No mention at all of York hosting a dinner at taxpayer expense that assisted a pal in equipping her new restaurant. There is no mention at all of the millions that are spent to subsidize businesses in a twelve block area on South Main and virtually nothing in comparison spent on the rest of the business in our city. After all, the Journal probably considers that all that is O.K. since York got 55 percent of the vote. Isn’t that a “mandate” to abuse the taxpayers if she wishes?
Ahh, but I digress. There is reason to compliment Steve Pokin on his series on the subject of Internet harassment He should be at a paper where news is the issue, not ads. However, as a result of his columns several area cities are enacting ordinances against such activity. But there’s the rub.
I’m sure that the ACLU will be on that like stink on doggy doo. You know they will claim that under the free speech provision of our Constitution, morons are allowed to harass on the Internet, no matter who is harmed.
There is also the question of how many additional law enforcement personnel will be needed to investigate these acts. There would be at least five or six needed to investigate all the harassment on the infamous Stchuckwatch site alone. For the first time in about six months, I accessed the site the other day. I can only tolerate a small amount of stupidity per year, so I enter the site rarely. There they were, anonymous individuals still harassing anyone who fails to bow to their Queen. Harassment in the past was aimed at Mark Brown, John Gieseke, Dottie Greer, Tim Swope, Ron Lloyd and, of course, the First Capitol News and Tony Brockmeyer.
Yes, the factually challenged are still at it, even though the elections are over and the product they purchased was re-anointed. The harassment of the FCN continues in the form of promoting the harassment of business that advertise there. The harassment of Gieseke and Brown continues partly because the council hired an attorney who was later charged with sexually connected crimes. I’m pretty sure neither Brown nor Gieseke spent time peeking into this attorney’s bedroom window, and had no knowledge of his alleged crimes. Oh, and he was hired by the entire council, not just Brown and Gieseke.
If St. Charles passes such an ordinance, will there be an investigation of the continuing harassment on this site? I doubt it as long as Chief York continues to run the police department.
I owe an apology to Jack Banas. With all that is going on, he really doesn’t have time to prosecute the people that attempted to void your vote through fraud. Sorry folks, your Constitutional right to elect and retain your public officials is no longer guaranteed. Not in St. Charles County anyway.
Of course, that’s just the view from the cheap seats.
