By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
A St. Joseph state representative believes work in the special legislative session in Jefferson City will address the problem of violent crime in Missouri, but questions whether leaders properly prepared for the session.
That has been borne out with disagreements emerging between the House and the Senate, both controlled by Republicans.
Representative Bill Falkner agrees with the decision of House leadership to separate the issues being considered in the special session. The Senate had sent the entire package to the House as one bill. House leadership broke up the individual proposals into separate bills.
The House didn’t even take up a proposal Gov. Mike Parson added as the session started, a proposal which would allow the state Attorney General to file charges in St. Louis murder cases, largely seen as an outgrowth of the rift between the governor and St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner.
Falkner says the proposal could backfire on Republicans.
“Sooner or later, someone else is going to be in that position,” Falkner tells St. Joseph Post, adding the legislature needs to think through the proposal to give the Attorney General more power. “You give that position a little bit of power and it may not be what we want down the road. Every municipality has the ability right now to request help from the Attorney General’s office on cases and many do. And so, I think that’s fine.”
The Senate hasn’t given up on the idea. Even though the House didn’t take it up, the Senate attached the proposal as an amendment to a bill establishing a state witness protection program and returned it to the House.
Gov. Parson has been harshly critical of Gardner for filing charges against Mark and Patricia McCloskey who brandished guns as demonstrators marched by their house in a fashionable part of St. Louis on their way to protest at the St. Louis mayor’s house. Parson has stated the couple had a right to protect their property. The incident has taken on national prominence with the couple addressing the Republican National Convention.
That issue aside, there seems to be widespread support for creating a witness protection program and stiffening punishments for adults who encourage juveniles to use firearms to commit crimes or who pass guns along to juveniles to avoid criminal charges. Lawmakers also have lifted the requirement that St. Louis police live within the city limits.
Falkner believes the measure will help Missouri address its growing problem with violent crime.
“Well, I think it’s a start,” Falkner says. “The biggest component in my opinion was the witness protection. I think we need to beef that up to where we get people that when they see something, they’re not afraid to report it.”
The proposal contains no funding and the governor is expected to call for a second special session in conjunction with the upcoming veto session to consider funding the program.
Falkner cautions against getting hopes too high.
“There’s no silver bullet for any of these items, but I think several steps will have to be taken to curb what we’ve got going on,” Falkner says.
Falkner does believe the special session has taken up too much time, needlessly.
He says if the governor’s office and House and Senate leaders had communicated adequately prior to the special session call, it could have gone much smoother. Falkner says he understands Missouri mayors in high-crime cities wanted the governor to act.
“I think he was trying to help them out,” Falkner says. “I just wish there would have been a little bit more communication between all of the entities.”
Falkner says lawmakers wasted too much time, because of it.