During last week’s Board of Police Commissioners meeting, lame duck Mayor Sly James continued to place blame for the city’s soaring homicide rate on the backs of gun owners stating “we won’t have anything on this until the state pulls its head out of its ass.”

This pro-Second Amendment Newsdog will continue to attempt to teach the old-dog mayor new tricks by setting the record straight once again.

While illegal guns continue to be a large issue, the elephant in the room this Newsdog continues to address is the prosecutorial malfeasance from the county prosecutor’s office in effectively using all the legal tools provided by the federal government  in her box to send violent criminals to jail for a very long time.

Now it seems that the state legislature and the Department of Corrections have gotten into the fray by silently enacting new prosecutorial rules regarding the arrest and holding of violent felons in the state of Missouri.

We’re talking specifically about changes to Rule 22.02 that went into effect on July 1, 2019.

The rule covers felonies and the issuance of a summons, the new part, versus the issuance of a warrant, the old way it was done.

See the difference there? Summons versus warrant?

The rule change dictates to law enforcement officers that if a felon poses no risk of violence and promises to appear in court that, according to Rule 33.01e, he/she be entitled to release until their trial date.

The exact verbiage is “any defendant charged with a bailable offense shall be entitled to be released from custody pending trial or other stage of the criminal proceeding.”

The statute blathers on, basically creating the right, not the privilege, mind you, for a defendant to be released on their own recognizance because, well, it’s okay, he promised he wouldn’t hurt anyone and he said he’d show up in court.

He’ll be a good boy.

How many TV news reports have we heard from crying mothers of criminals that “he’s a good boy” or “he didn’t mean to hurt anyone.”

Really.

The Dog is sure these new rules make the victims of one DeAndre Buchanan’s daring and violent crime spree that terrorized the Pendleton Heights and Scarritt neighborhoods during the summer of 2017 feel just dandy knowing that any violent felon with a sob story and a sick mama is going to be released to continue to terrorize law abiding citizens with their family line of work.

The rule changes, covering three sections of Missouri Criminal Code (33.01(e), (b) and (c)) now makes it more difficult for arresting officers and detectives working felony cases to not only make charges stick but also to keep violent felons in jail.

Add this to another new rule stating that the Department of Corrections will not issue detainers for parolees who commit new crimes.

Translation: if a parolee commits a crime, they won’t be jailed unless law enforcement agencies can prove the parolee is a danger to the public. Wait. What? Does anyone other than this Newsdog think this is completely insane?

The Newsdog has also learned that now the top legal eagle in the county requires two “felon in possession of a weapon” convictions before she sends Mr. Bad Guy up the river, instead of the federally mandated single FIP conviction.

It becomes clear very quickly that the problem isn’t guns, it’s a prosecutorial paradigm, or lack thereof, that continues to turn violent criminals loose and a complacent Department of Corrections that rewrites rules making it harder for police officers to make charges stick, hence jailing violent criminals until their trial date.

Here’s a note to the outgoing mayor. We get that you don’t like the Second Amendment and that you think gun owners are the root of the issue. Gotta advance that liberal narrative after all.

The Dog thinks maybe you should go see the county prosecutor about properly prosecuting bad guys and maybe, just maybe, pay a visit to the DOC about their new rule changes.

Then come back and talk to the Dog about how legal gun owners are the bad guys. Go ahead, we’ll wait.