Local News

St. Charles Couple’s Gay Pride Flag Is Torn Down and Torched | St. Louis Metro News | St. Louis

Published

2 years ago

October 10, 2023

[ad_1]

click to enlarge COURTESY ALEX PEARSON-POTTS Alex and Kelly Pearson-Potts flew this flag on their porch in solidarity with LGBTQ neighbors. Alex and Kelly Pearson-Potts first put up a gay pride flag at their home in St. Charles during Pride month. But when what Alex calls “drama” broke out surrounding the St. Charles County Library, with an angry group haranguing the library board over a local librarian’s choice to wear both makeup and goatee, they put it back up and kept it up. The flag hung proudly from their porch — until this past weekend.On Saturday, October 7, they got an early morning text from a neighbor: “Did you take your Pride flag down?” It was then that Kelly discovered a serious act of vandalism: someone had ripped the flag off the flagpole and left it wadded it up on their porch. Once it was unfurled after police arrived, she says, it became clear that someone had set it on fire. There was a gaping, charred hole in its center. And both it and their porch were smeared with ketchup. click to enlarge COURTESY ALEX PEARSON-POTTS The couple’s flag pole was bent by the act of the flag being ripped off. The couple say they find the act heartbreaking — and that they believe it’s a hate crime.”The ketchup smeared all over the flag and then all over the boards of our porch — the only way to interpret it is that it’s supposed to be blood,” says Alex. “For somebody to be willing to go that far is pretty shocking.”St. Charles Police confirm that a report was taken on the morning on October 7 but have declined other comment at this time. Still, the Pearson-Pottses say the police response was reassuring. They say the officer who visited not only took their DNA samples (presumably so he could exclude their DNA from any subsequent matches) but asked multiple neighbors for any surveillance footage that showed the couple’s porch.Before the incident, the Pearson-Potts home didn’t have any cameras, but the couple says they’ve now put them up. They can’t help but feel a bit freaked out that someone walked through their garden while they were sleeping, much less torched a flag in a place that was likely perilously close to the decorative hay bales on their porch. click to enlarge COURTESY OF ALEX PEARSON-POTTS The flag was left crumpled on the porch, but it later became clear it had been burnt. “I love to garden,” Kelly notes. “But when I did it this weekend, I had Alex sit out on the porch. It’s a lot of hate and a lot of energy that went into this.”Even so, they want to keep the focus not on what happened to them but on the friends and neighbors they were seeking to support in the first place. They note that they are not themselves part of the LGBTQ community — they just want to support people who are, a group that includes several neighbors. “For us, it was kind of important for people to walk or drive around their neighborhood and know that people out there are supportive of them,” says Alex. And now, he says, what happened to their flag points to the hatred LGBTQ people face in St. Charles, in St. Louis and in America. “Look at what this community has to deal with on a daily basis,” he says. “That anybody would have that much hate for somebody else — it’s really disappointing.”But the incident has the couple unbowed with their sign of support. Their new flag is coming this Wednesday. “We’re upping our flag game,” Alex promises. “That’s how we roll. We will make our stance very well known.”
Subscribe to Riverfront Times newsletters.Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed

[ad_2]

Source link

Local News

Fenton Man Charged in Sword Attack on Roommate

Published

1 year ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

[ad_1]

A warrant is out for a Fenton man’s arrest after he allegedly attacked his roommate with a sword.

Police say that on Sunday, Angelus Scott spoke openly about “slicing his roommate’s head” before he grabbed a sword, raised it up and then swung it down at the roommate.

The roommate grabbed Scott’s hand in time to prevent injury. When police arrived at the scene, they found the weapon used in the assault.

The sword in question was a katana, which is a Japanese sword recognizable for its curved blade.

This isn’t the first time a samurai-style sword has been used to violent effect in St. Louis. In 2018, a man hearing voices slaughtered his ex-boyfriend with a samurai sword. His mother said he suffered from schizoaffective disorder.

As for Scott, 35, the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office was charged yesterday with two felonies, assault first degree and armed criminal action. The warrant for his arrest says he is to be held on $200,000 bond.

[ad_2]

Source link

Local News

Caught on Video, Sheriff Says He’s Ready to ‘Turn It All Over’ to Deputy

Published

1 year ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

[ad_1]

Video of St. Louis Sheriff Vernon Betts taken by a former deputy suggests that the sheriff has a successor in mind to hand the reins of the department over to, even as Betts is in an increasingly heated campaign for reelection.

“I ain’t here for all this rigmarole,” Betts says in the video while seated behind his desk at the Carnahan Courthouse. “The Lord sent me here to turn this department around and I’m doing the best I can and I think I’ve done a good job. I’ve got about eight months and I’m going to qualify for my fourth pension.”

He goes on, “Right now I can walk up out of here and live happily ever after and forget about all this…and live like a king.”

The sheriff then says his wife has been in Atlanta looking at houses and that the other deputy in the room, Donald Hawkins, is someone Betts has been training “to turn it all over to him.”

Asked about the video, Betts tells the RFT, “My future plans are to win reelection on August 6th by a wide margin and to continue my mission as the top elected law enforcement official to make St. Louis safer and stronger. Serving the people of St. Louis with integrity, honor and professional law enforcement qualifications is a sacred responsibility, and I intend to complete that mission.”

The video of Betts was taken by Barbara Chavers, who retired from the sheriff’s office in 2016 after 24 years of service. Chavers now works security at Schnucks at Grand and Gravois. Betts’ brother Howard works security there, too.

Chavers tells the RFT that she was summoned to Betts’ office last week after Betts’ brother made the sheriff aware that she was supporting Montgomery. It was no secret: Chavers had filmed a Facebook live video in which she said she was supporting Betts’ opponent Alfred Montgomery in the election this fall. “Make the judges safe,” she says in the video, standing in front of a large Montgomery sign on Gravois Avenue. “They need a sheriff who is going to make their courtrooms safe.”

In his office, even as Chavers made clear she was filming him, Betts told Chavers he was “flabbergasted” and “stunned” she was supporting Montgomery.

“I don’t know what I did that would make you go against the preacher man,” he says, referring to himself. He then refers to Montgomery as “ungodly.”

Betts goes on to say that not long ago, he was walking in his neighborhood on St. Louis Avenue near 20th Street when suddenly Montgomery pulled up in his car and, according to Betts, shouted, “You motherfucker, you this, you that. You’re taking my signs down.”

Montgomery tells the RFT that he’s never interacted with Betts outside of candidate forums and neighborhood meetings.

“I don’t think anyone with good sense would do something like that to a sitting sheriff,” Montgomery says.

Montgomery has had campaign signs missing and on at least two occasions has obtained video of people tearing them down. (Chavers notes that the sign that she filmed her original Facebook video in front of is itself now missing.)

One man who lives near Columbus Square says that he recently put out two Montgomery signs, which later went missing. “If they keep taking them, I’ll keep putting them up,” he said.

Betts says he has nothing to do with the missing signs. In the video Chavers filmed in Betts’ office, Betts says that his campaign isn’t in a spot where it needs to resort to tearing down opponents’ signs.

“If you sit here long enough, a man is getting ready to come across the street from City Hall bringing me $500, today,” Betts says. “I’m getting that kind of support. I don’t need to tear down signs.”

[ad_2]

Source link

Local News

St. Louis to Develop First Citywide Transportation Plan in Decades

Published

1 year ago

May 21, 2024

Natural Bridge

[ad_1]

The City of St. Louis is working to develop its first citywide mobility plan in decades, Mayor Tishaura Jones’ office announced Tuesday. This plan seeks to make it easier for everyone — drivers, pedestrians, bikers and public transit users — to safely commute within the city.

The plan will bring together other city projects like the Brickline Greenway, Future64, the MetroLink Green Line, and more, “while establishing new priorities for a safer, more efficient and better-maintained transportation network across the City,” according to the release.

The key elements in the plan will be public engagement, the development of a safety action plan, future infrastructure priorities and transportation network mapping, according to Jones’ office.

The overarching goals are to create a vision for citywide mobility, plan a mixture of short and long-term mobility projects and to develop improved communication tools with the public to receive transportation updates. In recent years, both people who use public transit and cyclists have been outspoken about the difficulties — and dangers — of navigating St. Louis streets, citing both cuts to public transit and traffic violence.

To garner public input and participation for the plan, Jones’ office said there will be community meetings, focus groups and a survey for residents to share their concerns. The city will also be establishing a Community Advisory Committee. Those interested in learning more should check out at tmp-stl.com/

“Everyone deserves to feel safe when getting around St. Louis, whether they’re driving, biking, walking or taking public transit,” Jones said in a news release. “Creating a comprehensive transportation and mobility plan allows us to make intentional and strategic investments so that moving around St. Louis for jobs, education, and entertainment becomes easier, safer and more enjoyable.”

[ad_2]

Source link