St. Louis County Prosecutor Running Unopposed, But Dem Candidate for County Executive May Lose Because of Him, Maybe

In August, the police killing
of Michael
Brown in Ferguson, Mo. led to days of protests over police
brutality and the lack of information and communication about the
Brown killing. The St. Louis county government sent in county and
other local law enforcement agencies, often the militarized
variety, leading to even more protests.

October was supposed to be another month of protest. It had
mixed results. Today, voters in St. Louis county go to vote for,
among other positions, county officials. The county executive,
Charlie Dooley, a Democrat, isn’t up for re-election. The Democrat
vying to replace him, Steve Stenger, was
supposed to be a shoe-in.

But Stenger won his primary largely with the help of Bob
McCulloch, the St. Louis county prosecutor, also a Democrat. While
McCulloch, also a Democrat, is running unopposed he’s become a
lightning rod for criticism of the cosy relationship cops have with
the prosecutors who are charged with deciding whether they’ve
committed a crime. One of McCulloch’s
first cases when he came into office in 1991 involved defending
cops who shot two unarmed men during an ill-advised drug sting. For
McCulloch the killing was OK because the victims were “bums.”
McCulloch declined to recuse himself from the Darren Wilson case
but his objectivity has been called into questioning, threatening
not just justice for Michael Brown but for Darren Wilson too.

McCulloch’s anti-civil liberties mentality didn’t stop the
Democrat from getting re-elected five times. While there may not be
that much of a difference between a one-party system and a
two-party system, the lack of any choice to register opposition to
McCulloch at the ballot is troubling. In the county executive race,
the Republican candidate Rick Stream, a state legislator is
tackling the racial divide in St. Louis head on, an also supports
appointing special prosecutors for police shootings. Another

Republican state legislator is proposing a bill that would
permanently take the decision whether to prosecute cops out of the
hands of the local prosecutors they work with. There’s also a civil
rights activist running for county executive as a
write-in. Ferguson, by the way, which is two-thirds black, has
a majority white, Republican elected leadership. Nobody votes
because it doesn’t matter.

Follow Reason 24/7 tonight for results of the St. Louis
executive race as well as the congressional race involving
incumbent Democrat
Lacy Clay, whose district includes Ferguson and who has
supported and continues to support the militarization of local
police.