Guardians of the status quo – like Missouri’s Republican Attorney General Eric Schmitt, the reactionaries at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and St. Louis Public Safety Director Jimmie Edwards – are doing what they always do when their systems of power are called into question: they are resorting to scare tactics.

In the 1970s, it was “welfare queens” robbing you of your hard-earned money. In 1988, it was Willie Horton lurking around the corner. And, now, it’s the scourge of hardened “criminals” roaming the streets. These headlines sell papers, they win elections, and they concentrate power. If only the headlines weren’t a lie.

We have questions.