Ole Joe town is becoming quite the drug haven!

if this was a KNOWN drug house, why did things go so far?

Because what you KNOW and what you can PROVE are very often two different things. Because sometimes, even when you have all you need to PROVE what you KNOW, haste makes waste, and cases get blown. Because sometimes the police will let little fish go hoping to land bigger fish.

Where did this town go wrong? I remember a time when problems like this was unheared of. There are so many question i have about the whole situation, but the main one is why didnt anyone stand up for themselves? Why would all these people "know and see" what was going on but either turn a blind eye or call the police and just cower in thier own homes. Its pitiful to think that no one stood up for thier families and own well being. I am not advocating vigilantism but their are many avenues of approach in these kind of situations and the fact that this town took the cowardly way out hiding behind "we needed to wait because we know what they are doing 'evidnce' but the neighbors knew all along" shame and discust are the only things that come to mind when i think of the bleak future this town has in store for the children of today. If this is the "normal protocol" of the police and comunities I will take my family and raise them in a safe town and its a shame i have lived over 25 of my years in this town. Way to go Saint Joe

Henry - your points are valid but authorities far too often sacrifice ending these type of conditions, that can be PROVEN, over going for the bigger fish. End result, many people suffer during the delays.
Perhaps, it is time for the philosophy to be changed or at least modified. When you have the evidence you need, drop the hammer. My position on this has for a long time been that the "big fish" will surface in either case when the food-chain is forced to shrink.

The stroke of a pen could eliminate it all -

Legalize it, tax it, "manage" it.....

StJoeMoe, I'm down with taxation of marijuana, but that's not the big-fish in this story.

And I'm agreeing with Heritage.

Doc, I think most people understand the concept behind proof and allegations. If this was a KNOWN drug house, would it be hard to instruct every officer to park in front of that house and do their paperwork?

In all Rick Dierenfeldts ignorance, one of the few smart things he ever did was just what I described above.

If he knew a place was a dope house, he would conveniently park his car in front of their house to do his paperwork.

We all see cops parked doing paperwork or something. Why not park in front of a known dope-house and do it?

I'm sorry, I meant to comment on Henry's comment.

But I totally agree with Doc. And as a matter of fact, that's exaclty why the Weed & Seed effort failed. People are afraid of their own shadows.

The reverend that was quoted recently about the W&S effort in Mr. Westons article was spot on. He said, "we're thankfull, the W&S effort did what it was supposed to."

What he didn't say was that you can attribute it's failures to those residents who occupy the area.

Good Grief, get off the Triumph rant already. Yes there has been a rise in illegals since Triumph and I think Triumph should be held accountable for all illegals there, yes statistics say there is a rise in crime here but it is not all illegals and it is not all Mexicans that are the criminals. Who do you think is buying drugs, it is the whites the blacks and everyone else too. Triumph leaving won't make this all go away. I do agree that sometimes you have to take what you catch, big fish or small fish. If there are no small fish left, the big fish will leave or starve to death.

Why get off Triumph? I remember reading about all the jobs they were going to bring to St Joe and how it would help the unemployment. Before they recieved the TIF! I do not remember reading any place where they were going to pay the Mexicans to move to St Joe and take the jobs away from the locals, until after they got their tax breaks!!!!!

One of the big reasons they can take jobs away from local is that there are many, many locals who would rather sit home and collect welfare, someone actually told me one time when discussing why her daughter had quit yet another job that her daughter did better financially when she just stayed home with her kids. As long as the system works this way, this is how it will be. There are also a lot of people in this town looking for positions and not jobs. There are many many lazy, drug addicted, good-for-nothing people already in this town. According to the Chamber of Commerce it is difficult for employers to find hard working, mature individuals who can pass a drug test in this town to fill jobs. All I'm saying is that you can't just blame Triumph and illegals or Mexicans for the problems we are facing today. As long as we try to blame one person or race of people or one company the problems will not be solved. This city is so fast to point fingers and lay blame. There are a lot more people responsible for crime in this city.

I am tired of hearing how lazy the people in st. joe are. number one, triumph may pay decent, but they treat the employess like crap, i wouldn't want to work there either. since triumph has come into town there has been a bigger influx or hispanic speaking people whether legal or illegal, there has also been a bigger influx of people coming up from the kc area doing their drug dealing etc. in st. joe, because they think the law enforcement here are a bunch of hicks. if this was a known drug house, it was known only to whoever made that comment, most people in the neighborhood didn't know, there was no police presence at all. if this was a known drug house, i would think it would have been under observation. obviously this house hadn't caught the attention of the drug strike force.

I completely agree with the Moe. Legalize, tax and regulate pot. In 6 months consumers would have a higher quality product at half the price and the criminal element would be out of the picture. But why stop at pot? If we legalize prostitution we can tax the hookers, get the Health department involved and kick the pimps to the curb. Maybe the pimps can start selling legal dope!! Next up? Mexican Quaaludes and Canadian X! Who cares about illegal aliens either? Don’t deport ‘em. Just tax them!!

I also agree parking a police car in front of a dope house cuts the traffic down, at least as long as the officer is in front of the dope house. The question remains what do we do the other 23 hours and 30 minutes in a day? I completely disagree with apmastrangelo when he suggests if we close up a dope house full of little fishes, the big fishes rise to the surface. The big fishes find new little fishes to set up shop somewhere else while the gendarmes hustle to find the new location. Personally I think our police effort should be toward building a case against the big fish, not chasing little fish around the neighborhood. Unless, that is, we can figure out a way to tax fishing.

Finally, I think it a fair point to make that if there were a pool of ready workers in this town, we wouldn’t be discussing the influx of other folks just trying their best to make a better life. Until, of course, we can we find a way to tax the better life.

deb2007 of course you are tired of hearing how the people in St. Joe are, you, like many others, refuse to accept that there was trouble here (maybe we just didn't hear about it as much, but it was here) and that we have our own problem people. You just want to blame others. You want an easy solution so you say it's Triumph, it's the illegals and the Mexicans. That just goes to show what I said, until the people want to accept their own responsibility and stop blaming others, until we realize we are to blame as well nothing will change. SO what if the illegals are gone and the Mexicans are gone, that still leaves all the lazy, no good, drug addicted Americans living in St. Joe wanting welfare and easy money istead of a job.

whatever. i am not blaming anyone, if i were hispanic, i wouldn't work there either, why because they treat everyone like crap when they get hurt. refuse to pay for anything and have a nurse at the plant play doctor. a friend works in a law firm and handles work comp, believe me they don't care whether you are hispanic or not, however they treat the non english speaking a little worse. guess why. i am not disagreeing there are some people who don't want to work. i didn't say it had anything to do with the illegals etc. if you read my statement i said not only hispanics but people coming up from kc. try and comprehend what you read before you start telling me what i think. and if you read the newspaper, the last several incidents of shootings, car chases etc. have been people out of the kc area. i said with triumph here there is a bigger influx, and as far as the hostage situation, uhmmm, did you read who was involved?

I am no xenophobe. I welcome all legal aliens. I just want every illegal alien kicked out of our country. They are all criminals like it or not.

Illegals and people who drive in the left lane, they're all the same!