'We are not in Afghanistan': St. Louis alderman wants National Guard to fight crime

ST. LOUIS — An alderman in St. Louis, fed up with murders and violence in the northern part of the city, wants Missouri Gov. Mike Parson to send in the Missouri National Guard to restore order, KSDK reported.

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"My blood is boiling. I’m not mad, I’m hurt. I’m saddened," Ward 3 Alderman Brandon Bosley told the television station. "This is not normal. We are not in Afghanistan.”

Bosley said an incident Saturday was the tipping point. A man was shot twice in the face after a confrontation in an alley that began when the shooter would not move his car, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

“I’m done waiting,” Bosley told the newspaper. “Before it gets too bad, we need to do something measurable. Extra hands. Extra guns. Guns bigger than the ones on the street.”

Bosley told the Post-Dispatch he and the city board of aldermen's black caucus had been talking for weeks about petitioning Parson. He is hoping the board will pass a resolution to send National Guard troops into the worst neighborhoods of St. Louis to battle crime.

"There is a war going on in this city and it's not white on black. Everybody's talking about a race war. White people are not coming to the black side of town shooting up black people," Bosley told KSDK. "It is black people coming from wherever they come from to shoot up the other black people in the city, and we need help to save ourselves."

Parson could not be reached for comment.

If the governor decides to send in the National Guard, it would not be the first time it has occurred. In 2014, then-Gov. Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency in anticipation of a grand jury announcement regarding the fatal shooting in Ferguson of 18-year-old Michael Brown, the Post-Dispatch reported.

In a statement, St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson did not address Bosley’s plea, but called the shooting tragic.

“Guns are too often used to settle differences,” Krewson said in her statement.

Cox Media Group