I want to tell you about a man you’ve never heard of outside of a news story last week, who died anonymously for unknown reasons less than a block from the center of our city’s government. My coworkers and I never knew the name his mother named him, but his nickname around City Hall was Blanket, because regardless of the weather or heat, he always had a dirty white blanket draped over his head. The Reverand Larry Rice informed the Post-Dispatch that his nickname was Rabbit. I remember him well. He was one of the dozens of drug addicts and homeless/unhoused people who congregated in the open air drug market first in Poelker Park, across from City Hall, then on the grounds of City Hall, and then on the steps of the old Criminal Courts further west. He was shot and mortally wounded for unknown reasons last week, and then his assailant was shot dead by a police officer who responded to the scene moments later.

Rabbit’s real name was Sharone Spates and he had a family, and a story of how he ended up on the sidewalks outside of the seat of power in our troubled city. But I’m afraid he is now just relegated to a statistic. The City’s solution is to put up fences all around the parks where these encampments pop up, but of course that just pushes people to a new location. If you look up “reactionary” in the dictionary, you might see “City of St. Louis” in the definition. But hey, maybe they’re on to something–we should just fence in everywhere in St. Louis and we’ll eliminate crime!