ARE THEY ANARCHISTS? Perhaps these prosecutors are letting large swaths of the poor population get killed and failing to convict perpetrators of crimes because they crave disorder.

St. Louis prosecutor Kim Gardner supplies evidence for this. Since Gardner was elected on a progressive platform as the St. Louis circuit attorney in 2016, she has vigorously de-prosecuted misdemeanors and felonies; in 2019, she prosecuted only 1,641 of the 7,045 felony prosecutions the city’s police department sought.

There has been more than 100% turnover in the office, as line prosecutors voted with their feet and left. Gardner is under investigation by the Missouri disciplinary board for misconduct in her role as a prosecutor.

She sued the St. Louis PD for racism, and the case was promptly dismissed. She previously admitted to campaign-finance-law violations.

Her most recent gaffe was virtually inconceivable for a competent prosecutor — when a prosecutor assigned to a homicide case was out on maternity leave, Gardner failed to appoint another one to handle the prosecution, leading to multiple failures to appear for hearings related to the case and the ultimate dismissal of the homicide charges.