ST. LOUIS, Missouri — Supporters of St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner held a town hall event on Saturday morning at the city's historic Central Baptist Church.
After a few young speakers addressed the crowd of 50 or 60 people, Gardner approached the stage and began to address a number of controversies involving her office.
5 On Your Side appeared to be the only media outlet in the room when she started rattling off her unbridled frustrations against the governor, attorney general, Missouri Republicans, judges in the 22nd Judicial Circuit, the St. Louis police department, members of her own staff, the media, and systemic racism and prejudices in the criminal justice system.
Below is an unedited transcript of her entire remarks.
Kim Gardner: I'm going to change things up right now, and I thank the panel for being here. But I just want to say something. I just want to say I really appreciate you coming here and being a part of this, because this is very important.
And why I'm changing this up is because, you know, we have people here who want to silence me, right? They want to capture every word I'm saying so they can use this as a soundbite for criminal contempt or a vehicle to try to take me out of office.
So I'm going to be brief, but I'm going to say this: we have these young people here that I'm looking at. And I just heard Farrakhan [Shegog, a young activist who addressed the crowd]. And he inspired me to get up.
And why I got up is because when you do the right things in life, right? When you go to school, you try to be a productive citizen, you go into law school, then you end up working for the circuit attorney's office and seeing the poverty, seeing the injustice, seeing the issues inside those courtrooms. And you see when a judge sentence anyone to any amount of time, they ask them, 'What's your last employment history?' Most people have little to none. 'What is the last grade you completed in school?' Most people have dropped out before the fifth grade. They ask you, 'What's your health issues?' Or, 'You have any medicine you're taking?' So you can appreciate or understand the proceeding.
And what we're focusing on is we're focusing on me. But I want you to focus on each and every one of you, regardless if you live in the city, the county, you live across the waters in Illinois, you live in any other jurisdiction.
What you're seeing is a witch hunt. And when I talk about a witch hunt, what they want you to believe, it's about a case. It's not about a case. What it was about, it was December 18th. That's the day my father died.
And before I was elected, I had a meeting with the police union, and they told me, 'We will let you be in this office if you make sure you never hold any police officer accountable. We'll let you have that next election and make sure no one runs against you if you make sure no one is held accountable who is considered law enforcement.' And I politely said... And I'm not going to tell you what I really said.
But I got up, and I said I would never go into this position and not do the right thing. And what I'm saying is, I'm not saying that everything that happens in his office is somehow not my fault or I'm unaccountable. And what they want you to say, I'm not a leader. I'm more than a leader. I've been leading a organization that has been purposely disinvested from day one. I've been leading an organization that people have colluded and conspired, inside the office and out, to make sure we're not successful. And I've still kept it going for over seven years and done our job.
But what they want you to think [is] it's about this case. What it's about is justice for all. What is it about? Is individuals who look like me, how we're criminalized in the system that we call the criminal justice system, and we are the victim and the perpetrator. And guess what? We have no rights to equal justice under the law.
And what they want you to believe is as the first African-American prosecutor, that I don't believe in crime when I live every day in north city and I see crime in my own family. I've been abused by the system myself. But they want you to believe that somehow I'm different because all the education I got, and I'm in... I don't have the experience and the leadership skills to run this office. But what... You can't run a (sic) office that you have people, inside and out, purposely tearing this office down.
And I'm not going to... And Im'ma tell you: I'm not leaving. I'm not resigning. I'm not doing nothing. You gonn' have to remove me. And I don't care if I have...
And it is funny how we talk about history, right? We talk about let's go back to Freeman Bosley Junior, the first African-American mayor of the city of St Louis, and how they had the body counts on the Post-Dispatch paper every day. The same thing is being done to me all of a sudden. How many cases we have, and how many people we have. We ain't never had enough people in this office. And for you to think that somehow it has gotten better? When you have a purpose agenda to attack the very individuals who work every day? And then you say I'm not protecting them? It's funny, ain't it?
It's funny how we're seeing how individuals can stretch the law to whatever they imagine it to be. And you want people to participate in this process as victims and say it's fair? Come on now.
The attorney general right now -- the unelected attorney general -- has a report every year: one in three African-Americans are stopped more than any other person in the state of Missouri. Not just in the city of Saint Louis. Over 80% of the arrests are African-Americans. And we have a relatively 47, 46% split of diversity in our community in the city of Saint Louis alone. Do you think that's purposeful or it's just black people committing crime?
I've been criminalized every day because of my black skin, because I'm Black. There's no mistake about it. I live a Black life. I live a Black experience. And I'm about the people, all people, not just Black people. Because when we talk about victims of crime, it's all of us.
You have people who purposely, when I was a state legislator, said, 'Everyone has access to a gun, and I'm gonna give your a self defense claim,' and they have the nerve to have you think they care about crime in the city of Saint Louis? When they say they want to protect the rights of a 12-year-old to have an AK-47 and y'all sitting and listening to what they're saying?
Audience member: Tell the truth.
Kim Gardner: The truth is silence is compliance. The truth is we have people who look like me in these positions of power who sit there and want to see the show, and want to sit there and say, 'Well, we... We don't know what's going on. What's going on? I've never had a fair shake. If you think I was given a fair shake in his office... And I'm not... It's not about me. It's not about me. It's about the people of the city of Saint Louis. Because I am you and you am me.
And I fight so hard because the people who elected me told me, 'Do not do things the same way. Do not look at cases the same way. Do not make up evidence and put it on people because I'm trying to make a statistic.' We more than a statistic. We more than a number.
But what I want to say is, you know, for the young people... I know that's why I wanted to come before the panel, because I want the young people to be inspired. But what I don't want them to think is...
You're seeing someone weaponize the law against someone who has a law license, right? And a title. I'm not saying my title means anything. It doesn't. It's a title. But, and you see someone weaponize the law in this way against me. What is an everyday person face going through the criminal justice system?
Audience: (Applause).
Kim Gardner: What is John Doe and Jane Doe face when they in the wrong place at the wrong time and all of a sudden, you know, the description coming in from the police department is, 'Black male or Black female, 18 to 47, white T-shirt.' And actually, that's a real description. That's not me making that up. That's a real description that I've seen when I was an assistant circuit attorney. And I said, 'Get out of here. We're not doing that.'
But see, when you do the right thing and you stand in the face of power, and you say, 'I'm going to do the right thing even when a pressure tells you to conform.' Because all I had to do in that meeting before I took office was say, 'Yes, boss, I'll do my job. And like a good...
Audience member: Good slave.
Kim Gardner: Good circuit attorney. Because if you think that office wasn't controlled by the police department, they came in there and told you what to do, how to do it, who to charge, what to charge, and what to make the case. And I said, 'we're not doing that today.' And I lost a lot of attorneys because they are afraid of standing up for what's right.
And Im'ma say this: when you talk about a rudderless ship... When I heard that term, the 'rudderless ship.' Well, when you have no foundation based on anything, what are you talking about? The criminal justice system is doing what it's always designed to do it. And we're trying to change the Titanic of a ship to be fair and just, because I don't want any more Lamar Johnson's. And you think Lamar Johnson is the only one? Come on now. Come on now.
But what they want me to do is to make it look like this job is easy. This job is not easy. But as a prosecutor, you represent the people. When you can't make the case, you can't make the case. When you... When evidence falls apart... Because the police, of course, you know, the police bring all the evidence to us. We get it all on the right time. That's not true.
When things fall apart and things turn out the wrong way, we have to say, 'We can't go forward.' And people don't like that. We can't make things fit. That's not what justice is about. And that's what a prosecutor... Our job is to pursue justice, not merely convictions. That is in the oath in the Constitution we take. This is not a progressive label. This is not a law and order label. This is a prosecutor's job: to pursue justice, not merely convictions.
So Im'ma close with this: in spite of what was happening to me, right? I want you to know: If they can do this in the way they're doing it, if they can report this in the way they report this... Look at these young people. When they ride in the car and they get stopped. What happens? Let's be real. What happens? Everybody gets an arrest that day, don't they? Everybody gets pulled out the car and searched? And everybody has some kind of arrest. You don't think that arrest affects those young people? We ain't talking about a conviction. I'm talking about the arrest. The arrest. And what's happening today? I have a law license. I have a nursing license. I'm a funeral director. What they're doing is they want to make sure they ruin me, so this is the night ride so each and every one of y'all see.
Never run for office, never be in this position and do the right thing, because they'll take you out like Kim Gardner. But guess what? Can't take me out. Can't take me out. Because I'm not afraid of none of this. But I'm afraid of people on the outside who really think... Like I said, they want me to be crying and fearful. I can't. I'm not fearful of lies. I'm not fearful of stretching the law to fit. What I'm fearful [of] is that you don't remember. And please remember this. Regardless of the outcome of me, remember this: stand up. Fight. Because whoever have his office, I'm gonna tell you, they gonna tell 'em what to do. They're gonna tell them who to do, who to charge, who to charge, when to charge, and who to go after. And that's the danger. That's why they fight so hard.
They got a bill right now to take me out of office. If I'm so... What? Little old me? Little... I mean, really. Y'all... Just little old me. I'm just Kim Gardner from North City. My mom, my uncle are here. Eddie Reynold's son's, lifelong resident. That's where I come from. Little old me. I'm that dangerous? I'm that deadly for the city of Saint Louis? But them officer involved shooting ain't deadly for the city of Saint Louis. The wrongful cases ain't deadly for the city of Saint Louis. Them unsolved murders ain't deadly for the city of Saint Louis. Nah, that's not deadly. But little old me. Okay.
But, you know, I wanted to get up here because Farrakhan inspired me. But, you know, the youth, we got hope. We need hope. Because we hope... They don't want to go in to be a prosecutor. Why they want to go to law school when they see what's being done? Why they want to go further in elected politics when they see unless you wink, nod, nod and agree with everything, and you got to be controlled by handlers. The only handler I have is justice. The only person to tell me what to do is the Constitution. And you should be afraid that they're going to take out your representative to take away your vote. Your voice. Regardless if you care about Kim Gardner or not, it doesn't even matter. You should care about this position so much that...
I am the only elected official... Listen, the only elected official in the criminal justice system. The judges ain't elected. The governor right now can't even appoint his own judges in his jurisdiction. But he appoint 'em in yours. You should be afraid of that. And you going to have people that look like you sell you, 'This a fair process.' No, it's not. No, it's not. That's why they took that away. That's why they want to take away your prosecutor.
We already... We already been in Mississippi. See, Mississippi, we've already done that a hundred years. We've already had our police department state controlled. We already... You talk about Mississippi, looking at Tennessee and Mississippi. We already been here, but we ain't said nothing. And guess what? Kim Gardner is saying a whole bunch, and I'm not going to stop. You... Like I said, I don't care if I have nobody in my office because it's about doing the right things. And if you stand in silence and you sit there and watch the show and think it's okay? It's me here now today. It's going to be you next and your family next.
So I got to go, and I thank you, and I appreciate you.