Platform of the St. Louis City Libertarian Party
PREAMBLE
We believe that respect for individual rights is the essential precondition for a free and prosperous city. We defend each person’s right to engage in activities that are peaceful and honest, and welcome the diversity that freedom brings.
The city we hope to live in is one in which individuals are free to follow their own dreams in their own ways, while respecting the right of their neighbors to do the same.
To help achieve that vision, in this platform we briefly set forth our policy positions.
1 POLICE ACCOUNTABILITY AND FUNDING
The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department is a service to the community that should function as an effective guardian of the lives and rights of the people it serves. To that end, the police department needs to be appropriately funded, and individual police officers need to be held accountable when they engage in unlawful or unethical behavior.
It is essential that the City of St. Louis gives its police officers the amount of support they need to do a difficult job well. Instead of accepting that every police department comes with some amount of abuse of authority, the City of St. Louis must not tolerate any amount of corruption or lawbreaking from any of its officers at any time. Whenever an officer breaks a law, they should be held as liable for that breach of trust as would anyone else.
Understanding that being a police officer in St. Louis City is currently more difficult than being an officer in most of our neighboring regions, and because we compete with our neighbors for quality police, it is necessary for St. Louis City to offer a more competitive level of pay than is offered to police in St. Louis County or St. Charles County.
2 LAW ENFORCEMENT PRIORITIES
Law enforcement priorities should be keeping the peace, protecting private property, and protecting individual rights. If there is no victim, there is no crime.
3 THE CITY JAIL
The problems that the city jail has are mostly the result of a decade of neglect, but those problems are exacerbated by the jail being overcrowded. The main reason for the overcrowding is that the inmates are generally not being given a speedy trial, with a majority of inmates waiting in jail for more than a year.
There are three Libertarian solutions to those problems. First, the City Justice Center must be forced by the Board of Aldermen and the Mayor to let in inspectors from the Detention Facilities Oversight Board. Second, there must be enough judges, prosecutors, and public defenders to ensure inmates will receive a speedy trial, and judges must be more strict when granting pretrial extensions. Third, the city jail needs to be adequately resourced in the city budget.
4 FREEDOM AND RESPONSIBILITY IN PROPERTY
Property rights are fundamental to a free society. With both freedom and property, responsibility is required. The city should infringe on property rights in only the most extreme circumstances, such as imminent danger and health hazards. Property disputes are best resolved by the civil court system. We oppose all uses of eminent domain.
5 HOMELESSNESS
To alleviate homelessness in St. Louis, the city should encourage the creation of abundant housing by easing zoning controls and historical preservation district regulations that currently hinder low-income housing development. The Plat and Petition ordinance, which requires neighbor approval for new property uses, should be abolished. Private property rights and trespass laws must be respected and enforced, and homeless individuals should not establish permanent residences in public parks.
6 BASIC CITY SERVICES
The maintenance of water systems, sewer systems, and streets are a legitimate function of local government. Basic services ought to be maintained at a high standard. The money raised for their maintenance ought to come as much as possible from user fees.
7 CITY FINANCIAL PRIORITIES
The city has a duty to its residents to be a good steward of taxpayer dollars. The priority of the city should be to develop a balanced budget with a focus on only paying for the basic city services for which the residents are being taxed.
8 TAXATION
We support any initiative to reduce or abolish any tax, and oppose any increase of any tax for any reason. Any existing taxes should be applied equally to all people and entities.
9 LICENSING
Libertarians support the right of every person to earn a living through the free and voluntary exchange of goods and services. Accordingly, we oppose occupational and other licensing laws that infringe on this right or treat it as a city granted privilege.
10 OMISSIONS
In every matter concerning St. Louis City we advocate the consistent application of the principle of non-initiation of coercion, physical force, or fraud. Our silence about any particular city ordinance or activity should not be construed to imply approval.
Initiative Petition Legislation
At the Monday, February 19, 2022 meeting of the St. Louis County Libertarian Central Committee we passed a resolution as follows:
We oppose HJR79, which changes the initiative petition process from 8% to 10% of registered voters, as well as changes the requirement to pass from a simple majority to a two-thirds majority.
Clemency for Carman Deck
At the Monday, February 19, 2022 meeting of the St. Louis County Libertarian Central Committee we passed a resolution as follows:
Whereas the National and Missouri Libertarian Party opposes the death penalty and seeks to eliminate it,
We hereby have decided as an organization, to sign the advocacy petition to seek clemency for Carman Deck, who has an execution date set for May 3, 2022.
Black Lives Matter
The St Louis County Libertarian Central Committee met on Monday 6/15/2020 and passed a resolution which includes several proposals for police reform. The text of the proposal follows:
Whereas discrimination against African Americans was accepted as a matter of law and a socially acceptable practice for most of this nation’s history;
Whereas such discrimination, now having been largely prohibited as a matter of law, nonetheless continues as a matter of practice to this day;
Whereas the effects of this discrimination have created practical and structural disadvantages which persist, both individually and collectively;
Whereas the unequal application of the law by agents of the government is a particularly offensive and injurious form of discrimination;
Whereas this unequal application of the law has manifest itself through slavery, Jim Crow laws, discrimination in housing, voting, employment, education, and many other aspects of life, the most egregious manifestation has been in the summary execution of unarmed African American citizens, from the lynch mobs of another era, through the frequent and disproportionate murder by police of black subjects, including Atatiana Jefferson, who did nothing more than leave the front door to her home open; Philando Castile, who informed a police officer of his legally carried concealed weapon at a traffic stop; Breonna Taylor, who was murdered in a no knock raid in which police sought a suspect who was already in custody; and many others, on a grim list of victims which never stops growing.
Therefore, the Libertarian Central Committee of St. Louis County unequivocally declares our belief that black lives matter, and we therefore support changes in law and practice which work toward both the elimination of discrimination, and the remediation of the lasting damage which past discrimination has done.
We support personal liberty, eliminating the prosecution of victimless crimes, and call for an immediate end to the war on drugs, which has been used to excuse abusive law enforcement practices which have disproportionately affected the black community.
We support economic liberty, the lack of which has blocked many African Americans from achieving the prosperity which their well connected peers have achieved. We oppose eminent domain, which has been used to the detriment of black communities from Central Park to Meacham Park.
We support the reform of policing, including the prompt prosecution of officers who commit murder, the elimination of qualified immunity, the removal of military equipment and tactics from police forces, and elimination of civil asset forfeiture.
We support shifting resources so that public safety can be achieved using appropriately trained personnel, rather than using armed police officers in positions where other professionals would be more helpful.
Ultimately, observing that government itself has been used as a powerful tool to oppress African Americans, we support reducing the power of government in our personal and economic lives, thereby increasing our ability to manage our own affairs, and believe that this will be a great aid to reducing oppression of African Americans and allowing them the liberty and prosperity which, while promised to all Americans, has largely been withheld from African Americans.
Libertarian Party of St. Louis 