On a dreary Sunday morning a young man – a husband and dad – died while doing his job.
The unfortunate facts surrounding the death of Metro security guard James Cook bring together three sad trends.
After serving his country as a Marine, Mr. Cook sought the elusive “good job.” Enlisting right out of high school, eight years later he had a wife and two daughters but – like most military veterans – limited marketable skills. As many do, he drifted towards law enforcement, working as a corrections officer for Crawford County.
Perhaps not a great move…
There is very little opportunity for advancement without significant brown-nosing (merits and abilities be damned). The command structure gives a constant impression of incompetence, and there is almost no feeling of having their support in any matter as an employee.
—Indeed.com Crawford County Sheriff Department employee review
He later took a job with G4S, a monster international security firm (40,000 employees, $1.3 billion in revenue per their website) and got assigned as an unarmed security guard at Metro stops. Per reports, G4S pays well for security with some guards earning $37,000 a year (glassdoor.com). He must have needed the job: working on Metro meant a three hour a shift commute to/from Sullivan! His wife works part-time at Aldi’s. meaning the family of four lived above the poverty line ($26,500 a year for four) but considerably below Missouri’s median household income ($57,409 per year https://www.deptofnumbers.com/income/missouri/ .)
In other words, the Cooks were one of very many struggling working families reaching for middle class stability. After serving his country as a Marine in Afghanistan and Africa, James Cook deserved a safer job and a solid place in the middle class.
Great cities have great public transit systems. Greater St. Louis has Metro. A few quick points…
■ St. Louis city and County together have twice the population as the three Illinois counties in the Bi State Development compact, yet, Illinois gets just as many commissioners.
■ St. Louis County supplies the greatest chunk of Metro funding yet most of the county has no or extremely limited transit service.
■ Unlike most light rail systems, Metro lacks turnstiles to insure fare compliance and enhance security.
■ Law enforcement doesn’t take Metro security seriously.
Why? Well, most Metro’s riders are low-income and minority. While the county police chief doesn’t believe in systemic racism, ask people in low-income neighborhoods about that.
For example, remember the county officers paid to ride the rails who hung-out in the security office (where they taped a piece of paper in front of the camera)? I can’t recall officers losing their jobs over that wage theft.
And, obviously, Sunday morning there was no armed law enforcement to support James Cook at the Delmar Loop Metro station.
Third, alas, Sunday’s workplace murder took place in Missouri.
As we all know, the Missouri legislature promotes concealed, deadly weapons. The answer to every question is ‘more guns.’ Note that Rep. Justin Hill (R – Lake St. Louis) wants transit patrons to be able to carry guns on Metro and similar systems. (House Bill 212) So, this session the legislature will consider letting the riders be armed while those who protect them are forbidden from having guns.
A young man died doing his job. Too bad his unfortunate, avoidable death won’t motivate change.
Glenn Koenen