Mayor Freeman Bosley Jr.
These people are wreaking havoc on us and that’s what Kim Gardner’s situation symbolizes. It symbolizes what white people can do, not what white people can do, what white people will do to us. We ought to be outraged what they did to Kim Gardner. They got…they got Kim. No, they got all of us. They got all of us, right, and everybody ought to be ashamed.
It’s no secret, and you’ve heard it time and time again, if it’s Kim Gardner today, it’s somebody else tomorrow, right? Everybody ought to be ashamed. Black Girl Magic just went to hell in a handbasket cuz you want to pick who benefits. Black Girl Magic don’t apply to all black women. You see what I’m saying.
Mayor Freeman Bosley Jr.
When you take out a black circuit attorney in a city the size of St. Louis, that lets people know that it’s all right and sends a signal to white people – we got them. That’s what they say. We got them. Kim Gardner was right.
We got John Washington, attorney-at-law for the last 20-something years who was a fixture down there in the circuit court. Thank you for being willing to come in because a lot of folks want to steer away from this. I cannot. In good conscience, I cannot. So you’re down there every day. You saw the gradual retreat, the gradual abandon ship of the colleagues and of the lawyers in Kim Gardner’s office. What is your take and be honest with us.
John Washington Attorney at Law
There’s a lot going on but the bottom line is, if you’re hired as a circuit attorney or a prosecutor, it’s your job and your duty to prosecute your case load. No matter how many cases you have, you get those cases and prepared to go to trial. It’s that simple. Now what happened was the media created an environment which placed other individuals outside the office and put them in a position where they were not willing to join that office because the office became taboo.
Mayor Freeman Bosley Jr.
Yeah so now, John, what is very interesting to me is they all started leaving. Matter of fact, they started leaving in droves.
John Washington Attorney at Law
You normally have people coming in. And, I bet, if you start looking at some of these individuals who were leaving, they were probably getting jobs they normally wouldn’t get. They were trying to drain the office. If someone complains and says well, she’s not letting us do this and she’s not letting us do that. So what, right. Your job is to walk in that damn courtroom and do what you do and that’s prosecute.
Mayor Freeman Bosley Jr.
Yeah, no one said anything about Dee Joyce-Hayes…nobody say anything about George Peach, no one said anything with Jennifer Joyce was down there running amok That’s right. Not a word – not a word.
John Washington Attorney at Law
I also heard us one particular University who encourage the kids not to even do internship at all?
Freeman Bosley: Hey, which one was that?
John Washington Attorney at Law I don’t want to say.
