Reading archive stories from St. Louis’ very violent 1993 (worse than current year) and the rhetoric is all the same. More cops. Bigger jails. Unprecedented federal cooperation. Help needed from Legislature to crack down on crime. The story never changes. Just the names.

We repeat the exact same strategies and put a new name on it, and we call it new. Crime drops for a bit and then we fail to invest in neighborhoods or prop up local schools and the next generation of young Black kids gets to go through the same cycle again.

We never address guns. We never address poverty. We never address underlying systemic racism.

But in a month or two the U.S. attorney and the governor and the mayor will stand before a table of guns and drugs, hold a news conference and pat themselves on the back, and realize they will have all moved on before the next cycle starts anew.