For five nights, Zach Chasnoff says he called the police asking them to do something about the youths terrorizing his LaSalle Park neighborhood, blasting off fireworks, setting a dumpster aflame, and threatening to take his dog and rape his wife. On the fifth night, Friday, when officers did arrive, it was Chasnoff who they handcuffed.
Chasnoff and his neighbors say the incident has boiled over their frustrations about unruly teens and what they see as an ineffective police response. The police, however, say the incident demonstrates the need for more officers in the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department.
Chasnoff, 48, has lived in the neighborhood just south of downtown for more than six years. On one side are leafy streets of red brick duplexes and Lafayette Square-style townhomes with placards supporting public media, Teslas, and Subarus. Vinyl-sided housing projects are a two-minute walk away. Chasnoff himself lives right on the edge of where one world meets the other. He’s no stranger to city living and is accustomed to its extended July 4 celebrations…