… Murphey is a white Republican conservative cop who thinks crimes should have consequences and police officers shouldn’t act like social workers. He opposes the policies of the former top prosecutor in St. Louis, Kim Gardner, a Black Democratic liberal politician who thinks poverty is the cause of most crimes and the criminal justice system needs major reform.

Gardner pushed to eliminate cash bail, end mass incarceration, promote rehabilitation over punishment, and stop prosecuting lower-level crimes like shoplifting. Murphey says her policies made St. Louis a more dangerous city.

Their paths crossed when Gardner put Murphey on a list of police officers with alleged credibility problems; controversial Facebook posts landed him there. Gardner’s office considered them racist. Murphey says they were not, instead calling them political statements protected by free speech.

Despite having put Murphey on its so-called exclusion list, Gardner’s office asked him to testify at murder trials in which he’d been the lead detective. Murphey says it’s hypocritical to include him on that list yet consider him trustworthy enough to sit on a witness stand, so he’s refusing to testify. Some of those cases have ended in acquittals and plea deals — weakened, according to some St. Louis prosecutors, by Murphey’s absence. …