Does Andrew Bailey possess a single, solitary molecule of shame?
It’s perhaps a provocative question but a relevant one at this point. In his 15 months on the job, Missouri’s Republican attorney general has demonstrated again and again that virtually nothing is beneath him when it comes to debasing his public office for the sake of culture-war politics.
His latest stunt is so disgraceful that it qualifies as self-parody — or would if it didn’t involve the deadly serious topic of critical injuries to a young woman.
A horrific video shows Kaylee Gain, 16, being pummeled on pavement by another teenage girl during a fight on March 8 near Hazelwood East High School. Though Kaylee is white and her attacker as seen on the video is Black, it’s not at all clear that race was a factor. The bystander video shows it was part of a broader melee in which multiple students were fighting with one another.
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Yet Bailey already knows the culprit: It’s the school’s focus on diversity, equity and inclusion for students of all races. In a typically made-for-Fox-News announcement, he has launched an “investigation“ into the school’s DEI policies.
In case anyone missed the piercing sound of that dog whistle, let us be clear: This is nothing more or less than Missouri’s top legal official stoking racial animus in order to appeal to the worst bigotry of the Republican base in an election year. It’s also the blatant politicization of a tragedy.
Kaylee suffered a skull fracture but thankfully survived. At last report, she was out of intensive care and breathing on her own. (Donations to her medical expenses can be made at .) Her 15-year-old attacker has been arrested and charged in juvenile court.
School violence is a real problem today; its causes are debatable. But only in the upside-down moral universe of fringe-right politics could it be blamed on school policies that promote racial diversity and tolerance.
“The community deserves answers on how Hazelwood’s radical DEI programs resulted in such despicable safety failures that has resulted in a student fighting for her life,†reads Bailey’s of his investigation.
Not only does the announcement insert Bailey’s office where it doesn’t belong (a typical Bailey strategy) and declare its conclusion in advance, it doesn’t even bother to get basic facts of the incident correct.
As the Post-Dispatch’s Monica Obradovic reports, the announcement cites an inaccurate date, claims it happened during school hours and criticizes the absence of any school officials to stop the fight. In fact, the fight happened after school hours and about a quarter-mile away from the school.
Bailey’s core argument is that fostering racial tolerance and inclusion via DEI policies violates anti-discrimination laws. It’s a ludicrous but common trope on the political right these days — that any discussion or recognition at all of racial disadvantages faced by Black Americans is somehow discriminatory against whites.
Not that purveyors of this twisted philosophy are truly colorblind. Quite the opposite. Is it even imaginable that Bailey would be launching this performative “investigation†had the races of the victim and attacker been reversed?
We already have a good indication of an answer from a previous criminal case: After a white Kansas City police officer was convicted of manslaughter for the shooting death of an unarmed Black man in his own driveway, Bailey — whose job includes representing the state in court when criminal defendants appeal their convictions — stunned local prosecutors by officially siding with the cop.
That case is among many that this Editorial Board has cataloged in what we’ve dubbed The Bailey Tally. It’s a running list of the many instances in which this singularly craven demagogue of a public official has abused his office with blatantly ideological, often ridiculous legal actions clearly meant to toss red meat to the far-right edges of his Republican base while failing in fundamental ways to actually do his job.
Space limitations preclude us from outlining all it here, but we encourage readers to take a look at the full list, which is posted at .
The hard-to-watch video of Kaylee being assaulted has, inevitably, spawned racist commentary and emboldened those who view it as evidence of their racist worldview.
Responsible political leaders work to diffuse that kind of ugly sentiment in the wake of societally explosive incidents like this one. Then there are, unfortunately, political arsonists like Bailey, who are always eager to feed that fire for their own purposes.
Bailey was appointed to his current office last year to fill a vacancy. He seeks election to the office this year. It would be a tragedy on top of a tragedy if he is rewarded for this latest shameless stunt with an electoral victory.