There was the image the governor wanted, of a tough-talking politician battling crime, standing with a line of uniformed police officers. And there were the messages from city residents, wanting to talk about the governor allowing a bill that rolls back the city’s minimum wage hike to become law. Mayor Lyda Krewson spoke of low wages, of the city’s gun problem, of “deep, generational poverty,” in her speech before Greitens took to the podium. He mentioned none of those themes.

Instead, he talked tough on crime, saying that in the first night of the 90-day pilot program with troopers on city highways, there were “dozens of felony arrests.”

Here, the analysis from Franks applies well.

Perhaps the governor is unaware that the state patrol posts its arrest records online.

Between Saturday at 10:30 p.m., when Greitens said troopers hit the street, and Monday at 3 p.m., when the governor’s news conference began, state troopers made a grand total of seven arrests in the city of St. Louis. Not even one dozen, let alone several of them.

There was one arrest for driving while intoxicated, a drug possession arrest, a couple for failure to appear, and a felony probation violation.