The Seamy Underbelly Of Ferguson Starts To Appear (Updated)

[Scuba]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/08/18/1322691/-The-Seamy-Underbelly-Of-Ferguson-Starts-To-Appear

Whenever things make absolutely no sense, I think it can be said that while it may make no sense to you, it may make sense to someone. And nine times out of ten, what has previously appeared nonsensical may be sensical, especially if someone somewhere is making money from the nonsense.

...

Very simply, a town that bankrolls itself through racial profiling and harassment of minority citizens in penny ante driving violations which are then ratcheted up in both costs and ramifications through manipulative measures, is EXACTLY the kind of place where a jaywalking offense would spiral out of control. There really is something very systemically awful going on in that town and it is tragic that it took the death of black teenager to draw one's eyes to it. Please follow below for the full, horrifying story.

...

“Despite Ferguson’s relative poverty, fines and court fees comprise the second largest source of revenue for the city, a total of 2,635,400,” according to the ArchCity Defenders report. And in 2013, the Ferguson Municipal Court issued 24,532 arrest warrants and 12,018 cases, “or about 3 warrants and 1.5 cases per household.”

...

How can this be? we ask ourselves. Well, one of the fruits of disparate policing and the spiraling of charges and the mass transformation of an entire population into fugitives due to outstanding bench warrants is that that same population has now been successfully disenfranchised of their vote. Felons don't vote and fugitives don't vote.

Emphasis mine.

[Laelth]

1. k&r for the truth, however depressing it may be. n/t

-Laelth

[myrna minx]

2. K&R - Connecting the dots...

[hexola]

3. Notice Ferguson is very near St Louis International Airport

I suspect this is a neighborhood where property values and quality-of-life are live are compromised by the airport.

The airport to the west - the Miss river to the East - they are sort of boxed in there...

[Gore1FL]

33. The property values are most impacted by the School Districts

There are places of higher property value not that far away--Bellerive, Bel-Nor, Pasadena Hills.

The MO and MS rivers are about 10-20 minutes away on I-70 (in opposite directions) from Ferguson.

[JCMach1]

64. think how many people probably lost their TWA jobs when it went extinct

from this community... i.e. a disappearing major airline hub.

[Spider Jerusalem]

4. The basic problem of Ferguson:

it seems that the almost-entirely white police department views the largely black population of the town they serve as animalistic, barely human, and inherently criminal, and their job as "keeping those people under control". Some of the recent comments from police officers in the civil disturbance seem to highlight this (for instance, a cop caught on camera saying to a journalist "get back, I've got 400 animals there I need to keep under control&quot ; also the alleged initial encounter between Officer Darren Wilson and Mike Brown---"get the fuck on the sidewalk!"; would a white police officer address a white teenager that way? I think there's reason to doubt it.

[KittyWampus]

6. Not just as animals… as cash cows.

[littlemissmartypants]

38. It is a Money Thing!!!

ALEC is in action. It's a power and control thing. MONEY. MONEY. MONEY.

IF We don't rise we are doomed to sit and whine.

Get up. Get out and tell everyone that you can. Register and Vote.

[VanGoghRocks]

39. Minor correction: "4,000 animals" (not 400), which makes the comment all the more telling, imo.

[moondust]

45. Apartheid.

Class warfare on steroids in the 21st Century easily becomes racial warfare in minority communities run by whites. All these pictures of heavily armed all-white cops and national guard lining up in opposition to the mostly black protestors are reminiscent of scenes from South Africa a few decades ago.

[jen63]

75. ^^This^^

Racism at it's finest.

[KittyWampus]

5. Has Rachel Maddow touched on this yet? The huge number of violations in proportion to population?

[Enthusiast]

21. I believe Rachel did address that issue a while back.

It is appalling!

[Bragi]

7. That's very revealing

Never heard of such a thing before.

Makes me wonder how many other urban districts use fines on low-income black people to reduce taxes for higher-income whites.

[JDPriestly]

25. The underlying problem may be that cities, whether Detroit or Ferguson or some small town in the

middle of nowhere USA have to raise taxes. Incomes of the 99% don't yield much. And nowadays, taxes on small businesses also don't bring a lot. Big corporations yank the money out of local economies and don't put anything back in. So where else are municipal governments to get money to pay to keep up the sidewalks.

It isn't just small towns. You should see the sidewalks in residential areas in Los Angeles.

I wonder how much debt Ferguson is carrying and what part of its revenue goes to pay that debt off.

This is another example of something very out of balance in our society. The fundamental cause is the imbalance between the rate of growth of capital gains on the one hand and labor on the other. Right now, a town trying to raise taxes based on the wages and expenditures of its citizens has a hard time keeping up.

It's about the 1% and the 99% -- over and over. The wealth goes up. Ferguson is too close to the bottom of the wealth pyramid to pay its bills without extorting its citizens.

[BrotherIvan]

46. In LA during the time of the crash, they hired 1000 new parking patrol

They raised the rates on all the new meters and sent them out in force to write tickets. I've seen more than a few standing by my car, waiting for the light to turn so they could write a ticket. That's how the city made up the shortfall.

You are exactly right, this is how cities are making up revenue from little to no taxes coming in from depressed wages and lost jobs. Trouble is, this is a Democratic governor and I believe mayor, so why the hell haven't they done anything about it? Where's the excuse brigade for those incompetent Ds?

[LiberalArkie]

47. I have had some tea-party friends beating on me that all Democrats are racist

and the only hope the minorities have is the Republican party. They rant on about look at George Wallace, Lester Maddox, Orval Faubus and others and how the Republicans always help the minorities. I keep pointing out that was when the Republicans were liberal and the Democrats were conservative, but it still doesn't change them.

I am wondering it that is the tactic that some of the nationals are going to take, since they are too stupid to think of that themselves. Are these conservative Democrats going to end up biting us in the butt?

[BrotherIvan]

48. You can't fix loony

And that's some loony tunes right there.

Many keep saying that Blue Dogs are hurting Democrats nationally, but then we are told to shut up because we're supporting Republicans. But if you have a Democrat that does everything like a Republican (except spew the racist/mysoginist/hateful rhetoric) in the end, many people are hurt. There needs to be some other solution than pulling the party far right and dealing with Liebermans, DiFis and Blanche Lincolns.

[Zen Democrat]

56. All those Dixiecrat racists were Democrats. Some evolved, and the rest became Republicans.

Yet the radio talk show hosts keep mucking up history by claiming it was Democrats who ran the Jim Crow South so today's Democrats are the real racists. It's more shadows and mirrors from the media liars.

[JDPriestly]

54. The Third Way. Note that I am an Elizabeth Warren supporter.

She studied personal bankruptcies. She knows what the score is. Hillary and other candidates do not.

If we don't deal with the economic challenges in our country, we face a bleaker and bleaker future.

[villager]

55. When I drove a "poorer-looking" car, the LAPD was much freer about stopping me for chickenshit

"violations" -- like not signaling a lane change when pulling over in a quiet neighborhood (with no one else around), to check something in the car.

Even my more conservative younger son -- who was with me during a couple of the stops -- started to have his suspicions about the "integrity" of the cops, when he saw how flimsy their "pull over" excuses were.

And of course, they're hoping for a bigger write-up: no insurance, dope in the car, whatever they think they can find.

It's all just an asymmetrical tax, imposed on the poor.

[xmas74]

66. Nixon is a Dem

but the legislative body in Jeff City holds an almost super majority of Repubs, many self identifying as Tea Party members. That and the fact that the governor cannot remove someone from an elected office doesn't help either. (This was touched on just last year with the story about Daisy Coleman and Maryville. People demanded that the prosecutor be removed from office but our state constitution does not allow that. That same case also tied the hands of the state AG but that's for another time.)

In the past few years we've had members of the legislation try to pass laws eliminating state income tax, eliminating overtime wages, eliminating child labor laws and many attempts in turning Missouri into a Right to Work state. That doesn't include all of the funding that has been cut across the board and citizens still hurting from the recession, not to mention the attempts at poaching the companies we do have. (Rick Perry actually traveled to Missouri to do just that and wondered why he wasn't getting a warm reception by Nixon or many of the citizens of the state. OTOH, the legislative body in Jeff City seemed only too happy to have him.)


You can call me part of the excuse brigade but that's what is actually happening in my state. We elect Dems for statewide offices but the rural areas are electing a majority of extremely conservative Republicans and absolutely nothing happens. Nixon isn't my favorite but, to be brutally honest, he's been fucked over with the legislature in my state. There are things that he does that I do not agree with but not everything is his fault.

[BrotherIvan]

69. Thank you for educating me

I did not know that. The governor has seemed so disconnected and flustered, he seems pretty bad. The only thing I really know about Missouri is the "legitimate rape" guy. But it makes sense that tea partiers in the government would be a huge problem.

[xmas74]

71. He is a more conservative Dem

but he's the only thing keeping our state from becoming a Right to Work. He's also pro-choice, pro marriage equality, is trying to get Medicaid expansion in the state, etc.

He could have come across better but it would be a tough situation to be in right now. He did pretty much what he could-his hands are tied with the rest. Honestly, I don't think anyone thought everything would blow up like it did. It's not like the state GOP had any plans to help-they'd rather let everyone shoot each other and ask questions later.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

26. ^ n/t

[Gore1FL]

34. You should see St. Ann

They don't target race, specifically, but since the shopping center in their community (Northwest Plaza) closed, they sit their cars on I-70 and raise revenue on anything over 60 mph.

[SwankyXomb]

35. Same thing was going on in Bell, CA

except they were preying on Latinos.

[PuraVidaDreamin]

8. Would love to see a map of their voting district and

If, and how many times it may have been redrawn.

[alcibiades_mystery]

9. This is a thousand towns across America

It's a part of the black experience that barely registers with white folks: constant stops and harassment by law enforcement is not merely a form of social control, but a form of economic exploitation.

"Why don't they just comply?" say white people who have never been stopped once by the police for anything to people who are stopped constantly by the police for nothing.

[JDPriestly]

28. Unfortunately, it isn't just the black experience.

This is going on in my mother's and sister's hometown. There are areas in which the residents have imposed extremely slow speed limits. If you exceed that slow limit, you get a ticket. The city makes money. A lot of people speed there. The city has other ways of making money: lots of young people in town so they issue lots of liquor licenses resulting in lots of drunk college-age kids. They have imposed an income tax on town residents and are enforcing it in an extreme way making people bring in records from some years ago. This is the struggle for tax revenue in municipal America.

George W. Bush was known for lowering state taxes in Texas and pushing the burden for taxing citizens onto the local governments. That means that poor towns and counties get poorer and poorer.

[sarge43]

10. Follow the money. You'll seldom get lost. n/t

[Sanity Claws]

11. It also means long-term unemployment and poverty

because employers don't hire people with convictions or poor credit ratings.

[BrotherIvan]

49. +1

[woo me with science]

12. K&R And once again, the problem leads back to corporate corruption.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025416709

[L0oniX]

19. +1 ...see post 18 for my opinion.

[ReRe]

13. There's something rotten in Ferguson...

... and it isn't the black community. I think it's mostly over there at the police headquarters. Dig into that place and they will find the stinking rat.

[starroute]

40. The Jennings PD was disbanded in 2010 for corruption

That was where Darren Wilson used to work -- and 2010 was when he moved over to the Ferguson PD.

In October 2010, a couple of Jennings cops were found to have engaged in a scam where they drew money from a federal fund set up to pay for overtime work on DUI stop points but without ever having put in the hours. But then the entire department was disbanded and responsibility handed over to St. Louis, suggesting this one scandal was just the tip of the iceberg.

There was a police brutality case in Jennings at the same time where a dashboard cam tape recording the incident mysteriously vanished and just as mysteriously showed up on someone's desk a year later.

At this point, it wouldn't be at all surprising if the same sort of hanky-panky was going on in Ferguson -- and it does seem that Eric Holder may be planning to look into it.

It strikes me that making police departments a major revenue source is almost guaranteed to breed corruption.

[ReRe]

42. That's what I was referring to...

... though I didn't state it. That's probably whats going on all over the USA, and it needs to be stopped. Capitalism can only go so far. There's certain thing's that capitalism does good, and there's certain things that the commons does good.
The privatization push must stop at the front door of the commons.

[bobthedrummer]

70. Awesome truths there, starroute! K&R n/t

[riqster]

14. Kick and rec. Taxation without representation.

I write on the parallel here:


http://bluntandcranky.wordpress.com/2014/08/20/the-ferguson-protesters-are-a-lot-like-our-founding-fathers/

[phantom power]

15. the prison industrial complex has a pervasive corrupting effect too

[jwirr]

16. A new form of voter suppression. Can anything get worse?

[Spitfire of ATJ]

17. The entire machine needs to be shut down...

That means the governor needs to step up and FIRE a whole bunch of people and issue a whole lot of pardons. Judges need to be kicked off the bench, the District Attorney needs to be charged with violating people's Civil Rights.

COME ON!!! This is a small town. These guys act with impunity like they're all "connected" like this is New York or something. Their buddy system actually implicates ALL of them as being in on it.

[L0oniX]

18. Hmm a militarized country using excessive force in other countries has a militarized police force...

what could eventually go wrong? I mean if this country can go kill hundreds of thousands in Iraq because of 911, wmd's, yellow cake and eventual mushroom clouds then why wouldn't it's police do the same ...to it's own population? After all a lot of police are x military so they are all ready for this shit and have the equipment to do it. Maybe Ferguson is a warning to the population that the pigs are ready to kill us should we revolt against the corporations and rich people that control our country and our lives.



WARNING: We must stop those dangerous hippy girls before they spread peace and destroy our (economy) military industrial based country.

[VanGoghRocks]

41. I posted this thread a few nights ago very late and it dropped off the radar (as

perhaps it well should have). But thought you might like a chance to weigh in, if so moved:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025409986

[blackspade]

20. Coming to other cities in America.....

Likely already here.

Another extension of the prison industrial complex.

[Enthusiast]

22. Kicked and recommended!

Thank you, Scuba.

[Baitball Blogger]

23. I also see signs of an attempt to make the police department financially self-sustaining.

Even in white dominated areas the police are constantly pushed to write tickets in an attempt to add income to the department. Especially in Republican areas, this is a necessity because small government type politicians are constantly cutting the budget. But in areas that are predominately black we're seeing this idea on steroids. Because the Supreme Court (thank you Scalia) has loosened the constitution in areas that police can statistically identify as high crime areas it is creating the need for more police actions through stop and frisk and no knocks. Simply put, they need to keep those statistics up in order to justify their thuggish actions. That is inciting the abusive situation we see today, but there are other advantages for opportunists.

Once the police department succeeds in becoming financially self-sustaining, how much longer afterwards will the Republicans call for privatization?

Can you imagine that nightmare?

[JDPriestly]

30. Thank you.

We need a change of course. We need someone in the White House who can use the president's bully pulpit to explain how the economic cycle of poverty works. Americans can't figure out their personal finances and stay out of credit card debt. Most Americans aren't that good at math. How can we expect them to figure out what you have just written about the privatization cycle that is impoverishing all but the very wealthiest communities? We can't. We need a president who can explain this. Our media can't do it because it is owned by the very interests that profit from the status quo.

[tkmorris]

24. Exactly so

This is why suggesting that the solution to Ferguson's governance problem is to "get out the vote" is almost criminally simplistic. It is a solution which can only make sense to those privileged enough to have never faced first-hand the sort of institutional obstacles that are routine in cities and towns like Ferguson across the US. I despise the term "Ivory tower Liberal" but this type of thinking is a perfect example of why such wording exists.

[librechik]

29. I read they have an average 6% voter turnout

and the city council is 5 out of 6 white, while Ferguson population is 60% black.

The system has tricks built in to keep i like this. It's not like the citizens can rally and reform the government.

Just like the US.

[KamaAina]

36. I believe it's 12%

but that's still an embarrassment to democracy.

[HooptieWagon]

76. 12% is voter turnout for entire city.

6% of registered blacks voted, 17% of whites. Their municipal elections are held in April in odd # years, so no big names on ballot (like POTUS, Sen, Gov) probably reduces turnout. Turnout for even # year Nov elections is said to be a little better.

[KamaAina]

77. So that's, what, a thousand votes?

Maybe 1500?

[HooptieWagon]

78. Thats probably a good guess.

If they doubled that to 2000, they could have a Black Mayor, and majority Black City Council.... who could then hire a Black police chief. Granted, it requires voter registrations, GOTV, and candidates to vote for... but I don't see that as impossible tasks.

[librechik]

27. yup--and the widespread use of this sort of thing is why

the American Experiment has gone wrong.

[pansypoo53219]

31. tax cuts are awesome.

civilization needs to be paid for.reaganomics bait + switch.

[bbgrunt]

32. k and r. all of this

[KamaAina]

37. The soft white underbelly.

[WCLinolVir]

43. Here in Richmond, VA., we have Henrico County officers who target Richmond citizens.

The cops patrol the boundary looking for violations. It may be because Richmond police will rarely pull someone over for improper tags or inspection stickers. So the Henrico cops fish for revenue where the city and county meets. One night they had a safety checkpoint at 9pm in the evening! I must say Henrico is mostly white, Richmond black. And Henrico conveniently locates their holiday DUI checkpoints at the border as well. Richmond border area patrolled is also poorer.

[TeeYiYi]

44. Part of the seamy underbelly...

...this cop is videotaped by Al Jazeera, threatening two journalists to "bust your head." Video at the link.

http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/america-tonight/articles/2014/8/18/police-to-al-jazeerajournalistinfergusonillbustyourass.html?utm_content=general&utm_campaign=ajam&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=SocialFlow

TYY

[A Simple Game]

50. The cases and warrants do seem excessive but the $2,635,400 isn't even

enough to fund the police force. 53 police; do the math for wages, then add in buildings, vehicles, utilities, fuel, etc. 53 cops does seem excessive for a town of around 20,000. I doubt anyone is getting rich from the fine money. It also adds up to about $107 per arrest warrant. A speeding ticket costs more than that in Norther New York.

I'm not defending the cops, they seem especially incompetent, under-trained and racist, but the money doesn't seem to be out of line. I'm sure many if not most small cities earn about the same from fines. I imagine this murder will end up costing the town and/or county dearly.

[Lee-Lee]

52. How many of those cops are part-time?

A lot of the shadier, "enforcement for revenue" departments will have a whole bunch of officers but most are part time- then they don't pay benefits and a low hourly rate.

The town of New Rome Ohio was famous for this- 60 residents, 14 cops mostly part time, $400,000+ in revenue every year. Eventually it got so bad the state dissolved the town.

Usually staffed by losers who can't get on with a good department but who are so desperate to get a job in LE they take anything.

In NC a town gets ZERO from any fines or tickets. That way there is no question of what the motivation is.

[A Simple Game]

58. You may be right, I hadn't thought of part timers, but still doesn't seem like much. n/t

[Lee-Lee]

51. As I said in another thread this is easily fixed if the MO legislature and Governer will act

Here in NC this was a problem many years ago, with small towns setting up speed traps to raise money.

The legislature made a simple change. If you get a ticket and pay a fine, not a dime goes to the city, town or county no matter who wrote the ticket. It all goes into state managed funds.

Suddenly traffic law enforcement was all about safety again.

Missouri legislators could fix this problem with one simple change to law, if they want to stand up to the municipalities and all the politicians in them at the local level.

Pay for local government with sales and property taxes. All court costs and fines go to the state general fund or dedicated to education distributed statewide.

[xmas74]

72. The GOP is in the majority in the the legislature

and they have no plans to do anything like this. They want more power turned over to the municipalities, not less.

Our legislature is a steaming pile of poo and is a huge joke, yet the rural areas keep voting them back in.

[Lee-Lee]

74. So do a ballot initiative

Ideal would be eliminating the entire municipal court system, we don't have them here, but that's probably a bridge to far.

Put forward a ballot initiative that says towns or cities with a municipal court can only keep 10% of fines, fees and other monies collected, to be spent only on the actual cost of running the court and subject to yearly public audits.

The remaining 90% will go into a statewide fund for education to be disbursed either as education grants or per-capita based on student population.

Name it something like the "Justice for Education Act".

You will be hard pressed to get anyone speaking out against it then...

[xmas74]

79. In other places a name like "Justice for Education Act"

would far well. In many of the rural parts of Missouri it would arouse suspicions.

It's hard to explain to anyone on the outside but this state has gone crazy. Maybe it's fluoride in the water, maybe it's the extreme use of pesticides, maybe it's all the growth hormones in the meat and dairy. I don't know what it is but the state has gone crazy.

[tblue37]

53. I wonder whether the ACLU would sue to get those who were set up to be

"fake felons" freed from that stigma so they can have their voting rights restored.

[woo me with science]

57. Huge K&R

To the Greatest Page.

[rhett o rick]

59. k&r. Thanks for posting. nm

[indivisibleman]

60. Felons should not lose the right to vote

I have always felt that felons should retain their right to vote. Why should their right to vote be removed as further punishment??? Should they not be represented in and out of prison? If they retained the right to vote it would take this incentive for arrest away from racists who use arrests as a means to influence the vote. Furthermore I want felons to have input on our politics in relation to the issues that they are so familiar with.

[dreamnightwind]

67. +1

Don't see this discussed enough, should be a major priority, it's messed up.

[indivisibleman]

73. agreed.

I will try to bring it up more often. I really dislike how society wants to keep finding ways to punish criminals above and beyond their original sentence.

[Squinch]

61. K&R

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

62. Wow. DU is depressing today. The truth hurts. K&R.

[JCMach1]

63. I think this is a real under-reported aspect of poverty and policing in this country

in Ferguson, they just happen to meet at the intersection of entrenched and institutionalized racism!

[El Shaman]

65. No wonder

the necessity for all that military gear!!!

[woo me with science]

68. kick