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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Excellent Links / Ferguson Redux

Ferguson Redux

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Jelani Cobb, in the New Yorker, late yesterday:

… The conversation here [in Ferguson] has shifted from the immediate reaction to Michael Brown’s death and toward the underlying social dynamics. Two men I spoke with pointed to the disparity in education funding for Ferguson and more affluent municipalities nearby. Another talked about being pulled over by an officer who claimed to smell marijuana in the car as a pretense for searching him. “I’m in the United States Navy,” he told me. “We have to take drug tests in the military so I had proof that there were no drugs in my system. But other people can’t do that.” Six black men I spoke to, nearly consecutively, pointed to Missouri’s felon-disfranchisement laws as part of the equation. “If you’re a student in one of the black schools here and you get into a fight you’ll probably get arrested and charged with assault. We have kids here who are barred from voting before they’re even old enough to register,” one said. Ferguson’s elected officials did not look much different than they had years earlier, when it was a largely white community.

Ferguson had, instead, recently seen two highly visible African-American public officials lose their jobs. Two weeks before Brown was shot, Charles Dooley, an African-American who has served as St. Louis County Executive for a decade, lost a bitter primary to Steve Stenger, a white county councilman, in a race that, whatever the merits of the candidates, was seen as racially divisive. Stenger lobbed allegations of financial mismanagement and incompetence, and worse. Bob McCulloch, the county prosecutor appeared in an ad for Stenger, associating Dooley with corruption; McCulloch would also be responsible for determining whether to charge Darren Wilson. In December, the largely white Ferguson-Florissant school board fired Art McCoy, the superintendent, who is African-American. Those who were gathered at the QuikTrip parking lot on Saturday were as inclined to talk about the underlying political issues as they were about the hail of bullets that ended Brown’s life…

Jordan Weissman, at Slate:

Jeff Smith, a New School professor and former Missouri state senator, had a sensational op-ed in this weekend’s New York Times that dived into the economic forces that have helped shape the strife in Ferguson. His big point is that the local police have a strong financial incentive to arrest, ticket, and otherwise harass the city’s black residents for minor offenses, because that’s how the department funds its budget…

When you split a metro area into dozens of tiny local governments (St. Louis County, to be clear, doesn’t include the actual city of St. Louis, which spun off from it in the 19th century), they tend to duplicate each others’ services, which is of course extremely expensive. But raising taxes so that each tiny borough can afford its own police and fire department is a nonstarter, since wealthy residents can always just move one town over. End result: You have police departments that self-fund by handing out tickets. And thanks to the delightful racial dynamics of U.S. law enforcement, black residents are disproportionately stopped and accosted, even though police in Ferguson are less likely to find contraband when they search black drivers than when they search whites….

Reader Interactions

108Comments

  2. 2.

    Roger Moore

    Now if we can only get the national media to start spending as much time talking about the big picture racial dynamics as they do debating whether Michael Brown deserved to be shot, we’ll actually be getting somewhere. A pony would be nice, also, too.

  5. 5.

    Baud

    Given the racial dynamics of Ferguson, I find it interesting that our Newsmax friends on the right have spent more time talking about the Perry indictment, judging by the headlines.

  9. 9.

    ruemara

    What can I say? The blue as all git out CA municipality I am very familiar with the inner workings of, has even fewer black or latino employees than when I started. When I started with them, you might be able to get pickup basketball league. Now, you couldn’t put together a bridge game of colour. I asked another on the bubble employee why? He explained that since he was listed a in an executive position, they considered him to be at the max level necessary for accurate demographic representation to the population. I believe he is now the sole and highest level POC left. It has also been noted that any upper level direct report to electeds has also been refined so no one with objectionable accents will be giving reports to them directly.
    It’s not just the south.

  11. 11.

    El Caganer

    @Roger Moore: How do you expect them to WIN THE MORNING talking about ‘big picture racial dynamics’? Where’s your ‘both sides do it’ in all that? You might actually have to ask black people what it’s like to live their lives rather than listen to white people’s speculations (which would not, of course, be informed in any way by learned cultural biases). BAWWWRRRINNNNG!

  13. 13.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @PhoenixRising: Even well-meaning people often trouble with it. People of color figuring that they need to tone things down a bit so as to not shock the white folks too much and the white folks finding themselves shocked anyway. Then there are the cynics, the angry, the clueless, the pollyannas, the unconscious of their privileges, etc. – and that’s just me.

  16. 16.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @ruemara: I might be going through an angry phase right now. I’ll do clueless again at some point – no matter how hard I try to avoid it.

    But, thanks, I try. How well I succeed is a day by day thing.

  18. 18.

    Mike in NC

    Our town is notorious for speed traps to bring in revenue. Live here and you soon figure out where they are. Summer tourists aren’t so fortunate.

  21. 21.

    Mnemosyne

    Six black men I spoke to, nearly consecutively, pointed to Missouri’s felon-disfranchisement laws as part of the equation. “If you’re a student in one of the black schools here and you get into a fight you’ll probably get arrested and charged with assault. We have kids here who are barred from voting before they’re even old enough to register,” one said.

    I was wondering if that was part of the reason for the vast disparity between the politicians being elected and the population. I’d be very interested to see if anyone could find hard numbers.

  25. 25.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @lamh36: Obama has been pushing for each branch of government to handle its own shit since he came into office. This is more of the same.

  26. 26.

    El Caganer

    @lamh36: That article seems to be making an awful lot out of nothing. The government is in crisis because the President won’t golf with some of the Congressional Democrats? What delicate creatures.

  27. 27.

    patrick II

    I lived in a St. Louis suburb for thirty years. Traffic through our town was over 95% white, but after a while I noticed that over half the people I saw pulled over at our local speed/stop sign trap were black people driving through town.
    On one occasion our business had a black network administrator visit us and he stayed at a hotel in Clayton — the county seat and a very expensive white suburb just West of St. Louis city. On his second morning he was over two hours late to work. He had been stopped by a cop in Clayton for no reason other than he was a young, well dressed black man mistakenly staying in Clayton and driving a new car. The car was a rental with Ohio license plates, so our visiting network administrator had to sit and wait for the cop to check every stolen car in Ohio, because it “matched the description” of a stolen car.
    I would say St. Louis has the worst police force, except that I retired and moved to Florida to be near family.

  29. 29.

    Helen

    @Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): This. Democrats are a bunch of weenies (I first wrote pussies , but us (we?) real pussies have so much more to deal with).

    I am tried of bringing a knife to a gun fight. And am tired of the “exceptional” shit. Get over it. Oh we are not.

    I have paid well over $1,000,000 , yes that is ONE MILLION DOLLARS in taxes in my lifetime (and I am a month shy of 52 years old). And where has it gone? To war. And to those profiting from war. I want my money to go to education. And social programs. And roads and bridges and… Good FSM I am exhausted

  30. 30.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @lamh36: apparently I’ve used up my free articles, and I’m waiting for a special offer to subscribe so I can’t read it, but it’s particularly rich if Joe Mancin is whining because Obama isn’t paying enough attention to him

    Michael Grunwald @ MikeGrunwald · 17m
    Joe Manchin: Waaaah! All I did was shoot Obama’s energy bill in an ad and now he never invites me over for dinner!

    In other congressional news, dimwitted, cowardly old drunk John Boehner, who has less power in his caucus than racist full-mooner Steven King, said today that ISIS is a result of Obama’s “apology tour”. Obama should reach out to him, then Congress could Get Something Done.

  34. 34.

    Violet

    This tweet made me laugh:

    Too many young male bankers lack strong role models and fail in a broken system. It's time for My Banker's Keeper.— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) August 19, 2014

  35. 35.

    Violet

    @Violet: It came after this one:

    "Wall Street bankers commit crime. We can argue about why, but if they commit a crime they need to be prosecuted." – No one in power— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) August 18, 2014

  38. 38.

    Amir Khalid

    @El Caganer:
    This has been a thing for a while now, hasn’t it: berating Obama for not working with people who don’t dare get caught working with him.

  39. 39.

    Carolinus

    @lamh36:

    It’s particularly rich considering how much beltway flak the President has been taking for the fundraising he’s constantly doing for these ungrateful ankle-biters.

  41. 41.

    Bennett

    Correct me if I am wrong, but doesn’t Ferguson MO have a city government? Why has its mayor & council not suspended or fired the police chief, responded to its community, and acted as if they gave a damn?

  43. 43.

    Helen

    @Citizen_X: No they are not. Watching Chris Hayes live on MSNBC. Nothing is happening except Chris is talking about something may be happening. Jeebus.

  46. 46.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I got in to that NYT article, where Manchin, whining about the lack of Obama’s “outreach”, is referred to as a bridge-building “centrist Democrat”

    Here’s his ad, bragging about his NRA endorsement, vowing to “take on this administration”, to repeal “the bad parts of Obamacare”, to fight the EPA, and shooting up the cap and trade bill. I give him credit for trying to pass some gun control, but he’s a dick, he’s constantly available for a media quote suggesting the administration needs to compromise more. Why would Obama want to eat with him?

  48. 48.

    Violet

    @Bennett: The police are doing just what the city leaders want them to do–keep the black folks under control. They don’t see any problems with their police department.

  50. 50.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    If they’ve lost Jake Tapper…

    CNN Tonight @ CNNTonight · 23m
    “There is nothing going on in the street right now that merits this.” @ jaketapper on massive police presence on ground in #Ferguson
    James Downie @ jamescdownie · 21m
    .@ jaketapper tells the truth about the militarized police: “There’s no threat [from the protestors]. This doesn’t make any sense.”

  52. 52.

    divF

    @lamh36: I looked at the article, and this seemed like a whole lot of nothing. The two most concrete complaints were:

    (1) telling Harry Reid to work out some ambassador nominations with Mitch McConnell, rather than having the discussion of it take up time devoted consulting with Democratic leadership on the Iraq crisis (Obama called up McConnell later about the issue);

    (2) Obama being unwilling to schmooze with Dems (e.g. small parties, having his picture taken with members).

    OTOH, Sen. McCaskill seemed generally sympathetic towards Obama.

    Senator Claire McCaskill, the Missouri Democrat who was an early supporter of Mr. Obama’s presidential bid, said that if her fellow Democrats were hoping for Mr. Obama to transform into a Lyndon B. Johnson late in his second term, they should quit waiting.

    “For him, eating his spinach is schmoozing with elected officials,” she said. “This is not something that he loves. He wasn’t that kind of senator.”
    …
    “The White House has something in common with the rest of America, and that is disdain for Congress,” Ms. McCaskill said. “It is hard to blame them.”

    It is unclear who the “them” in the last quote is – Congress, or the White House.

  55. 55.

    Helen

    @leeleeFL: That was a tape. OMG I am watching CNN and someone is talking about “anarchists” Who? Mark O’mara – George Zimmerman’s defense attorney.

  56. 56.

    Carolinus

    @lamh36:

    “Maybe if something isn’t working, you’d say, ‘What can I do better?’ ” said Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, expressing dismay that the president seemed to have little interest in taking a warmer approach with Democrats.

    …

    Democratic senators, for their part, do not always show up at White House events. Twelve were invited to a St. Patrick’s Day reception this year, for example, but only one showed up.

  57. 57.

    Pattonbt

    @patrick II: as someone (white upper middle class family) who grew up in Clayton I can definitely speak to that. Many anecdotes about the Clayton cops and black people. Drive thru Clayton late at night while black, you are getting pulled over. Period.

    We had a new kid move in in my junior year of high school. Black. Like many of us he was fortunate to have parents who bought him a car (most of us had shit boxes, as did he, since our parents didn’t trust us with any valuable car). The first six weekends he drove when we went out, he was pulled over. When the cops would see the rest of the occupants (and they knew us too because they also pulled over teens quite frequently) they would change it from a “black stop” (I.e. Call in backup, have the car pulled over for a long time, search the car, etc.) it would turn in to a “white teen stop” (“you got booze, drugs, up to no good? Ok on your way). Once the cops knew his car, the stops decreased massively. Only to start again when his patents had to get him a new car when the old one died. The stops ramped back up again until the cops recognised his car again.

    Obviously, that’s pretty tame stuff, but showed a vivid example of profiling and different treatment for different people based on color in St. Louis county.

  58. 58.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @Carolinus:

    Twelve were invited to a St. Patrick’s Day reception this year, for example, but only one showed up.

    FWIW St. Patrick’s Day is a good time to schmooze with constituents back home. Parades and all that.

  59. 59.

    leeleeFL

    @Helen: Well, isn’t that special? And Chris Hayes is live since 11

    Also want to send some love to Ms. McCaskill. The snark us strong un that lady!

  61. 61.

    Suffern ACE

    @Carolinus: I’d go. I’d even bring a dish to pass. Maybe shrimp toast.

    I don’t get Senators at all. They are a lot more id than super ego.

  62. 62.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): When this Obama-doesn’t-socialize shit started up last summer (IIRC) the White House released a list of events they had invited McConnell to, to which McConnell didn’t show up, including again IIRC a screening of Spielberg’s Lincoln. Chuck Todd, who seized on that issue like it was his invite to the grown-up table, said those didn’t count because it wasn’t “the living quarters”. Obama is supposed to have McConnell over for milk and cookies and a playdate.

    Also, that flare up started when Bob Woodward quoted Newt Gingrich as lamenting Obama’s lack of outreach. GOPAC memo, Susan Smith-is-a-result-of-Democrat-policies, foodstamp-president Gingrich was Bob Woodward’s Deep Throat for Outreachgate.

  63. 63.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Chuck Todd, who seized on that issue like it was his invite to the grown-up table, said those didn’t count because it wasn’t “the living quarters”.

    This is yet another reason why Chuckles the Toddler should be imprisoned in a pain amplifier with the dial turned up to 11.

  71. 71.

    mai naem

    I find politics really depressing. There was a tweet from Bill Moyers citing a study that showed that only wealthy people have any real statistically significant effect on politics. If that’s the case then what’s the point of even voting? I have a couple of liberal friends who feel the same way primarily because they see Obama being blocked at every step. They understand the reason why but we’ve all reached the same conclusion – the people who need to show up to vote don’t bother. And don’t fucking tell me they don’t have the time because the same people find time to go to the casino to gamble, to spend hours getting their hair and nails done, they find out when there’s a $100 tax refund and do the paperwork for that, they go to movies – all that but they can’t spend an hour to vote every couple of years.

  78. 78.

    Goblue72

    @Mike J: yes. That is what I was asking. Curious if it was a city in OC. Wouldn’t be surprised. Heck, there’s even some towns in the Bay Area I wouldn’t be surprised at that. (Certain cities in Contra Costa County, I’m looking at you.)

  81. 81.

    Roger Moore

    @Bennett:

    Why has its mayor & council not suspended or fired the police chief, responded to its community, and acted as if they gave a damn?

    They don’t give a damn and aren’t good enough actors to pretend. The city government is white dominated and appears to see the police department’s job as keeping the majority black populace under control and fining them to bring in revenue. That’s exactly what the police have been doing, and the city government isn’t going to fire the police chief for doing his job no matter what you, I, or the black citizens of Ferguson think.

  82. 82.

    Mandalay

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    or, as my great aunt who lived in Missouri called it , “Missoura”

    Doesn’t everyone who lives there pronounce it that way? When I lived in Arkansas I never heard anyone pronounce it Missour-ee.

  84. 84.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Mandalay: Yup, I reckon you’re right about that.

    The PNW English pronunciation has always been “Missour-ee”, though.

  85. 85.

    Steeplejack

    @Mandalay:

    I lived in Missouri for three years and heard many people pronounce it with a long e at the end. They didn’t stress it, though.

  89. 89.

    Mandalay

    @Goblue72:

    Missouri – 6.9% of A-A’s cannot vote due to felon disenfranchisement laws.

    It’s awful, but this is something Rand Paul is trying to address. And anyone who wants to leap in and tell us what a POS he is should also be required to list the Democrats who are doing more than Rand Paul on this issue. I don’t know of any.

    To highlight the injustice of what we do, the European Court of Human Rights has overruled Britain’s prohibition on voting by prisoners. As Kurt Vonnegut used to say, think of that. Britain is in the shit for disenfranchising prisoners, yet some states here won’t let them vote even after they are released.

    We are a wealthy country, but socially we remain in the Dark Ages.

  90. 90.

    askew

    @Mandalay:

    Corey Booker is working with Rand Paul on this issue. He’s doing as much lifting as Rand is. He just gets less press coverage.

  91. 91.

    patrick II

    @Pattonbt:

    Obviously, that’s pretty tame stuff,

    It is tame right up until the stopped person isn’t deferential enough — at which time it can get serious in a hurry. Ask any number of stopped and then beaten black men. The potential for any stop to turn into a serious incident is always just a hair away, which is why that sort of racial profiling is more insidious and stifling than just accounting for the number of traffic stops would seem.

  92. 92.

    Mandalay

    @askew:

    Corey Booker is working with Rand Paul on this issue. He’s doing as much lifting as Rand is. He just gets less press coverage.

    I thought the same myself until a few minutes ago. I amended my comment after reading this:

    Correction: Mr. Paul is sponsoring a bill that would allow non-violent felons to regain their voting rights after serving time. The initial version of this post incorrectly said Democratic Sen. Cory Booker was also a sponsor.

  93. 93.

    Violet

    @Mandalay:

    It’s awful, but this is something Rand Paul is trying to address. And anyone who wants to leap in and tell us what a POS he is should also be required to list the Democrats who are doing more than Rand Paul on this issue. I don’t know of any.

    Link:

    Paul has proposed a bill that would restore all federal voting rights to nonviolent felony offenders not on probation or parole on release from prison. Meanwhile, Maryland Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin has introduced a bill, the Democracy Restoration Act of 2014, which would enfranchise all felons on release regardless of their crime or level of post-incarceration monitoring.

  94. 94.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Steeplejack: Well, my great aunt was originally from Arkansas, and lived in Thayer…which is right on the border with Arkansas.

    So there’s that.

  95. 95.

    askew

    @Mandalay:

    That’s weird. Booker is definitely working with Paul on criminal justice issues. I’ve seen them do media together about it.

  96. 96.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @Mandalay: Paul is still a complete asshole and unworthy of federal office. If you add everything up.

  97. 97.

    Mnemosyne

    @Violet:

    So Paul has talked about introducing a bill, while Cardin has actually introduced one, but Paul gets all the credit and Cardin gets ignored while people sneer about Democrats not doing anything.

    Ah, glibertarians.

  99. 99.

    Mandalay

    @Violet: Excellent news – I did not know about that. Thanks. While Cardin’s bill goes further, my understanding is that Paul has been forced to reduce the potency of his original proposal in order for it to have any chance of progressing. Even if neither bill goes anywhere they represent a step forward, however small.

  100. 100.

    Violet

    @Mnemosyne: Cardin’s probably not media-sexy like Paul. By media-sexy I mean “the media find him sexy”, not that he is in any way sexy.

  101. 101.

    Pattonbt

    @patrick II: sorry. I meant only what I witnessed was tame in the context of the larger issues involved and being discussed. Obviously what I witnessed is only the tip of the iceberg, but I didn’t want to exaggerate my experiences into more than they were.

  102. 102.

    patrick II

    @Pattonbt:

    Don’t be sorry, and thanks for amplifying my remark. I didn’t mean to be strident, but that sword of damocles constantly hanging over their heads during any encounter with white cops must be horrible.

  103. 103.

    BobS

    @askew: Don’t look for Booker to do a lot of “lifting” on behalf of the poor and downtrodden. He’ll be too busy saturating every form of media with his presence while doing the bidding of Wall Street (and Silicon Valley). He’s the Ted Cruz of the Democratic Party — they both see the Senate as a warm-up for the White House.

  104. 104.

    Tata

    The New York Times did not dived, it dove. I’ve seen that quite a few times recently. As a reader-type-person, it feels as if I’ve hit a speed bump.

  105. 105.

    Interrobang

    @Mandalay: In Canada, prisoners have been able to vote for as long as I can remember. If you go to the Elections Canada website, they have special sections on how to vote from various kinds of institutions (e.g. prisons and hospitals).

    I bet the Conservatives don’t garner much of the prison vote. There is probably a goodly faction in this country anymore that is in prison because of Conservative policies…

  106. 106.

    drkrick

    @Mike in NC:

    Video I see seems to indicate cops outnumber protesters by roughly three to one. They really look like Gestapo goons.

    Counting the agents provocateurs or not? Maybe they only work the late shift.

  107. 107.

    drkrick

    @I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:

    Visit the Times from a PrivateBrowsing/Incognito tab to get around their limits. Ctrl-Shift-P in Firefox, Ctrl-Shift-N in Chrome.

    FYI for those interested: this doesn’t seem to fool the Washington Post.

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