How does a predominately black community have 5 white city council members out of 6?

[itsrobert]

A white Chief of Police and a predominately white police force?

Is it simply the result of voting?

It probably looks like I am blaming the victim. But I don't understand how this works.

Can someone explain please. There must be some type of corruption going on in the city.

[bravenak]

1. You just explained it.

"There must be some type of corruption going on in the city."

[KittyWampus]

2. city council members are appointed and not elected?

[bravenak]

6. No.

Black people are profiled and arrested and convicted more thereby taking away voting rights. And the cops are intimidating.
They seem to be living Jim Crow style.

[KittyWampus]

7. so the majority of the voting age black people in Ferguson have had their voting rights taken away?

someone below points out NYTimes mentioning population being somewhat transient. That would definitely create problems.

Especially with over zealous Republicans intimidating voters

Last Edit0-

SomethingFishy just started this thread>
Ferguson. In 2013 the town issued over 24,000 arrest warrants..


In a town with 21,000 people... Yes you saw those numbers right.

“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.”

The death of Michael Brown was just the straw. The residents of Ferguson have had enough, and the only people I can see blaming them are.. yes, privileged white people.

Sorry forgot the link...

http://www.newsweek.com/ferguson-profiling-police-courts-shooting-264744

[bravenak]

15. Not just voting rights. Civil rights are being abused.

Thank you for the link.

[Baitball Blogger]

21. The press are very proactive about reporting criminal records prior to elections,

especially if it's not someone they are trying to push through the process. Now THAT's the cycle that you need to look into. The rap sheet that results from the excessive attention that the black community gets from police kicks many of them out of the political process before they become adults.

I suspect that this is intentional.

[bravenak]

23. I think it is intentional too.

Something's rotten in Ferguson, and I suspect in many other places.

[yeoman6987]

25. You are playing into the Republican

Play book where they believe that African Americans only voted for him because he is also African American. Perhaps the voters chose who they thought was the best candidate regardless of skin color.

[bravenak]

27. I don't fit your description.

Sorry. I already get judged for my skin color.

And most people didn't vote.

[Chan790]

33. While that's probably part of it...

I don't think it's that simple. I've also noticed that the leaders and leadership from within the community, the people that would have been chosen by the community such as ministers and community organization leadership...also tend to be white. Seemingly, even when left to choose their own leaders, they predominantly choose white people.

They had Renita Lamkin, the pastor of the African Methodist Episcopal Church of Ferguson, on CNN earlier because she'd been shot with a rubber bullet during the protests while leading her congregation in a march...she appears to be white. I found an article on it, including pictures: here

I'm wondering if there's a bit of social conditioning involved here. I saw the same thing when I was a community organizer and activist in Brookland, DC about a decade ago...residents would seek me out over both minority peers and supervisors when then had an issue or need to address. It couldn't be because I was more-experienced (I wasn't...I was a college senior and an intern; most of my peers had 2+ years of experience, several had or were working on MSW degrees.) or more effective. (I had to bring 90% of those issues to other more-experienced people for guidance.)

[ladjf]

3. Election magic, a prevalent practice by Republicans. nt

[Avalux]

4. I read earlier that only 6% of the black community voted in the last municipal election.

Not sure why turnout was so low, but it has a lot to do with what you're asking.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

9. Rev Al pointed this our at the rally yesterday and implored citizens to vote. nt

[leftstreet]

11. Only 12% turnout overall

No one collects data on turnout by race in municipal elections. But the overall turnout numbers for Ferguson’s mayoral and city council election are discouraging. This year, just 12.3% of eligible voters cast a ballot, according to numbers provided by the county. In 2013 and 2012, those figures were even lower: 11.7% and 8.9% respectively. As a rule, the lower the turnout, the more the electorate skews white and conservative.

“I think there is a huge distrust in the system,” said Broadnax, a Ferguson native. Many blacks think: “Well it’s not going to matter anyway, so my one vote doesn’t count,” she said. “Well, if you get an entire community to individually feel that way, collectively we’ve already lost.”

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/ferguson-lack-diversity-goes-way-beyond-its-cops

[Avalux]

14. That, coupled with the obscene number of arrest warrants issued by Ferguson police...

it was a powder keg waiting to happen. Oppression by the authorities can only endure for so long. We see it on the world stage and it isn't any different in small town America.

[SomethingFishy]

20. They manage to hide it well.. had Brown not been shot

then this scam would have continued... Makes me wonder how many other communities are dealing with this.

[MADem]

26. I thought the Rev. Sharpton said 12 percent. It's still paltry, and it suggests that the

community feels/is disenfranchised.

[csziggy]

31. It could be 6% of the population, 12% of the eligible voters

Say 40% of the population is underage, 30% convicted of something that makes them ineligible to register to vote. That leaves 30% of the total population eligible to register. If only half that number actually register, you're down to 15% of the population registered. In a non-presidential year, less than half might actually get out to vote - you're down to less than 7% of the population voting. But maybe 15-25% of the eligible voters actually voting in that election.

These are completely made up figures based on various articles I have read about voter eligibility, voter registration figures, and other data.

No matter what the figures are now, it means that work needs to be done to register people - that probably means starting with getting them valid ID. Then they need to actually get to the polls and vote in every election.

And it needs to happen all over this country, not just in Ferguson, Missouri!

[MADem]

32. I get what you are saying!

I am not going to hold you to figures that are tossed out solely to serve as an example (something that happens here on occasion, unfortunately ...!) ... now, if they legalized weed, a lot of kids who are now regarded as "thugs" and "criminals" would turn into mischievous, high spirited teens and young adults, sort of like the "harmless pranksters" having keggers in the woods after the big game.

People forget that during the Great Depression, bootleggers and people who went to speakeasies were regarded as "thugs" and "criminals." Now, through the long lens of history, they're "rebels," and "high spirited," and "independent"...and most American families have, if not a bootlegger, a bootlegger's customer in their family tree.

[hack89]

5. It comes down to who actually votes in municipal elections

The issue boils down to who votes. Ferguson is roughly two-thirds black, but compared with the city’s whites, the community is younger, poorer (the city has a 22 percent poverty rate overall), and, as the New York Times recently wrote, somewhat transient, prone to moving “from apartment to apartment.” All of these factors make black residents less likely to go to the polls, especially in low-turnout municipal elections. And so whites dominate politically. “The entire mobilization side of it is what accounts for the difference,” Kimball said.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2014/08/14/ferguson_missouri_government_why_is_it_so_white.html

[ChisolmTrailDem]

10. That will change in St. Louis County after this. At least I hope it will. nt

[KittyWampus]

12. Good find. Thanks.

[Fred Sanders]

8. This might help:

http://pages.ucsd.edu/~zhajnal/page1/page2/files/page2_2.pdf

[MineralMan]

13. Here is the Recall Process in Missouri

Laws governing recall in Missouri
Missourians do not have the right of statewide recall. However, the right of local recall is available in:
Cities defined as Class 3 cities. A Class 3 City is defined as a city with a population between 3,000 and 29,999.
Cities that operate under their own city charter, if the specific city charter allows for recall.
The recall process that applies to Class 3 cities in Missouri is governed by MRS §77.650 and 78.260.
Generally:
Recall may not commence during first 6 months in office
Grounds for recall must be stated, and must include misconduct in office, incompetence, and failure to perform duties prescribed by law.
60 days is allowed for collecting signatures.
Signatures equal to 25% of the registered voters in the city must be collected.

Ferguson appears, by population, to fit the Class 3 city criteria.

First step is to get a larger percentage of black residents registered to vote.

Next, you recall the City Council and Mayor.

Once they've been replaced, the new City Council fires the police chief and hires a new one, preferably a black person, like the Highway Patrol captain, perhaps.

From there things would improve.

[LittleBlue]

16. They don't vote

That's the problem.

[Rowdyboy]

17. Simply incredible. I live in a town 75% black-the mayor, police chief, fire chief and 5 of 7

aldermen are black. Being in Mississippi, I guess they value the right to vote more because so many assholes worked so long to deny them that right.

All it takes is voting.

[politicat]

18. 1) city councils are often elected in odd years, when there is no GOTV effort.

2) City councils are often considered non-partisan, so no party puts any effort into GOTV.
3) Voter registration can be hard to maintain in a high rental community (because moving frequently changes precincts, requires updating, means hitting the county clerk or the DMV and those both have limited opening hours.) I live in one of these, and have been a precinct leader for my community. It means planning to walk the neighborhood at least 8 times 4 months before the election to do voter registration. My neighborhood takes 3 hours to walk if I get a 5% hit rate on people filling out the forms, more if I get a higher hit rate. I have to do at least two evening, two weekend and two weekday walks. It's a huge time investment that would be devastating if I was depending on having a 50-60 hour work week or had a highly unpredictable schedule. And I get lucky -- I live in a state and county with good vote by mail. If I had to do GOTV, too, precinct leader could easily be an unpaid, full-time job.
4) fewer landlines because cells are becoming more common, so even if a party or organization maintained voter lists, fewer reminder calls reach the people who need them, and a lot of people don't pick up for calls they don't recognize.
5) Missouri doesn't have a strong vote by mail system.
6) if most of the media is coming from the major metropolitan area instead of the local, then the reporters will have dozens of races to attend to, meaning any specific race will end up with light coverage. People need tickler files to remind them that there is in fact an election every year.
7) those voters who do turn out for off-year elections are more likely to be long-term homeowners who have not moved recently, more likely to have the free time, more likely to subscribe to a local newspaper (if one exists). These things tend to correlate with older, whiter, more economically stable citizens.
8) some states don't allow persons with some convictions to vote. (Missouri allows post-supervision to vote, as long as their conviction had nothing to do with voting.) While on parole/probation, however, voting is not permitted. Unfortunately, the fact that other states don't allow post-supervision felons to vote means that a lot of people believe that any conviction repeals their right to vote. When a community is issuing an average of 1.5 warrants per person, it's easy to see how many people would believe they're ineligible.
9) while employers are required to give employees unpaid time off to vote, that message gets garbled, too. People can think they'll lose their jobs or their bosses don't think to schedule time off.
10) people also deal with urban legends of voting causing warrants to be issued, or citations served, or INS showing up, or some authority noticing that voting has happened.

None of these are the reason, all of them are a reason I've heard and observed. There's a lot of voter education that gets missed and has to be reinforced. Plus, being poor often means struggling to stay under a roof, so having the spare cycles to pay attention to a minor election... And having to search for that information (because those running for CC are often self-funded and running on shoestring budgets, so they're not doing mailers or door hangers and hoping that a website or a few flyers will cut it) can be just one more headache that gets pushed off.

There are a lot of interests out there who propagate the urban legends about voting being denied, because if people think they can't, they won't bother trying. Unfortunately, it works.

If Ferguson was not three states away, I'd be out with my clipboard.

[BklnDem75]

19. Ferguson has a city manager...

John Shaw is the current city manger. Missouri runs on a council/manager government. Fergusoncity.com seems to be down. Weird...

[MohRokTah]

22. City Manager is appointed by the City Council.

City Manager can be removed from office by the City Council, too, according to Ferguson's city charter.

The City Manager has the power to hire and fire the Chief of Police.

And the people of Ferguson have the power to recall the entire city council in six months.

Check Mineral Man's thread on same.

This entire local political situation is directly related to the lack of turnout for local elections.

[VanGoghRocks]

24. Grammar Nazi here: "Predominantly" (not 'predominately'). Pedantic itch

scratched, this is a great question you raise and one I had been pondering but was unable to voice so succintly.

[KamaAina]

28. How does a highly diverse community have an all-white city council?

Santa Clara, CA, the new home of the 49ers.

[LannyDeVaney]

29. Voting caucus took place over a nice bowl of Klu Klux Klam chowder iyam**

**

[bluestateguy]

30. Unless there is massive voter suppression taking place

the only other answer I can come to is low voter turnout. And maybe compulsory voting would be a good idea. No excuses.

[JI7]

34. if you mean Ferguson isn't it only in recent years it has become majority black ?