Oops.
Here’s the second story, the one that describes how private companies are getting big $$ returns for handling the collection of municipal fines etc.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/without-funds-pay-fines-minor-incidents-can-mean-jail-time/
There are 90 municipalities 
in the St. Louis area and from what I hear a lot of the smaller ones are run exactly like Ferguson. Here’s hoping the DOJ findings helps shake things up a bit even if the main motivation is to avoid looking like another Ferguson.
Well, in conservorforumworld they are not believing the DoJ report at all. They believe it is all the fault of the blacks in Ferguson, not the police department.
I read a thread earlier this morning and I couldn’t believe what I was reading.
Yes, those habitually unlucky Colored Folks are wholly responsible for their own misery when approached by the Police. The ‘He Bled on my Uniform and That’s a Crime’ perpetrator case should have made that clear. Oh, the dutiful officers lied in that case? Never-mind!
Ferguson is mostly black so most of the police interaction will be with blacks. That is unsurprising and kind of a given. Racist emails here and there is also unsurprising unfortunately. I think the point is this report could be identically produced in almost any PD investigation and the reasons for doing it here are interesting since it was sparked by the MB imaginary episode of police brutality which even the DOJ has finally concluded did not occur after months of rioting and investigating which is also totally not surprising.
I had to pay 500-bucks once for being caught by a red light camera. I think the city wanted the money.
“Racist emails here and there is also unsurprising unfortunately. I think the point is this report could be identically produced in almost any PD investigation and the reasons for doing it here are interesting since it was sparked by the MB imaginary episode of police brutality which even the DOJ has finally concluded did not occur after months of investigating. Also unsurprising.”
Egads, that reads like an opinion piece from the Reich Ministry of Propaganda in 1939!
Well, there is no opinion in there. It’s what actually happened.
@marie1234 Racist emails did happen, “unfortunately.” That doesn’t reveal a frame of mind to you? If any employee where I work ever sent an email like those, there would be immediate and severe disciplinary action. Different frame of mind. Racism is simply unacceptable among the people I spend my time with.
Yes, the head of Sony was required to take a meeting with Al Sharpton. lol.
Oh this is funny?
Troubles are not over. Two officers shot in Ferguson.
And the officers shot were not Ferguson PD, the county and neighboring cities are still providing support and security for the nightly protests. Sad all around.
Sad but predictable result from all the mishandling.
The perpetrators whom shot the two officers last night are criminals, but like scholarme said…sad and predictable. What’s happening in Ferguson is nothing short of a popular revolt against a system of purposeful government unfairness and mistreatment. This town, and likely others, used very vulnerable citizens as a revenue source, with little recourse for redress. Like the crowds in Paris in 1789, they are fed up.
Interesting, I actually meant predictable from the other end - media attention and leadership actions all seemed continually inflammatory. Rather irresponsibly so.
It’s not irresponsible to use black citizens as cash machines, sic police dogs on black children but not on white people, arrest black people (but not white people) for walking the wrong way in the street, put black people in debtors prison. No, nothing wrong with that. The problem is when the media reports it. Got it.
Cardinal Fang, is there any data on the race of all of the people mistreated by the local authorities in that area in their revenue grab? I wonder if vulnerable hispanic or white citizens in the general area are subject to the same treatment. I am really not a fan of out of control government.
Real reform requires responsibility and restraint on the part of those implementing it.
As for the media - what did they do last night when shots rang out? They hid in the police station. I find that deeply ironic.
The reforms in the St. Louis County municipal courts are welcome and long overdue. Many of the 90 cities need to merge or disincorporate. There are plenty of people in the area who are happy to see attention paid to the court abuses, but outraged at the violence of some of the protesters.
As to walking down the street “the wrong way.” My neighborhood is full of joggers, dog walkers, and baby-stroller-pushers. These people walk on the side of the street (no sidewalks around here) and move over to let traffic pass. No problem, we all wave at each other and go on our way. Ferguson has a completely different situation. Young men walk down the middle of the street with the intention to obstruct traffic and intimidate. You get to pass through when they are good and ready to let you pass through. It is a show of power, and the police are right to cite the violators. In some areas this would be praised as “broken window” policing - citing the petty daily violations that make life unpleasant, instead of waiting for a murder before the police show up.
But only black people were arrested in Ferguson for walking the wrong way. Only black people got dogs sicced on them.