Feds: Ferguson PD Targets African Americans

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St. Louis shooting: Teen was shot in back - CNN.com

By Jason Hanna

A black man killed in a shooting by St. Louis police Wednesday died from a gunshot wound in the back, the city's police department said Friday, citing an autopsy.

Police have said that Mansur Ball-Bey, 18, pointed a gun at them before officers opened fire -- an account disputed by his family's attorney. Chief of Police Sam Dotson said that the wound's location doesn't confirm or disprove the officers' account that Ball-Bey pointed a gun, according to a report Friday by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

"Just because he was shot in the back doesn't mean he was running away," Dotson said, according to the Post-Dispatch. "It could be, and I'm not saying that it doesn't mean that. I just don't know yet."

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Ferguson judge withdraws arrest warrants before 2015 - CNN.com

By Greg Botelho and Sara Sidner, CNN
Updated 8:28 PM ET, Mon August 24, 2015

The municipal court judge in Ferguson, Missouri, on Monday announced sweeping changes to the city's court system, including an order to withdraw all arrest warrants issued in that city before December 31, 2014.

Municipal Court Judge Donald McCullin, who was appointed in June, also changed the conditions for pretrial release. According to a press release put out by Ferguson, all defendants will be given new court dates with alternative penalties like payment plans or community service.

Those caught for minor traffic violations should be less likely to end up behind bars because of McCullin. Under the new policy, they won't be arrested but instead will be released on their own recognizance and given another court date.

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Now because of McCullin's move, warrants -- many of which are from traffic tickets and fines people couldn't pay, as well as failure to appear in court -- have been wiped clean.

The court will revisit those cases, with new warrants issued only if a defendant fails to show up in court later, the city explained. And all suspensions of driver's licenses are now null and void.

Ferguson also says the changes go above and beyond a Missouri state bill passed this year to limit the percentage of revenue that cities can bring in from traffic fines and fees.

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African American grandmother slams Black Lives Matter crowd

African American grandmother slams Black Lives Matter crowd

Aug. 24, 2015 - 8:07 - Grandmother upset as protesters seem to ignore death of 9-year-old Ferguson girl on 'The Kelly File'


N.B. Language NSFW or young children. Peggy Hubbard "talked the talk"!


<script type="text/javascript" src="http://video.foxnews.com/v/embed.js?id=4442322172001&w=466&h=263"></script><noscript>Watch the latest video at <a href="http://video.foxnews.com">video.foxnews.com</a></noscript>

 

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Peggy Hubbard's Video on Black Lives Matter - The Atlantic

CONOR FRIEDERSDORF AUG 24, 2015

Over the weekend, at least 7 million people watched Peggy Hubbard, a black grandmother, excoriate the Black Lives Matter movement in an emotional video posted to her Facebook page. 71,000 people liked the post. 16,000 people left comments. And discussions like this one on Reddit rippled out across the Internet.

Two breaking news events prompted the U.S. Navy veteran, who grew up in Ferguson, Missouri, to speak out and share her feelings. In the first, two white police officers killed Mansur Ball-Bey, a young black man. Police say that he tried to flee out the back door of the house where they were serving a warrant and that he pointed a stolen gun at them before they shot, a narrative that his family disputes. In the second news story, 9-year-old Jamyla Bolden was killed by a stray bullet from a drive-by shooting as she lay in her mother’s bed. The perpetrator is unknown.

...

Long article worth the read. I don't know anything about the website. Never been there before. Found it via google searching for Peggy Hubbard video.

 

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Progress In Ferguson

Progress In Ferguson

Man charged in death of 9-year-old girl in Ferguson | Fox News

The shooter of 9 year old Jamyla Bolden was I.D.ed by a WITNESS.

 

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Ferguson City Council seeks changes to DOJ reform agreement - US News

Associated Press Feb. 10, 2016, at 2:23 a.m.

By JIM SALTER, Associated Press

FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) — The Ferguson City Council agreed Tuesday to most proposals in a settlement with the U.S. Justice Department that would reform the city's courts and policing systems but also asked for several changes, including some limiting the city's cost.

The changes announced before a crowd of about 300 at the Ferguson Community Center angered many who supported the original consent decree. Several protesters began chanting, "No justice, no peace," and other refrains common during protests in the St. Louis suburb after 18-year-old Michael Brown was fatally shot by a police officer in 2014.

The settlement was meant to correct problems identified in a Justice Department report last year, including unconstitutional and discriminatory practices across the police force and municipal court system. The deal had been reached following seven months of negotiations, but a city analysis over the past few days determined the city's cost would be up to $3.7 million for the first year alone. That prompted concern from some residents and city officials that it would bankrupt Ferguson.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/11/u...ment-sues-ferguson-over-police-deal.html?_r=0

By MATT APUZZOFEB. 10, 2016

WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice filed a civil rights lawsuit against Ferguson, Mo., on Wednesday, less than a day after the city rejected an agreement to overhaul its beleaguered criminal justice system and address allegations of widespread abuses by its police department.

“Their decision leaves us no further choice,” Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch said at a news conference announcing the suit.

The federal and local authorities had spent months negotiating a settlement that would have prohibited police officers from making arrests without probable cause, installed a federal monitor and barred officers from using stun guns as punishment. But after city officials raised concerns about the cost of the settlement, the Ferguson City Council voted, 6 to 0, on Tuesday night to change the terms — knowing that the Department of Justice had promised to respond with a lawsuit

For city officials, calling the bluff of the Obama administration was a risky move. Ms. Lynch and her predecessor, Eric H. Holder Jr., have brought an unprecedented number of civil rights lawsuits against municipal police departments. Ferguson’s own lawyer has said that fighting a suit will probably cost millions of dollars, well more than the city has budgeted. Nevertheless, Mayor James Knowles III said, “It will cost more to implement the agreement than it will be to fight a lawsuit.” He added, “There’s no point in agreeing to something we can’t afford."

...

It was an expensive deal. It called for Ferguson to pay for an independent monitor, provide new training and give raises to police officers in order to attract qualified applicants. Ferguson has been running an operating deficit of about $2.5 million since the unrest of a year and a half ago, but Mr. Knowles said at the time that he was optimistic the City Council would approve the deal.

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Ms. Lynch said the federal government was sensitive to Ferguson’s concerns. The Department of Justice had agreed to cap the costs and provide free help to the city.

But at a crowded public hearing on Tuesday, the agreement fell apart. Council members and some residents said they could not afford the cost, which could have required a tax increase. The city said that giving pay raises to police officers could necessitate similar raises for other municipal employees.

With senior Justice Department officials watching from Washington on a video feed, the Council voted to reject the deal as written and send it back with changes. Members of the Council proposed eliminating the pay raises for police officers and, most significant, striking a provision that would have required the city to abide by the deal even if it dissolved the Police Department and turned police duties over to an outside agency.

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The DOJ may cure the disease while the patient dies due to the cure.

Ferguson estimates DOJ measures to raise the budget by $3.7 million in the first year.

Here's a copy of the 2116 Ferguson Budget. There's a lot of red in it ... without the DOJ measures.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/11/u...ment-sues-ferguson-over-police-deal.html?_r=0

They project $17.6 million in revenue and $24 million in expenditures for about a $4.6 million deficit.

They spent $200,000 or so for overtime in the Public Safety Divison (Police) last year.

As part of the DOJ Decree Agreement fines like jaywalking and other fines deem predatory are banned, although allowed by Missouri State law and still used by communities surrounding Ferguson. Ferguson projects a Fines and Fees reduction in 2016 at some $17,000. It apparently was much of a money maker.

Ferguson has declining real estate value, higher delinquincies, and I would suspect lower sales tax revenue based on burned out/damaged businesses.

The two largest employers are the Florissant School District and the Community College. Emerson Electric is the biggest industrial employer with stores like Walmart rounding out the top 10. It not a growing area.

Despite the lack of growth, the City has 70 miles of paved roads and another 10 miles of unpaved roads to maintain and patrol.

Ferguson renovated their police station last year inside but they need a new roof for $40K or so.

They get additonal revenue from the state from Gas Tax, etc but those shared revenues are also down as they are in many states meaning less revenue to meet the budget.

IF the DOJ Decree is only half the size that Ferguson projects, the city can't afford to pay for the measures such as hiring additional police officers. IF DOJ forces Ferguson to use a Regional entitiy such as St Louis County to provide police and public safety services there may be some cost savings measures such as dispatchers, one chief, administration/HR but they will still need at least the same number of officers and probably more as DOJ is requiring more street presence than cruisers. "Press the flesh" and "Know the neighborhood" techniques foot patrols rather than rapid response.

Looking at that budget I don't see the fat to trim to underwrite the required additional expenditures. Other city services and/or capital expenditures like the PD roof, drainage improvements, senior facilities, parks, etc have would have to take a major hit.

The DOJ can play the lawyer game and bury the City in legal fees and that appears to be the game. Ferguson can acquiese and just bleed out or fight the DOJ and bleed out faster in legal fees.

I don't see the public being served in either case.

 

[calvegas04]

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Ferguson Back in the news.

Ferguson Back in the news.

Ferguson, Missouri, protest leader found shot dead in burning car: police | Reuters

Wed Sep 7, 2016 1:10pm EDT
By Laila Kearney

Missouri detectives have not determined a motive or identified any witnesses in an investigation into the death of a man who led protests in the city of Ferguson following the fatal 2014 shooting of Michael Brown by a law enforcement officer, police said on Wednesday.

Protest leader Darren Seals, 29, was found shot inside a burning car in the village of Riverview, about five miles east of Ferguson, early on Tuesday, St. Louis County Police said in a statement.

Ferguson, a St. Louis suburb, gained national attention because of rioting after the August 2014 shooting of Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old, by white police officer Darren Wilson. Most protests were peaceful, but violence erupted again when a grand jury decided not to bring charges against Wilson.

A federal investigation later found patterns of racial discrimination by Ferguson police.

The demonstrations helped to coalesce the civil rights movement Black Lives Matter.

"I don’t recall anyone having a longer protest, a more productive protest, a more creative protest than what we did," Seals said in an interview with MTV released in November 2014. "I don’t think people will ever really appreciate what we did until years from now."

Hours before Seals' death, he posted on Twitter about Colin Kaepernick, a San Francisco 49ers National Football League quarterback who protested racial injustice and police brutality by declining to stand for the national anthem, and the U.S. presidential election. In his Twitter profile, Seals described himself as a "businessman, revolutionary, activist, unapologetically BLACK, Afrikan in AmeriKKKa, fighter, leader."

Police have not determined a motive for the crime or identified any witnesses, Sergeant Shawn McGuire said. McGuire declined to say in which part of Seals' body he was shot.

County police said officers were first called to investigate a burning vehicle in Riverview. "When the fire was extinguished, a deceased male subject was located inside of the vehicle," the department said in a statement.

Seals, whose last-known address was in St. Louis, was identified as the victim.

 

[kmoose]

Ferguson, Missouri, protest leader found shot dead in burning car: police | Reuters

Wed Sep 7, 2016 1:10pm EDT
By Laila Kearney

I hope they find those responsible, and bring them to justice. I think this guy probably got what was coming to him("Revolutionary" is an inherently dangerous job title), but I doubt he deserved to get it in the manner that he did.

 

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Federal judge dismisses Ferguson protesters' $41.5 million lawsuit against police | Law and order | stltoday.com

By Robert Patrick St. Louis Post-Dispatch 2 hrs ago

ST. LOUIS • A federal judge has dismissed a civil rights lawsuit that alleged police used excessive force against Ferguson protesters and violated their civil rights.

U.S. District Judge Henry Autrey on Friday ruled in favor of summary judgment motions filed by police, police officials, St. Louis County and the city of Ferguson. The order appeared publicly in electronic court files Monday, the same day that lawyers for protesters filed a notice that they would appeal.

In his order, Autrey said that the protesters who filed the suit “have completely failed to present any credible evidence that any of the actions taken by these individuals were taken with malice or were committed in bad faith.”

Autrey wrote that protesters were told to disperse, and when they did not and officers were ordered to begin making arrests, those officers gave repeated warnings before they started arresting protesters.

Autrey ruled that individual police officers were “entitled to official and qualified immunity” from the lawsuit, and therefore their supervisors and St. Louis County were also entitled to immunity.

In ruling for police on the summary judgment motion, Autrey had to view the evidence “in the light most favorable” to the plaintiffs and find that “no genuine issue of material fact exists and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.”

Autrey ruled that many of the plaintiffs’ claims were not backed up by video evidence or other testimony.

Tracey White, one of the plaintiffs, had alleged that she and her 17-year-old son were arrested inside of the Ferguson McDonald’s. She claimed officers with rifles rushed in “like something out of a movie.” She claimed that she was thrown to the ground and arrested when she protested the treatment of her son, who she claimed was arrested when she tried to give him the iPad she was carrying.

But videos showed that she was actually arrested a block away. “She agreed that video showed an officer placing hand ties on her, and that she was not on the ground, and that there was no knee in her back,” Autrey wrote. “No racial epithets or slurs were used against Tracey White.”

Another plaintiff, Dwayne A. Matthews Jr., had claimed that he was walking to his mother’s house on Aug. 13 when he was shot with rubber-coated bullets, pepper-sprayed and nearly drowned in a drainage ditch before being beaten before and after he was restrained.

But Autrey wrote that Matthews’ “own statements (to paramedics and hospital staff) belie his position.”

Plaintiffs Damon Coleman and Theophilus Green claimed that they were hit by less-than-lethal projectiles fired by three officers, Autrey found, but were unable to contradict statements by those officers that they were not carrying such equipment that night.

Other plaintiffs were unable to identify the officers that they claimed committed violations, Autrey found, or were not hurt during the encounters.

Gregory Lattimer, one of the lawyers representing protesters, said in a telephone interview Monday: “It’s unfortunate that the Constitution has such a rough time in Missouri, but I think that the court of appeals will look at this and make a determination that ... the judge’s refusal to allow these cases to go forward was not consistent with applicable law.

“This is summary judgment and a jury should have been able to decide whether or not these actions were OK,” he said.

Lattimer characterized White’s claims about McDonald’s as a “mix up” and said people were “taken out of the McDonald’s” and then “moved up and down the street illegally.” He said, “Well, you took them out of the restaurant, put them on the street, and then tell them they failed to disperse.”

He called issues created by his clients’ inability to identify police officers one of the “most disturbing aspects,” noting that officers wore masks and took off their badges. “They obscure their identity and then because you can’t identify them, then the officer goes free. That is not the way it is supposed to work.”

St. Louis County Counselor Peter Krane called it a “well-considered opinion” but declined to comment in detail.

The original $41.5 million lawsuit was filed Aug. 28, 2014, by protesters who variously alleged that they were pepper-sprayed, shot with rubber bullets, beaten and arrested. It was amended to add more plaintiffs that October.

This year, lawyers for the police filed motions to dismiss, claiming that much of what had been alleged was incorrect.

The arrests were among hundreds during protests that followed the Aug. 9, 2014, fatal shooting of Michael Brown, 18, by Ferguson police Officer Darren Wilson.

 

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Federal judge dismisses Ferguson protesters' $41.5 million lawsuit against police | Law and order | stltoday.com

By Robert Patrick St. Louis Post-Dispatch 2 hrs ago

I'm shocked I tell you, SHOCKED!

 

[kmoose]

Federal judge dismisses Ferguson protesters' $41.5 million lawsuit against police | Law and order | stltoday.com

By Robert Patrick St. Louis Post-Dispatch 2 hrs ago

Black people just cannot get justice in a white man's court system.

 

[phgreek]

making shit up to pile on, so the police are further neutered...

...because they care about the neighborhood.