21000 residents of Ferguson, 16000 have active warrents

[Drazzil]

96% of those are black. Holy shit. WTF?

[Jaymann]

Relax, according to Ben Shapiro there is no racism in America, only bad decisions.

[El Guapo]

What I was shocked to learn (but which is in DOJ's civil rights report on Ferguson, pre-Trump when we actually enforced civil rights provisions) is that the Ferguson city planner was regularly in contact with the Chief of Police on the gathering of revenue. Basically, "we could use $X for the city budget so can you deploy Y police officers during Z period?" Basically the city was consciously using fines and law enforcement to generate revenue for the city, on the backs of the mostly black residents.

[stessier]

Just to confirm, this is based on the 2015 DOJ report, right?

[El Guapo]

Just to confirm, this is based on the 2015 DOJ report, right?

Yes.

[malchior]

What I'd like to see personally is what outcomes did the report lead to. The report was scathing and honestly I felt like members of the government were acting in a way that was quasi-criminal or should be at least. So based on that I'd love to know if anything got better or did everyone just move on once the media train left town.

[stessier]

Probably need to wait for a different administration to get that information.

[Grifman]

What I'd like to see personally is what outcomes did the report lead to. The report was scathing and honestly I felt like members of the government were acting in a way that was quasi-criminal or should be at least. So based on that I'd love to know if anything got better or did everyone just move on once the media train left town.

Well, they got a new police chief out of it.

[LawBeefaroni]

Not quite the same but Chicago has done away with library fines and greatly reduced parking fines and other penalties.

The Chicago City Council on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved an overhaul of its punitive ticketing and debt collection system, including an end to the suspension of driver’s licenses over unpaid parking tickets.

The reforms begin to deliver on Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s campaign promise to stop balancing the budget on the backs of the poor with aggressive fines and fees, an issue that gained attention last year as a result of investigations by ProPublica Illinois in collaboration with WBEZ Chicago.

The investigations, which showed how unpaid tickets have sent tens of thousands of black and low-income motorists into bankruptcy, were amplified by advocates and community groups that mobilized to persuade city and state legislators to address the effects that ticketing has on low-income and minority communities.

[Scoop20906]

This is maddening to imagine.