I was prepping a post about the Wednesday afternoon I-70 protest near Ferguson, Missouri, when I ran across this story, below. Tonight’s piece is a truly twisted follow-up, of sorts, to my diary here (NY Times Reports Ferguson City Government To Announce "Broad Changes" To Its Municipal Courts Today) on Tuesday.
Ferguson reform to courts system could leave residents paying more
Council says it wants to stop fines being used as a source of revenue for the city, but new 15% rule means an extra $3m could be taken from residents already feeling ‘preyed upon’
Jon Swaine in New York
theguardian.com
Wednesday 10 September 2014 19.33 EDT
Reforms to the controversial courts system in Ferguson, Missouri, where the fatal police shooting of an unarmed teenager led to intense protests last month, would actually allow authorities to collect and spend almost 50% more money from court fines next year than forecast for 2014.
A new rule, introduced by the city council at a bad-tempered meeting with residents on Tuesday evening, states that no more than 15% of Ferguson’s revenue may come from court fines. Residents have blamed the fines for raising tensions with Ferguson authorities, which were amplified by the killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown in August.
A statement released by Devin James, a public relations executive recruited to help improve Ferguson’s image, said when the measure was announced that it “sends a clear message that the fines imposed as punishment in the municipal court are not to be viewed as a source of revenue for the city”.
Ferguson expected to collect about $2m in court fines in the 2014 fiscal year, according to its latest budget documents. This represents about 11.2% of the city’s $18.6m total annual revenues.
But under the new rule, Ferguson could collect 15% of the $20.2m total revenue that the city is expecting for 2015. This is more than $3m, an increase of $943,800 on the total taken in 2014 under the existing system that has caused such anger among residents of Ferguson. Court takings have risen by 44% since 2010 under a newly aggressive system of traffic policing, according to the city…
Meanwhile, near the I-70 exit for Ferguson on Wednesday, there was this…
Ferguson protest tries to shut down I-70, as calls continue for McCulloch to step down
By Wesley Lowery
Washington Post
September 10 at 9:30 PM
Protesters in Missouri tried to shut down Interstate 70 on Wednesday, an act of civil disobedience aimed at forcing the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown.
The protest march — which police physically prevented from entering the freeway — is the latest flash point in what has been a near-nonstop call from leaders of Ferguson’s black community for St. Louis County prosecutor Robert McCulloch, who they allege has a history of protecting police officers, to be removed from the case. More than 115,000 people nationwide have signed an online petition demanding his removal.
But Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon (D) has refused calls for him to ask that McCulloch step aside. And Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) said in an interview on MSNBC last month that she has known McCulloch for 30 years and that, if she were governor, she would not remove him from the case…
…
… There have been at least four instances in which McCulloch presented evidence to a grand jury regarding a fatal police shooting, according to a review conducted by The Washington Post of archived local news media coverage. In none of those cases was the officer indicted…
(Click on the
LINK HERE, or in the first sentence of this diary, for the NY Times’ take on Wednesday’s I-70 protest near Ferguson. The Grey Lady's reporting 35 people were arrested.)
Here’s video via YouTube…
Protesters Arrested At Ferguson Highway I-70 Blockage
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