COLLOQUY BETWEEN COUNSEL ABOUT BLACK VOTER REPRESSION IN FERGUSON, MISSOURI

COLLOQUY BETWEEN LEARNED COUNSEL REGARDING WHY AND HOW FERGUSON HAS NO BLACK POLITICAL REPRESENTATION, THOUGH 70% BLACK! HERE IS HOW! Awesome! That answers my question! I knew there had to be a gimmick or mechanism of some sort to repress the black vote in a 70% black community! May I share your research on my FB page, for the benefit of my readers? No one else has come up with this fascinating information, respecting the dilution of black vote electoral tactics; which can be remedied, now via DOJ litigation, while the Ferguson Intifada is going on! Sent from my iPhone On Aug 18, 2014, at 10:04 I think it is a cycle. Disparate Over-policing in certain area leads to more unnecessary arrests, fines ( which you can be jailed for) and increased prosecutions lead to jail time /criminal record lead to loss of voting rights and/or can’t be on a jury in many states…kept out of certain employment and education (no expungements in Missouri) due to the criminal record leading to less able to afford to buy a house …. Slave state, couldn’t vote…Redlining…segregated schools….past restrictive covenants… All related. All intentional- imo. “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. Ferguson’s election system may also be a factor. For council elections, the city has three districts, or wards, and each ward elects two members each. That means it’s edging toward an “at-large” voting system, in which there are no districts at all, and all candidates face the whole electorate. Numerous jurisdictions around the country have used such systems to reduce minority representation, since it makes it harder for numerical minorities to elect their preferred candidates. Then there’s the school board. Ferguson shares a board with neighboring Florissant, which is mostly white. And the district uses an at-large system to elect its seven members. The result: Until earlier this year, the board had no black members. Earlier this year, the board ousted the district’s first ever African-American superintendent, Art McCoy a move that triggered protests in the black community. Yet in April, the two white board members who stood for re-election were duly voted back in (an African-American candidate was also elected to replace a retiring member). One of the re-elected whites declared afterward that he saw his victory as vindication in the controversy over McCoy’s ouster. It doesn’t help that Missouri’s city council and school board elections are held in April, rather than in November when they would coincide with state or federal contests. That arrangement leads to lower turnout across the board, but especially among racial minorities. Some southern cities have been accused of deliberately moving their municipal elections to the spring or summer in order to reduce black turnout. http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/ferguson-lack-diversity-goes-way-beyond-its-cops” Must watch today’s Democracy Now. (discussed Dred Scott in relation to Ferguson) http://www.democracynow.org/ Please let me know if you find out any other nuggets of information regarding your question. But I think this will change. Everybody is gonna vote now, everybody should get a gun permit for i.d. Have a good day, From: lcole81937@aol.com [mailto:lcole81937@aol.com] Sent: Sunday, August 17, 2014 9:54 AM Subject: WHY NO BLACK POLITICAL POWER IN FERGUSON, MISSOURI? WHY NO BLACK POLITICAL POWER IN FERGUSON, MO? A question that keeps nagging me about Ferguson, Missouri , is: "How in the world in 2014 can that city, which is almost 70% black, have so little--negligible--black political power in elective office? What specific electoral mechanisms are triggering this outcome? Is there a real estate ownership requirement? An earned income requirement? An education requirement? A non-criminal record requirement? All of these or something else? What is it? Whatever it is, that mechanism should be an additional focus of the daily demonstrators! They need power; people wise enough to share it, equitably, in every sector of town. I would hate to think that their slave mentalities, laziness, abject stupidity, and lack of initiative are the sole culprits for this power lack. If you know, please let me know?