Ferguson Megathread

[Pragia]

Because greedy-ass corporations keep throwing jobs out of the country. If there aren't enough jobs, then there are less people able to earn a living. If people don't have jobs, they don't get money, hence growing gap. Doesn't help that moving jobs away allows the rich to profit even more. If there were enough open jobs here, we probably would not have nearly as bad a gap.

The gap is also racial. I agree that the rich are getting richer, and that it's a problem, but racism is still endemic.
http://datatools.metrotrends.org/charts ... 3-2010.jpg

If there were a demand for jobs, race should not matter, as anyone wanting to work could get a job.

[The Cobalt Sky]

The gap is also racial. I agree that the rich are getting richer, and that it's a problem, but racism is still endemic.
http://datatools.metrotrends.org/charts ... 3-2010.jpg

If there were a demand for jobs, race should not matter, as anyone wanting to work could get a job.

But people are still racist.

[Gauthier]

The gap is also racial. I agree that the rich are getting richer, and that it's a problem, but racism is still endemic.
http://datatools.metrotrends.org/charts ... 3-2010.jpg

If there were a demand for jobs, race should not matter, as anyone wanting to work could get a job.

Except of course for things like linguistic profiling, where people who "sound black/brown" over the phone are less likely to get callbacks for job interviews or apartment/loan approvals than those who "sound white".

Linguistic profiling: The sound of your voice may determine if you get that apartment or not

[Mavorpen]

If there were a demand for jobs, race should not matter, as anyone wanting to work could get a job.

Except of course for things like linguistic profiling, where people who "sound black/brown" over the phone are less likely to get callbacks for job interviews or apartment/loan approvals than those who "sound white".

Linguistic profiling: The sound of your voice may determine if you get that apartment or not

Obviously, they should just speak correctly. Gosh, people just complain about anything these days.

[Gauthier]

Except of course for things like linguistic profiling, where people who "sound black/brown" over the phone are less likely to get callbacks for job interviews or apartment/loan approvals than those who "sound white".

Linguistic profiling: The sound of your voice may determine if you get that apartment or not

Obviously, they should just speak correctly. Gosh, people just complain about anything these days.

It's God punishing people for using ebonics. *nod nod*

[Yumyumsuppertime]

Facing a budget deficit, the town fathers of Ferguson have decided that it would be a wise move to increase revenue through increased ticketing, thereby bringing law enforcement into confrontations with local residents even more frequently. This has to be one of the most incompetent city governments in the nation, possibly as bad as Detroit in terms of sheer consistency of mind-bogglingly terrible moves.

The strategy by the St. Louis suburb, which suffered a second round of violent protests last month after a grand jury refused to indict the police officer, may risk worsening community relations with increased citations and weakening its credit standing by reducing a rainy-day fund.

To close a projected deficit for fiscal 2014, which ended June 30, the municipality will deplete a $10 million capital-projects reserve, Jeffrey Blume, Ferguson’s finance director, said in a telephone interview. For the current year, the city is budgeting for higher receipts from police-issued tickets.

“There are a number of things going on in 2014 and one is a revenue shortfall that we anticipate making up in 2015,” Blume said. “There’s about a million-dollar increase in public-safety fines to make up the difference.”

Revenue from violations, which already represents the city’s second-largest source of cash after sales taxes, will rise to 15.7 percent of receipts in fiscal 2015, from a projected 11.8 percent this year, he said. In 2013, fines brought in $2.2 million, or 11.8 percent of the city’s $18.62 million in annual revenue, according to budget documents.

[Big Jim P]

Facing a budget deficit, the town fathers of Ferguson have decided that it would be a wise move to increase revenue through increased ticketing, thereby bringing law enforcement into confrontations with local residents even more frequently. This has to be one of the most incompetent city governments in the nation, possibly as bad as Detroit in terms of sheer consistency of mind-bogglingly terrible moves.

The strategy by the St. Louis suburb, which suffered a second round of violent protests last month after a grand jury refused to indict the police officer, may risk worsening community relations with increased citations and weakening its credit standing by reducing a rainy-day fund.

To close a projected deficit for fiscal 2014, which ended June 30, the municipality will deplete a $10 million capital-projects reserve, Jeffrey Blume, Ferguson’s finance director, said in a telephone interview. For the current year, the city is budgeting for higher receipts from police-issued tickets.

“There are a number of things going on in 2014 and one is a revenue shortfall that we anticipate making up in 2015,” Blume said. “There’s about a million-dollar increase in public-safety fines to make up the difference.”

Revenue from violations, which already represents the city’s second-largest source of cash after sales taxes, will rise to 15.7 percent of receipts in fiscal 2015, from a projected 11.8 percent this year, he said. In 2013, fines brought in $2.2 million, or 11.8 percent of the city’s $18.62 million in annual revenue, according to budget documents.

That is pretty fucking stupid.

[Yumyumsuppertime]

Facing a budget deficit, the town fathers of Ferguson have decided that it would be a wise move to increase revenue through increased ticketing, thereby bringing law enforcement into confrontations with local residents even more frequently. This has to be one of the most incompetent city governments in the nation, possibly as bad as Detroit in terms of sheer consistency of mind-bogglingly terrible moves.

That is pretty fucking stupid.

I'm frankly surprised that the locals didn't take a match to the place years ago.

[Buse]

...

That wont help it. A city that is living on welfare and dont contribute to economy is a matter of time when will it gone bankrupt.

[Buse]

Most polling organizations would disagree with you: The one remaining group among white voters that consistently votes Democratic are people with post-graduate degrees. In the recent mid-term election, this group broke 54-46 in favor of the Democrats, while high-school graduates who had either not yet gone to or not yet completed college broke 54-46 in favor of Republicans.

Now, it is true that among those who have NEVER gone to college, Democrats hold a narrow lead (51-49) in the last election. That is probably due more to socioeconomic factors than education, however. Republicans do best among people with SOME college education (up to and including a degree), but no FURTHER education beyond their undergraduate studies..

To be fair I think you should first explain which methodologythey have used to determine this facts.

IOW, Republicans do best among people with just enough education to be professionally successful on an individual basis, but not quite enough to really understand how the world actually works.

I would say quite the opposite. The Republicans are endorsing the societal philosophy that worked in America since the founding of the country. That is life, property and liberty. An ancient philosophy that stems from the English common law.

The Progressives are the one who want enforce something that is traditionally foreign in America and dont fit to the culture of the nation. They want to copy Europe which is not bad bt they just dont understand that the German/French system of welfare cannot work in the US. The US is not a collectivistic society.

So I somehow doubt about the statement that Progressives know better how the world works.

[Yumyumsuppertime]

...

That wont help it. A city that is living on welfare and dont contribute to economy is a matter of time when will it gone bankrupt.

Not only will it not help, it will actively make things worse. Things have already boiled over there due to a perceived pattern of police harassment of minority residents, with things obviously having come to a head after the grand jury decision in the Michael Brown case. This will inevitably increase a perception of harassment, and those who cannot pay their tickets will likely end up with failure to appear warrants, which will lead to further resistance to the idea of willingly submitting to detainment or arrest, which in turn will increase the risk of violent confrontation to an unacceptable degree. It's almost like they want to see it all go up in flames.

[Yumyumsuppertime]

Most polling organizations would disagree with you: The one remaining group among white voters that consistently votes Democratic are people with post-graduate degrees. In the recent mid-term election, this group broke 54-46 in favor of the Democrats, while high-school graduates who had either not yet gone to or not yet completed college broke 54-46 in favor of Republicans.

Now, it is true that among those who have NEVER gone to college, Democrats hold a narrow lead (51-49) in the last election. That is probably due more to socioeconomic factors than education, however. Republicans do best among people with SOME college education (up to and including a degree), but no FURTHER education beyond their undergraduate studies..

To be fair I think you should first explain which methodologythey have used to determine this facts.

IOW, Republicans do best among people with just enough education to be professionally successful on an individual basis, but not quite enough to really understand how the world actually works.

I would say quite the opposite. The Republicans are endorsing the societal philosophy that worked in America since the founding of the country. That is life, property and liberty. An ancient philosophy that stems from the English common law.

The Progressives are the one who want enforce something that is traditionally foreign in America and dont fit to the culture of the nation. They want to copy Europe which is not bad bt they just dont understand that the German/French system of welfare cannot work in the US. The US is not a collectivistic society.

So I somehow doubt about the statement that Progressives know better how the world works.

Neither Germany nor France are collectivist societies. Both are home to hugely influential international corporations.

[Seangoli]

That wont help it. A city that is living on welfare and dont contribute to economy is a matter of time when will it gone bankrupt.

Not only will it not help, it will actively make things worse. Things have already boiled over there due to a perceived pattern of police harassment of minority residents, with things obviously having come to a head after the grand jury decision in the Michael Brown case. This will inevitably increase a perception of harassment, and those who cannot pay their tickets will likely end up with failure to appear warrants, which will lead to further resistance to the idea of willingly submitting to detainment or arrest, which in turn will increase the risk of violent confrontation to an unacceptable degree. It's almost like they want to see it all go up in flames.

It is my experience that most city councils are comprised of some of the most annoyingly privileged upper middle class WASP gits. One can only hope that one of them gets the short end of the stick if they get pulled over, but I somehow doubt it. As irrelevant as they usually are, they still like to pull the "Do you know who I am?!" tactic quite often, and hold themselves far more important than they really are (And often viewing themselves above others).

A truly annoying group, really, generally with some terrible ideas and often getting in law enforcement's way. When my father took over locally, he was consistently on the the bad end of the City Council, as he pretty much continuously told them to go screw themselves with policies like this (Unlike his predecessor). More or less. They really didn't like him much at all.

[The Seleucids (Ancient)]

Ferguson police shut down armed 'Oath Keeper' vigilantes guarding rooftops of besieged town

The group offered protection for private businesses against looters and arsonists
Oath Keepers have since been threatened with arrest for operating without a licence
Police struggled to contain violence following grand jury decision not to indict Darren Wilson
The Oath Keepers have now left their rooftop posts but will remain in Ferguson to protest

A 'mysterious' militia group that appeared on rooftop patrols in Ferguson pledging to protect private property has been ordered to stand down.
Oath Keepers, a vigilante organization consisting of former and current military, police and firefighters, abandoned their posts on Saturday night after being threatened with arrest.
Equipped with militia-style clothing and firearms, the Oath Keepers had been offering free security for businesses at risk of looting and arson in Ferguson.
Victor Clark, a dentist at Ferguson Dental on South Florissant Road, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he was happy to have the Oath Keepers' free assistance.
On Monday, rioters shattered the business' front door and window, and stole dental needles and anesthetic.
Mr Clark said that when the Oath Keepers turned up they gave them their keys. 'We didn't know that much about them, but we got a feeling of trust,' he told the local paper. 'You have to do something to protect our building.'

Since being shut down, the group have now turned their efforts to conducting their own protests.
More than a dozen local businesses were razed to the ground last Monday, while many more were looted in a night of arson, random gunfire and pitched battles, with heavily armed riot police unable to cope with the scale of the mayhem.
By Tuesday, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon had sent more than 2,200 National Guard members to the Ferguson area to support local law enforcement.
The Oath Keepers focused their efforts on a strip of South Florissant Road that includes a Chinese restaurant, dentist office, bakery and number of apartments.

'When they're here, there's definitely a weight lifted off of our shoulders,' Davis Vo, whose family owns New Chinese Gourmet on the street, told the New York Times. 'I'd be lying if I said otherwise.'
Oath Keepers leader Sam Andrews declined to say how many people were assisting in the effort, saying only that the number was 'more than five, less than 500'.
'It's really a broad group of citizens, and I'm sure their motivations are all different,' Mr Andrews told the newspaper. 'In many of them, there's probably a sense of patriotism.
'But I think in most of them, there's probably something that they probably don't even recognize: that we have a moral obligation to protect the weakest among us.'

Sources:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... ftops.html
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crim ... 05ed6.html
It's good that the national guard is being deployed and the US government is getting it's ass into gear. I do not agree with vigilante style justice like this. What is your opinion on the shut down of the "Oath Keepers"?

Its a good thing, the last thing they need over there are triggerhappy cowboys pretending to be the "good guys".

[Greed and Death]

No wonder that you are progressive as usually such people never went to college.

Most polling organizations would disagree with you: The one remaining group among white voters that consistently votes Democratic are people with post-graduate degrees. In the recent mid-term election, this group broke 54-46 in favor of the Democrats, while high-school graduates who had either not yet gone to or not yet completed college broke 54-46 in favor of Republicans.

Now, it is true that among those who have NEVER gone to college, Democrats hold a narrow lead (51-49) in the last election. That is probably due more to socioeconomic factors than education, however. Republicans do best among people with SOME college education (up to and including a degree), but no FURTHER education beyond their undergraduate studies.

IOW, Republicans do best among people with just enough education to be professionally successful on an individual basis, but not quite enough to really understand how the world actually works.

The most progressive people in America are those who lack the education to effectively compete in today's world, and who therefore see firsthand just how destructive social forces can be in our society, and those with enough education to truly understand what's happening around them, and therefore grasp that we don't actually have to be live like this, if we could only must the will to make things better.

I would think the correlation has more to do with MAs and PHDs chosen career field being tied to government spending. Both pretty much wish to teach. Money wise a large number of MAs end up worse off than their BA counterparts, my bank hires a lot of BAs and is willing to see if they have the ability to work up to banker. We don't hire MAs, getting a worthless undergrad degree is forgivable doubling down and getting a a worthless grad degree not so much.

[Jamzmania]

Facing a budget deficit, the town fathers of Ferguson have decided that it would be a wise move to increase revenue through increased ticketing, thereby bringing law enforcement into confrontations with local residents even more frequently. This has to be one of the most incompetent city governments in the nation, possibly as bad as Detroit in terms of sheer consistency of mind-bogglingly terrible moves.

The strategy by the St. Louis suburb, which suffered a second round of violent protests last month after a grand jury refused to indict the police officer, may risk worsening community relations with increased citations and weakening its credit standing by reducing a rainy-day fund.

To close a projected deficit for fiscal 2014, which ended June 30, the municipality will deplete a $10 million capital-projects reserve, Jeffrey Blume, Ferguson’s finance director, said in a telephone interview. For the current year, the city is budgeting for higher receipts from police-issued tickets.

“There are a number of things going on in 2014 and one is a revenue shortfall that we anticipate making up in 2015,” Blume said. “There’s about a million-dollar increase in public-safety fines to make up the difference.”

Revenue from violations, which already represents the city’s second-largest source of cash after sales taxes, will rise to 15.7 percent of receipts in fiscal 2015, from a projected 11.8 percent this year, he said. In 2013, fines brought in $2.2 million, or 11.8 percent of the city’s $18.62 million in annual revenue, according to budget documents.

God forbid one should get a ticket.

[Bontavation]

Facing a budget deficit, the town fathers of Ferguson have decided that it would be a wise move to increase revenue through increased ticketing, thereby bringing law enforcement into confrontations with local residents even more frequently. This has to be one of the most incompetent city governments in the nation, possibly as bad as Detroit in terms of sheer consistency of mind-bogglingly terrible moves.

God forbid one should get a ticket.

If you're poor, getting a ticket is actually a big deal. It's already impossible to afford an apartment and food on minimum wage. Now, add in a ticket. And, add in the fact that this ticket is going to pay (in-part) for the Police Force that has effectively declared war on you.

[Informationland]

Oh, if only I were the Governor of Missouri this foolishness would have ended a long time ago.

[Gig em Aggies]

Answer me this
Why is it that when such situations as in Missouri and New York does the police always get reformed to better serve or communicate with the public. Over some self reflection I came up with possibilities to stop all this "nonsense"
1.) police should have reforms
2.) community also needs reform itself sometimes more then the police do
3.) start teaching in elementary schools about how not to use color as an excuse
4.) get the community to use their anger on the gangs and drugs instead of the police
I could go on but I'd rather not so?

[Bontavation]

3.) start teaching in elementary schools about how not to use color as an excuse

Oh, Jesus Christ.

[Gig em Aggies]

3.) start teaching in elementary schools about how not to use color as an excuse

Oh, Jesus Christ.

What do you mean?

[Gauthier]

Oh, Jesus Christ.

What do you mean?

Because clearly [Fill in Blank] While Black is just a fiction cooked up by social justice warriors and if someone colored gets pulled over by police for any reason whatsoever they need to shut up and bend over, right?

[Nazi Flower Power]

Facing a budget deficit, the town fathers of Ferguson have decided that it would be a wise move to increase revenue through increased ticketing, thereby bringing law enforcement into confrontations with local residents even more frequently. This has to be one of the most incompetent city governments in the nation, possibly as bad as Detroit in terms of sheer consistency of mind-bogglingly terrible moves.

The strategy by the St. Louis suburb, which suffered a second round of violent protests last month after a grand jury refused to indict the police officer, may risk worsening community relations with increased citations and weakening its credit standing by reducing a rainy-day fund.

To close a projected deficit for fiscal 2014, which ended June 30, the municipality will deplete a $10 million capital-projects reserve, Jeffrey Blume, Ferguson’s finance director, said in a telephone interview. For the current year, the city is budgeting for higher receipts from police-issued tickets.

“There are a number of things going on in 2014 and one is a revenue shortfall that we anticipate making up in 2015,” Blume said. “There’s about a million-dollar increase in public-safety fines to make up the difference.”

Revenue from violations, which already represents the city’s second-largest source of cash after sales taxes, will rise to 15.7 percent of receipts in fiscal 2015, from a projected 11.8 percent this year, he said. In 2013, fines brought in $2.2 million, or 11.8 percent of the city’s $18.62 million in annual revenue, according to budget documents.

Not really a good time for this.

[Gig em Aggies]

What do you mean?

Because clearly [Fill in Blank] While Black is just a fiction cooked up by social justice warriors and if someone colored gets pulled over by police for any reason whatsoever they need to shut up and bend over, right?

No I mean stop using the color of your skin as an excuse. Like the Martin Zimmerman incident someone automatically assumed it was a white guy who shot a black teen when the "white" guy wasn't white or with the more recent protest I heard people saying it's not about being black it's about police "tyranny" when they holding up signs saying black lives matter if we just stop using the color of our skin as a tool for everyday life then a big majority of fascism will go away. I'm tired of hearing "ethnic quotas" and such

[Nazi Flower Power]

Because clearly [Fill in Blank] While Black is just a fiction cooked up by social justice warriors and if someone colored gets pulled over by police for any reason whatsoever they need to shut up and bend over, right?

No I mean stop using the color of your skin as an excuse. Like the Martin Zimmerman incident someone automatically assumed it was a white guy who shot a black teen when the "white" guy wasn't white or with the more recent protest I heard people saying it's not about being black it's about police "tyranny" when they holding up signs saying black lives matter if we just stop using the color of our skin as a tool for everyday life then a big majority of fascism will go away. I'm tired of hearing "ethnic quotas" and such

How'd fascism and ethnic quotas get into this discussion?