However, there is finally some potential legislation on the rise that will hopefully improve the conditions in Ferguson and ensure this kind of police corruption does not occur again. The Ferguson city council is planning to establish a board of citizens as an asset to the police force in order to "provide guidance." Additionally, the Ferguson court system will be changed dramatically, including capping the amount of fines the city can take as revenue in order to prevent police from issuing tickets to receive more fines. When it comes to arrest warrants, Ferguson has one of the highest warrant to people ratio, according to this chart from the Missouri courts: 
The council is hoping that these new changes will prevent police harassment of the local black population, as has been the trend, not only in Ferguson but in surrounding areas too. Personally, even though I'm glad to see the city of Ferguson finally taking action (and when I say action, I do not count the last month's police action), I realize that the fight is not over. What I'm scared of is that people will look at this and say "look, Michael Brown and his supporters have won. The battle is over, and we can all go home." This is not true, nor will we be able to say this for a long, long time. As far as we've progressed in the civil rights movement, we've still so far to go – there is still so much prejudice and racism evident in the USA, and the African American population is still feeling the effects of slavery, segregation, and their whole extremely terrible history in the USA, putting them behind when it comes to socioeconomics.
What do you think of these pieces of legislation? Are they a huge victory for Michael Brown, or do we still need to keep fighting? What SHOULD the city be doing?
2 comments:
It is hard to measure the actual effectiveness of these pieces of legislation until they are enforced, but I feel like they seem very weak. While the cap on the amount of fines takes away the money incentive, it neglects the fact that these fines are largely motivated by racial discrimination. Also, how will this committee be elected? Will it represent the people being oppressed and attacked? Or will it be another group of elite city politicians used to validate further harassment of the African American community. While I applaud the small baby steps that Ferguson seems to be making, I still want to see a stronger opposition to the injustice towards Black Community.
I completely agree with you Reggie – the new fines cap will reduce the ticket numbers, but how will they ensure that racial discrimination is reduced too? I think this is an issue in many other places too, because ideas like racial discrimination can never be fully eradicated by laws. The stop and frisk, for example, has degenerated into another law that focuses primarily on African American youth, and no matter how they try to change it it's hard to stop that discrimination. This is an issue that society as a whole must tackle, and discrimination is a pervasive mindset that needs joint effort to disperse.
Post a Comment