Ferguson, Population of 21,000 Yet 16,000 People Have Outstanding Arrest Warrants?

www.nbcnews.com...
refreshingnews99.blogspot.in...

In Ferguson -- a city with a population of 21,000 -- 16,000 people have outstanding arrest warrants, meaning that they are currently actively wanted by the police. In other words, if you were to take four people at random, the Ferguson police would consider three of them fugitives.

How is this even possible? It's clear to me that the police are using the black community as a revenue source. And many wonder why tensions are high? One shooting is not the reason IMO but rather the icing on the cake. It only takes a spark for a powder keg.

And why would Ferguson hate the police so much? And why would I say Ferguson rather than people?

By December of 2014, "over 16,000 people had outstanding arrest warrants that had been issued by the court." The report makes clear that this refers to individual people, rather than cases (i.e. people with many cases are not being counted multiple times). However, if we do look at the number of cases, the portrait is even starker. In 2013, 32,975 offenses had associated warrants, so that there were 1.5 offenses for every city resident. That means that the city of Ferguson quite literally has more crimes than people.

The topic has been discussed on many occasions concerning so many new laws being passed in such a way that we don't even know when we are breaking a law anymore. In fact there was an article here not long ago (can't remember where) stating that the average citizen breaks the law an average of 3 times per day without even knowing it.

So we are just a bank waiting to be emptied when funds are needed. And with the surveillance state increasing, you are going to be caught...when it's needed.

The thousands upon thousands of warrants that are issued, according to the DOJ, are "not to protect public safety but rather to facilitate fine collection." Residents are routinely charged with minor administrative infractions. Most of the arrest warrants stem from traffic violations, but nearly every conceivable human behavior is criminalized. An offense can be found anywhere, including citations for "Manner of Walking in Roadway," "High Grass and Weeds," and 14 kinds of parking violation.

The dystopian absurdity reaches its apotheosis in the deliciously Orwellian transgression "failure to obey." (Obey what? Simply to obey.) In fact, even if one does obey to the letter, solutions can be found. After Henry Davis was brutally beaten by four Ferguson officers, he found himself charged with "destruction of official property" for bleeding on their uniforms.

Ok, I've written too many threads today so I'll gracefully bow out, have a shot of whiskey and calm down.

Jude11

The majority of arrest warrants any municipality has are always "Bench Warrants" , warrants issued by a judge for not appearing for trial, not paying a fine or not completing a court ordered action such as community service..

Now pay attention here..

The VAST MAJORITY are for people that DO NOT LIVE in the municipality..

The title of this is simply FALSE

People pass through, get a ticket and decide to not take care of it. A Bench Warrant is issued and there is no expiration so it generally sits for extended periods of time.

originally posted by: jude11

Ok, I've written too many threads today so I'll gracefully bow out, have a shot of whiskey and calm down.

Jude11

All informative, so I say keep em coming buddy!



Now, as for the subject matter or this thread...

I think it's fair to say that Ferguson is as corrupt as anywhere else on the planet at the moment.



& just imagine...

If that "thug hadn't got what he deserved blah blah blah" no one would be any the wiser as to the psychos in authoritive positions in Ferguson...

Hahaha...

Michael Brown is indeed a martyr...
& nobody can take that away from him...

No matter how much it eats them up inside!


RIP fella... Your passing wasn't in vain...
Now we know!

I'd have told Wilson to F Off as well!!!

originally posted by: semperfortis
The majority of arrest warrants any municipality has are always "Bench Warrants" , warrants issued by a judge for not appearing for trial, not paying a fine or not completing a court ordered action such as community service..

Now pay attention here..

The VAST MAJORITY are for people that DO NOT LIVE in the municipality..

The title of this is simply FALSE

People pass through, get a ticket and decide to not take care of it. A Bench Warrant is issued and there is no expiration so it generally sits for extended periods of time.

Thanks for clearing that up because I immediately thought after reading the title that if your born black in Ferguson, then you are automatically issued a warrant .

a reply to: jude11

WOW.

If this isn't a slap in the face wake-up reminder of the priorities and current intent of the police in America: Criminalizing the population to rake in revenue and keep people in the system and slaves to the state.

This is what happens when there are too many bored cops, too many BS laws, and revenue is the goal (see the amount of fines Ferguson raked in while it was also boasted) wherein "well it's the law and you broke it" no matter how silly or unnecessary. "Oh, you jaywalked at 2am when there were no cars around and there wasn't a crosswalk for half a mile," well YOU BROKE THE LAW. Can't pay your fine because you can barely feed yourself and your kids? WARRANT.

Blacks were also far more likely to be hit with petty offenses like jaywalking, disturbing the peace and "failure to comply," according to investigators. From 2011 to 2013, blacks accounted for 92 percent or more of people who faced such charges.

When people can't escape the system the state wins. And the state makes it harder for the poor and for minorities to escape. I've seen it firsthand in court.

Control.

Makes me wonder why the big time pro bono publico lawyers haven't swarmed to Freguson to fight all those cases that have no merits.

Hmmm.

Here's some more information. If its true, things have been heating up for a while. I'm curious to know, just when did Mr. Soros first start funding those civil rights groups? Could he have also been contributing to an increase in law enforcement as well?

The Justice Department examination found that Ferguson's black citizens, who make up about 67 percent of the city's 21,000 residents, were subject to 85 percent of traffic stops, and 93 percent of all arrests from 2012 to 2014. Black drivers were more than twice as likely as whites to be searched during traffic stops, but were less likely to be found holding anything illegal. Blacks were also the focus of 88 percent of instances in which police used force to subdue someone.

A similar pattern emerged inside Ferguson's municipal court, where data indicated that the town targeted blacks for arrests on outstanding warrants, the Justice Department said. From October 2012 to October 2014, 96 percent of those arrested during traffic stops solely because of an outstanding warrant were black, investigators found.

Blacks were also far more likely to be hit with petty offenses like jaywalking, disturbing the peace and "failure to comply," according to investigators. From 2011 to 2013, blacks accounted for 92 percent or more of people who faced such charges.

Blacks were also 68 percent less likely than people of other races to have their cases dismissed, the investigators found.

Link

originally posted by: semperfortis
The majority of arrest warrants any municipality has are always "Bench Warrants" , warrants issued by a judge for not appearing for trial, not paying a fine or not completing a court ordered action such as community service..

Now pay attention here..

The VAST MAJORITY are for people that DO NOT LIVE in the municipality..

The title of this is simply FALSE

People pass through, get a ticket and decide to not take care of it. A Bench Warrant is issued and there is no expiration so it generally sits for extended periods of time.

Although you might be right in your assumption of what the charges stem from in a majority of municipalities, and I'm sure that is the case for a lot of them, I'm going with the term RESIDENTS used in the article.

Or did you miss that?

You are assuming the majority of these charges are bench warrants while I am only reading the article for what it actually states.

Would it be fair to say that Boston has more visitors than Ferguson on average?

To give some context as to how truly extreme this is, a comparison may be useful. In 2014, the Boston Municipal Court System, for a city of 645,000 people, issued about 2,300 criminal warrants. The Ferguson Municipal Court issued 9,000, for a population 1/30th the size of Boston's.

Jude11

a reply to: semperfortis

Also the demographic is almost 5050 white black so safe to assume that half of those 16,000 are white?

a reply to: Liquesence

Did you even read Sempers refutation/explanation?

Many of those warrants are for people who don't even live in the city, or even the state, for that matter...

Do you honestly believe that that high a percentage of a cities population have warrants out on them?

a reply to: jude11

To even understand what that means you would need to know what the warrants are for.

most of them for minor violations such as parking and traffic infractions

Depending on how many years that covers, that's not a very large number. I'd expect to find it's mostly unpaid parking tickets by people passing through town.

Change does not come from exaggeration, misrepresentation or spinning facts to malign an entire police dept. unfairly.

Blacks make up 67% of the population of Ferguson, giving them a super majority in voting. They could easily vote in whoever they want. This is all about outside interests not Ferguson and it has not been about Ferguson since a few days after the shooting. Ferguson is being destroyed by race baiting, cop haters, anarchists, common criminals looking for opportunities and lying, scumbag politicians and ideologues.

Anyone can selectively use statistics to present a false narrative. What Ferguson needs is for the silent majority who are being badly hurt by all this to say, enough, leave our town alone.

16,000 is a smaller number than I'd expect knowing full well, even from this article, that most of them are for things like parking tickets. Just more baiting by people who get their rocks off on such stuff and those with self serving interests.

a reply to: seagull

I did read it. I was composing my reply as he posted his so it was unavailable as I was composing and posting.

Regardless, what he posted was his assumption and not backed by any evidence (about that jurisdiction).

While I do question that high of a percentage of warrants/citizens (and haven't seen the data) I also wouldn't be surprised if it were true. In addition, do *that* many people pass through Ferguson who are stopped and cited and who are not residents enough to skew the statistics that much?

THAT i find suspect as well, and not a very strong counter argument.

I *hope* that high a percentage doesn't have warrants, but considering other things/facts about that jurisdiction I wouldn't be surprised.

ETA:
Regardless, the points in my post remain valid.

originally posted by: seagull
a reply to: Liquesence

Did you even read Sempers refutation/explanation?

Many of those warrants are for people who don't even live in the city, or even the state, for that matter...

Do you honestly believe that that high a percentage of a cities population have warrants out on them?

And did you read the source which quite clearly states "RESIDENTS"?

Do I believe that a high a percentage of a cities population have warrants out on them? No. That's evident using the Boston statistics. I also took awhile to believe how many cases of highway robbery cases were happening by police in places as well.

When it comes to Ferguson tho, something is clearly not right. The people are fuming over more than one shooting. Is this it?

Jude11

a reply to: Blaine91555

It makes up four years...

2011-2014.

Anywho that's just outstanding.


Edit: Jumped the gun on that.

originally posted by: Blaine91555
a reply to: jude11

To even understand what that means you would need to know what the warrants are for.

most of them for minor violations such as parking and traffic infractions

Depending on how many years that covers, that's not a very large number. I'd expect to find it's mostly unpaid parking tickets by people passing through town.

Change does not come from exaggeration, misrepresentation or spinning facts to malign an entire police dept. unfairly.

Blacks make up 67% of the population of Ferguson, giving them a super majority in voting. They could easily vote in whoever they want. This is all about outside interests not Ferguson and it has not been about Ferguson since a few days after the shooting. Ferguson is being destroyed by race baiting, cop haters, anarchists, common criminals looking for opportunities and lying, scumbag politicians and ideologues.

Anyone can selectively use statistics to present a false narrative. What Ferguson needs is for the silent majority who are being badly hurt by all this to say, enough, leave our town alone.

16,000 is a smaller number than I'd expect knowing full well, even from this article, that most of them are for things like parking tickets. Just more baiting by people who get their rocks off on such stuff and those with self serving interests.

Ok, I get what you're saying but I have stated many times here already...The term RESIDENTS is what I am basing this on. Not people passing through.

What else can be said?

Jude11

originally posted by: CharlieSpeirs
a reply to: Blaine91555

It makes up one year...

2014 to be precise.


The article was quite clear on that.

As well as the term "Residents" but it seems that part isn't relevant.

peace

a reply to: jude11

Yeah, unbelievable denial in my opinion.

In 2013, 32,975 offenses had associated warrants, so that there were 1.5 offenses for every city resident.

32 thousand?
In one year?
87 a day?

No problem in Ferguson though...

It's been barf blown out of barf proportion barf barf!

The only way to make things right in Ferguson is to fire ALL the police officers immediately, the entire department has been proven corrupt!

There is obviously way too much racism with all those outstanding warrants.

Tomorrow would be too late, fire them today, now.

Get rid of all of them.
There is sufficient proof of the corruption, these warrants prove that,
they must not be allowed to stay on the job one second longer.

Then carefully with great deliberation select and train a new work force,
and make sure the training is indepth and comprehensive
before any new officers are allowed on the job.
So that the community will be free from police who harbor
any thing that may lead to injustice.

The DOJ should send in a task force and set up committees
that will meet and hash out
and decide how to best train the new force.
Then the DOJ should train them, at least one year intensive training.
Before allowing any police officers to roam the streets of Ferguson again, JUSTICE!!!.
The streets must be free of police in order for Justice to occur while a transition is made.

Just my opinion.

a reply to: jude11

Here?

As of December 2014, 16,000 people had outstanding arrest warrants issued by the Ferguson Municipal Court, most of them for minor violations such as parking and traffic infractions.

www.nbcnews.com...

The article does say that black residents received a disproportionate number of traffic stops and arrests. Not that all of those outstanding warrants were on residents or that all of the arrests were on residents.

a reply to: jude11

As of December 2014, 16,000 people had outstanding arrest warrants issued by the Ferguson Municipal Court, most of them for minor violations such as parking and traffic infractions.

That is the only statement made about the outstanding warrants. Nowhere does it say the warrants are for "residents" only.

It's an afterthought at the end of the article. I'm sure it's meant to sensationalize the story since some would assume its residents, even though that is not stated to be the case I can see.