Ferguson Black Voter Turnout Is What Worries Some City Council Candidates

Washington Informer March 19, 2015

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St. Louis activist Anthony Shahid confronts councilman Steve Stenger during the St. Louis County Council on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2014, in Clayton, Mo. Protesters seeking the immediate arrest of Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson who fatally shot unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown disrupted a government meeting Tuesday, renewing calls to remove the county prosecutor investigating the case. (AP Photo/St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Robert Cohen)

FERGUSON, Mo. (The Huffington Post) — The revenue-reaping practices of the police department and municipal court in this St. Louis suburb were widely condemned this month and led to the ouster of six city employees, including the police chief, municipal court judgeand city manager.

But when former Ferguson Mayor Brian Fletcher, now running for a seat on city council, said at a candidate forum last week that the amount of fines and fees the city collected through policing wasn’t “that bad,” the room filled with applause.

Ferguson voters will head to the polls on April 7 to select three new representatives on the the six-member city council, one in each city ward. Eight candidates, four of them African-American, are running, making this the most diverse campaign for the government of the majority-black city in Ferguson’s 120-year history.