|
 But African-American leaders are casting one eye beyond the
decision to an election next year that might, finally, tip the
balance of power in their favor.
In April, three of Ferguson’s six city council seats are up for
grabs and African-Americans have a chance to end decades of white
domination. Two-thirds of the town’s 21,000 population is black. But
the mayor, more than 90 percent of the police, and all but one of
the council members are white -- an imbalance that has stoked racial
tensions in Ferguson long before Brown’s shooting in August.
In recent days, police stockpiled riot gear and businesses are
prepared for trouble if the grand jury does not indict policeman
Darren Wilson. A decision is expected soon. No matter what the
outcome, black leaders said there is an opportunity to change police
conduct and discrimination through the ballot box, despite a long
tradition of low black voter turnout at local elections in Ferguson. "People are awake now. They know who the mayor is and what kind of
person he is, and they know who the council members are," said Tory
Russell, 30, a leader of Hands Up United, a local activist group.
Based on last Tuesday's turnout, winning council seats might
difficult: there was little sign of an uptick in interest in local
politics. Forty-two percent of registered voters in Ferguson took
part in the highest profile race -- the election for St Louis County
executive, which was a drop of 10 percentage points from the last
such vote in 2010.
That frustrates Patricia Bynes, a local African-American official in
the Democratic Party.
"Every time there’s an election we have to show up. I don’t care if
we are voting what color the trash cans are, we need to show up,"
she said.
Putting up good candidates of its own will be crucial for the
African-American community, added David Kimball, a political
scientist at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
Russell and other organizers of street protests in the town have
spoken to possible candidates to try to persuade them to run in
April.
“We’ve been working on some. There are random people who we’ve said,
'You’ve got it. You don’t know you got it but I know you got it,' ”
he said.
THE CANDIDATE
Ella Jones, a cosmetics saleswoman, earlier this month became the
first person to collect her papers from Ferguson town hall to
register as a candidate for the city council next spring. Jones, who
is black, will file as a candidate when the electoral process begins
fully in mid-December.
[to top of second column] |
A Ferguson resident for decades, Jones has hardly any experience in
politics and is not linked to the street protest movement. But if
elected, black council members like her might make life difficult
for James Knowles, the mayor who has been pushed to the brink of
quitting by African-American criticism of his police force. He does
not face re-election again until 2017.
“The best thing I can say about him is that he is a work in
progress,” Jones said in an interview with Reuters.
The three council members whose seats are up for election next year
are all white.
Like many others in the black community, Jones sees reforming the
police department as almost the only political issue in town and
seeks more training for cops and an “an end to racial profiling.”
Knowles' administration has bought body cameras and dashboard
cameras for police to increase transparency and announced a
scholarship to help recruit more black officers since the Brown
shooting. He was not available from comment about the police or next
year’s election.
Meanwhile, angry demonstrations are likely if Wilson is not
indicted. But, ultimately, such a decision would prove the need for
African-Americans to vote in strong numbers next spring, said
protest leader Russell.
“It’s even more reason to win power and put some checks and balances
in there,” he said.
(Editor: Hank Gilman; Keywords: USA ELECTIONS/FERGUSON)
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
