Something fishy is going down in Ferguson, Mo.—and it’s not just with the cops. While that hint of something not quite right grows with each passing retaliatory arrest and botched grand jury probe, the extent is still unclear. But at one time, political change in the wake of Michael Brown’s killing seemed like a foregone conclusion. And after months of unrest in Ferguson, the next logical step for city officials in the struggling, once-sleepy St. Louis suburb was to do what was necessary—and right—to restore peace and justice ... or so we thought. Recent reports, along with The Root’s conversations with a number of sources, suggest growing doubt that that will ever happen, with a growing sense in the community that various political and “social justice” players are either deliberately or unwittingly undermining any momentum on the ground. Instead, we’re seeing a destructive convergence of the heels-dug-in white political machine and a largely dysfunctional and fragmented collection of African-American advocates. And this week, fresh questions were raised about the political situation in and around Ferguson when the St. Louis County Board of Elections suddenly revised an initial flood of 3,287 newly registered Ferguson residents down to just 128—how did that happen?
Posted on: Fri, 10 Oct 2014 21:18:59 +0000