Politics
feature: ‘why we’re pissed off’ – ferguson by the numbers
I woke up as angry as when I’d gone to sleep. I thought about writing an essay about how the lack of indictment merely shows that racism in America is so ingrained that at least 9 citizens of St. Louis County felt like death was a reasonable punishment for shoplifting. But we all know that. We all know why this feels wrong. I thought about dissecting the irony of a right wing which fetishizes the rioting and violent revolution by “patriots” that founded this country while roundly denouncing the largely peaceful protests in Ferguson as “riots” by “thugs.” But a lack of consistency among our friends at Fox isn’t exactly new. Hundreds and hundreds of essays will be written about Ferguson in the coming days and weeks arguing every side. I decided instead to be more useful and collect so
me numbers. We can argue till we’re blue in the face about the response, about the implications, and about where to go from here. But we can’t argue with the numbers, which tell a very clear story.
By Nathan Leigh, AFROPUNK Contributor
St. Louis County is the 15th most segregated place in the country.
(https://github.com/BuzzFeedNews/2014-08-st-louis-county-segregation)
Median income for a black household in Ferguson: $32,539
Median income for a white household in Ferguson: $53,399
(http://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/ferguson-numbers)
67% of all residents of Ferguson are black
29.3% of Ferguson residents are white
94.3% of Ferguson’s police force is white
92.7% of all 2013 arrests in Ferguson involved black suspects.
86% of all 2013 traffic stops in Ferguson involved black suspects, as did 92% of all vehicle searches.
34% of searches of white suspects found contraband. Only 22% of searches of black suspects did.
(http://ago.mo.gov/VehicleStops/2013/reports/161.pdf)
21% of police officers report having seen a fellow officer use more force than was necessary
8.5% of police officers report failing to report the use of excessive force
(https://townipproject09.wikispaces.com/Police+Brutality)
25% of police officers report having seen a fellow officer harass a citizen “most likely because of his or her race”
49% of police officers “feel that the only way a criminal would receive any punishment was to punish the individual him/herself”
9.5% of city police officers will have a complaint filed against them for misconduct in a year
(http://graphs.net/police-brutality-statistics.html)
At least 996 civilians have been killed by police officers so far in 2014.
(https://www.facebook.com/KilledByPolice)
400 “justifiable homicides” are reported annually by law enforcement to the FBI
Only 750 of 17,000 law enforcement agencies contribute to the Federal database of “justifiable homicides”
White officers kill black suspects an average of 96 times a year
18% of those killed are under 21
98.9% of excessive force allegations are ruled as justified
(http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/14/police-killings-data/14060357/)
76% of police officers report bending the facts to establish “probable cause”
313 black people were killed by police, security guards, and vigilante law enforcers in 2012
66% of those killed were under 31
96% were male
3% resulted in a conviction for the killer
(https://mxgm.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Operation-Ghetto-Storm.pdf)
Between 2004 and 2011, only 41 officers were charged with Murder or Manslaughter for on-duty shootings.
(http://online.wsj.com/articles/police-rarely-criminally-charged-for-on-duty-shootings-1416874955)
68% of members of the general public who are tried on criminal charges are convicted
29% of police officers tried on criminal charges are convicted
Furthermore, only 36% of those officers tried serve any time in prison
(http://www.policemisconduct.net/the-problem-with-prosecuting-police-in-washington-state/)
39 fatal shootings by St. Louis police officers between 2003 and 2012
3 have been tried in grand juries
0 indictments
Exact numbers vary, but all agree that grand juries move to indict over 90% of the time
Grand juries indict police officers about 1% of the time
(http://www.lawcollective.org/article.php?id=46)
(http://books.google.com/books?id=HP1kZ9aIGAEC&pg=SA4-PA8&lpg=SA4-PA8)
(http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/ferguson-michael-brown-indictment-darren-wilson/)
White jurors in the Darren Wilson trial: 9
Black jurors in the Darren Wilson trial: 3
Jurors needed to indict in a grand jury trial: 9
(http://www.dispositionservices.dla.mil/leso/Pages/default.aspxhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/11/25/get-completely-caught-up-on-whats-happened-in-ferguson/)
Value of military equipment transferred to local law enforcement in 2013 alone through the Defense Department’s 1033 program: $449,309,003.71
(http://www.dispositionservices.dla.mil/leso/Pages/default.aspx)
For further reading, check out Amnesty International’s report on the Human Rights Abuses in Ferguson:
http://www.amnestyusa.org/sites/default/files/onthestreetsofamericaamnestyinternational.pdf
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