A New York Times reporter and photographer went to court night in Maplewood on Monday.
The New York Times has used Maplewood as an example of a St. Louis County municipality with circumstances similar to those that led to the incidents in Ferguson, and questions if things are getting better.
The Times estimated that “at least two thirds” of those in court on Monday were black, which it said is the inverse of Maplewood’s population.
“It is in courts like this that the daily frustrations that led in part to the turmoil in Ferguson begin to fester,” the Times states.
While the Times reporters were outside city hall, the 40 South News editor happened to be in the courtroom for about 30 minutes.
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The Times may have been close in saying two thirds in the courtroom were black, but from what I could hear, the biggest single thing defendants were accused of was stealing, and didn’t involve being stopped while driving.
It uses Maplewood as an example of a municipality that uses the legal system for its economic advantage.
“Many end up being passed from jail to jail around the county until they can pay their fines and in some cases other administrative fees, a revenue source on which some towns are growing increasingly reliant,” the New York Times reports.
If that was the point the New York Times wanted to make, it could have chosen a more appropriate courtroom to visit than Maplewood’s, a city known more for its economic rebound than abuse of the legal system. In addition, the Maplewood Police Department recently received CALEA accreditation, an recognition that takes diversity of staff into account, among other requirements.
Read the full New York Times article.
As a member of the Chamber of Commerce I have noticed that the vast majority of business owners (and Chamber members) are white. I would like to help our business community to be more reflective of the diversity of our population. How can we all work together to create opportunities for that to happen?
What….the NYT couldn’t find any NYC hometown problems to report on?
yeah–they have a LOT of really serious issues–but none they WANT to report on.
Those 2/3 people would not be there unless they broke the law! It doesn’t matter what their race is!
Just following the posts; I think the counter point is that blacks see themselves as suspected more often, therefore caught more often–when the reality is that whites are not viewed as suspiciously–therefore not caught. I was raised in the Catholic Church and school, so we were integrated in 1954–when the archdiocese said not to go along with social racist convention. So I never knew it was an issue until I saw it on tv in the 60ies–and even then did not understand the problem.
It may be that you have to live it to understand it–and that is something white people cannot do. it is not ill-will. it is just physically and socially impossible. I used to live in New Orleans and went to clubs where I was the only white person. but because I was there with my black friends, no one made a big deal about it. it seems STL residents have frustration that needs to be dealt with, imo.
The former mayor of Ferguson raised $8000 in one morning to print the signs; he will be glad to hear of your support for the idea and for the bumper stickers. Will let my Ferguson friends know @ this. To me, there are many layers of complexity here–personal, historical, economic, racial, cultural, regional, local, etc. Now municipalities all over are trying to get money via traffic violations. Complex issue–calls for personal responsibility and self-control, empathy, effective communications skills–which takes practice and an authentic understanding of and commitment to the process. It is interesting to note that Ferguson and Maplewood, both faced with economic challenges, have established images as interesting historical cities with thriving farmers’ markets, restaurants, civic events. The spotlight shines on those who have what it takes to deal with the challenges, in service to the whole. I do trust that we can work, individually and together, to do so.
White people get lawyers therefore we dont have to go to court. That is why you always see only black people in courts.
That’s crap!!
To all of you. I grew up in Maplewood. I will have to agree in saying they are racist. My family was a target for the Maplewood police department for years just because my dad was black and my mom white. They just recently gave my mom’s ticket for disturbing the peace at my brothers high school graduation ceremony because she was saving my seat for me. There are many issues with that police department and court system that have been going on for years. I couldn’t even get a lawyer to take care of a traffic ticket for me that I git from Maplewood. He told me good luck because the judge was a racist old dart that no one likes dealing with. I had to pay a $800 fine for my tags being one day over expiration after I showed them my new tags and registration. so please stop saying it’s because black people come from broken homes and all the other carp and really try to educate yourself on the real issue.
I grew up in Maplewood and have many black friends. We never tolerated racism nor saw it. We all got along well in our town. As a matter of fact I really only saw white people getting in trouble.
Thanks for speaking up, Marz. Your voice is extremely important in this conversation because you have experienced this inequality firsthand, whereas most of the other voices are saying the same old, “I never saw anything like that happen in my neighborhood,” rhetoric. Until we can all face what is really going on and accept that there are REAL race issues to deal with nothing will ever get better. We have to stop blaming black people for the issues caused by racism!
I know there have also been some proposals in the last few weeks to introduce legislation where municipalities in urban areas (St. Louis and Kansas City) must have a certain population in order to have their own police force. Some of the talk has thrown around 25,000 40,000 or 50,000 residents as the base.
Thoughts on that?
Sounds great. They should also do the same thing for fire fighters and other services. Brentwood is a city of, what, 10,000 people? And they built a Taj Mahal for their new fire building. That Taj Mahal has to be paid for by a small tax base.
I think it’s interesting journalism that the reporter drove almost 20 minutes from Ferguson looking for a story. They must have simply been using whichever suburb happened to have court that night.
Out of the 98 municipalities in St. Louis County, Maplewood is well above average in size. The real problem is all the tiny little burgs that are close to Fergsuon that have little (or no) commercial and industrial sources of tax revenue. As a result they’re the ones pulling people over like crazy in an effort to generate funds which has resulted in all the tensions.
The list below is all the Ferguson area towns and their corresponding populations.
Hanley Hills 2,101
Velda City 1,616
Hillsdale 1,477
Country Club Hills 1,381
Calverton Park 1,322
Pasadena Hills 1,147
Velda Village Hills 1,090
Cool Valley 1,081
Norwood Court 1,061
Flordell Hills 931
Greendale 722
Beverly Hills 603
Pasadena Park 489
Uplands Park 460
Kinloch 449
Bellerive 254
Glen Echo Park 160
Pasadena Hills disbanded its police force years ago and currently uses Normandy Police.
You missed Charlack, population 1431.
Charlack has made an absolute KILLING in traffic fines from that camera they have posted on the 170 Overpass
I read this article y-day, and I was struck by the process in place. Preface this opinion with the fact that I am a fiscal-conservative and believe in common sense, limited gov’t solutions to most issues. I believe that at the root of the problem in most cases in the African-American community is the lack of a father and the breakdown of the family since the 60’s, but this issue outlined in the NYT article is downstream from the root issue(s) and is a clear, and in my opinion unfair, trap for these young men (and women) that quickly snowballs…….Maplewood is flush with cash compared to some of these North County municipalities and villages, we do not need the money. While financial issues may hinder those muni’s from changing their habits, Maplewood could set themselves up to be an example to able munis and take a more reasonable approach to these fines moving forward. A sweeping federal mandate is not what is needed……..if the NYT and social media wrote and discussed an article about how Maplewood addressed the issue in a logical manner, others would follow.
Follow up by saying that, in agreement about Doug’s point, I would not necessarily trust a NYT writer’s opinion of how Maplewood addressed changes. The fact that stealing, no traffic stop involved, was the reason for the representation in the courtroom was not mentioned in the article, is telling……..the TImes obviously has an agenda to support, and some tweaking/omission of some facts is unfortunate and misleading.
Maplewoods fines are not from traffic. Most of Maplewoods court comes from Walmart. The Maplewood Walmart has the largest “stealing under” in the entire country!
Very simple people – obey the law and respect the badge and all will be fine.
This is not rocket science!
Hey Maplewood, an outsider observed us and found a potential flaw. Let’s look into and see if we have room to improve.
I worked in law for years handling minor offenses and traffic cases and have dealt with just about every court in St. Louis. From my experience, the NYT portrayal of Maplewood is pretty accurate. They were one of the worst courts to deal with and were always more than willing to charge a higher fine just to get the case closed and get the defendant out the door. This only ends up criminalizing being poor, which is one of the biggest problems with our current legal system. That’s not to say there isn’t plenty that the city of Maplewood has to offer or that it is a bad place – I live in here and love it – it just means it is one of many municipalities (in STL and nationwide) that have fallen into this problematic trend. But we can’t fix the problem if locals get defensive and won’t acknowledge it.
Courtrooms here in the city are overwhelmingly filled with blacks too. But it’s not because of some nefarious white plan to oppress them — it’s because that’s who commits the most crime.
Maybe you should change your name to “Racist.” Seems more appropriate than “Truth.”
Maybe you should wake up and stop labeling people for telling the truth. In the courts for STEALING not traffic fines. Breaking the law is an ethical issue not a color issue.
It is a color issue when numerous studies have shown that blacks are more likely to be arrested, charged, convicted, and receive harsher punishments. If you think that happens because blacks are more likely to steal, and NOT because of systemic, institutionalized discrimination, then you are the one that needs to wake up because that is racist and you are ignoring the truth.
Noooo we all get lawyers.
That Is VERY Potent!
That’s because they are committing crimes! It is not because they are black!
Good piece by 40 South news, exposing the understated TRUTH.
Media interlopers feel like they found the next big drama in Ferguson. What they fail to acknowledge is that they and other outsiders created the furor surrounding the still unfolding tragic death of Michael Brown. Of all the arrests made during that tumultuous period, only FOUR were actually from Ferguson. All others were imports who were here to make the story into what Ferguson is not: a flawed, desperate community.
I wish a vendor would print up and sell “I (heart) Ferguson” bumpers tickers and sell them with all monies to go to restoring Ferguson’s damage. The Ferguson residents deserve the morale and financial support.
Someone is already selling “I love Ferguson” yard signs for that very purpose. But I do wish they would add bumper stickers.
I believe the Ferguson crisis is going to be part of the 2016 election–so bumper stickers now could help shape the talking points. Just reading the responses to the 40 South News article speaks to a sharp plurality of voices. I hope STL civic leaders get AHEAD of the fire storm caused by outsiders, and not give [Maplewood, for example] another open invitation to come, destroy a City, then leave.
We don’t need the race-baiters to resolve problems that we can and should handle ourselves. In the end, they just leave and don’t give a damn about the destruction in their wake. Only care about the momentary tv and ink they get in hopes of keeping themselves relevant. We are not a Metro area of thugs and animals–but outsiders bring this to us.
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