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Would Dayton pass the Ferguson test?

This is a hypothetical post. I don’t know the answers. But I think a lot of people in Dayton would tell you unequivocally that Dayton would fail a fairness test if the Feds came in and did an audit of arrests, prosecutions, stops, tickets, fines and enforcement patterns.

Considering that the writing is all over the walls, a mostly white safety force; despite Federal intervention long ago, proven redlining of loans, a completely failed “racial integration” of schools. Throw in the recent outing of members of the Sheriff’s department for racially unacceptable texts and it would be easy to guess what a federal investigation of Dayton would find.

Arguments have been made that the traffic cameras were mostly placed in poor communities, and even then, more in areas predominately African American. If you look at the county jail, most of the time, its racial composition doesn’t come close to reflecting the local racial makeup.

But this is America- where we stubbornly believe in ideals that weren’t ideal when they were written (“all men are created equal- yet slavery wasn’t abolished for another century and civil rights came another 100 years later). Somehow, despite incredible evidence to the contrary- we still believe we’re a first world country, a leader, while our own people suffer from unconscionable oppressions.

Our costs of health care are the highest in the world, our cost of an advanced education are skyrocketing, and while we have access to cheap food, much of it isn’t really fit for consumption. Our elections are rigged with “corporations are people too” money, and less than half the people vote- meaning our vaunted “democracy” is really only a majority of the minority’s beliefs.

I read about freedoms that are constitutionally guaranteed that are being questioned or abused almost daily. We arm ourselves against an illogical threat, and kill more of our own with our own guns- and yet think we’re safer with them than without them. We incarcerate more people, with an astoundingly disproportionate number of the inmates a “minority” and yet, still claim ourselves a “free country” and have the audacity to think our “model” is best for others.

We spend more than half the planet on “defense” which is mostly used as offense, in places that we don’t understand, but feel the need to meddle.

And while the justice department tries to clean house in Ferguson, in reality, it’s nothing but a sideshow- a distraction, a sleight of hand, because in the grand scheme of things, we’ve not been a land of opportunity for a long time.

We could have the Feds come here and apply their tests, and we could fail, but in the end, it won’t change anything until we fundamentally reexamine the kind of country we have and the kind of country we deserve. I don’t fault the racists in Ferguson, or the grandstanding of the Feds, I fault Americans for assuming that things can’t change, that this is acceptable, and holding on to a ridiculous pride in a country that deserves an F grade in equality and justice.

Making an example out of Ferguson, won’t fix anything.

We’ve got systemic issues, from top to bottom that need to be addressed.

If we want to be truly great, we need to take a step back and rethink everything.

 

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Marianne Stanley

And that IS our biggest problem……that stubborn refusal to take a good hard look at the reality vs. the unfounded beliefs. Until we wake up, we will continue our slide to the bottom of the heap. Excellent column, David!

mrman

Good piece. to the point about what questions to ask ourselves, one that occurred to me recently, do we ask the judges we elect to do anything specific to change local justice policy? I think the answer is No. If we don’t ask, we won’t get. This is true in all areas, not just the judicial system. and by the way, “we” includes the Dayton Daily News.

Stacy M. Thompson

Well written…..

Auston Hensley

Dayton would fail a DOJ investigation, but for two possibly different reasons. I’ll hit on both. 1) Their police officers simply failed the service exam. The DOJ already went over all this with Dayton back in 2010-2011, back when Dayton wanted to hire a new class of police recruits. Unfortunately for the city, not enough African-Americans passed the exam (which only required a 66% on part one and a 72% on part two) so the DOJ under Eric Holder decided to get involved and muck up the whole process. The city’s solution, and the only way to satisfy the DOJ, was to lower the passing scores. The last time the police exam was administered, a 58% was good enough. That’s how they got enough AA’s on the police force. So now you have enough, but many of them were hired simply to satisfy a racial quota, their qualifications be damned. 2) The question isn’t about race… even though the majority of the speed cameras were west of the river, it’s more about economics. All of the worst cockamamie games such as camera tickets, towing cars, various “fees” and “assessments” aren’t exclusive to black neighborhoods – they’re just exclusive to poor ones, regardless of color. West Carrollton is mostly white. Ditto Springfield. And with Dayton being more or less the region’s bantustan, all of these cities have one thing in common – the municipal coffers are empty. Hence the smoke and mirrors game you see. Hence the crap they all pull with cameras and such. Because poor people have a hard time coming up with the resources to defend themselves… a middle class person is more likely to lawyer up and challenge an illegal towing or a ticket in court than a poor person… who will get slapped with a fine and then threatened with jail because they’re on a limited income and can’t pay immediately. In short, Dayton would fail a DOJ investigation because it was a predatory government that picked on its most vulnerable citizens. *** On a side note, I loved watching Nan, et al. squirm on the… Read more »

[…] This is just another example of why I believe if the Justice Department came into Dayton, we’d fail the Ferguson test. […]