Comes, now, a new, fierce voice in the Ferguson protest movement, and boy is he ever an unlikely ally: St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch.
McCulloch says “we” have to “capitalize” on the new political will for reform and “get rid of these guys.” By “these guys” he means predatory municipalities driving their police departments to issue citations in order to generate revenue through their municipal courts.
McCulloch said this, and much more, on March 31 in Columbia, Missouri, where he addressed an audience of mostly Mizzou law students. Mizzou News made a full video of McCulloch’s remark available last Wednesday afternoon, as last week’s American was going to press. That was April 1, aka April Fool’s Day, and the EYE had to carefully scrutinize the video to make sure it was not an April Fool’s Day prank.
For here was McCulloch including himself on a plural pronoun – “we” – discussing efforts to reform the predatory municipal court system in St. Louis County. These predatory courts underlie the abusive policing practices that led to the Ferguson protest movement following the Ferguson police killing of Michael Brown Jr.
McCulloch, of course, was villainized by Ferguson protestors for his handling of the grand jury that decided not to indict then-Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson for shooting the unarmed teen. McCulloch continues to stand by nearly every decision he made in that case, but he sure does sound like a Ferguson protestor when he starts talking about municipal police departments and courts, and the municipalities they help keep in business.
“If you can’t afford to provide law enforcement or basic services,” McCulloch told the Mizzou students, “then you shouldn’t be a municipality.” No legitimate tax base, McCulloch says, no municipality. No fair keeping a municipality alive on the artificial respiration of ticket quotas, court fines and fees.
McCulloch: police bad for safety
McCulloch – who has a history of rationalizing police conduct – even went so far as to say that he is aware of “a couple of police departments where, if nobody showed up for work, it would be a better community.”
What? Bob McCulloch admitting that police can be bad for public safety? Which police? Which police departments?
The American asked Ed Magee in McCulloch’s office to specify which police departments are that bad. No reply. The American asked Magee for a follow-up interview with McCulloch on this issue. No reply.
Now the EYE will ask Christy Lopez, who led the Department of Justice investigation into Ferguson, to see if she can get an answer out of McCulloch. After all, her boss Attorney General Eric Holder authorized the DOJ Civil Rights Division to broaden its investigation into other municipalities, if warranted. A thorough investigation into any police department so bad that Bob McCulloch thinks it should be disbanded in the interest of public safety certainly is warranted.
‘The big thing is: money’
McCulloch – who is no dummy – understands why municipalities cling to their police departments. “The big thing is: money,” McCulloch told the Mizzou students. “You control the police department, you control the money. We’ve kind of seen that.”
Yes, we have kind of seen that in Ferguson. So, again, we find McCulloch lined up, almost unbelievably, with the “we” of the protest and reform movement.
They have also “kind of seen that” in Byrnes Mill, Missouri, a municipality of some 2,780 people, almost every one of them white, in Jefferson County. Jefferson County neighbors St. Louis County to the southwest. Like the rest of Missouri, its municipalities would be impacted by Senate Bill 5. Introduced by state Senator Eric Schmitt, SB 5 would reduce how much of their revenue that municipalities can generate through traffic violations. The current cap is 30 percent. Schmitt’s bill would lower that to 20 percent in 2016 and then 10 percent in 2017. Excess court revenues would be sent to the public schools, and failure to pay the schools would force an automatic election “upon the question of disincorporation” of the municipality.
When McCulloch talks about “capitalizing” on the new political will for reform to “get rid of these guys,” he is describing precisely what Schmitt is doing.
Which brings us to Bynes Mill, incorporated in 1986, where Susan Gibson is mayor, Lawrence Perney is city administrator, Robert Sweeney is city attorney, Colby Smith-Hynes is municipal judge, Gary Dougherty is police chief – and all of these folks have figured out they are threatened with loss of their jobs, and their little municipality right along with them.
They are not going down without a fight. On April 8, when Schmitt’s bill was discussed in the Missouri House of Representatives, the city posted a screed against SB 5 on its website.
“As filed, in two years the City of Byrnes will only be allowed to collect 10 percent of its budget from municipal court fines and any excess of that sent to the state,” they say, misstating the facts. The excess funds would go to the public schools in the county, not the state.
“This will mean a 20 percent decrease in revenue and create a $210,000 budget deficit,” the screed continues. “This City of Byrnes Mill will have to find a way to make up for the lost income or make drastic cuts. It could mean we will no longer be able to support our police department and court system.”
Let’s hear that again: “we will no longer be able to support our police department and court system”! Clearly, the tail is wagging the dog in Bynes Mill, as it is throughout St. Louis County. Nowhere is this inverted logic stated so precisely. If we can’t push our municipal cops to write tickets that are prosecuted in the municipal court, then we will no longer be able to afford our municipal cops and courts!
Get an identity
However perverse, this way of thinking is widespread. Consider Ella Jones, the newly elected Ward 1 member of the Ferguson City Council. Jones told St. Louis Public Radio, “In order for Ferguson to hold its own identity, we need to keep our own police department.” If a city needs a police department to have an identity, then it’s not a city.
The EYE thinks the DOJ report made it clear that Ferguson should not have its own police department or municipal court. For the moment, the Missouri Supreme Court took away Ferguson’s court and gave it to an appellate judge hearing cases in St. Louis County Circuit Court. The Arch City Defenders and other reformers – like Bob McCulloch? – are right to encourage the court to make much more sweeping use of its powers to clean up the municipal courts mess.
The April 7 election results show why it makes sense to “get rid of these guys” by merging and/or dissolving municipalities. In more than 75 races for council member, alderperson or trustee on April 7, the winners received less than 100 votes. This includes races in the majority-black municipalities of Pine Lawn, Dellwood, Kinloch, Cool Valley, Normandy, Velda City and Vinita Park. In Wellston, LaToya Scott received a total of 23 votes and beat out two candidates. Candidates receiving less than 30 votes were not uncommon in this election.
Three mayors won with less than 100 votes – in Greendale, Flordell Hills and Kinloch. Two of these municipalities – Flordell Hills and Kinloch – operate their own police departments. That means someone can get elected with less than 100 votes and still effectively ride herd over a department of armed law enforcement officers. In Kinloch, which has its own police department, Betty McCray won with 63 votes, which was a landslide compared to her competition Darren Small’s 18 votes and Theda Wilson’s two votes. A mayor elected to office with 63 votes and an armed police force is a scary thing that needs to become a thing of the past.
