Author: Douglas Gillon

DOUG GILLON

Police guarding a news truck on West Florissant

The killing of Michael Brown shattered an already tenuous trust between citizens and the establishment in Ferguson, Missouri, and it will take much longer to fix than the broken shop windows on West Florissant Avenue.

All over St. Louis County, not just in Ferguson, demonstrators march and chant for changes. For equality in police departments. For justice regarding Michael Brown’s killing. For an end to the militarization of police.

They don’t trust the police anymore, and, judging by the police reaction to the early demonstrations the police don’t trust them either.

“They will change the rules, they will make up rules, they will use any excuse to arrest you if they want to,” a street legal adviser says during a protestor orientation meeting at a nearby church. “But there are rules you can follow to protect yourself.”

He advises everyone to stay out of the streets, to always try to comply with officer instructions, stick with a buddy, and always be moving. He then passes out sharpies for everyone to write a phone number on their arm. It’s a number for a legal center set up to help people arrested while demonstrating.

At the same orientation, another woman, who asked not to be identified by name, puts some cloak and dagger parameters on the discussions in the room.

“This is a safe place, but we all need to be a little mindful of our conversations,” she said. “We’ve been raided by police more than once here,” she said. “We are pretty sure we know what they took, but we don’t know what they may have left behind.”

As the meeting continues there are several mentions of the media distorting the truth, not telling the real story, and just printing what this group is calling false accusations from police.

Minutes later, this reporter was asked to leave that building.

“We want to build a safe place here,” she explained. “You may be cool, but the media has been very aggressive. People don’t need to be worried about everything they say being printed, and I don’t know you.”

Even on a peaceful night the broken trust owns the streets.

It’s not just on West Florissant either. At an artists’ collective meeting mid-day Saturday, it becomes clear that the reasons for this breakdown extend far beyond the recent deployment of tear gas, flash bangs, and MRAP military vehicles.

“I won’t get the same treatment someone else will!” said local poet Shea Brown. “I have neighbors that won’t talk to me, police that are always staring at me, and it’s not just not that I have to fear for my life every time I walk out the door.”

“When this is over and everyone goes home, who is going to protect us? Who is going to police the police?”

The point resonates. It gathers a wave of nodding heads, and more speakers repeat the sentiment.

The police have failed us. The police are not protecting us. They are putting us in danger. They are killing us.

As the conversations and demonstrations continue, the narrative of they versus us is probably the most prevalent. It is one against the other, separated with clear lines, and it appears that trust is the only thing that will dissolve them – a reinstitution of trust.

And people are trying.

On West Florissant, Charles Davis takes orders and passes out smiles at Ferguson Burgers & More. The four-booth burger and shake shop is one of the few businesses on the block with intact glass, and stays full throughout the night and the day.

Itt is visited by police, by journalists, by photographers and demonstrators, and, in the late afternoon, but a particularly put-together white family.

It’s Missouri state Attorney General Chris Koster. He has stopped in with his wife and daughter. He orders some food and steps outside with Mr. Davis to chat and take pictures.

Koster doesn’t have to be there. But he’s trying to be a part of the entire state, a part of the neighborhood affected by tragedy. The same can’t be said for local prosecutor Bob McColloch, who is handling the case. But Koster is there. He’s there with his family to be seen, to listen, and to try to build that trust again.

He’s not the only authority figure making the effort.

Captain Ron Johnson of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, the man who took over policing West Florissant and nearby Canfield after the disastrous attempts by local police, is walking up and down the street among a few other officers and some reporters.

He and his escorts are in standard blue uniforms, with no extra armor or weapons. They circle the block on foot, stopping to chat with demonstrators and business owners. A few times angry citizens confront them, but, on this day, the situation doesn’t escalate, the police just walk away.

In the face of what has come before, the efforts are small. But they are something, and they are being noticed.

Even at protestor orientation, among the people who have seen and experienced the worst of one of this week, there is a hope, and even a slight expectation of calm.

“We did ok last night,” one organizer said, “We really hope that can continue. Things have calmed down a lot.”

And at the artists’ meeting on Cherokee Street, a white photographer asks that white people at the meetings try not to dominate the conversation.

“We need to make sure the voices of color are heard,” he said more than once.

On the second, time, a black man replied, “We are.”

An uncommon reply to an uncommon request. But maybe a start towards trust.

To be continued.

DOUG GILLON

Protesters at a Ferguson safe house

Doug Gillon

On Florissant Avenue, a ew version of an old message

A young woman’s sign reads, “Don’t Tread on Me.” Nearby, a gaggle of marchers walk in step behind an American Flag.

Earlier in the day, citizens formed groups with names like “We the People.” They railed about not paying taxes, about not trusting the government, and about ways to remove the people in power.

This isn’t the most recent iteration of the tea party, it’s a major part St. Louis area conversations reacting to the killing of Michael Brown.

At an artists’ collective meeting on Saturday, a mixed group of more than 250 ponders ways to improve their community.

“We need to march on Clayton where they can’t ignore us,” one voice said.

“We can start a recall on the Mayor with 2000 signatures,” said another.

“If this is what my tax money pays for, then lock me up ’cause I ain’t paying,” a third said to applause.

It doesn’t sound so different from calls to impeach the President or from the never-ending governmental distrust of far-right gun groups, but with one caveat.

These people aren’t rallying against what’s going to happen, they are speaking about what has happened.

The military police vehicles are real. So is the tear gas. And so are the government seizures. But they didn’t come for the guns, they came for the Maalox.

A nearby church has been raided twice by police because of its role as a safe house for demonstrators. Each time the police took Maalox solutions the group was using to neutralize tear gas. The reason given for the raid was “reports of squatting.”

While the past week has been the most extreme, the citizens of these St. Louis county townships like Ferguson almost universally speak of a much longer-term conflict between citizens and police, one that they will no longer tolerate.

But most of this group isn’t interested in fixing the problems with guns. The tools here are education, voter registration, and open communication.

So don’t call them the tea party. Maybe the coffee party. Or maybe what they call themselves, “We the People.”

To be continued.

Doug Gillon

Sign on food truck on West Florissant

FERGUSON, MO —Ferguson, Missouri is not a war zone. At least it wasn’t Saturday night.

On this night it’s a place of peace, a place of caution, a place of community, and a place of people desperate for change.

A crowd of about 40 circles the sidewalks of west Florissant, a street not too different from Summer, or Lamar, or parts of Poplar Avenue, really. They have signs and a flag and they have their voices.

“Stop! Dont shoot!” They chant. “We are! Mike Brown!”

Street medics marked with homemade red crosses circle the action, closely followed by volunteer legal advisors in green hats.

The advisors and medics have come from nearby St. Marks Church, where protestor training and safe haven is offered for demonstrators.

The police are there too, but it is a tempered presence. It’s less than a Saturday on Beale Street. An MRAP is nearby, hidden behind a car wash at the end of the street. After the chaos of the week, temperate reactions are prevailing. On this night, at least, this is a city trying to heal, and trying to change.

Dozens of meetings are happening around St. Louis, including one on Cherokee Street, which might as well be Madison Ave. Its an artist’s collective of about 200 black and white musicians spending a Saturday afternoon searching for answers.

“I can’t trust white people, and I love y’all!” Exclaims a black guitarist named YaYa. His tone is angry and nervous, but the reaction across the room is accepting, empathetic, comforting. The reaction obviously surprises him, and it seems to cause some of his anger to dissipate instantly.

It was one example of one thing said in a safe, open room, one of several across the city, but indicative of a shift in dialogue; a shift around the barriers to conversation.

The 24 hours between Saturday and Sunday morning were relatively calm in St. Louis, but still full of suspicion, anger and passion.

But they were also full of hope, of a prevailing desire for healing and change and, most importantly, of open discussion.

The meeting on Cherokee closed with that kind of hopeful message from its leader Damon Davis. “When we can talk, when we can listen, we can change and we can heal.”

To be continued.

Doug Gillon

Damon Davis at Artists’ Meeting

It turns out Charlotte Bergman couldn’t win. Not even close.

9th District congressman Steve Cohen retained his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives with a large victory over Bergman, who called Cohen to concede the race within an hour of polls closing.

“Seventy-plus percent is a landslide,” Cohen said in a speech to supporters, “And landslides are what we do.”

Cohen’s victory sends him back to a changed national landscape in Washington, as Republicans won enough seats to take control of the House by a margin of some 60 seats.

“If we lose tonight, and it’s looking like we will” I assure you you’re going to have an effective Congressman from the 9th district,” Cohen told his supporters soon after claiming victrory.

Bergman made an appearance at Bill Haslam’s local headquarters in east Memphis but did not give a formal speech
.


Other Races
Stephen Fincher picked up a seat for Republicans in the 8th district, defeating Roy Herron with 60 percent of the vote in a heavily financed campaign.

For the other big races, it was a night of landslides.

As expected, Republican Bill Haslam soundly defeated Democrat Mike McWherter in the governors race, with 65 percent of the vote to roughly 33 percent for McWherter. McWherter did prevail in shelby County, however, with 51 percent of the vote there.

Marsha Blackburn defeated Greg Rabidoux handily, with 72 percent of the vote in the race for the 7th Congressional seat.

Republican Brian Kelsey will get a chance to serve a full term as the state senator for district 31 after defeating Ivon Faulkner.

Ophelia Ford will retain her seat in the state senate district 29, defeating Robert Hill and Herman Sawyer.
In races for state House seat in Shelby County, some results were relatively close, but incumbents were able to hold on.

Democrats Jeanne Richardson and Mike Kernell retained their seats in seriously contested races. Incumbents Curry Todd, Lois DeBerry, Barbara Cooper, and Johnnie Turner won re-election over opposition handily. All except Republican Todd are Democrats.

The consolidation referendum narrowly passed in Memphis, 51 percent to 49 percent, while getting hammered in non-Memphis voting, 85 percent to 15 percent.

Memphis votes approved a pair of amendments — to repeal staggered-term requirements for city council members; and to allow city employees to reside within greater Shelby County.

C. Elise Dillingham and Jackson Baker contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON — Standing in front of a crowd that stretched almost across the entire national mall, Jon Stewart had one very important message for his supporters at the beginning of the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear.

“Don’t litter.”

And so it went. Stewart and his partner Stephen Colbert headed a star-studded three-hour show that included Ozzy Osborne, Mavis Staples, Sheryl Crow, Sam Watterson, the Roots and a gaggle of other celebrities in which everyone was told to be polite, be respectful, and be sane.

Some attendees were funny, some were serious, some had signs, and some had costumes, but, importantly, everyone managed to stay sane.

“It was amazing to have this out there today,” said Jay Zapf, a 27-year-old from Memphis attending the rally with friends. “My parents generation got to be involved in so many of these rallies and social events, and we normally didn’t get to do it.”

Zapf and six other friends drove to the rally from Memphis. Their presence, plus that of this reporter,accounts for at least eight Memphi- area folks at the event.

The biggest takeaway from the event for this sane Memphis seven?

“The crowd. Wow was it big,” said Steven Strang, a 27 year-old server at Amerigo’s. “We wanted to see how many people out there thought like us, and it turns out that it’s a lot.”
Back home, a group of about 25 “reasonable” locals held a satellite in Overton Park, where they gathered around a car speaker plugged into a smart phone picking up the rally stream from the Internet. Comedy Central reported that the live webcast of the event attracted around four million viewers.

“It went great, we thought Stewart did a real nice job out there today and we had a lot of fun,” said the event’s organizer Bob Huddleston.
At the end of the event, Stewart gave an impassioned speech to the crowd, blaming the 24-hour cable news cycle for much of our woes as a country.

“When we amplify everything, we hear nothing,” he said.

After the speech, Stewart was joined on stage by everyone who had played a part in the event’s performance as they sang a version of the Staple Singer’s “I’ll take you there.” The original song was recorded at Stax records in Memphis.

So at the end of the day, a Memphis message helped bring sanity home.

• Douglas Gillon

• Douglas Gillon

Commissioner Steve Mulroy and the Shelby County Commission apparently will be doing what they can to prevent future election debacles like the one experienced on Aug. 5.

A commission committee voted 8-0 yesterday to approve a resolution put forward by Mulroy that would extend whistleblower protection for any county employees looking to come forward with information about official impropriety.

“I don’t think you have to be an election reform junkie to think that it’s really important that we get it right,” Mulroy said.

The unanimous vote ensures the resolution will move to a chance to be fully ratified Monday, where Mulroy is confident it will pass.

Tennessee already has whistleblower protection laws in place, but Mulroy felt additional protection was needed to ensure public employees feel safe when reporting actions they deem to be improper.

Current state law only protects employees who have been terminated from their position, reported on clearly defined illegal activity, and who were terminated solely for reporting said illegal activity.

Mulroy’s resolution extends those elements to protect against any adverse employment action, protects any improper activity reported even if it is not necessarily illegal, and states that the reporting need only be a “significant” factor in the adverse action.

Election Commission Chairman Bill Giannini said he thought current protections were sufficient, but that he would support any action that encouraged transparency.

“I’m having a hard time understanding what sort of retribution someone might fear, Giannini said. “That’s been something that’s kind of puzzled me from day one, but, that said, I’ll be all in support of any protection the county commission deems is warranted to protect any employee that comes forward under any situation. I think employees should feel like they don’t have to fear telling the truth about anything.”

The issue of election impropriety and whistleblower protection has been especially prominent lately after the multitude of problems experienced during the Aug. 5 election, during which voter databases were inaccurately uploaded and many citizens were delayed in voting.

The situation spiraling from the fallout has resulted in defeated Democratic candidate Randy Wade claiming he was contacted by an anonymous election commission worker, and Democratic party chairman Van Turner claiming to have been contacted by a second anonymous worker, both claiming to have witnessed improprieties more severe than those admitted by the commission.

Regina Newman, another defeated Democratic candidate from Aug. 5 and former attorney representing the plaintiffs in the ongoing lawsuit, said the lack of adequate whistleblower protection has hindered their ability to move forward in the lawsuit. Both Turner and Wade claim not to know the identity of the informants, making it impossible for them to testify in court.

“We can’t bring these people in to testify if we don’t know who they are,” Newman said.

It seems that Mulroy, Giannini, and the commission would be in favor of more open disclosure of the information claimed by the plaintiffs.

Due to Democrats losing 9 out of 10 elections in August, it would be easy to assume the election issue is a partisan one. However the unanimous passage of this resolution and the attitudes of key officials involved seem to dictate otherwise.

In session, the debate focused on removing language that directly referenced the previous election, and on to whom potential whistleblowers would report.

“The Republicans were getting all bent out of shape,” Mulroy said, “and they just didn’t want to say it that way to call attention to the ongoing election dispute.”

The call for removing the previous election reference was pushed by County Atty. Kelly Rayne, a longtime employee of Democratic Mayor A C Wharton, Jr., who now reports to newly elected County Mayor Mark Luttrell, a Republican.

“It’s been disappointing to see the partisan talk about the commission,” Giannini said. “From day one the commission has been unified on every point with both Democrats and Republicans. It helps the media gain viewership or readership to claim that there’s some partisan event to this but there’s not, and there never has been.”

(This is an expanded version of an account also featured in the current Flyer Viewpoint, “More Than a Glitch.”)

Most convicted felons serving the first few months of a life sentence would need a successful appeal and a million dollar bond to walk out jail’s front door. Convicted murderer Dearick Stokes just needed a faulty computer system.

On April 22, Stokes was released from jail just months into his life sentence, back on the street for the second time since his conviction. Stokes had previously gone into hiding just before the jury convicted him of murder, leaving the courthouse after telling his attorney, he needed to use the bathroom.

“I thought ‘well, we’ll never see this guy again,’” said Judge James Lammey Jr., who oversaw Stokes’ trial. “He already had one chance to get away, one shot at it. and he failed, so the next time they’ve had a little practice, they might do something different. That’s why I think it was such a good job on the investigators’ behalf of finding this guy so quickly.”

Fortunately, Stokes was recaptured less than a week later at the Relax Inn on South Third Street after an intensive manhunt led by Sheriff Mark Luttrell.

“At this point it’s almost comical,” Lammey said after Stokes’ capture. “But I have a wife and kids, I want them to be safe. The jurors I know they had concerns during trial, about this fellow and his family. A couple of them felt like they were being eyed. So to know that this guy was on the street again, that would be scary for them, to say the least, and also the witnesses that testified against him. When he was out there it wasn’t comical at all, it was frightening.”

What remains frightening is the prospect of a repeat performance, as the Stokes’ situation is just the latest, most dangerous and high profile problem with a computer system that causes daily problems for those using it.

In order to handle issues of bond, release, court appearances, charges and other matters pertinent to case adjudication, the Criminal Court computer system and Jail computer system must be in constant communication with each other. Problem is, the two systems don’t communicate very well.

The system often takes more than a day to register critical elements, does not interpret complex legal elements of adjudication correctly, and causes a variety of simple user hang-ups.

“I can do a record check from my computer, but it won’t show the record on my screen,” Lammey said. “I have to print it out. So I just can’t look at it on the computer. You would think that since the information is there that I would be able to see it and not print it. It seems like a waste of paper.”

That may seem like a normal office complaint, but it gets worse. Already indicted defendants appear in court erroneously daily, because their indictment isn’t stored in the system. An order for release from jail can be easily confused as a release to the Dept. of Corrections (read: Prison) or to the street. And complications involving bond forfeiture, automatic sentences, sentencing hearings and case closure can all get convoluted moving back and forth between the two databases.

In Stokes’ case, a charge of domestic assault was dropped to save judiciary effort, entered into the Criminal Court system, and sent to the Jail system. When the dropped charge showed up in the Jail system, the murder conviction was nowhere to be found. Also not found? An indictment for failure to appear in a felony case, issued earlier that day. Either would have kept Stokes in custody, but both were lost in the matrix.

And so, at 9:30 p.m. on April 22, Stokes was summoned by jail staff, questioned by release staff, given his things and politely shown the door. Just like that, a convicted murderer and one-time fugitive was out of police custody and back on the streets. Luttrell estimates that Stokes’ release was witnessed by as many as six employees before he walked out the door.

“You would think a light bulb would go off somewhere,” Luttrell said. “There were some people scratching their heads and some members of staff stopped to question him and followed up, but we eventually let him go.”

The follow-up was not a phone call to Criminal Court, a question sent to Lammey or an effort to find original paperwork. Nope. The follow-up was just a double-check of faulty computer screen. Stokes benefitted from a perfect storm of systematic errors and poor timing, and was able to get out of jail.

To Luttrell that is unacceptable. Problems with both sides of the system were as well known as Stokes’ status as a chronic flight risk.

“You should never rely exclusively on a computer,” Luttrell said. “We’ve known for a number of years that we have an antiquated system. It’s got some problems. We established a task force three months ago to look holistically into this entire IT situation in the criminal justice system knowing we had some problems, and I think it’s clear now that the accident we were fearful would happen, happened. And it happened in a big way.”

That reliance on the computer was already removed by Judge Chris Craft of Division VIII, who ordered that no prisoner who had appeared in his court would be released without accompanying paperwork. Craft made his order after a similar incident occurred in his court years prior to the Stokes’ incident.

Now all defendants in criminal court will undergo the same scrutiny before being released, something Lammey feels is adequate for the time being.

“It’s an expensive proposition to replace the whole [system]. The cheaper solution right now is to require that they have all the paperwork in hand. For now I’m satisfied that they have it corrected.”

A more permanent fix for the computer system is going to be trickier to implement. The positions of Criminal Court Clerk and Sheriff are both in the process of switching after this upcoming election, with no incumbent in sight. Much of the burden for updating these systems will fall on victors of those races, but will also include a myriad of officials at all levels of government. Luttrell, who is running for Shelby County Mayor, has said a focus on a more permanent solution would be a priority for him in the Mayor’s position, but that he cannot predict if voters will give him that chance after this incident.

“I don’t know about [effects on his campaign],” Luttrell said. “The political implications of this will be left up to the citizens.”

In the wake of the incident Luttrell has ordered a full investigation that he expects to be made public later this week. Any disciplinary action will be made based on the investigation’s findings.

In the meantime, the local criminal justice system, which is the busiest in the state, is left with a computer system that has effectively rendered itself useless with regard to prisoner movement. For now, it’s back to paper pushing.

Despite the development, Lammey says it is important for the public to retain faith in the administrating of criminal justice done downtown.

“From my perspective, we have the people in the community who are told countless times that the system is broken, and from our perspective we’re trying to show that the system actually works,” Lammey said. “This hurts that effort, but we want to be sure that people have the right impression of our criminal justice system. I want people to have confidence in the system.”

Lammey, Luttrell and other believers may be able to convince the public, but their biggest task moving forward is to convince the computer.