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    Mariah Stewart

    Mariah Stewart

    HuffPost's Ferguson Fellow

  • Burned-Out Ferguson Convenience Store Is Reborn As Job Training Center

    The burned-out QuikTrip convenience store that became a symbol of racial unrest after a police officer killed an unarmed black teenager nearby almost a year ago will soon reopen as a community center focusing on job-training and placement for African-Americans. The store, epicenter of the August 2014 protests that erupted after the killing of Michael Brown, 18, was looted, burned and spray-painted "R.I.P. Mike Brown" before civilians pitched in and cleaned up the site. As rioting along West Florissant Road intensified, heavily armed police with armored vehicles pointed rifles at protesters and fired  tear gas and pepper balls into crowds.

  • Ferguson Prosecutor Accused Of Misconduct Is Still Doing Her Thing

    It’s late Tuesday morning, and perhaps 15 people are gathered in a room inside City Hall in this St. Louis suburb, a room that usually hosts meetings of the Ferguson City Council. Seated at the head of the dais, in the chair usually reserved for Ferguson Mayor James Knowles, is a man wearing a robe. Ferguson Municipal Court is in session.

  • Hillary Clinton, At Black Church Near Ferguson, Says 'All Lives Matter'

    Clinton, running for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, was criticized last year for not immediately speaking about Brown's killing. On Tuesday, she addressed racial inequity, the Confederate flag, forgiveness, and last week’s racially motivated massacre at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina. "All lives matter," Clinton said.

  • Ferguson: If Negligent, Careless Poor People Can't Make Bail, It's Their Fault

    When lawyers in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division investigated the operations of the Ferguson Police Department and municipal court system, they found that local officials blamed a lack of “personal responsibility” among “certain segments” of the community for the incredible number of arrest warrants issued. DOJ’s report, which found that the city used its municipal court as a way to generate revenue, said that “lack of personal responsibility” was one of the “negative stereotypes about African Americans” held by decision makers in Ferguson. Ferguson’s municipal court process has undergone a massive overhaul over the past few months: top officials have resigned or been fired and the state Supreme Court even stepped in to essentially take over the municipal court system on a temporary basis.

  • Tiny St. Louis County Police Force Disbands After Months Of Criticism

    A tiny St. Louis County police department with a budget so tight its $12-an-hour cops had to buy their own guns was disbanded this week after a string of embarrassments. The 23 Wellston Police Department officers who patrolled the town of 2,000 handed in their badges Tuesday afternoon, after five of seven city council members voted to eliminate the department. Cops had faced recent criticism for incidents that included pepper-spraying a handcuffed woman and shooting a suspect to death. The town's police duties will be taken over by officers from neighboring Vinita Park.

  • St. Louis Police Turn Stun Guns On Non-Violent Protesters Near Busch Stadium

    A Black Lives Matter demonstration involving a few dozen activists led to eight arrests, two of which included the use of stun guns by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department’s bike patrol unit, according to police. Among those hit was a newly elected school board director from a St. Louis suburb, who said she was stunned more than once. Police said they were impeding the flow of traffic and were told to move to the sidewalk several times before arrests were made.

  • Michael Brown Is Getting A Permanent Memorial In Ferguson

    ST. LOUIS -- Dozens of teddy bears that memorialized Michael Brown were removed from a site on Canfield Drive in Ferguson, Missouri, on Wednesday afternoon. The memorial will be replaced by a permanent plaque honoring Brown, who was fatally shot by a police officer in August 2014.

  • This Tiny Town Near St. Louis Is Making Minor-Crime Arrests At 100 Times The National Average

    ST. LOUIS -- A study of policing in the St. Louis area released Monday, which criticized the profit-driven practices of many departments in St. Louis County, revealed a startling statistic about arrests for minor crimes made in one tiny municipality. Beverly Hills, Missouri, population 574, has taken in over a quarter of its revenue from court fees and fines in recent years, at an annual rate of nearly $400 per resident.

  • Man Who Filmed Freddie Gray Arrest Detained By Baltimore Police, Along With Ferguson Video Activists

    Kevin Moore, the man who filmed Freddie Gray’s violent arrest, was detained in Baltimore on Thursday night, along with Chad Jackson and Tony White, two activists who had previously filmed protests in Ferguson, Missouri. On April 12, Moore released video of Gray's arrest to multiple media outlets immediately after filming it on his cell phone. Moore told the Baltimore Sun that Gray was "folded like origami" by police officers during the arrest.

  • Ferguson Protests Flare As Baltimore Reignites The Cause

    Hundreds of protesters gathered on the main street and in front of the city police department for a second consecutive night Wednesday, the day after demonstrators hurled rocks at police vehicles and set fire to a portable toilet. The Ferguson demonstrations, to show solidarity with Baltimore protests against Freddie Gray's fatal injury in police custody there, began Tuesday, with hundreds gathered on West Florissant, the center of Ferguson protests last fall against the police killing of unarmed teenager Michael Brown. Once rocks began flying, a line of officers herded protesters away and warned on a loudspeaker that they may be subject to arrest and "chemical munitions.” Three people were hospitalized with gunshot wounds and a 20-year-old was arrested, police said.

  • Newly Elected Mayor Locked Out Of City Hall In Struggling St. Louis County Town

    Just minutes away from Ferguson, its now-famous neighbor, is Kinloch, the first well-established African-American community in St. Louis County. Kinloch was once a flourishing town with some 10,000 residents. On Thursday, after she was sworn in by St. Louis County officials in nearby Clayton, McCray showed up at Kinloch's combination city hall and police department.

  • Tiny St. Louis County Town Used Police Force As 'Bullies,' Former Mayor Claims

    Pine Lawn, a tiny St. Louis County town notorious for corruption and predatory ticketing practices, is being sued by its 80-year-old former mayor, who alleges a successor used the police department to falsely arrest him and portray him as a criminal. Adrian Wright, Pine Lawn mayor from 1993 until 2005, says in a federal lawsuit that ex-Mayor Sylvester Caldwell was the town's de facto police chief and used the force as a political weapon. Caldwell resigned last week when he pleaded guilty to federal extortion charges.

  • A Bunch Of Towns Neighboring Ferguson Held Crucial Elections This Week, And Hardly Anyone Noticed

    Here's a breakdown of what Election Day meant for some nearby towns: Calverton Park Square mileage: 0.41 Population: 1,293 as of 2010 Voters: 190 (for mayor) Number of full-time officers: 15 Officers per 1,000 people: 12 Average officer salary: not provided Police department budget: $587,626 Percentage of revenue from fines and fees: 66.3 percent Take, for example, Calverton Park, which borders Ferguson and is part of the same school district. Taking up less than half of a square mile, Calverton Park is home to just over 3,000 residents. On Tuesday, the city's former chairman of trustees, John A. Paunovich, was elected mayor with 152 votes, which was 80 percent.

  • Ferguson Election Result Changes The Face Of City Council

    Voters showed up at polling places in record numbers for a municipal election in this St. Louis suburb on Tuesday, tripling the number of black representatives on Ferguson City Council by electing two black candidates. Tuesday's election in Ferguson would have been historic no matter the outcome. When the results came in, they showed that Ella Jones, who is black, received nearly half of the vote in a four-way race for a seat representing Ward 1, while Wesley Bell, who also is black, received 66 percent of the vote in Ward 3.

  • Judge In Tiny City Facing Lawsuit Over Its 'Illegal' Bail System Is Running For Ferguson City Council

    Last year was pretty rough for Donya Pierce and her family. As she was about to drive out of the store parking lot with her friend, a police officer from the tiny St. Louis County municipality of Velda City saw that one of her headlights was out, and stopped her. Minutes later, Pierce was sitting in the backseat of a police car in handcuffs as a police dog swept through her vehicle, searching for non-existent drugs.

  • Welcome To Normandy, One Of The Many Fergusons You've Never Heard Of

    This St. Louis suburb has problems that may sound familiar to anyone who followed the unrest in nearby Ferguson. Its population of 5,000 is more than two-thirds black, but African-Americans are underrepresented on the city council, and the police force is overwhelmingly white. The lawyer who until recently served as municipal court judge owed tens of thousands in back taxes and acknowledged misconduct in his private practice.

  • Ferguson Mayor Thinks DOJ Report Put Too Much Focus On Race

    Mayor James Knowles said this week that Ferguson city officials plan to meet the Justice Department soon to begin working on an agreement to address the issues highlighted in the scathing DOJ report issued earlier this month. Knowles told The Huffington Post that he found many aspects of the report, which focused on Ferguson's police department and municipal court system, to be "shocking." He specifically cited the racist emails sent by two former senior police department officials and the city's former municipal court clerk, who Knowles said he has known for years. "Regardless of the merits of a lot of the things that happened in the report, I think it's unfortunate that the Department of Justice always tried to narrow it down to race," Knowles said.

  • Fleece Force: How Police And Courts Around Ferguson Bully Residents And Collect Millions

    Scott, a senior at Alabama A&M University, had lived in Pasadena Hills during high school. Pasadena Hills is small, with a population of less than 1,000. The seven-hour drive from Huntsville, Alabama, back to Pasadena Hills also made it difficult for Scott to appear in person.

  • As Reform Arrives In Ferguson, Neighboring Municipal Courts Stay Out Of The Spotlight

    It’s Thursday night in Berkeley, Missouri, and about 75 people are seated on brown metal folding chairs in a wood-paneled room in a strip mall, near a daycare, a Hispanic community center and a tutoring center. The municipal court is in session, and an attorney filling in for the city’s part-time judge is in charge of helping the city collect money. "Pay as much as you can," she tells one defendant, and asks another if the payment will be in full.

  • Ferguson Black Voter Turnout Is What Worries Some City Council Candidates

    The revenue-reaping practices of the police department and municipal court in this St. Louis suburb were widely condemned this month and led to the ouster of six city employees, including the police chief, municipal court judge and city manager. Ferguson voters will head to the polls on April 7 to select three new representatives on the the six-member city council, one in each city ward.