The Oasis Reporters

News on time, everytime

AfricaAnalysisCrimeGenderHistoryNewsPoliticsWorld

Ferguson: A City That Erupted In Protests After Police Killing Of Black Teenager In 2014 Elects Ella Jones As First Black Mayor


The Oasis Reporters



June 5, 2020

 

Ella Jones becomes first female, first African American Mayor of Ferguson, Missouri.





As a city, Ferguson, Missouri had never elected a female as Mayor before. But that has now changed. Not only has it now chosen to elect a female, but it elected a black female, somehow, showing an unprecedented move.



Ferguson voters have made history, especially now that the entire United States is boiling, over another brutal killing of an unarmed man by a police officer. As Americans protest the killing of George Floyd, the protest is equally about police treatment of black communities all over the nation.


George Floyd’s killing with a gleeful police officer’s leg on his neck while he was on the ground, handcuffed and in full glare of camera phones has caused deep revulsion, not only in Minnesota, but has reverberated in Ferguson with the votes showing the mood of the city.

Ella Jones is now the city’s first black mayor as Jones, a City Council member who also will be first woman to lead the St. Louis suburb, beat fellow council member Heather Robinett in the non-partisan election for a three-year term that starts later this month, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

Outgoing Mayor, James Knowles is no longer eligible to run again due to limitations on term. He has served for the maximum terms allowed


Protests following the 2014 fatal police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown thrust Ferguson into national spotlight. They also helped solidify the Black Lives Matter movement formed in the wake of the death of black teenager Trayvon Martin in Florida two years earlier and the acquittal of the neighborhood watch volunteer who shot him.


The city voted Tuesday amid another day of protests over the death of Floyd, a black man who died last week after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee iRxnto Floyd’s neck for several minutes even after he stopped moving and pleading for air.

The shooting of Brown, a black teen, by a white Ferguson police officer prompted a Justice Department investigation that resulted in a consent agreement reached in 2016 that requires significant changes in the city, including municipal court reforms, community policing efforts, hiring more minority officers and improved policies in areas such as use of body cameras and search and seizure practices.

Jones, 65, is likely going to continue implementing the changes outlined in the agreement in Ferguson.

AP
The New York Times


Greg Abolo

Blogger at The Oasis Reporters.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *