What's the backround on the Ferguson police shooting?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We've read that a part of the tensions surrounding the police shooting in Ferguson, MO (for those living under a rock: the shooting of an unarmed\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/08\/whats-the-backround-on-the-ferguson-police-shooting.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What's the backround on the Ferguson police shooting?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We've read that a part of the tensions surrounding the police shooting in Ferguson, MO (for those living under a rock: the shooting of an unarmed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/08\/whats-the-backround-on-the-ferguson-police-shooting.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-08-13T14:24:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-02-23T18:07:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/08\/whats-the-backround-on-the-ferguson-police-shooting.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/08\/whats-the-backround-on-the-ferguson-police-shooting.html\",\"name\":\"What's the backround on the Ferguson police shooting?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-08-13T14:24:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-02-23T18:07:58+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a\"},\"description\":\"We've read that a part of the tensions surrounding the police shooting in Ferguson, MO (for those living under a rock: the shooting of an unarmed\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/08\/whats-the-backround-on-the-ferguson-police-shooting.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/08\/whats-the-backround-on-the-ferguson-police-shooting.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/08\/whats-the-backround-on-the-ferguson-police-shooting.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"What’s the backround on the Ferguson police shooting?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/\",\"name\":\"Jane the Actuary\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a\",\"name\":\"Jane the Actuary\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jane the Actuary\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/author\/actuaryjane\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What's the backround on the Ferguson police shooting?","description":"We've read that a part of the tensions surrounding the police shooting in Ferguson, MO (for those living under a rock: the shooting of an unarmed","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/08\/whats-the-backround-on-the-ferguson-police-shooting.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"What's the backround on the Ferguson police shooting?","og_description":"We've read that a part of the tensions surrounding the police shooting in Ferguson, MO (for those living under a rock: the shooting of an unarmed","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/08\/whats-the-backround-on-the-ferguson-police-shooting.html","og_site_name":"Jane the Actuary","article_published_time":"2014-08-13T14:24:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-02-23T18:07:58+00:00","author":"Jane the Actuary","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jane the Actuary","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/08\/whats-the-backround-on-the-ferguson-police-shooting.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/08\/whats-the-backround-on-the-ferguson-police-shooting.html","name":"What's the backround on the Ferguson police shooting?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-08-13T14:24:00+00:00","dateModified":"2017-02-23T18:07:58+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a"},"description":"We've read that a part of the tensions surrounding the police shooting in Ferguson, MO (for those living under a rock: the shooting of an unarmed","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/08\/whats-the-backround-on-the-ferguson-police-shooting.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/08\/whats-the-backround-on-the-ferguson-police-shooting.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/08\/whats-the-backround-on-the-ferguson-police-shooting.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"What’s the backround on the Ferguson police shooting?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/","name":"Jane the Actuary","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a","name":"Jane the Actuary","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jane the Actuary"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/author\/actuaryjane"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2209"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":324,"date":"2014-08-13T08:24:00","date_gmt":"2014-08-13T14:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/08\/whats-the-backround-on-the-ferguson-police-shooting.html"},"modified":"2017-02-23T12:07:58","modified_gmt":"2017-02-23T18:07:58","slug":"whats-the-backround-on-the-ferguson-police-shooting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/08\/whats-the-backround-on-the-ferguson-police-shooting.html","title":{"rendered":"What’s the backround on the Ferguson police shooting?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

(Yes, the Vox article uses the word \u201cblack\u201d \u2013 and I would be curious as to whether the push to use \u201cAfrican American\u201d has measurably died down.)<\/p>\n

What I haven\u2019t seen is an explanation of why.<\/p>\n

Is it just that the white flight and black in-migration from the city of St. Louis is recent enough, and the pace of turn-over slow enough, that the police consists of a lot of old-timers? <\/p>\n

Is it due to the increasing credentialization, in which police are required to have college degrees, so that blacks, who are underrepresented among college graduates, are underrepresented on the police force?<\/p>\n

Is Ferguson simply poor enough that middle-income policemen have no interest in living there, so that the demographic makeup of the town has no relationship with that of its police force? \u00a0Is this, as with similar occupations where everyone wants their minority numbers up, a matter of wealthier police departments recruiting black policemen? <\/p>\n

My mom grew up in the area \u2014 first in the City, then in the North County suburb of Bellefountaine Neighbors. \u00a0I know that St. Louis County has a greater degree of power, and local municipalities less, than in most metropolitan areas, or at least that historically had been the case. \u00a0In the Chicago area, Cook County runs the courts, but the sheriff\u2019s department doesn\u2019t have much of a role except for small unincorporated pockets. \u00a0But St. Louis County has its own police department \u2014 see this wikipedia article<\/a> \u2014 and I can\u2019t figure out how the St. Louis County police department and the City of Ferguson police department are related. \u00a0I\u2019m reading articles referencing both police departments and both police chiefs.<\/p>\n

Anyone know more?<\/p>\n

UPDATE: \u00a0Here\u2019s an article from the local news outlet: \u00a0\u201c Is the racial makeup of the Ferguson police affecting its relationship with residents?<\/a>\u201d in which the police chief says he\u2019s trying to recruit more black officers, but it has been difficult: \u00a0\u201c[Ferguson Police Chief Tom] Jackson said he has been recruiting officers from minority backgrounds and has also been offering better pay. Jackson said the department has lost some minority officers because of better offers from other departments.\u201d \u00a0At present, 1 out of 53 are black. <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"