4 ms·

> It's a police force that handles an area which has just 7400 residents. And about 300,000 daily commuters. What's the commuter/resident ratio for Ferguson?

• ptaipale 12y ago
  I suppose the problem in Ferguson is more about out-of-town shoppers than commuters. Specifically, out-of-town shoppers for controlled substances. So this is yet another symptom/consequence/whatever in the war on drugs. Just because you made me interested, I googled and found e.g. this: http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-darren-wilson-arrest-20140929-story.html http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-darren-wilson-arrest-201... Should Brooks, a resident, and Johnson, a non-resident, have been arrested? According to law, yes. Is this fight on drugs working? Probably not. But should the residence status impact whether they are arrested? No. Does this make it silly to compare number of arrest warrants to number of residents? To some extent, yes. No doubt that the situation is worse in St. Louis than in Boston, but it's not just one Ferguson.
  • dghf 12y ago
    Well, your comment on London got me interested, and while I couldn't find arrest-warrant stats for the City, I did find this: http://www.met.police.uk/foi/pdfs/disclosure_2014/april_2014/2014030000365.pdf http://www.met.police.uk/foi/pdfs/disclosure_2014/april_2014... Among Greater London's boroughs (not including the City), the out and out winner for outstanding arrest warrants, with more than twice as many as the runner-up (in both absolute terms and per head of population), was the City of Westminster. The vast majority of these -- 535 of 587 -- were for "other offences" (i.e., not actual bodily harm, burglary, robbery, possession of an offensive weapon, serious violence, or sexual offences). What do you suppose that's all about? Can't all be MPs fiddling their expenses.