Residents of Ferguson, Missouri, launched a recall effort Friday afternoon against Mayor James Knowles III, the most prominent public figure remaining in the strife-ridden community after a recent rash of resignations.
In a press release late Friday, leaders of the Organization for Black Struggle-St. Louis said that five Ferguson residents had signed an affidavit at city hall for the mayor’s recall. Organizers have 60 days to submit signatures amounting to 15 percent of those who voted in the last mayoral race in order to force the special election.
The residents also delivered letters to the mayor and city council members asking for his resignation, saying, “We cannot describe how disgusted we are with you,” according to the release.
Six city hall and police employees, including the city manager and the police chief, have resigned since the Justice Department released a blistering report March 4 accusing the city of using fines, tickets and arrests aimed primarily at black residents to generate revenue.
Mr. Knowles said earlier Friday that he would accept a recall if it were “the will of the people,” but worried that such an effort would come as “setback for the community,” which has seen rioting, daily protests and the Thursday shooting of two police officers since 18-year-old Michael Brown died Aug. 9 in a confrontation with an officer.
“That’s just another setback for the community. If that’s what the majority of the community wants, then that’s fine,” Mr. Knowles said in an interview with NBC News. “Unfortunately, the events of the other night only serve to divide the community. A recall election will only serve to divide the community, but if that is the will of the people, then so be it.”
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Mr. Knowles doesn’t face reelection until April 2016, but three of the six seats on the Ferguson city council are on the ballot in the April 7 election.
Protesters were calling for Mr. Knowles’ recall at a midnight rally Thursday when two St. Louis-area officers were shot as they worked crowd control, both sustaining non-life-threatening injuries. St. Louis County police are investigating the shooting but as of Friday had made no arrests.
Attorney General Eric Holder called the unknown culprit “a damn punk,” while President Obama said on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” that there was “no excuse” for the shooting.
The five people who initiated the recall, calling themselves the Ferguson Five, cited “Mayor Knowles’ failure to adequately rein in an out-of-control police department during the protests following Mike Brown’s death.”
“We have always pushed for Mayor Knowles to be recalled and now in the wake of our current situation we will fully support local citizens who have chosen to reclaim their city and begin to develop the type of transformation they want to see,” said Juju Jacobs, an organizer with the Organization for Black Struggle, in a statement. “We don’t see this as the last thing that needs to happen, but an important step toward restoring accountability to the people of Ferguson.”
One often-heard point of contention since the death of Mr. Brown is that a majority of the Ferguson police force and city council are white, even though the city of 22,000 has a black population of 67 percent. Mr. Knowles is also white.
Mr. Knowles, who became Ferguson’s youngest mayor when he was elected at age 31 in 2011, said he has also heard from residents who support him and his efforts to address the unrest.
“I get continued support from a lot of residents. I hear it from phone calls, emails, Facebook, people who want me to stay in office,” Mr. Knowles said. “Obviously there’s always going to be people who are against you, and those people have been vocal out there, but there’s ways for them to remove me if they so choose.”
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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