Election for city council. Im ali velshi and this is real money. Heads keep rolling in ferguson missouri. The police chief Thomas Jackson is stepping down. John shaw resigned, joining the local judge and court clerk who have already done so. They were slammed in a report last week that accused the city of fostering racism. It says the city police and local court colluded in targeting fergusons black residents with petty fines arrests and incarcerations. Why . To boost the citys finances. Meanwhile, fergusons mayor john knowles says he plans to stay put. Cleared officer Darren Wilson saying he shot Michael Brown in self defense. But fergusons profit driven Law Enforcement system poisoned relations with the community. Now resignations or not, the only way for things to change in ferguson is if the community exercises its civic duty and votes. Its only had two black City Council Members in its entire history. Only one of the current Six City Council ors isors is black. Today is the last day for voters to register. This past Weekend College students from around the country descended on ferguson to knock on door register voters and encourage people to get out the vote. Ready, you need energy, wake up. 80 College Students from universities around the country descended on ferguson, missouri this weekend with one mission register residents to vote. Its important they vote and get their voices out there. The students are at reds bark cue, along florasind afternoon. To register people to vote for lie. Do you plan to vote . I can. 87 of fergusons voters are registered, thats pretty good. But just 6 of registered voters actually turned out black registered voters. Voters are more apt to get out and vote this year. If you not happy with the police, the Municipal Court system, people need to go to their officials that oversee those things and demand reform. But headaching something happen is the hard part. Voter turnout in ferguson is notoriously low, especially in ward 3 where Michael Brown was shot. To see it in person is very very sad. Reporter and making the connection between voting and Michael Browns death is an emotional thing like for shade copeland. Change can happen. It may not happen tomorrow or maybe this year but we have to keep fighting with the right tools. These College Students may feel its possible to fight with voting but many residents of ferguson just dont see it that way. To tell you the truth president ial, yeah, other election i really dont too much get involved in it and im not going to sit here and lie to you. Roland martin joins me from washington, d. C, the host and editor of tv 1. Resident. It is something you have said over and over again. This guy votes in the president ial elections, 83 registrations registration in ferguson, that is higher than normal. But he doesnt vote in anything but president ial elections, less than half do in local elections and amongst African Americans it is an even bigger problem. In chicago april 7th is going to be a runoff between rahm emanuel and chui garcia. Ali, people dont lets cut to the chase. From a news media standpoint we put tons of emphasis on president ial races versus local races. The average person isnt really collecting the dots saying wait a minute, im ticked off that Darren Wilson wasnt prosecuted but i vote for the district attorney. Oh, then does its cross my mind, these judges are getting on my nerves with all these fines. Wait a minute, who appoints the judges . Oh. Thats what you have here. Ferguson can be described this way, i talked to several people who deal with behavior, who deal with psychology and they said if you look at the legal system there you look at the press force police force and all of that, they said ferguson was like south africa during apartheid where you have whieth that control the whites that control the levers of power. The African American majority that didnt have the power. I heard people describe that people who live there frankly suffered post Traumatic Stress if you will, this is how it is we cant change the system even though numbers are on our side. Its a strange situation, you and i have talked about this before, we will talk about it again, less than a month away where things can change not just ferguson, missouri but other places roland county Bob Mccullough, defends himself and speaks out for the first time on National Television since the department of justice decided not to charge wilson. Some of the critics ought to be able to look at that. They looked at it objectively and reasonably theyre going to studying deadly viruses. These facilities are incredibly safe, incredibly secure. Go inside the study of infectious diseases. Ventilated footy pajamas. Protecting those working to protect us. We always have to stay one step ahead of them because theyre out there. Techknows team of experts show you how the miracles of science. This is my selfie, what can you tell me about my future . Can affect and surprise us. Dont try this at home. Techknow where Technology Meets humanity. Only on Al Jazeera America. Look around you. Were not going to let you go back to business as usual. Its not going to happen. Change in ferguson is happening fast. Tonight the talk is about the police chief stepping down just one day after the city manager resigned and two days after a state judge was appointed to hear all of the citys cases. Today is the last day for ferguson residents to register to vote for City Council Elections on april 7th. The council, today, is made up of five white people and one black man. This, in a city that is twothirds black. But outrage, outrage over the shooting death of Michael Brown and the broken system of justice that it revealed has helped convince more black candidates to run for office. Dwairgdwarg qatar geraldino has the story. Patricia vines the Democratic Committee woman for ferguson township. She encouraged more to run. How many candidates were directly influenced by his death . I would say all were. If you lived in ferguson there was no way could you not have been influenced. Browns death was a catalyst, but each had their own interaction by fergusons police department. My children had been stopped. I didnt do anything. I was complacent. I was pulled over and sat on the curb and my car searched. To be honest with you qatar, i didnt understand until i got into law school. Im thinking, that shouldnt have happened. Why is he pulling me over for nothing . Ive had state police put a gun in my stomach. Dare stair at me when i watched them beat my father and dared me ato help. Had it not been for my father i probably would not have been here. Because his thing is no matter what they do to me, dont move. Awakened. Do you think the African American community was sleeping when Michael Brown was shot . Whether yes, ill be honest with you, yes i do. They are all vying for seats on fergusons city council and up against some challenges. For one, its low pay for a lot of work. Councilmembers are just given 250 a week. Most also hold full time jobs. And theres an even bigger challenge. Low voter turnout. I believe that this election will come down to whether or not the African AmericanCommunity Comes out and votes. A Washington Post survey announces,. In a Voter Perspective its also important, turnout here is notoriously low. During last election, ward 3s representative won by just 23 votes. The real reason for that as i see it is that theyre scajtd vote voting for the same people. The attitude then becomes, whats the use. 76yearold lee smith is running for city council in ward 3. For him everything changed in september when he went to a Heated City Council meeting. Look around you. Were not going to let you go back to business as usual. Smiths opponent for ward 3 city council wesley bell, a prosecutor and municipal judge who is also black. How big a factor is race in this election . We cant act like race is an issue. Its always there, its a matter of how much of an issue there is. Most candidates agree, while race will be a big aspect of this race, it will not be the only issue. Race should not be a role. Some people are trying the make it be a racial thing but as for me, its not race, its whos qualified. Council is overwhelmingly white while at the same time the population here in ferguson overwhelmingly black. How are you going to address that . Council is white, theres nothing we can do about it. We voted them in. Reporter and ferguson also voted in this man, duane james member. I dont think that anyone is going to vote for someone just because theyre black. No one is trusting me anymore just because im black. Its more how engaged are you. But race will matter on april 7th in one regard, there are black candidates. That makes patricia bines optimistic in one way. What we need to think about is embracing change. Lest talk about change. All right, this guy i guy you just heard singing hes running against another black candidate for a seat, the existing black city councilor, his ward isnt up for election right now. Whatever happens out of those six seats, there are at least two blacks on city council. At least two, possibly three. There is one running against a white candidate. Talk to me about, theres an interesting piece of tension about whether or not this is about race or whether these black candidates have certain exceptions because theyre black. It shouldnt be about that, but they say race is always present in the discussion in ferguson. Thats what it is. We did deep reporting on the ground. Im not going to sugar coat it for you. Those candidates that are elected for first year theyre going to be expected that the rights of black citizens are not trampled upon. Ali this next year there could be less money collected from ferguson than past year. The resources may be lower. Roland from washington, that story qatars been talking about, hes stayed on it in ferguson but you and i from the beginning. That could be anywhere. Tiny resources, ferguson gets a lot of its resources by stopping black people on small incidents. Black people taking over the city council how are they going to name . One of the things you have to ask yourself is, how do you grow an economic base beyond taxing poor folks already there . What assets do you have . If ferguson is able to refashion itself as an open more inclusive city you have the potential of business coming in. I think frankly one of the things that has to happen there, the mayor has to resign. There is no way in the world this is the same mayor that says there is no racism in my city all of a sudden the report comes out oh man this is a little rough here. So they do have that potential. Let me ask you, i hear you on this, i hear you on this but its still going to come back to the same conversation that you and i have had for years roland, that is if black residents dont draw that line that you earlier said they dont draw and come out to vote the system doesnt get fixed. No absolutely not. But here is what you also need though you dont need the black residents to come to vote but you also need white residents of conscience stepping up. This shouldnt just be black folks trying to carry the freight. Youve got ohave white folks saying you know what, hey this is really not right its unfair as well. So its going to be interesting to see, will they come out and vote, tell you right now if that number isnt a huge number frankly black folks in ferguson will have embarrassed themselves and i will say this right now that will cause many people not to be as concerned about the city. Because the folks will say you dont give a dam about your own city, why should i care . Roland, stay right this, next youll hear the plieb grand Michael Brown grand jury prosecutor. I couldnt have been more proud of the way this was handled, how we spopped or responded or reacted to some of the criticisms that were there. The stream, your Digital Community you pick the hot topics and express your thoughts the stream its your chance to join the conversation only on Al Jazeera America last night on this show you heard st. Louis prosecuting attorney Bob Mcculloughs first interview with the National Media since the department of justice found no reason to charge officer wilson in Michael Browns death. Last night we heard mcculloughs reaction he couldnt be impartial because his father a Police Officer was killed in the line of duty 50 years ago by a black man. This is where we pick up part 2. There are still some people who despite all of this still believe that you stood in the way of justice. You know, and theres nothing that anybody can do or say thats going to change that. I mean i knew that long ago. That you know some people are going to make up their mind and no matter what came out if this came out complete opposite and Darren Wilson had been indicted on murder in the first degree and a civil rights violation some people would say no theres absolutely nothing wrong justice was done. The one thing i learned from this is that most people dont know how a grand jury operates the shameful part is a lot of law professors dont have a clue and i saw so many of them on television telling everybody what a horrible job everybody was doing with this grand jury three want to get on and criticize me for allowing Darren Wilson to testify. I would love to have the target of every investigation. But you know you dont often get a chance to talk to them because their lawyers are going to say no way. Are you actively doing anything to change the perception people may have of you or the system . I mean this is parts of it, ive avoided talking to a lot of the media not because im concerned about the media but part of it, a big part was waiting for the Justice Department to get around and make their determination, i still dont feel vindicated, as i say i never feel incriminated but i think now some of the critics ought to look at that, if they looked at it objectively and critically, they looked at these things independent of one another and the grand jury came to the same conclusion as the department of justice came to. A lot of people say the system is stacked against a person accused of wrongdoing. Theyre in a different situation than everyone else. Their duty by law is to parenthesis apprehend people to go after people, and as such, the law gives them the ability to use force under very limited very tight circumstances to use force in order to effectuate that arrest but to do what everybody else to defend themselves too. It doesnt give the police free rein to just shoot people. Have you ever layered an email sent to a Police Officer that made you feel uncomfortable . No, what was reported the other day, no. When a case comes in here whether its from ferguson or any other department were always looking, were looking is there a basis for stop is there a basis for the arrest, is the evidence here is it lawfully obtained and all that, in some cases not that theres anything sinister about it but those cases arent filed. We havent seen any significant numbers coming out of anywhere or consistently out of any department and certainly no we have not had we dont get emails racist jokes in them no. Given the fact there was so much reaction are you going to run for reelection . Is this it for you . I was just elected four days before this happened. Four years, i just started a new term so you know, i have this is my seventh term so you know we will see. Well see . Ill tell you this. If i choose not to run for reelection, it would absolutely have nothing to do with this. I couldnt be more proud of the way this investigation was handled, the way the was presented, the way we responded or didnt respond or didnt react to some of the criticisms that were there. Were al jazeera so we reach a global audience, hundreds of millions of households, with that in mind the world has really closely listened to what you say. A lot of the brown world, can they get justice . Like you do with any major event you need to look at things objectively and see what exactly did occur and what happened. Everybody is entitled to everybody should have the same level of Law Enforcement effective Law Enforcement in their community, it shouldnt depend on where you live. And weve worked for years trying to change that. But until now, the political will to do that has not been here. And if any good can come out of a tragic death perhaps that political will is there now. Duarte is with me again roland joins me from washington. Roland, let me ask you this, two cops riepped, the city manager quit last night and now the police chief is out. Fefergz is coming apart at the seems seams and some people think it should. As shoally as it hold on ali there are profound implications for ferguson, ferguson is a majority black city so it has the potential if its leadership really aligns with the population to be a strong black city that represents the plaque interests in the entire state. There is a reason for it to Stay Together and have that strong do you see that kind of leadership that ferguson exists as a poor city, poor tax base can there be some kind of face ept nascent budding African American leadership that is budding . To make sure it is not crushed, a lot of the Business Owners that i spoke to say, im trying to move forward but once i take one step forward the city the taxes the police push me back. Roland even when they run it properly you cant run the police well enough, you yourself have said it. If you stop pulling black people over and charging them with all sorts of nonsense is that place ever going to make anything of itself . First of all it can. There are small cities all across america that dont have the same problems that ferguson has. And so they are able to be some but this is what it boils down to though is leadership. Failed. In fact, people are criticizing, theyre like oh the riots that took place, that also happened because of a failure of leadership. The police chief failed. He told multiple stories that particular week. You just talked to Bob Mccullough, Bob Mccullough has failed. He has never prosecuted a senl Police Officer for shooting a single Police Officer for shooting someone. He called the victims thugs. Wait a minute im sorry who are you defending here . Mccullough has to answer for one of the grurs who grand jurors who want to tell what happened. If you dont extend that amount of trust, they will never be able to recover. Our story doesnt end there. Remember april 7th is fergusons elections, tomorrow night, race and policing left to the eye of the beholder, well hand the camera to a black resident of ferguson, and see it through his eyes. Then a camera in police cars and see it from their point of view. Im ali, thanks for joining us. Hello, with its invitation to israeli Prime Minister netanyahu to speak to congress about his opposition to negotiations with iran, Republican Leadership had already shown its ready to jettison that idea that Party Politics already stopped at the waters edge. Plus, reminding the ayatollas that Congress Gets to