Democracy in Kinloch, Missouri

Here's an interesting story I came across:

New Kinloch mayor blocked by police from entering city hall

Quote:

KINLOCH, MO (KTVI) – Our Fox 2 cameras were the only ones there as the newly-elected Kinloch mayor was greeted by police for her first day on the job. Betty McCray was not only prevented from entering city hall, she was also told she’d been impeached before she got a chance to start. McCray ran for mayor in the April 7 election and won. “I won. The people spoke,” McCray said. “I was sworn in by the St. Louis County. Today I take office. I want them out, I want the keys.” After the election results were certified earlier this week by the St. Louis County Board of Elections, Kinloch’s outgoing administration refused to allow the city clerk to give McCray the oath of office, claiming voter fraud.

Quote:

On Thursday, McCray was ready to start on the job, but was met with strong resistance. Fox 2 was there with McCray when she showed up at city hall, where she was greeted by more than 20 Kinloch police officers. One officer attempted to prevent himself from being filmed by pushing a camera away. No one was being allowed inside city hall, including the elected mayor. Kinloch city attorney James Robinson informed McCray she had been impeached. However, the city refused to tell the new mayor the articles of impeachment. “You have been served with articles of impeachment that were put in the mail,” said attorney James Robinson.

Here's another article:
Alleging voter fraud, Kinloch refuses to swear in new mayor and alderman

Quote:

Kinloch, the first city in Missouri to be incorporated by African-Americans, is situated between Ferguson and Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. It once thrived with more than 10,000 residents. Then in the 1980s, the airport began buying homes for a noise-abatement program, purchasing roughly 1,360 properties. The city’s population plummeted, and poverty and blight took hold. Today, Kinloch, which has fewer than 300 residents, is marked by pilfered coffers, shady land deals and increasingly bitter fights over the last remnants of political power. During the past five years, the city has seen the imprisonment of a former mayor on federal fraud and theft charges, the hiring of a convicted felon as city manager, the selling of a previous city hall building to an alleged drug dealer and the unseating of at least two aldermen. Now there are fresh allegations of voter fraud. On April 7, McCray defeated Mayor Darren Small with 38 votes to his 18. Another candidate, Theda Wilson, received two votes. Petty ran unopposed. After the Board of Aldermen declined to swear them in, the two were sworn in by a St. Louis County circuit court clerk on Tuesday. On Thursday, Robinson declined to provide copies of impeachment charges. Nor would he reveal who on the Board of Alderman voted to suspend McCray, except to say they voted in a meeting on Monday.

Interesting that a city with fewer than 300 residents has "over 20 police officers". Also, the mayor couldn't get more than 18 people to vote for him? Even some of the police officers?

via International Skeptics Forum http://ift.tt/1b2gD7r