Officer Darren Wilson shot and killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, August 9, 2014. Wilson, 28 at the time, a white Ferguson police officer, shot Brown, an 18-year old black teen, after a struggle ensued following a disagreement about jaywalking. The specific circumstances of the encounter, which also involved Brown’s 22-year old friend, Dorian Johnson, were in dispute. Ultimately, after a several days of unrest, and months of tension within the Ferguson community, the Prosecuting Attorney for St. Louis County, Robert P. McCulloch, made a sobering, but not surprising announcement. On November 24th, McCulloch revealed that the Grand Jury, empaneled to determine whether there was probable cause to charge Officer Wilson, found there was none.
There were a number of reasons why conventional
wisdom held that the officer would not be charged. Among other things it had been argued that
the prosecutor has inundated the Grand Jury with more information that was necessary,
or than would normally be provided to such a panel. The Prosecuting Attorney has a history that
many in the local community felt rendered him biased. A black perpetrator killed his father. Whether related or not, he has a history of
negative findings against blacks involved with the St. Louis criminal justice
system. In a community that is over 67%
black, there were three black policemen on a force of over 50 officers. Moreover, the vast number of stops, use of
force, arrests, fines, and citations were black. To be clear, the percentage in every case was
much greater than that of blacks in the population, in some cases, 20 to 25%
more.
In September, Eric Holder,
the U.S. Attorney
General, initiated a Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation of
Ferguson’s police department to study whether its officers routinely profiled
blacks, or showed a pattern of excessive force.
That investigation is complete and will be released today. Yesterday some preliminary findings were
released. We know the study will say among
other things, officers in Ferguson routinely violated the constitutional rights
of the city’s residents, discriminated against African Americans, and applied
racial stereotypes.
As noted,
Ferguson is one-third white, or more directly stated above, 67% black. The Justice Department found that crime
statistics over the past couple of years paint a compelling story. Parts of that message includes:
·
Blacks
account for 85% of traffic stops
·
Blacks
account for 90% of tickets issued
·
Blacks
account for 93% of arrests
·
Blacks
account for 95% of jaywalking arrests (which often hinge on police discretion)
·
Black driver were twice as
likely as white drivers to be searched during vehicle stops, but 26% less
likely to have contraband
·
Blacks account for 88% of
persons against whom force was used
The picture the report paints is difficult to
debate rationally. However, some officials,
including a former Mayor, currently a candidate for a Council seat are doing
just that. Brian Fletcher, the City’s
Mayor from 2005 to 2011 complained that the DOJ appeared to be searching for “a
scapegoat.” He argued further:
·
“The
city population might be 67 percent black, but that is not necessarily a fair
comparison for enforcement statistics. Many of the
surrounding communities have African-American populations of more than 80
percent, and many of those people are drawn to greater shopping opportunities
in Ferguson. As a result, Ferguson’s
daily black population would be higher than the census reflects. “I don’t know
that the DOJ took that into consideration, I don’t know how that proves bias.”
I am not sure how he uses
this particular rationale to defend the statistic that finds black drivers
twice as likely to be searched, but 26% less likely to be carrying
contraband. Of course, I am confident he
will give it the old college try.
It is important to note
not everyone is so impervious to the data picture. Current Mayor, James Knowles III, who was
among the officials briefed yesterday, said, “It was encouraging to me that
there were discussions about how we might move forward together and amicably
address these issues.” Let’s hear it for
Mayor Knowles…Mr. Fletcher, not so much.
The racial disparity found
in Ferguson policing was so stark that the DOJ concluded there was only one
explanation:
The Ferguson Police
Department was routinely violating the constitutional rights of its black
residents.
Tomorrow’s report will
cite violations of the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments, according to
officials. Racial
bias is so ingrained, the report said, that Ferguson officials circulated
racist jokes on their government email accounts.
The report
is based on six months of investigation, and provides a glimpse into the roots
of the tensions that boiled over after Michael Brown was killed in August. The report describes a city in which police
used force almost exclusively on blacks, and a place where blacks were
regularly stopped without probable cause.
Moreover,
despite former Mayor Fletcher’s push back on the data findings, racial bias was
so thoroughly ingrained that Ferguson officials circulated racist jokes on
their government email accounts. Two in
particular, apparently written by Ferguson police and municipal court officials
appear below:
One, from
November 2008, said that Barack Obama could not be president for four years
because “what black man holds a steady job for four years.”
Another,
from May 2011, read: “An African-American woman in New Orleans was admitted
into the hospital for a pregnancy termination. Two weeks later she received a
check for $5,000. She phoned the hospital to ask who it was from. The hospital
said, ‘Crimestoppers.’”
The report
will say that in Ferguson’s municipal court, blacks were less likely than
others to have their cases dismissed by a judge, far more likely to have a
warrant issued in their cases and more likely to be arrested during traffic stops
because of outstanding warrants.
The report
will also say that Ferguson has a pattern of putting revenue over public
safety, in violation of the 14th Amendment’s due process and equal process
protections, by collecting thousands of dollars in fines on those living below
or near poverty. It notes further that since 2010, Ferguson courts have collected more
than $442,000 for failure-to-appear fines, and that use of that charge was
discontinued last year.
Federal
investigators spent about 100 person days investigating the department, perused
35,000 pages of records, and interviewed city leaders as well as conducted
hundreds of in-person or phone interviews with residents.
On December
1, U.S. President
Barack Obama announced
that the federal government would spend $75 million on body cameras for
law enforcement officers, as one of the measures taken in response to the
shooting. Without question, the DOJ
investigation and subsequent findings is about much more than the killing of
Michael Brown. Yet, it is equally clear,
the young man is a martyr for justice.
Without his untimely demise, is unclear how much longer the majority of
the Ferguson community would have suffered the indignities and injustices of a freewheeling
police department that consistently treated blacks shabbily…at best. So, on this day, “Ferguson: The Department of Justice Speaks!”
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