As we’ve said, the motivation (and intention) doesn’t matter. Racial bias can be present whatever the motivation or intention is.
Or indeed, as well explained in the report (and mandated by law), without a motivation or intention, but merely due to an awareness that the action of a government agency create a disparate impact on an identifiable ‘protected population’, when the government agency fails to take action to correct the racial disparity after they become aware of it. It is somewhat acceptable to target a specific population for law enforcement action if they are found to be statistically more likely to be in violation of the law… it is blatantly unacceptable to target a population when they are statistically less likely to be in violation, which is what was happening in Ferguson.
The Injustice the DOJ Uncovered in Ferguson Wasn’t Racism | National Review"
“Far more alarming in Ferguson than whether vestigial racism animates a policeman here and there is the perversion of the law, and of the positions of those sworn to protect it, to buck up the treasury on the backs of the most vulnerable, whoever they may be.”
Yet more from the report…
Note that the quotes I’ve given are from conservative sources, those that are the least likely to be partial toward the conclusion of the report.
The Shocking Finding From the DOJ's Ferguson Report That Nobody Has Noticed | HuffPost Latest News (a liberal source, but cited to the washington post at http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/03/05/ferguson-shows-how-a-police-force-can-turn-into-a-plundering-collection-agency/)
“After Henry Davis was brutally beaten by four Ferguson officers, he found himself charged with “destruction of official property” for bleeding on their uniforms.”
This one is a great illustration… supposedly, the disparate effect on blacks in Ferguson was due to a lack of ‘personal responsibility’, yet… “Ferguson judge behind aggressive fines policy owes $170,000 in unpaid taxes”
Well, then, the government needs to quit spending so much money.
Whoops, gave the wrong link there, the original article is actually at http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/15/the-day-ferguson-cops-were-caught-in-a-bloody-lie.html which is a somewhat liberal, though not horribly so, source.
Wow. It’s almost as if the electoral nature of local governments was completely unrelated to the utter disdain for law and order displayed by the criminal element.
Yep, bad cops are pretty much the same all over…
I am a radical lefty, and I have a horrendously expensive, big-government solution: change the cops. All of them. Long job, get started.
Make “cop” a profession. Well paid, well-respected, highly trained. Strictly accountable. Early retirement for stress. The good cops will stay and sing hallelujah, pension off the bad ones.
Got lots of great ideas, most of them even less likely than this one.
Is it not that now?
I know cops are highly trained, they’ve made seven movies about it!
Hey, irony alert!
Bolding mine.
That’s the leitmotif of your posts in this thread, Smapti: defending, on the basis of law & order, police conduct which is unlawful, and leads to a breakdown in social order. Your vision of law & order has nothing in common with the laws of this nation, or even common sense.
A known and well-discussed problem in St. Louis County is a proliferation of extremely small cities, with too little tax base to support their governments. Historically, as the city itself became increasingly black, the white middle class moved to new subdivisions farther to the west, which were immediately incorporated so that they could legislate zoning restrictions that were intended to keep them white. As these small cities then became more racially mixed over time, the pattern repeated itself, creating a patchwork of extremely small towns that are not able to support themselves through taxation. Typically, these towns are dominated by majority-white governments, courts, and police departments consisting of people who don’t even live there, but who are able to stay in power because most of the citizens are ‘renters’ who have no actual investment in the community. Since they are unable to sustain themselves through taxation, they resort to using the members of the community as revenue sources through various schemes based on extracting as much money as possible through fines. Ferguson is one example, but the problem is systemic throughout the area… small adjoining ‘cities’ whose only real function is to provide employment for the members of the local government.
Actually, what Portland’s example shows is that the electoral nature of local governments appears to be largely unrelated to the utter disdain for law and order displayed by officers of the law.
Hear ye, St. Louis County; hearken to my words, Greater St. Louis Metropolitan Area: Go Jacksonville. Go Cities Without Suburbs. Consolidate, consolidate, consolidate. You’ll thank me in the morning, even if you have to flush and wipe your mouth first.
To do so in Missouri, as it stands, would require the (gasp! unthinkable!) idea of these city councilmen voting themselves out of a cushy job.
If you think I am exaggerating, see the impressive St. Louis County metropolis of [Champ, Missouri](Champ, Missouri), which has a 2010 census population of exactly 13 people. This is not some tiny little town in the middle of nowhere, it is in the middle of a major metropolitan area, completely surrounded by other communities. “Champ’s five-member board of trustees, which governs the village, comprises half of the adult population.” http://www.riverfronttimes.com/2001-02-14/news/the-champ/