Ferguson Inquiry: Did The DOJ release a Report?

[ralph124c]

After the killing in Ferguson, Eric Holder sent a team of FBI agents into town, to investigate the charges of racism (by the Ferguson PD). Was the final report on this issued? what were the conclusions?

[steronz]

And the answer is… yes, they’re racists.

[PastTense]

And that report says 67% of the population is Black. Thus they have the votes to control the City Council and thus have whatever kind of police department they want. So the idea the Ferguson Police Department is anti-Black doesn’t make sense.

[Really_Not_All_That_Bright]

First, this is GQ. Second, it’s nice that you’re able to read and parrots the comments on the article. Third, a racial majority is not indicative of anything. Montgomery, Alabama, was (and remains) a majority black town in 1955 when Rosa Parks was ordered to the back of the bus. The Ferguson city commission had five white members and two black members until this year, when another black person was elected.

[Phu_Cat]

It seems the black population of Ferguson want the police force to stop “coming down” on them. It would seem to me the best way to do that is not to do things that attract the the police man or woman’s attention. In other word, don’t give the police any ammunition.

Phu Cat

[Really_Not_All_That_Bright]

The DOJ report makes it clear that the police often needed no “ammunition.”

Even relatively routine misconduct by Ferguson police officers can have significant consequences for the people whose rights are violated. For example, in the summer of 2012, a 32-year-old African-American man sat in his car cooling off after playing basketball in a Ferguson public park. An officer pulled up behind the man’s car, blocking him in, and demanded the man’s Social Security number and identification. Without any cause, the officer accused the man of being a pedophile, referring to the presence of children in the park, and ordered the man out of his car for a pat-down, although the officer had no reason to believe the man was armed. The officer also asked to search the man’s car. The man objected, citing his constitutional rights. In response, the officer arrested the man, reportedly at gunpoint, charging him with eight violations of Ferguson’s municipal code. One charge, Making a False Declaration, was for initially providing the short form of his first name (e.g., “Mike” instead of “Michael”), and an address which, although legitimate, was different from the one on his driver’s license. Another charge was for not wearing a seat belt, even though he was seated in a parked car. The officer also charged the man both with having an expired operator’s license, and with having no operator’s license in his possession. The man told us that, because of these charges, he lost his job as a contractor with the federal government that he had held for years.

<snip>

African Americans are more than twice as likely as white drivers to be searched during vehicle stops even after controlling for non-race based variables such as the reason the vehicle stop was initiated, but are found in possession of contraband 26% less often than white drivers, suggesting officers are impermissibly considering race as a factor when determining whether to search.

I just realized the report itself hasn’t actually been linked in this thread, so here it is.

[md2000]

Even less provocative than that - CNN interviewed a woman who had an outstanding arrest warrant. (Apparently still 16,000 arrest warrants for a town of 24,000). She moved to Ferguson from NYC and bought a car, but could not afford to license it right away. It sat in her driveway with no plates, so the bylaw officer wrote her a $200 ticket for the unlicensed car. She could not pay that, and now has an arrest warrant.

The evidence was that Ferguson exists and finances itself by issuing a ludicrous number of fines to its poorer, mainly non-white residents. They now have a black police chief and are claiming they no longer run this legal extortion racket, but are not willing to cancel outstanding fines and warrants.

[Northern_Piper]

One solution may be for the town to stop issuing ammunition to the police.

[Really_Not_All_That_Bright]

I chuckled.