azulmagia
(?)Community Member
Offline
- Posted: Fri, 06 Mar 2015 00:26:11 +0000
A new report is out from the Justice Department, and it confirms something most of have already guessed in the wake of the killing of Michael Brown - that the Ferguson cops exhibit a pattern of behaviour most people would have to call racist. More disturbing than that, the report details that the rot goes all the way to the top, with the purpose of such things as fines being revenue generation. In other words, the city as a whole is engaging in an activity that if you or I did it, it would be called extortion or racketeering:
Here are some choice bits from the report itself:
Rolling Stone
Ferguson, Missouri's police department and court system will need extensive retraining and outside oversight to correct the pattern of racial bias and unconstitutional practices that the U.S. government has uncovered. In an eye-opening, 105-page report (viewable as a PDF via The New York Times), the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division detailed years of abuse of authority, racist behavior and unethical moneymaking schemes carried out by city officials.
The Justice Department believed Ferguson was open to making the necessary changes to meet its standards rather than face a federal lawsuit. Ferguson Mayor James Knowles has said the city has begun making changes, according to the Times. "Today's report allows the City of Ferguson to identify problems, not only in our Police Department but in the entire St. Louis region," he said. "We must do better not only as a city, but as a state and as a country. We must all work to address issues of racial disparity in all aspects of society."
The full document expounds on Tuesday's preliminary reports of racial profiling and civil rights violations, illustrating the racial slurs and examples of excessive force that the Justice Department said seemed commonplace in the city for years. As the Times reports, Ferguson police stopped and handcuffed citizens without probable cause, used stun guns without feeling threatened and mistreated residents who attempted to stand up for their constitutional rights.
....
Among the disturbing findings, police carried out "pedestrian checks," in which they stopped people on the street and demanded to see ID; those who did not comply were typically arrested. Moreover, authority figures within the police department encouraged thuggish behavior, such as using stun guns on people who attempted to assert their rights. "Supervisors seem to believe that any level of resistance justifies any level of force," the report says.
Police also made arrests by using a system they called "wanteds," where officers put a citizen's name in the police's computer system, ensuring an arrest if he or she is stopped by authorities in the future. The report cited one officer who said that he used that tactic if he did not have probable cause for an arrest. The government concluded that Ferguson was more concerned with a high number of arrests than with public safety.
The Justice Department also took issue with the city's court system, whose employees work under the police chief and whose prosecutor is also Ferguson's city lawyer. The City Council appoints the town's judges. In Ferguson, it has not been unusual for people who missed payments, court appearances or showed up on traffic violations to go to jail. Court fines, the Times reports, make a significant source of revenue, and city officials were found congratulating one another on exceeding revenue goals.
One of the more alarming findings was the series of racist jokes city officials shared with one another via city e-mail systems; among the recipients are the senior city officials who must decide how to react to the Justice Department's findings. Some of the more questionable e-mails compared President Obama to a monkey, showed a photo of topless African women with a caption suggesting "Michele Obama's High School Reunion" and "joked" that the city should commend black women who get abortions for preventing crime.
(link)
The Justice Department believed Ferguson was open to making the necessary changes to meet its standards rather than face a federal lawsuit. Ferguson Mayor James Knowles has said the city has begun making changes, according to the Times. "Today's report allows the City of Ferguson to identify problems, not only in our Police Department but in the entire St. Louis region," he said. "We must do better not only as a city, but as a state and as a country. We must all work to address issues of racial disparity in all aspects of society."
The full document expounds on Tuesday's preliminary reports of racial profiling and civil rights violations, illustrating the racial slurs and examples of excessive force that the Justice Department said seemed commonplace in the city for years. As the Times reports, Ferguson police stopped and handcuffed citizens without probable cause, used stun guns without feeling threatened and mistreated residents who attempted to stand up for their constitutional rights.
....
Among the disturbing findings, police carried out "pedestrian checks," in which they stopped people on the street and demanded to see ID; those who did not comply were typically arrested. Moreover, authority figures within the police department encouraged thuggish behavior, such as using stun guns on people who attempted to assert their rights. "Supervisors seem to believe that any level of resistance justifies any level of force," the report says.
Police also made arrests by using a system they called "wanteds," where officers put a citizen's name in the police's computer system, ensuring an arrest if he or she is stopped by authorities in the future. The report cited one officer who said that he used that tactic if he did not have probable cause for an arrest. The government concluded that Ferguson was more concerned with a high number of arrests than with public safety.
The Justice Department also took issue with the city's court system, whose employees work under the police chief and whose prosecutor is also Ferguson's city lawyer. The City Council appoints the town's judges. In Ferguson, it has not been unusual for people who missed payments, court appearances or showed up on traffic violations to go to jail. Court fines, the Times reports, make a significant source of revenue, and city officials were found congratulating one another on exceeding revenue goals.
One of the more alarming findings was the series of racist jokes city officials shared with one another via city e-mail systems; among the recipients are the senior city officials who must decide how to react to the Justice Department's findings. Some of the more questionable e-mails compared President Obama to a monkey, showed a photo of topless African women with a caption suggesting "Michele Obama's High School Reunion" and "joked" that the city should commend black women who get abortions for preventing crime.
(link)
Here are some choice bits from the report itself:
Quote:
Officers expect and demand compliance even when they lack legal authority. They are inclined to interpret the exercise of free-speech rights as unlawful disobedience, innocent movements as physical threats, indications of mental or physical illness as belligerence. Police supervisors and leadership do too little to ensure that officers act in accordance with law and policy, and rarely respond meaningfully to civilian complaints of officer misconduct. The result is a pattern of stops without reasonable suspicion and arrests without probable cause in violation of the Fourth Amendment; infringement on free expression, as well as retaliation for protected expression, in violation of the First Amendment; and excessive force in violation of the Fourth Amendment.
....
Data collected by the Ferguson Police Department from 2012 to 2014 shows that African Americans account for 85% of vehicle stops, 90% of citations, and 93% of arrests made by FPD officers, despite comprising only 67% of Ferguson’s population. 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. African Americans are more likely to be cited and arrested following a stop regardless of why the stop was initiated and are more likely to receive multiple citations during a single incident. From 2012 to 2014, FPD issued four or more citations to African Americans on 73 occasions, but issued four or more citations to non-African Americans only twice. FPD appears to bring certain offenses almost exclusively against African Americans. For example, from 2011 to 2013, African Americans accounted for 95% of Manner of Walking in Roadway charges, and 94% of all Failure to Comply charges. Notably, with 5 respect to speeding charges brought by FPD, the evidence shows not only that African Americans are represented at disproportionately high rates overall, but also that the disparate impact of FPD’s enforcement practices on African Americans is 48% larger when citations are issued not on the basis of radar or laser, but by some other method, such as the officer’s own visual assessment.
These disparities are also present in FPD’s use of force. Nearly 90% of documented force used by FPD officers was used against African Americans. In every canine bite incident for which racial information is available, the person bitten was African American.
....
Even as officers have answered the call for greater revenue through code enforcement, the City continues to urge the police department to bring in more money. In a March 2013 email, the Finance Director wrote: “Court fees are anticipated to rise about 7.5%. I did ask the Chief if he thought the PD could deliver 10% increase. He indicated they could try.” Even more recently, the City’s Finance Director stated publicly that Ferguson intends to make up a 2014 revenue shortfall in 2015 through municipal code enforcement, stating to Bloomberg News that “[t]here’s about a million-dollar increase in public-safety fines to make up the difference.”...The City goes so far as to direct FPD to develop enforcement strategies and initiatives, not to better protect the public, but to raise more revenue....The City has been aware for years of concerns about the impact its focus on revenue has had on lawful police action and the fair administration of justice in Ferguson. It has disregarded those concerns—even concerns raised from within the City government—to avoid disturbing the court’s ability to optimize revenue generation.
....
FPD engages in a pattern of excessive force in violation of the Fourth Amendment. Many officers are quick to escalate encounters with subjects they perceive to be disobeying their orders or resisting arrest. They have come to rely on ECWs, specifically Tasers®, where less force—or no force at all—would do. They also release canines on unarmed subjects unreasonably and before attempting to use force less likely to cause injury. Some incidents of excessive force result from stops or arrests that have no basis in law. Others are punitive and retaliatory. In addition, FPD records suggest a tendency to use unnecessary force against vulnerable groups such as people with mental health conditions or cognitive disabilities, and juvenile students....The department’s own records demonstrate that, as with other types of force, canine officers use dogs out of proportion to the threat posed by the people they encounter, leaving serious puncture wounds to nonviolent offenders, some of them children. Furthermore, in every canine bite incident for which racial information is available, the subject was African American.
....
Data collected by the Ferguson Police Department from 2012 to 2014 shows that African Americans account for 85% of vehicle stops, 90% of citations, and 93% of arrests made by FPD officers, despite comprising only 67% of Ferguson’s population. 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. African Americans are more likely to be cited and arrested following a stop regardless of why the stop was initiated and are more likely to receive multiple citations during a single incident. From 2012 to 2014, FPD issued four or more citations to African Americans on 73 occasions, but issued four or more citations to non-African Americans only twice. FPD appears to bring certain offenses almost exclusively against African Americans. For example, from 2011 to 2013, African Americans accounted for 95% of Manner of Walking in Roadway charges, and 94% of all Failure to Comply charges. Notably, with 5 respect to speeding charges brought by FPD, the evidence shows not only that African Americans are represented at disproportionately high rates overall, but also that the disparate impact of FPD’s enforcement practices on African Americans is 48% larger when citations are issued not on the basis of radar or laser, but by some other method, such as the officer’s own visual assessment.
These disparities are also present in FPD’s use of force. Nearly 90% of documented force used by FPD officers was used against African Americans. In every canine bite incident for which racial information is available, the person bitten was African American.
....
Even as officers have answered the call for greater revenue through code enforcement, the City continues to urge the police department to bring in more money. In a March 2013 email, the Finance Director wrote: “Court fees are anticipated to rise about 7.5%. I did ask the Chief if he thought the PD could deliver 10% increase. He indicated they could try.” Even more recently, the City’s Finance Director stated publicly that Ferguson intends to make up a 2014 revenue shortfall in 2015 through municipal code enforcement, stating to Bloomberg News that “[t]here’s about a million-dollar increase in public-safety fines to make up the difference.”...The City goes so far as to direct FPD to develop enforcement strategies and initiatives, not to better protect the public, but to raise more revenue....The City has been aware for years of concerns about the impact its focus on revenue has had on lawful police action and the fair administration of justice in Ferguson. It has disregarded those concerns—even concerns raised from within the City government—to avoid disturbing the court’s ability to optimize revenue generation.
....
FPD engages in a pattern of excessive force in violation of the Fourth Amendment. Many officers are quick to escalate encounters with subjects they perceive to be disobeying their orders or resisting arrest. They have come to rely on ECWs, specifically Tasers®, where less force—or no force at all—would do. They also release canines on unarmed subjects unreasonably and before attempting to use force less likely to cause injury. Some incidents of excessive force result from stops or arrests that have no basis in law. Others are punitive and retaliatory. In addition, FPD records suggest a tendency to use unnecessary force against vulnerable groups such as people with mental health conditions or cognitive disabilities, and juvenile students....The department’s own records demonstrate that, as with other types of force, canine officers use dogs out of proportion to the threat posed by the people they encounter, leaving serious puncture wounds to nonviolent offenders, some of them children. Furthermore, in every canine bite incident for which racial information is available, the subject was African American.
