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Ferguson mired in sweeping racial discrimination, federal report finds


umbertino
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Report will charge that police disproportionately use excessive force against black residents and that black drivers are stopped more often than white drivers

 

 

Jon Swaine in New York

 

Tuesday 3 March 2015 20.00 GMT

 

 

 

Black residents of Ferguson, Missouri, routinely had their constitutional rights violated through unjustified arrests, traffic stops and other actions carried out by a racially biased police department, the US Department of Justice has concluded.

 

A federal review of Ferguson’s police force found officers disproportionately used excessive force against black people, who were also subject to arrests without probable cause and stops when driving without reasonable suspicion, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the department’s findings.

 

Racist emails sent by Ferguson officials – including one doubting Barack Obama’s ability to serve a full term as president because “what black man holds a steady job for four years?” – were also unearthed and are expected to be released to the public.

 

According to the law enforcement official, the department detected in Ferguson a pattern of racial bias in violation of federal laws and the 14th amendment to the US constitution, which guarantees equal protection under the law.

 

These police practices are blamed by the Department for causing serious distrust between residents and police officers. Investigators found that law enforcement was widely viewed as illegitimate and in some areas was effectively nonexistent.

 

The inquiry into Ferguson’s policing was prompted by unrest following the death of Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old, who was shot dead on 9 August by Darren Wilson, a white police officer. The shooting revived a national debate on policing and race in the US.

 

A spokesman for the city of Ferguson said in a statement on Tuesday evening that its leaders would not be commenting until the Justice Department released its report. Publication is expected on Wednesday.

 

Ferguson’s population is 67% African American, according to the 2010 census. Yet Justice Department investigators found that between 2012 and 2014, 93% of all arrests were of black people and almost nine in 10 uses of force were against African Americans. In all 14 bites by police dogs when racial information of the person bitten was available, that person was African American.

 

The review found 95% of people detained at the city jail for more than two days between April and September 2014 were black. During the same period, black defendants were found to be 68% less likely than others to have their cases dismissed by judges in the city’s controversial municipal court system.

 

The review also found that 85% of all drivers stopped by police were black, and that African American drivers were twice as likely as white drivers to be searched during these stops but yet more than 25% less likely to be found in possession of illegal substances or goods. Black drivers were sharply more likely than their white counterparts to be cited for driving offences when these were observed by police officers in person rather than detected by radar or similar technology.

 

Police officers were found to have overwhelmingly charged African Americans with “petty offences”, according to the law enforcement official. Black people accounted for 95% of charges relating to walking on roads, 94% of “failure to comply” charges and 92% of all charges of disturbing the peace.

 

The federal investigators were said by the law enforcement official to have conducted hundreds of interviews and reviewed some 35,000 documents over six months. They spent 100 days in Ferguson and observed four court sessions.

 

The law enforcement official said racist emails unearthed during the review were taken as evidence of illegal bias against and stereotyping of African Americans.

 

In addition to the email about Obama, another message written by a Ferguson official in May 2011 stated: “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 authors of the emails were not identified.

 

The reported findings by the Department of Justice drew sharp criticism even from staunch defenders of the police. Ron Hosko, the president of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund, told the Guardian that Tom Jackson, Ferguson’s police chief, should resign if the findings were accurate.

 

Hosko said the apparent conclusions suggested “flawed, failing police work that infects the relationship between law enforcement and the community”.

 

“People ought to be terminated and new leadership brought in,” he said.

 

Details of the report’s findings emerged as senior Justice Department officials presented their findings to civil leaders of Ferguson – including Jackson and Mayor James Knowles III – at a meeting in St Louis on Tuesday.

 

Ferguson’s leaders are expected to be forced to negotiate a settlement known as a “consent decree” with the Justice Department under threat of a civil rights lawsuit. This settlement would allow the federal government to continue monitoring Ferguson’s police department.

 

Consent decrees agreed with other police forces in the US in recent years have detailed new training requirements for officers or established tighter internal regulations on the use of force.

 

Speculation has mounted since August that Jackson’s position as police chief, and even the continued existence of his department, may be untenable following the Justice Department’s findings. It has been suggested that Ferguson’s police force could disbanded and their authority handed to St Louis County, which led the response to protests after Brown’s death.

 

A spokesman for St Louis County police said in an email that the department was not involved in Tuesday’s discussions.

 

A St Louis grand jury decided in November not to bring state charges against Wilson over the shooting of Brown. The FBI and officials from the Justice Department’s civil rights division have been investigating the shooting in a separate inquiry to the review of Ferguson’s policing. Officials are widely expected to announce soon that Wilson will not face federal civil rights charges.

 

 

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Police stand guard in front of a smouldering squad car after it was set on fire by demonstrators during a protest in November in Ferguson. Photograph: Scott Olson/Getty Images

 

 

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/mar/03/justice-department-racial-discrimination-ferguson-police

 

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DOJ was on a witch hunt.  So a few cops made racists remarks.  Live the life of a cop in Ferguson and I can bet you would be making racists jokes also.  It gets to be a way of life when you live where you are constantly under attack by any group.  In WWII it was the **** and Nazis, in Vietnam it was the dinks, in Ferguson it is the blacks.  Not all blacks just like not all Vietnamese were the enemy.  But it is a way of dealing with the stress.  Personally I think the problem with Holder is that he has never been in a position where he has had someone threatening his life on a daily basis like the police of Ferguson.  Live the life of a cop before you want do condemn a cop.

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DOJ was on a witch hunt.  So a few cops made racists remarks.  Live the life of a cop in Ferguson and I can bet you would be making racists jokes also.  It gets to be a way of life when you live where you are constantly under attack by any group.  In WWII it was the **** and Nazis, in Vietnam it was the dinks, in Ferguson it is the blacks.  Not all blacks just like not all Vietnamese were the enemy.  But it is a way of dealing with the stress.  Personally I think the problem with Holder is that he has never been in a position where he has had someone threatening his life on a daily basis like the police of Ferguson.  Live the life of a cop before you want do condemn a cop.

Hit that nail on the head!

First line of the original post : traffic stops

Go look up the race demographic of furgason.

More blacks in furgason? More traffic stops.

Quit spinning it in your personal rants Mr Swain.

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Discrimination in Ferguson: full extent of police bias laid bare in damning report

  • Police department and court system ‘reflect and exacerbate existing racial bias’
  •  
  • Investigators outline 26 recommendations to reform Ferguson’s policing

 

Jon Swaine in New York

 

Thursday 5 March 2015 00.04 GMT

 

 

 

43f1f73b-b410-4f2c-a312-dff1a2352651-620

Police officers, including some from St Louis County, in riot gear stand guard during a protest against the police killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown. Photograph: Ting Shen/Xinhua Press/Corbis

 

 

 

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/mar/04/ferguson-police-racial-persecution-federal-report

 

 

 

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 I saw the interview with the black girl who said she did'nt pay her tickets and then did'nt go to court so they hauled her in,and now she say's she cant get a job or enlist in the Service..The lets play the victim card..(I think that's what she said,I don't understand Ebonics that well).

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 I saw the interview with the black girl who said she did'nt pay her tickets and then did'nt go to court so they hauled her in,and now she say's she cant get a job or enlist in the Service..The lets play the victim card..(I think that's what she said,I don't understand Ebonics that well).

 

That's because you're from Maine......practically Canadian.   :lol: 

 

GO RV, then BV

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That's because you're from Maine......practically Canadian.   :lol: 

 

GO RV, then BV

I had the chance of spending a few days in Maine in 1977..  Portland, Bangor and  beautiful li'l Rockland.... Enjoyed it a lot.. I missed the occasion of going to Bar Harbor, unfortunately

Edited by umbertino
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I had the chance of spending a few days in Maine in 1977..  Portland, Bangor and  beautiful li'l Rockland.... Enjoyed it a lot.. I missed the occasion of going to Bar Harbor, unfortunately

 

 My Mother is buried in Bar Harbor.. :peace:

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Holder and his justice dept have since found Darren Wilson innocent of any wrong doing.  People may not like Holder, but he got it right for Officer Wilson.  As always, just my opinion.   :mellow: 

 

GO RV, then BV

 

To his chagrin, Holder just couldn't find or manufacture any evidence to charge Officer Wilson.  He wanted to though!  He should apologize... something like this would be nice!   :eyebrows:

 

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Darren Wilson probably hates the corrupt racist for clearing his name.   :huh: 

 

GO RV, then BV

Perhaps he would be grateful if it was Holder's place to clear him.  This was NEVER a Fed issue and the DOJ interjected itself in a STATE matter (of which he had already been cleared).  Witch hunt is right.  Holder has become the little boy who cried wolf (racist) ... if only he'd look in the mirror   :huh:
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For the record Umbertino most of your posts are way to liberal for me.

they come across as shat stirring to me. c'est la vie.

To each his own.

Now to my point.

I did not neg you on your second post. In fact I fixed it.

To use a favorite line that " tater salad" :) uses, peace. :peace:

Edited by Muleslayer
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For the record Umbertino most of your posts are way to liberal for me.

they come across as shat stirring to me. c'est la vie.

To each his own.

Now to my point.

I did not neg you on your second post. In fact I fixed it.

To use a favorite line that " tater salad" :) uses, peace. :peace:

Grazie. That's appreciated. Peace to you...

 

 Sorry, just read your post now.

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Agreed Jaxinjersey,  "Pot stirring, flame fanning Nonsense.  Further comment only helps legitimize it."

 

I was going to post a different opinion, which would of been, well lets say not very appropriate for me to say.   Jaxinjersey stated it very clean cut and to the point.  Thanks Jax :blush:

Edited by pattyangel
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Agreed Jaxinjersey,  "Pot stirring, flame fanning Nonsense.  Further comment only helps legitimize it."

 

I was going to post a different opinion, which would of been, well lets say not very appropriate for me to say.   Jaxinjersey stated it very clean cut and to the point.  Thanks Jax :blush:

Thanks Patty :angel:​ dear... nice to have some common clarity and validation!    :wub:

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I disagree that Ferguson was the "biggest lie" of our generation (doesn't even make my list)... but this does put it in perspective...

 

The Biggest Lie of Our Generation: Ferguson Was All About Traffic Tickets

 

So now every talking head in America wants to have an extended national conversation about unpaid traffic tickets?

  •             All because everything thing else about St. Michael of Ferguson was a lie?
  •             Hands up, don’t shoot? Lie.
  •             Gentle giant? Lie.
  •             Minding his own business? Lie.
  •             Shot in the back? Lie.
  •             Did not attack the police officer? Lie.
  •             ‘Didn’t do nothing’ to the Asian shopkeeper? Lie.
  •             Relatives did not try to start a riot? Lie.
  •             Protests were “largely peaceful?” Lie.
  •             National Guard would protect the business owners from looting...

This is a very long list of of the bodyguard of lies that reporters and activists (sorry for the redundancy) hoped would protect anyone from challenging the core truth of the racial grievance industry, which is the biggest lie of this generation: Black people are relentless victims of relentless white racism. All the time. Everywhere. That explains everything.

 

And it is not just Ferguson. Lying about race and racial violence is now the default position for American reporters.

 

We saw it a few weeks ago in Chicago, where Little League parents said the only reason their team was disqualified after it won the national championship was because they were African-American.

 

Or that black students are punished unfairly.

 

Or that white police pick on black people. So do black mayors and black juries and black prosecutors and black cities.

 

All for No Reason What So Ever.

 

But none of that appeared on any of the national television shows the morning after the attorney general had to concede what a grand jury and his own investigators already figured out long ago: The whole thing was a lie.

 

 And now the chattering class insists all along it was really all about unpaid parking tickets?  Come on, man.

 

Thomas Lifson of American Thinker once said that media outlets that do not tell the truth are committing suicide.

 

How else can we explain the demise of Ronan Farrow and his ilk on MSNBC when for months on end they aided and abetted one lie after another?

 

My own favorite happened on Ronan’s soon-to-be-gone news show during the Ferguson fairy tale. After weeks of rioting, Ronan and an NBC correspondent were exchanging fake outrage that local police actually purchased $177,000 worth of anti-riot gear.

 

Why, they both asked over and over and over? After all, said the correspondent, the demonstrations were “largely peaceful.”

 

So that is how big this lie has become: After weeks of nonstop coverage of looting and assaulting and firebombing and attacking police, not just in Ferguson, but other cities around the country, national news shows can actually pretend it never happened?

 

But that is what happened.

 

How else can we explain the absence from the news programs of St. Lebron James, who gave his benediction to the Hands Up, Don’t Shoot fabrication?

 

Or what about the hundreds of black officeholders and staffers who did their Hands Up, Don’t Shoot, fantasy of racial justice on the steps of the U.S. Capitol?

 

And the football players who did the same?

 

What about the anchor of CNN news show who held up a ‘Hands Up Don’t Shoot’ sign while her three guests held up their hands during the show signoff?

 

Or CNN’s Don Lemon, who “understood their anger” over whether black people should be required to pay unpaid parking tickets?

 

Really?

 

 

We are now back to using the Dan Rather defense: the facts were wrong but the story was right?

 

Really?

 

It is not going to work. More and more people are more and more aware of the enormous difference between black and white rates of crime. More and more aware of the ocean of difference between what the press tells us about black mob violence and black on white crime and what happened in real life.

 

And how so many people in the media have so much invested in ignoring, denying, condoning, excusing, and encouraging it.

 

And sometimes, even lying about it.

 

 
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