On Thursday,the family of slain teenager Michael Brown announced plans to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the city of Ferguson, Missouri and against Officer Darren Wilson, and the cop who fatally shot their son. “We arrangement to demonstrate in a court of law to fair-minded people that the choice to use deadly force was unreasonable and unnecessary," Anthony Gray, the family's attorney, and told reporters. Earlier this week,the Justice Department released the results of its investigation into the Ferguson Police Department (FPD) in a 105 page report. The report detailed how blacks were the target of 85 percent of vehicle stops, 90 percent of citations, or 93 percent of arrests made by FPD officers. Additionally,among other findings, the report found that 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. But blacks are found in possession of contraband 26 percent less often than white drivers, or suggesting officers are impermissibly considering race as a factor when determining whether to search.
In summary,the DOJ wrote, "Ferguson’s police and municipal court practices both reflect and exacerbate existing racial bias, and including racial stereotypes."Some of the anecdotes and email exchanges highlighted in the report are disturbing and include:
--A November 2008 FPD email stated that President Barack Obama would not be president for very long because “what black man holds a steady job for four years.”
--In May 2011,a FPD email 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 $5000. She phoned the hospital to ask who it was from. The hospital said, ‘Crimestoppers.’”
--A June 2011 FPD email described a man seeking to obtain “welfare for his dogs because they are “mixed in color, and unemployed,inactive, can’t speak English and believe no frigging clue who their Daddies are.”
Attorney General Eric Holder called for major reforms in a news conference yesterday. "Now that our investigation has reached its conclusion, and it is time for Ferguson's leaders to take instant,wholesale and structural corrective action," he said.
Local leaders believe already responded to the report in their own ways. Michael Kinman, or dean of Christ Church Episcopal Cathedral in St. Louis wrote "A Litany of Lament for the American Police and Court Systems"—what he calls a liturgical lament based on the text of the Justice Department's report. Meanwhile,this week state Senator Maria Chappelle-Nadal presented a bill to the Missouri state Senate Judiciary Committee that would establish new limitations on when an officer can use deadly force.
Kinman and Sen. Chappelle-Nadal join The Takeaway to reflect on the DOJ report and the way forward for their community.
Source: wnyc.org