U.S. Justice Department: Results of Investigation into FPD

Seven months ago, in Ferguson, Missouri, an eighteen-year old African American was shot to death by the then Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. This resulted in protests in Ferguson and other cities throughout the United States. Attorney General Eric Holder announced that there would be a federal investigation into the police department of that city to determine the truth of that city regarding any misconduct by the former Ferguson officer and if the protests of its citizens held any merit.

Earlier today, the attorney general announced that the department of justice has concluded that an overwhelming majority of police conduct in Ferguson, Missouri towards African Americans has been unlawful. In addition, there is a history of its police department physically abusing the mentally ill along with African Americans. That said, Darren Wilson shall not be prosecuted on the basis that the civil rights of Michael Brown were violated in his shooting death.

Essentially, that police department has been acting as a "collection agency" (Holder's words) by using the African American population as a source of revenue through unnecessary ticketing and setting of bail. Its police officers have a pattern of purposefully escalating situations with citizens in order to ticket, jail, and convict innocent American citizens who are nearly all of African descent. As the attorney general said today, some of the protesting was right.

This is not to demonize anyone. There are police officers who are respectable individuals with the best interests of the public in mind while carrying out their duty. One email conversation by the Ferguson police department included racially-inflammatory comments about President Barack Obama, joking about what African American male keeps a job for four years. Comments such as what is said exacerbate the relationship between civilians and the police force and put lives at risk unnecessarily. In order to keep our officers safe, we cannot condone such behavior.

The Department of Justice has made recommendations as to how the city of Ferguson and surrounding cities can improve in their treatment of its citizens and asserts that it shall utilize whatever means it must in order for the Ferguson police department to comply.

Quoted from the official website of the Justice Department of the United States:

The department found that the FPD has a pattern or practice of:

• Conducting stops without reasonable suspicion and arrests without probable cause in violation of the Fourth Amendment;

• Interfering with the right to free expression in violation of the First Amendment; and

• Using unreasonable force in violation of the Fourth Amendment.

The department found that Ferguson Municipal Court has a pattern or practice of:

• Focusing on revenue over public safety, leading to court practices that violate the 14^th Amendment’s due process and equal protection requirements.

• Court practices exacerbating the harm of Ferguson’s unconstitutional police practices and imposing particular hardship upon Ferguson’s most vulnerable residents, especially upon those living in or near poverty.Minor offenses can generate crippling debts, result in jail time because of an inability to pay and result in the loss of a driver’s license, employment, or housing.

The department found a pattern or practice of racial bias in both the FPD and municipal court:

• The harms of Ferguson’s police and court practices are borne disproportionately by African Americans and that this disproportionate impact is avoidable.

• Ferguson’s harmful court and police practices are due, at least in part, to intentional discrimination, as demonstrated by direct evidence of racial bias and stereotyping about African Americans by certain Ferguson police and municipal court officials.

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-findings-two-civil-rights-investigations-ferguson-missouri

The attorney general, today:

http://www.c-span.org/video/?324667-1/attorney-general-eric-holder-ferguson-missouri-investigation

Investigation of the Ferguson Police Department (105 Pages):

http:://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/opa/press-releases/attachments/2015/03/04/ferguson_police_department_report_1.pdf (Linking tool not working)

Note:

As the discussion on GameSpot about this soon after Michael Brown was killed became very emotional at some points, I shall remind everyone that we have a Code of Conduct for a reason. By continuing to visit GameSpot, you agree to abide by it. If not, there shall be a response by the moderator team. Keep that in mind as you comment about this.

Thank you.

No civil rights violation charges against officer Wilson, anyone paying attention knew this was the likely outcome.

Could one honestly say that was a given with evidence of all of that police misconduct going on?

Okay...I don't care about that, I care about the shooting of Michael Brown. After all, that's what was dominating the headlines. Did the investigation determine that that particular shooting was unjustified? If so, I recommend that you edit your post to include that information since that's all I really care about.

The boy was a criminal doesn't matter what race it would've happened sooner or later!

@MrGeezer: I recommend you reread my post that you quoted because what you say you do not care about and do care about are both in that comment.

Thanks.

@dylandr: Even murder, a crime historically considered worthy of capital punishment, is now receiving the response from the criminal justice system of life sentences with or without parole, so there is not much to say in terms of the legitimacy of your comment.

makes you wonder how many cities in the us operate in a similar manner. the only reason ferguson was exposed was because of the shooting.. in any case, nothing substantial will change.

Oh, you want there

It does cause wonder about that.

I believe that society shall continue to experience small changes and there shall come a point in which the society of the future shall be substantially different.

fixed :P

None of that addresses the actual case and is inflammatory in respect to one case. We cannot as a nation judge one incident on the basis of past history.

@comp_atkins: Okay. =P

@LJS9502_basic: As I said in my opening post, the justice department has concluded that there were no civil rights violations in the shooting death of Michael Brown by former FPD officer Darren Wilson. To say that this is ignoring that when the department of justice directly addressed that or to say that the department of justice was in any way insinuating that Wilson may have violated civil rights in that incident in its conclusive findings are, collectively, an incorrect assessment.

Additionally, as those who were watching the protests as they transpired might recall, the outrage was first about the death Michael Brown, but grew to a greater issue of community-wide police misconduct then to nation-wide appreciation of African American lives, so to say that the investigation of the justice department into an inflamed situation was inflammatory when the purpose of it was to find the truth might be true, but it is likely false. My basis for that is the positioning of the department of justice as a part of the United States government which performs with objectivity as its intended approach. One can argue that it is not objective, but to say that any responsible member of that department intends otherwise would also be incorrect given the framework of American government.

"Seven months ago, in Ferguson, Missouri, an eighteen-year old African American was shot to death by the then Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. This resulted in protests in Ferguson and other cities throughout the United States." - or put more accurately "an eighteen-year old African American, was shot to death in self-defense by then Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. This resulted in protests and riots in Ferguson and other cities throughout the United States."

Yeah, the evidence shows that Wilson didn't really do anything wrong. Wilson was acting in self-defense when he shot Brown, so it's probably hypocritical to be mad at Wilson since the people criticizing him would have shot Brown in that situation too (It's common sense, if someone tries to take your gun and its basically your life or theirs, you're going to shoot the person). I think the problem here is that a lot of people let their prejudices, biases and experiences get in the way and rushed to judgment automatically assuming that it must be the white cop that's at fault.

I'm not sure what you mean by that. But if you mean that had he been white and tried to take a cop's gun then the cop would have still shot him, I agree.

If true, these allegations are troubling. Of course the Dept. of Justice maybe should focus less on the Ferguson PD and more on getting their own house in order.

What an interesting read article you have there BranKetra.

Thank you. It is nice to know some people care about things that matter.

It's a troubling report underlying what is obviously an underlying problem within that particular police department. However the report has no standing on the particular case involving the shooting of Michael Brown, as all evidence pointed to the fact that this was not a racially motivated stop nor was the shooting. This report also has no standing on other police precincts throughout the nation many of whom do outstanding work in service of their particular communities. I also do not believe the unrest in Ferguson following the shooting death of Michael Brown helped the situation but only alienated a police force that was already biased against the community they were called to serve. This report does however point to a troubling trend within America of the increased militarization of police in response to the ever increasing hostility of criminals on the streets, not all of whom are African American. While the report tries to address how police can show better judgement in the line of duty it doesn't discuss or even approach the issue of the crime problem we have in this country. More specifically what causes so many individuals to engage in violent and criminal activities and how we can approach decreasing these crimes so that police become unnecessary, which should be our primary focus.

Brown still asked for it.

The DoJ report doesn't say that Officer Wilson didn't do anything wrong. It says that there is not enough evidence to charge him with a civil rights violation. Which is true. The conviction rate on those cases is very low, because they are notoriously difficult to prove. The only real chance for an indictment was in Missouri, and Robert McCulloch made sure that didn't happen.

Your post states that Daren Wilson is not going to be prosecuted. That's the only mention of this particuklar incident. That not only doesn't make a clear stance on on whether that particular shooting was justified, but the rest of the post is focused on the police department in general rather than on that particular shooting.

That's not what your post said. Your post said that Wilson won't be prosecuted for violating brown's rights. That doesn't answer whether or not Brown's rights were indeed violated at all. Was this an instance of police misconduct, and there's just not going to be a prosecution? Is there not going to be a prosecution because it was determined that this WASN'T misconduct? Or is this merely a case of "we're not prosecuting because we aren't sure"?

My point being...police misconduct in general is a very important issue, but this thing blew way the **** up because one SPECIFIC dude shot and killed one SPECIFIC other dude. This is largely about specifics to the point that from Wilson's POV, his career is over REGARDLESS of if he was right or wrong. Yes, departmental issues are very important. But as far as Darren Wilson is concerned, his career is freaking over. If I were in his shoes, and if the investigation determined that his use of deadly force waas justified, I'd sort of like to hear that. on the flip side, If I was one of Michael Brown's surviving family members and I felt in my heart that the cops got away with unjustifiably murdering him, I'd want to know if my suspicions are correct. In either case, the police misconduct in general is important, but you know very well that people are going to take that generality and apply it to this SPECIFIC case of Wilson fatally shooting Brown. I'd like to see a definitive stance on this SPECIFIC shooting, even if that determination is "hell if we know."

@MrGeezer: In addition to my comment, I also linked to Attorney General Eric Holder clarifying the reason why Darren Wilson shall not be prosecuted.If you watch the first few minutes of that, your inquiry should be resolved.

I can't watch videos. Someone want to sum up what Holder said, please?

Disgusting stuff, heard a few of the stories here (in video), I'll be reading through the entire report myself soon...

READ FULL TEXT OF THE FERGUSON POLICE REPORT BY THE USDOJ << you should put that in the OP @BranKetra

Actually, I stated:

That said, Darren Wilson shall not be prosecuted on the basis that the civil rights of Michael Brown were violated in his shooting death.

That is a statement preceded by:

"Michael Brown's death, though a tragedy, did not involve prosecutable conduct on the part of Officer Wilson."

-Eric H. Holder, Jr.

Again, the reason why the remainder of my post is about the investigation is because that is what the justice department focused on. Since Officer Wilson is part of the Ferguson Police Department and there was an investigation into the entirety of it, it makes sense to me that there is a report about it in its entirety.

"Now, this outcome is supported by the facts that we have found"

-Eric H. Holder, Jr.

What can be understood from that statement is the knowledge that the Justice Department has determined that Officer Wilson did not commit prosecutable behavior in Michael Brown's death.

My point being...police misconduct in general is a very important issue, but this thing blew way the **** up because one SPECIFIC dude shot and killed one SPECIFIC other dude. This is largely about specifics to the point that from Wilson's POV, his career is over REGARDLESS of if he was right or wrong. Yes, departmental issues are very important. But as far as Darren Wilson is concerned, his career is freaking over. If I were in his shoes, and if the investigation determined that his use of deadly force waas justified, I'd sort of like to hear that. on the flip side, If I was one of Michael Brown's surviving family members and I felt in my heart that the cops got away with unjustifiably murdering him, I'd want to know if my suspicions are correct. In either case, the police misconduct in general is important, but you know very well that people are going to take that generality and apply it to this SPECIFIC case of Wilson fatally shooting Brown. I'd like to see a definitive stance on this SPECIFIC shooting, even if that determination is "hell if we know."

To clarify some misconceptions that people might have, there were two federal investigations related to Ferguson, Missouri within the past seven months. The first investigation was into the case of Officer Wilson and Michael Brown. The second was into the Ferguson Police Department regarding claims of civil rights violations.

@lamprey263 Okay, thank you for that.

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When I put videos or reports in my opening posts, I do so in order for people to understand my sources of information. If anyone is unable to read or watch the content in my posted links, please let me know before discussion begins in order to make our communication as great as possible.

holy shit there is no way you can defend the FPD after reading that report.

good lord.....

So...there was no decision made as to whether Darren Wilson acted inappropriately?

@MrGeezer: From what I heard, the DOJ found there wasn't sufficient probably cause to pursue charges against Daren Wilson for doing what he did with race as a motivational factor. That's what I've heard in from the little I've come across anyways. What I haven't heard, is whether they approached it from a perspective that Daren Wilson's 4th Amendment rights were violated as a result of excessive use of force. It'll be interested to see if that was touched upon in the full report., which I'll provide you a link to...

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE REPORT REGARDING THE CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION INTO THE SHOOTING DEATH OF MICHAEL BROWN BY FERGUSON, MISSOURI POLICE OFFICER DARREN WILSON

Haven't look at it myself, still going through the FPD DOJ report.

I'll take that as a "yes." Or at the very least, a "who knows?" in that case, question answered.