Officials: US report finds racial bias in Ferguson police

[webfact]

Officials: US report finds racial bias in Ferguson police
By ERIC TUCKER

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Justice Department investigation found sweeping patterns of racial bias within the Ferguson, Missouri, police department, with officers routinely discriminating against blacks by using excessive force, issuing petty citations and making baseless traffic stops, according to law enforcement officials familiar with its findings.

The report, to be released as soon as Wednesday, marks the culmination of a months-long investigation into a police department that federal officials have described as troubled and that commanded national attention after one of its officers shot and killed an unarmed black man, 18-year-old Michael Brown, last summer.

It chronicles discriminatory practices across the city's criminal justice system, detailing problems from initial encounters with patrol officers to treatment in the municipal court and jail. Federal law enforcement officials described its contents on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly before the report is released.

The full report could serve as a roadmap for significant changes by the department, if city officials accept its findings. Past federal investigations of local police departments have encouraged overhauls of fundamental police procedures such as traffic stops and the use of service weapons. The Justice Department maintains the right to sue police departments that resist making changes.

The investigation, which began weeks after Brown's killing last August, is being released as Attorney General Eric Holder prepares to leave his job following a six-year tenure that focused largely on civil rights. The findings are based on interviews with police leaders and residents, a review of more than 35,000 pages of police records and analysis of data on stops, searches and arrests.

Federal officials found that black motorists from 2012 to 2014 were more than twice as likely as whites to be searched during traffic stops, even though they were 26 percent less likely to be found carrying contraband, according to a summary of the findings.

The review also found that blacks were 68 percent less likely than others to have their cases dismissed by a municipal court judge. And from April to September of last year, 95 percent of people kept at the city jail for more than two days were black, it found.

Of the cases in which the police department documented the use of force, 88 percent involved blacks, and of the 14 dog bites for which racial information is available, all 14 victims were black.

Overall, African-Americans make up 67 percent of the population of Ferguson, about 10 miles north of downtown St. Louis. The police department has been criticized as racially imbalanced and not reflective of the community's demographic makeup. At the time of the shooting, just three of 53 officers were black, though the mayor has said he's trying to create a more diverse police force.

Brown's killing set off weeks of protests and initiated a national dialogue about police officers' use of force and their relations with minority communities. A separate report to be issued soon is expected to clear Darren Wilson, the officer who shot Brown, of federal civil rights charges. A state grand jury declined to indict Wilson in November, and he resigned from the department.

Benjamin Crump, the attorney for the Brown family, said that if the reports about the findings are true, they "confirm what Michael Brown's family has believed all along — and that is that the tragic killing of an unarmed 18-year-old black teenager was part of a systemic pattern of inappropriate policing of African-American citizens in the Ferguson community."

The report says there is direct evidence of racial bias among police officers and court workers, and details a criminal justice system that issues citations for petty infractions such as walking in the middle of the street, putting the raising of revenue from fines ahead of public safety. The physical tussle that led to Brown's death began after Wilson told him and a friend to move from the street to the sidewalk.

The practice hits poor people especially hard, sometimes leading to jail time when they can't pay, the report says, and has contributed to a cynicism about the police on the part of citizens.

Among the report's findings was a racially tinged 2008 message in a municipal email account stating that President Barack Obama would not be president for very long because "what black man holds a steady job for four years."

The department has conducted roughly 20 broad civil rights investigations of police departments during Holder's tenure, including Cleveland, Newark, New Jersey, and Albuquerque, New Mexico. Most such investigations end with police departments agreeing to change their practices.

Justice Department officials were meeting with Ferguson leaders on Tuesday about the findings, a city official said.

Several messages seeking comment from Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson and Mayor James Knowles III were not returned. A secretary for Jackson said he is not doing media interviews. Knowles has previously said the city is attracting a large pool of applicants to police jobs, including minority candidates seeking the position left vacant by Wilson's resignation.

John Gaskin III, a St. Louis community activist, praised the findings, saying, "Ferguson police have to see the light in how they deal with people of color.

"It's quite evident that change is coming down the pike. This is encouraging," he said. "It's so unfortunate that Michael Brown had to be killed. But in spite of that, I feel justice is coming."
____

Associated Press writers Jim Salter and Jim Suhr in St. Louis and Alan Scher Zagier in Ferguson contributed to this report.


-- (c) Associated Press 2015-03-04

[Bangkok Herps]

Crickets? There were posters claiming that this wasn't going to happen just a few weeks ago.

[Ulysses G.]

What wasn't going to happen? I never had a doubt that Eric Holder would trump up some charges to save face.

[NeverSure]

"Benjamin Crump, the attorney for the Brown family, said that if the reports about the findings are true, they "confirm what Michael Brown's family has believed all along — and that is that the tragic killing of an unarmed 18-year-old black teenager was part of a systemic pattern of inappropriate policing of African-American citizens in the Ferguson community."

If Eric Holder's Department of Justice found this out, why didn't they charge the officer with racial discrimination? Why is this news when they couldn't bring a charge against the officer?

If this report is true, the DOJ is blowing smoke out of its tailgate. They can't prove it in court so they issue a press release or something?

[zydeco]

issuing petty citations

So, let's just forget about the law. I guess arresting someone for throwing a clerk against the door and stealing cigars is just "petty" and deserves to go unnoticed. Yes, this is why Detroit looks like Detroit.

[Publicus]

The Justice Department has 17 municipal police departments across the country under its direct supervision under federal court consent decrees due to a practice and pattern of race discrimination found after prima facie investigations by DoJ and a complete and thorough follow thru investigation.

DoJ has another 34 such racial discrimination pattern and practice investigations underway, to include Ferguson and the St Louis county PD, which is the next report.

Radical changes are need to the FPD and radical changes are coming.

Policing is a tuff job and one does not need to be or to have been a cop to recognize this.

Police however and especially have to learn not to generalize about all black Americans based on their experience with a minority sliver of some certain black Americans. Even in respect of the minority of black Americans, local and state police need a radical change to their attitudes towards law enforcement and community relations.

Because the long and the short of it is that the sequence of events that led to the unarmed Michael Brown being shot to death began with a jaywalking incident. Which means serious thought and attention is required here by everyone.

[chuckd]

...and that very same jaywalking incident was immediately followed by a suspicion of convenience store robbery that then escalated into assault of a police officer.

Interesting how these sequence of events play out sometimes.

[humqdpf]

There was a really good report on the BBC World Service (Radio) on this issue.

Basically it starts with a black person either having a minor traffic violation or something as simple as losing his job and then falling behind in alimony/child payments. This invariably results in his license being revoked (he still has it in his hand but it is now invalid). His choice is to either continue to drive (he has to work) or not work. Invariably, for the least violation he has to take time off work and queue up for hours at the small "courthouse" which is often a room at the post office because the municipality is small. The judge is invariably white and by far the majority of the defendants are black and poor. They cannot afford a lawyer and they get the max.

A white person is less likely to be even stopped by the police; if he is, he is likely to be let off. Even if not, he can have his legal representative deal with the problem and pay the fine.

The problem is further exacerbated by the large number of small municipalities who are trying to get as much out of traffic violations (by imposing nonsensical speed limits on highways) which are then vastly over-policed by mainly white police officers.

[Publicus]

...and that very same jaywalking incident was immediately followed by a suspicion of convenience store robbery that then escalated into assault of a police officer.

Interesting how these sequence of events play out sometimes.

As the rule, not sometimes, which is precisely the point of my post.

Killed for shoplifting which had been unknown to the police officer when the officer had taken the time and effort to order Brown to cease jaywalking. The cop anywhere that has time to pay attention to jaywalking really needs to take on some tougher tasks in his job and work. Hassling a jaywalker borders on the inane, which makes it in fact provocative. One could go on.....

Then there's the Ferguson government account email that said a black woman having an abortion is crime prevention.

All of this attitude problem in the local government but in the police department especially has to change and it will be changed. It's the cow's tail of contemporary society. FPD is in a long standing violation of the Constitution....a gross and horrendous violation of the Constitution and these guys are enforcing the laws.

The community has to change its attitude too towards the law and law enforcement, but it begins with the government because the government is there to serve and to protect the community.

So who's going to protect the community against a uniformed blue wave disrespect against it? The feds, as always in civil rights matters...as always.

[DiamondKing]

COMPLETE MISLEADING REPORT

Ferguson is MAJORITY BLACK TOWN so it makes total sense that the majority of arrests are black

[Bangkok Herps]

COMPLETE MISLEADING REPORT

Ferguson is MAJORITY BLACK TOWN so it makes total sense that the majority of arrests are black

Well, by that fantastic logic, it also makes sense that 95% of the officers are Black. Oh, wait, never mind, it was the other way around.

To help those who aren't good with statistics, something like 38% of Ferguson's population is non-Black, but only 14% of traffic stops were non-Black. So a non-Black person is MUCH less likely to get pulled over. On top of that, Black people who were pulled over were about twice as likely to be searched as White people, even though searches of Black people resulted in significantly less contraband than searches of White people.

Just saying "majority" sort of hides the numbers, doesn't it? I guess as long as the majority of a town is Black, that gives free reign to target the Black people almost 90% of the time?

[Wat dee]

...and that very same jaywalking incident was immediately followed by a suspicion of convenience store robbery that then escalated into assault of a police officer.

Interesting how these sequence of events play out sometimes.

It is interesting. We don't see minor traffic,theft, disorderly conduct incidences turning fatal regularly in other similar countries.

[Bangkok Herps]

If someone wants to really understand how something like this could happen in a city, and how bad it could get, this is worth a good listen:

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/548/cops-see-it-differently-part-two


Part 1 focused on the process that happened in Milwaukee over time, and along with narrating one just horrific incident, really helped to highlight how Black citizens, White citizens, and cops could see the same situation very differently.

But Part 2, the part I linked, gets in deep to Miami Gardens and Las Vegas...and you start to get an idea of just how bad things can go in a police department, as well as the right way to start to turn them around.

[Bangkok Herps]

...and that very same jaywalking incident was immediately followed by a suspicion of convenience store robbery that then escalated into assault of a police officer.

Interesting how these sequence of events play out sometimes.

It is interesting. We don't see minor traffic,theft, disorderly conduct incidences turning fatal regularly in other similar countries.

You don't see it happening in most American communities either. In fact, it pretty much only happens due to the combination of several factors, some of which are fairly universal to American policing and some of which are unique to certain communities.

1) The police are carrying guns on them all the time.

2) The police have a social/cultural distance and innate distrust/suspicion of the people they are policing.

3) The police tend to suspect that the people they are policing are dangerous and might be carrying guns, whether or not that's actually true.

4) The police are conditioned to pull their guns and use them in response to any fear or threat.

Edited March 4, 2015 by Bangkok Herps

[sgtsabai]

Try this for a pretty good read: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/mar/03/justice-department-racial-discrimination-ferguson-police . It does mirror to some degree the original article. Police are over militarized today, they act more as an occuping force. It will get worse if the people start to stand up for their rights and to change the system so the plutocrats and corporations don't rule anymore.

[hanno]

I have a very good friend that cannot be accused of not being a true patriot: whilst originally from Cuba, he served in Vietnam and retired from the Army. Pro-gun, he nevertheless is deeply concerned about "TAPS" (The American Police State) and its militarization. Living in AL he also insists that non-whites are far more likely to get picked out by polices, at least in some places. Just his take.

[Bangkok Herps]

Marcus Jeter, a 30-year-old Black man, was pulled over by two New Jersey officers after they had previously encountered him regarding a domestic violence dispute. There was a struggle on the scene.

The officers state that Marcus Jeter attempted to elude them, resisted arrest, reached for an officer's gun, and assaulted one of the officers.

Marcus Jeter claims that he did none of those things and that the officers pulled their guns on him for no reason, smashed one of their vehicles into his, broke his car window, started punching him for no reason, drug him out of the car and assaulted him, arrested him, and then punched him again after the arrest for good measure.

Marcus Jeter faces 5 years in jail for resisting arrest and assaulting an officer. An internal investigation cleared the officers of wrongdoing.

At this point, with all the other revelations coming out, who would you believe?

[Bangkok Herps]

But a year after the fact, one officer was charged with tampering with evidence. And finally, two years after the fact, a dashboard camera video from the 2nd police car has been revealed, showing that Marcus Jeter's story is true and the officers lied. The officers have been arraigned on charges of conspiracy, official misconduct, tampering with public records, false documents and false swearing, and aggrevated assault.

A third officer has already pled guilty to tampering with evidence.

If the second video hadn't been revealed (why was it not revealed until now?), then Marcus Jeter would be spending most of his 30s in jail.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/police-dash-cam-video-exonerates-nj-man-implicates-cops-article-1.1701763

The cop's are still suspended and their case is currently in federal court, and Marcus Jeter is free.

Edited March 4, 2015 by Bangkok Herps

[hdkane]

"Benjamin Crump, the attorney for the Brown family, said that if the reports about the findings are true, they "confirm what Michael Brown's family has believed all along — and that is that the tragic killing of an unarmed 18-year-old black teenager was part of a systemic pattern of inappropriate policing of African-American citizens in the Ferguson community."

If Eric Holder's Department of Justice found this out, why didn't they charge the officer with racial discrimination? Why is this news when they couldn't bring a charge against the officer?

If this report is true, the DOJ is blowing smoke out of its tailgate. They can't prove it in court so they issue a press release or something?

This story seems to have a slight bias to it. The incident with Brown didn't begin with him illigally walking in the street: the incident began when Brown committed strong arm robbery of a small grocery store. Brown was shot after an attempt to take an officer's weapon. Most studies of crime DO find a racial compoenent, with Blacks having far more positive and negative interactions with police officers. However, they do not indicate bias, usually. Rather, the data simply reflect genuine differences in behavior. Even in non-criminal activities, Blacks are more impulsive and aggressive. Coupled with a well documented lower overall IQ, this forumla leads to some very unfortunate spur of the moment decisions. That being said, if the same behavior is displayed by Whites, but with a different outcome, then there is obvious evidence of racial bias. A certain degree of "profiling" is needed and necessary by the police. Experience informs everyone about possible outcomes and prepares us to handle situations. But all actions by the police need to be tempered and bound by standardized procedures and the law. The Brown shooting wasn't about the Black guy...the real issue was the poorly trained officer.

[CMNightRider]

...and that very same jaywalking incident was immediately followed by a suspicion of convenience store robbery that then escalated into assault of a police officer.

Interesting how these sequence of events play out sometimes.

As the rule, not sometimes, which is precisely the point of my post.

Killed for shoplifting which had been unknown to the police officer when the officer had taken the time and effort to order Brown to cease jaywalking. The cop anywhere that has time to pay attention to jaywalking really needs to take on some tougher tasks in his job and work. Hassling a jaywalker borders on the inane, which makes it in fact provocative. One could go on.....

Then there's the Ferguson government account email that said a black woman having an abortion is crime prevention.

All of this attitude problem in the local government but in the police department especially has to change and it will be changed. It's the cow's tail of contemporary society. FPD is in a long standing violation of the Constitution....a gross and horrendous violation of the Constitution and these guys are enforcing the laws.

The community has to change its attitude too towards the law and law enforcement, but it begins with the government because the government is there to serve and to protect the community.

So who's going to protect the community against a uniformed blue wave disrespect against it? The feds, as always in civil rights matters...as always.

"The cop anywhere that has time to pay attention to jaywalking really needs to take on some tougher tasks in his job and work. Hassling a jaywalker borders on the inane, which makes it in fact provocative. One could go on." Thank you for not going on. Lets give this statement a little thought while keeping in mind, public safety is the responsibility of police.

Officer Wilson was driving down the road and observed two people walking in the middle of the street. Officer Wilson instructed the two people to use the sidewalk and get out of the middle of the street. Brown processed this information in his pea brain, and rather than following Officer Wilson's instructions, decided to attack Officer Wilson.

"Then there's the Ferguson government account email that said a black woman having an abortion is crime prevention." This e-mail being discovered on a Ferguson city computer is certainly inappropriate, but is not that far fetched.

The federal investigation led by Eric Holder, is nothing more than a witch hunt. Holder himself should be investigated for his role in the "fast and furious" gun running where the ATF lost 1400 guns in Mexico.

When the federal government launches an investigation (witch hunt) against a state or city agency, they are under a lot of pressure to find wrong doing. It is interesting this investigation could not find any wrong doing by Officer Wilson. Isn't this the officer who you thought was "Dirty Harry" a fictional movie character?

[CMNightRider]

...and that very same jaywalking incident was immediately followed by a suspicion of convenience store robbery that then escalated into assault of a police officer.

Interesting how these sequence of events play out sometimes.

It is interesting. We don't see minor traffic,theft, disorderly conduct incidences turning fatal regularly in other similar countries.

What other similar countries have a black population of about 14% that commit about 47% of the felonies in that country? You are trying to compare apples to oranges.

[H1w4yR1da]

COMPLETE MISLEADING REPORT

Ferguson is MAJORITY BLACK TOWN so it makes total sense that the majority of arrests are black

Well, by that fantastic logic, it also makes sense that 95% of the officers are Black.

No. It doesn't. Last time I looked, qualifications for applying to join the police dept and getting arrested weren't at all similar.

Killed for shoplifting

He was killed for attacking a police officer and trying to take his weapon.

Edited March 5, 2015 by H1w4yR1da

[chuckd]

I would be curious to know how many of these arrests involved non-citizens of Ferguson.

Ferguson is a suburb of St. Louis, which has a majority black community and one of the highest crime rates in the US.

How many of those arrests involved individuals with criminal records or who a judge felt should be denied release because they were not residents of Ferguson?

The entire exercise by Holder is merely to try and bolster his legacy and raise his speaking fees for his lucrative retirement.

Holder's DOJ will extort some money out of the city of Ferguson and then will likely donate that money to the Rainbow Coalition and NAN.

The end result is so-called "Dirty Harry" police officer Darren Wilson will not be charged...and, IMHO, that is a good thing.

You liberals don't need to worry. CNNs Don Lemon is attacking the Ferguson police department as we speak and he can keep the story alive for weeks.

Edited March 5, 2015 by chuckd

[CMNightRider]

I have a very good friend that cannot be accused of not being a true patriot: whilst originally from Cuba, he served in Vietnam and retired from the Army. Pro-gun, he nevertheless is deeply concerned about "TAPS" (The American Police State) and its militarization. Living in AL he also insists that non-whites are far more likely to get picked out by polices, at least in some places. Just his take.

"The American Police State?" Where on earth did you get that from, the ACLU? You obviously are not from the states, and apparently know woefully little about law enforcement in America.

The police haters (people who resent authority) are the only ones on this site that post nonsensical remarks about police brutally and militarisation of American law enforcement. At least one of these individuals, by his own admission was a recipient of correctional services in the past. Another of these police haters displays signs of delusional behavior by believing there is a legion of so called "Dirty Harry" police running amok in America.

The truth is, American law enforcement form a thin blue line that separates law abiding citizens from criminals.

This DOJ report is the result of several months of beating the bushes looking for wrong doing, only to find a couple of inappropriate e-mails about blacks but were unable to find any wrong doing by Officer Wilson.

The police haters on this site should be ashamed of themselves for posting such ridiculous statements about the Ferguson Police Department and American law enforcement in general.

[Publicus]

Now that DoJ has issued its full report and findings of a practice and pattern of racial discrimination by the Ferguson PD, DoJ says it will spend the "next several weeks" discussing with the police implementation of the recommendations in the report.

If the FPD agrees then there should be a minimum of problems and difficulties all around. If agreement cannot be realized, DoJ will file suit in federal district court under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Crime Control Act of 1994 citing violations of the Constitution by the FPD.

In the last five years, DoJ has won all of the 22 civil rights violations investigations it has filed in the federal courts. The most common outcome of the DoJ suits is the court ordered consent degree under which the local police department is placed under direct daily DoJ supervision for at least five years. This is actually the most likely outcome in the instance of the FPD, but we shall see and soon.

Here is an example of the kind of reforms DoJ is seeking from the FPD:

In his testimony, Officer Wilson said that when he pulled his gun out, Mr. Brown reached through the window and grabbed it. That was a major escalation from which there was probably no turning back, some experts said.

"It’s a whole different ballgame,” said Fred Bealefeld, who was a Baltimore police officer for 31 years and police commissioner from 2007 to 2012. "In my mind, every time someone tried to grab my gun in the street, they were going to try to kill me. That encounter changes everything.”

But for some experts, the shooting and the events that preceded it raised broader policy questions, particularly about how officers engage with communities they patrol. In his initial encounter with Mr. Brown and his friend in the street, Officer Wilson never exited his vehicle, voicing commands through the window of his cruiser instead.

“The notion of riding through neighborhoods yelling, ‘Get up on the curb’ or ‘Get out of the street,’ is not where you want your officers to be,” Commissioner Bealefeld said. “You want them out of their cars, engaging the public and explaining to people what it is you are trying to do. Drive-by policing is not good for any community. "

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/27/us/ferguson-experts-weigh-darren-wilsons-decisions-leading-to-fatal-shooting-of-michael-brown.html?_r=0

WHAT A GOOD POLICE DEPARTMENT LOOKS LIKE:

http://samuelwalker.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/WHAT-A-GOOD-POLICE-DEPARTMENT-Final.pdf

[sgtsabai]

Here is a pretty detailed and damning report from the St. Louis Post Dispatch: http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/doj-finds-ferguson-targeted-african-americans-used-courts-mainly-to/article_d561d303-1fe5-56b7-b4ca-3a5cc9a75c82.html?print=true&cid=print . Let me add the the emasculated DOJ under the spineless Holder reached similar agreements with Albuquerque PD, to no avail. I knew the present Police Chief from my days in law enforcement and his in New Mexico State Police, a once respected organization. That story does not sound like the man I thought I knew. I'm in touch with both sides of the shooting controversy going on there. Very old, and respected close friends, 2 of which I was in combat with and the other I fought fire with. One common thread, something is wrong in Albq. PD and the DOJ is not doing their job. Look for more of the same in Ferguson. Holder is certainly no champion of civil liberties and rights, in fact the opposite.

[Bangkok Herps]

...and that very same jaywalking incident was immediately followed by a suspicion of convenience store robbery that then escalated into assault of a police officer.

Interesting how these sequence of events play out sometimes.

It is interesting. We don't see minor traffic,theft, disorderly conduct incidences turning fatal regularly in other similar countries.

What other similar countries have a black population of about 14% that commit about 47% of the felonies in that country? You are trying to compare apples to oranges.

Should I be confused here? You post yet another statistic that shows that there's clearly a systemic problem...and yet you're denying that there's a systemic problem?

Or are you just some racist who believes, "The only problem is that there's too many Black people around"?

I'm not going to make that assumption if and the two guys who liked your comment can explain your intention any other way.

[CMNightRider]

...and that very same jaywalking incident was immediately followed by a suspicion of convenience store robbery that then escalated into assault of a police officer.

Interesting how these sequence of events play out sometimes.

It is interesting. We don't see minor traffic,theft, disorderly conduct incidences turning fatal regularly in other similar countries.

What other similar countries have a black population of about 14% that commit about 47% of the felonies in that country? You are trying to compare apples to oranges.

Should I be confused here? You post yet another statistic that shows that there's clearly a systemic problem...and yet you're denying that there's a systemic problem?

Or are you just some racist who believes, "The only problem is that there's too many Black people around"?

I'm not going to make that assumption if and the two guys who liked your comment can explain your intention any other way.

What part of what I posted don't you understand? I didn't pull those figures out of the air. You can look them under FBI crime statistics. You'er not one of those people who think the police arrest blacks because of their race are you? Police arrest people who commit crimes regardless of their race.

[Bangkok Herps]

The police haters (people who resent authority) are the only ones on this site that post nonsensical remarks about police brutally and militarisation of American law enforcement. At least one of these individuals, by his own admission was a recipient of correctional services in the past. Another of these police haters displays signs of delusional behavior by believing there is a legion of so called "Dirty Harry" police running amok in America.

The truth is, American law enforcement form a thin blue line that separates law abiding citizens from criminals.

This DOJ report is the result of several months of beating the bushes looking for wrong doing, only to find a couple of inappropriate e-mails about blacks but were unable to find any wrong doing by Officer Wilson.

The police haters on this site should be ashamed of themselves for posting such ridiculous statements about the Ferguson Police Department and American law enforcement in general.

I'm sure you were trying to tar me with those statements, but since I never said anything about "Dirty Harry" and I've never even been arrested, much less received correctional services, I'd love to know how you are going to dismiss my contributions.

Especially since myself and the other posters have regularly been including specific cites and links to back us up. In almost every case those are ignored. You won't even admit there is a problem in communities (like Miami Gardens and Ferguson) where completely ridiculous behavior is being undertaken by the cops. Did you listen to the link above regarding Miami Gardens? Or the one about Milwaukee? Did you read the St. Louis Today article detailing the problems in Ferguson? Did you even know, "Manner of Walking" could be a citation, or that it was given to Black people 95% of the time? Did you read any of the multiple links I posted where military personnel directly criticize the Ferguson police for improper and inflammatory crowd control?

Although, seeing the other post you just made, it's becoming quite clear exactly why you and Chuck and Ulysses have blinders on in this particular issue.

p.s. - My grandpa served more than 20 years with the California Highway Patrol and was chief of police for two small towns. I have several friends who are police officers - including one, in fact, who shot and killed a Black man. Most cops do a great job, but there are some systemic problems in certain communities that can't be explained away with racist assumptions. So you can't just say "police hater" and ignore what I have to say.

Well, actually, you can and will, but that's on you.

[Ulysses G.]

Although, seeing the other post you just made, it's becoming quite clear exactly why you and Chuck and Ulysses have blinders on in this particular issue.

You seem to be the one wearing blinders or drinking far-left Kool aid. CMNightRider is posting documented facts, whether you like them, or not. For what is is worth, I think that some police are bad, but most of them are not.

Edited March 5, 2015 by Ulysses G.