Ferguson police chief Tom Jackson quits

[webfact]

Ferguson chief resigns in wake of scathing federal report
JIM SALTER, Associated Press
ALAN SCHER ZAGIER, Associated Press

FERGUSON, Missouri (AP) — The police chief in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson resigned Wednesday in the wake of a scathing U.S. Justice Department report prompted by the fatal shooting of an unarmed black 18-year-old by a white police officer.

Jackson had previously resisted calls by protesters and some of Missouri's top elected leaders to step down over his handling of the August shooting of Michael Brown and the weeks of sometimes-violent protests that followed. He was widely criticized from the outset, both for an aggressive police response to protesters and for his agency's erratic and infrequent releases of key information. He took nearly a week to publicly identify Officer Darren Wilson as the shooter.

Jackson submitted a four-sentence letter in which he said he was announcing his resignation with profound sadness.

He oversaw the Ferguson force for nearly five years before the shooting that stirred months of unrest across the St. Louis region and drew global attention to the predominantly black city of 21,000. Brown's death prompted a heated national debate on how African-Americans and other minorities are treated by police.

Jackson's handling of the situation drew wide criticism from the outset, both for the aggressive police response to protesters and for his agency's erratic and infrequent releases of key information. Sen. Claire McCaskill was among those working behind the scenes to get him to resign, but Jackson stood firm.

He told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he felt now was time for the city to move on.

"This city needs to move forward without any distractions," Jackson said.

Jackson becomes the sixth Ferguson employee to resign or be fired after the U.S. Department of Justice last week issued a report that cleared Wilson of civil rights charges in the shooting but found a profit-driven court system and widespread racial bias in the city police department.

Justice Department officials had previously said that they were willing to work with whatever leadership the police department had. A U.S. law enforcement official said Wednesday that the Justice Department had not pressured or encouraged Jackson to resign during meetings with him but had also not resisted the idea. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing meetings between the Justice Department and the police department.

The resignation was welcomed by state lawmakers who represent Ferguson.

Since the Aug. 9 shooting, Jackson had spoken of a desire to work with community members and described efforts to bolster minority hiring in a department that had just three black officers at the time of Brown's death.

But he struggled to manage a local crisis that turned into an international event and explain his decision-making at news conferences disrupted by angry protesters and grieving community members.

Then the Justice Department issued its report, which found that Ferguson's police and court systems functioned as a money-making enterprise rather than one meant to ensure public safety. The report found black drivers in Ferguson were more than twice as likely as others to be searched during routine traffic stops and more likely to face excessive force from police, often during unwarranted stops.

Investigators also noted that Ferguson was counting on revenues from fines and fees to generate nearly a quarter of its total $13.3 million budget for the 2015 fiscal year. Many residents ended up in jail after missing court dates or failing to pay fines for minor violations. The report also uncovered evidence that three employees — a court clerk and two police officers — had sent racist emails.

The clerk was fired last week and two officers resigned. The judge who oversaw the court system also resigned and the City Council on Tuesday agreed to a separation agreement with the city manager.

-- (c) Associated Press 2015-03-12

[Bangkok Herps]

I guess there must have been some truth to that report.

[96tehtarp]

I hope he doesn't let the door hit him on the way out.

[NeilSA1]

Good riddance

[Nuddy]

One can surmise that the cops had an attitude but I reckon its likely all these resignations and firings are just fodder for the press.

If we were really serious about this we would follow up and find these resignees and fired folk will in time be rewarded for taking the sword.

Good on them.

All this crap has to be put to bed somehow.

Regards.

[Don Aleman]

Not only the police chief of Ferguson Mo. resigned but so did it's City Manager and City Clerk so now, though 500 miles away, a new DETROIT has been created to be, sadly, repeated many times over. White operated businesses won't reopen, ( now blacks can shop 35 miles away in St. Louis), and white owned residences are selling for dimes on the dollar .

[cup-O-coffee]

I feel sorry for him. He lost a war that is eating away the fabric of the USA like a cancer; Cultural Marxism.

[Ulysses G.]

I guess there must have been some truth to that report.

Or maybe the job is just not worth all the hassle.

[snarky66]

2 police shot in the aftermath.

[AZBill]

And 2 more civil servants shot thanks to Eric Holder and his encitement. That makes 4 cops shot, 2 dead because of him. All over some thug where no evidence of any wrongdoing found by the officer. America is going to crap!

[snarky66]

The radical left have taken their protests to a new level.

[Bangkok Herps]

I just found out that two St. Louis County policemen were shot today.

This is so sad to me.

Praying for the policemen and their families.

What a hateful, selfish act. My only hope is that it will turn out to be some crazy person and not someone who thinks that something good could ever come out of such violence. May he be caught quickly and come to terms someday with the evil he has done.

Thank God that the policemen appear to both be able to pull through. I pray that no more are touched, at all, by anyone else with a hateful agenda. This is the kind of evil that hurts everyone it touches on all sides.

Out of respect for them, I'm personally not going to participate in these arguments for a couple of days.

[snarky66]

Under Holder cop haters have been given the green light.

We had an incident here in Denver where radical leftists threw red paint on the fallen officers memorial. The rat chief of police told his officers to stand down. 2 miscreants were later charged with criminal mischief and let go the same day.

So if there's a huge division in the country right now this is the cause of it. you have the Al Franken Elizabeth Warren nut job wing on one side and the rest of us on the other.

Edited March 12, 2015 by snarky66

[Lissos]

I just found out that two St. Louis County policemen were shot today.

Will the shooting of the two officers will be recorded as a racially motivated shooting?

[Publicus]

Under Holder cop haters have been given the green light.

We had an incident here in Denver where radical leftists threw red paint on the fallen officers memorial. The rat chief of police told his officers to stand down. 2 miscreants were later charged with criminal mischief and let go the same day.

So if there's a huge division in the country right now this is the cause of it. you have the Al Franken Elizabeth Warren nut job wing on one side and the rest of us on the other.

Under Holder cop haters have been given the green light.

Whomever such people might be, wherever they may be, if they exist at all. The implication of the statement is that such people do exist and that they are known to some certain of the people present.

Regardless, responsible people in society take pains to make statements that are rational, balanced, reasonable.....statements that seek to de-escalate rather than to escalate or to accelerate, intensify. Statements that promote calm rather than disorder and its awful blowback consequences.

The post is therefore as far away from these societal qualities as could be possible while not yet being directly threatening of its subject targeted person or overtly menacing of the subject targeted person, upon whom all blame is assigned for absolutely everything.

So one could be apprehensive that the completed thought suggested in the post, that a certain subject person assigned an omnibus guilt must be stopped, might well be coming soon, if the awful thought hasn't already been suggested.

[snarky66]

Breaking news: Missouri State Patrol and the st. Louis County Sheriff's Department will be supervising tonight's protests. God forbid they should have to shoot any of the radical leftists. We do not need another Kent State.

[Scott]

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