The Department of Justice, after deciding not to file Federal Civil Rights charges against Officer Darren Wilson in the death of Michael Brown have now filed suit against the entire Police Department and issued a report detailing various patterns and practices of the Department that clearly violate the 1st, 4th and 14th Amendments of the United States.
From Newsweek Via Rawstory.
The DOJ alleges Ferguson police frequently dispensed with justice, instead policing with the goal of generating profit for the municipality through fines and fees. For example, they enacted a "traffic enforcement initiative" with the sole stated goal of generating revenue.
The report documents several instances were person were arrested and detained simply to gain access to their ID in order to run it for warrants and generate potential revenue for the city via court fees. It speaks to a general attitude of disrespect, where citizens are nothing more than cash-cows for the city and the police are the collection service. But even further there were cases where a man was arrested for attempting to assist his girlfriend who was bleeding profusely after a traffic accident, a case where they set a police dog an unarmed suspect, another where they used a taser on a man going through diabetic shock, and many types of blatantly racist and bigoted emails were sent back and forth between FPD personnel further betraying the type of attitude and work environment of that department.
Ferguson Police Department Report
Details and Comments over the Flip.
Generally speaking the report finds that allegation of misconduct where given only the most minimal attention, no reports were filed and frequently only an email noting that the complaint had been lodged would be sent to the Officer. Even when that misconduct including felony DUI, that Officer was able to keep his job.
We found additional examples of FPD officers behaving in public in a manner that reflects poorly on FPD and law enforcement more generally. In November 2010, an officer was arrested for DUI by an Illinois police officer who found his car crashed in a ditch off the highway. Earlier that night he and his squad mates—including his sergeant—were thrown out of a bar for bullying a customer. The officer received a thirty-day suspension for the DUI. Neither the sergeant nor any officers was disciplined for their behavior in the bar. In September 2012, an officer stood by eating a sandwich while a fight broke out at an annual street festival. After finally getting involved to break up the fight, he publically [sic] berated and cursed at his squad mates, screamed and cursed at the two female street vendors who were fighting, and pepper-sprayed officer received a written reprimand.
And the revenue trolling for ID and Warrants.
At times, the constitutional violations are even more blatant. An African-American man recounted to us an experience he had while sitting at a bus stop near Canfield Drive. According to the man, an FPD patrol car abruptly pulled up in front of him. The officer inside, a patrol lieutenant, rolled down his window and addressed the man:
Lieutenant: Get over here.
Bus Patron: Me?
Lieutenant: Get the f*** over here. Yeah, you.
Bus Patron: Why? What did I do?
The lieutenant ran the man’s name for warrants. Finding none, he returned the ID and said, “get the hell out of my face.” These allegations are consistent with other, independent allegations of misconduct that we heard about this particular lieutenant, and reflect the routinely disrespectful treatment many African Americans say they have come to expect from Ferguson police. That a lieutenant with supervisory responsibilities allegedly engaged in this conduct is further cause for concern
And then there were the Emails.
This "Get the Fuck Over Here" - stuff isn't all that different from "Get the Fuck on the Sidewalk"... in my opinion, showing that that type of method of addressing people - for no good reason, just because - was not simply limited to Darren Wilson's encounter with Michael Brown and his friend.
We have discovered evidence of racial bias in emails sent by Ferguson officials, all of whom are current employees, almost without exception through their official City of Ferguson email accounts, and apparently sent during work hours. These email exchanges involved several police and court supervisors, including FPD supervisors and commanders. The following emails are illustrative:
A November 2008 email stated that President Barack Obama would not be President for very long because “what black man holds a steady job for four years.”
A March 2010 email mocked African Americans through speech and familial stereotypes, using a story involving child support. One line from the email read: “I be so glad that dis be my last child support payment! Month after month, year after year, all dose payments!”
An April 2011 email depicted President Barack Obama as a chimpanzee.
A May 2011 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 $5,000. She phoned the hospital to ask who it was from. The hospital said, ‘Crimestoppers.’”
A June 2011 email described a man seeking to obtain “welfare” for his dogs because they are “mixed in color, unemployed, lazy, can’t speak English and have no frigging clue who their Daddies are.”
An October 2011 email included a photo of a bare-chested group of dancing women, apparently in Africa, with the caption, “Michelle Obama’s High School Reunion.”
A December 2011 email included jokes that are based on offensive stereotypes about Muslims.
Our review of documents revealed many additional email communications that exhibited racial or ethnic bias, as well as other forms of bias. Our investigation has not revealed any indication that any officer or court clerk engaged in these communications was ever disciplined. Nor did we see a single instance in which a police or court recipient of such an email asked that the sender refrain from sending such emails, or any indication that these emails were reported as inappropriate. Instead, the emails were usually forwarded along to others.
This displays an uncaring and unsympathetic attitude toward the majority of the community. If no one apparently found any of these emails inappropriate, then exactly who in the department is going to speak up when someone is being treated unfairly, rudely or worse? Apparently none of these officers who arrested a man who was trying to come to the aid of his injured girlfriend.
We also reviewed many instances in which FPD officers arrested individuals who sought to care for loved ones who had been hurt. In one instance from May 2014, for example, a man rushed to the scene of a car accident involving his girlfriend, who was badly injured and bleeding profusely when he arrived. He approached and tried to calm her. When officers arrived they treated him rudely, according to the man, telling him to move away from his girlfriend, which he did not want to do. They then immediately proceeded to handcuff and arrest him, which, officers assert, he resisted. EMS and other officers were not on the scene during this arrest, so the accident victim remained unattended, bleeding from her injuries, while officers were arresting the boyfriend. Officers charged the man with five municipal code violations (Resisting Arrest, Disorderly Conduct, Assault on an Officer, Obstructing Government Operations, and Failure to Comply) and had his vehicle towed and impounded.
And remember these are not all of the incidents that the DOJ uncovered, these are merely a few examples that they choose to include in their report, when they take this case to court and place it before a judge there will be more... much more.