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Investigation of the Ferguson Police Department, by the United States Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division (With an introduction by Ted Shaw. New York: New Press, 2015. 192 pp. Paper, $10.00.)
Reviewed by Katherine Matthews
On August 9, 2014, Officer Darren Wilson fatally shot unarmed eighteenyear-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. These events led to two weeks of civil unrest in Ferguson and across the nation. People took to the streets and staged demonstrations to protest the Brown killing. Citizens boycotted the Black Friday shopping holiday and staged die-ins in busy public spaces while #BlackLivesMatter social media campaigns spread rapidly, bringing international attention to the pervasive pattern of extralegal killings of Black people by US police officers and civilian vigilantes.
The events in Ferguson highlight the crisis of legitimacy facing police officers in urban communities of color. In response to the protests, the Department of Justice (DOJ) Civil Rights Division initiated an investigation into the Ferguson Police Department. On March 2015, the Department of Justice published a 105-page report that reveals a consistent pattern of unlawful behavior by police officers and the municipal courts that violated the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments of the US Constitution.
The Washington Post and other media outlets applauded the report for its critical and scathing review of the longstanding racist policies and practices of the Ferguson Police Department. Researchers had spent one hundred days on the ground collecting data. Investigators interviewed numerous city officials, sworn police officers, and community members. In addition, they participated in ride-alongs and reviewed thousands of pages of police records, emails, and electronic material. Furthermore, researchers observed several sessions of municipal court hearings and engaged in dialogue with with local community groups, neighborhood associations, and advocacy organizations.
The report reveals that the approach to law enforcement by the Ferguson Police Department and city officials reflected racial stereotypes and exacerbated existing racial bias. In Ferguson, the municipal judge, court clerk, prosecuting attorney, and all assistant court clerks are white. Electronic communications among members of the police departments and municipal courts exposed direct racial bias as they exchanged racist jokes, derogatory photos, and offensive anecdotes ridiculing Black civilians. Some Ferguson decision makers expressed negative stereotypes about Black people, claiming that they lack personal responsibility. Rather than acknowledge...