The March 4 investigation of the Ferguson, Missouri, police department by the U.S. Department of Justice made a big impression on me. The DOJ summed up its findings as follows: “Ferguson’s law enforcement practices are shaped by the city’s focus on revenue rather than by public safety needs. This emphasis on revenue has compromised the institutional character of Ferguson’s police department, contributing to a pattern of unconstitutional policing, and has also shaped its municipal court, leading to procedures that raise due process concerns and inflict unnecessary harm on members of the Ferguson community.”
The racial disparities identified in the DOJ’s report were not what caught my attention. The fact that the DOJ found a pattern of racially disparate policing at every level of police contact—investigative stops, searches, issuance of citations, arrests and use of force—only confirms the complaints from the residents of Ferguson that have received national attention since the shooting death of Michael Brown. The DOJ’s data does not make those complaints any more valid, but the report lays out the reality of life in Ferguson, in both anecdotal and numerical terms. The report brings those complaints into sharper focus, and presents them in black and white. Pun intended.
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