Justice Department Sues Ferguson After City Amends Police Reform Deal

Ferguson City Councilman Wesley Bell explains the revisions and the unanimous vote in favor of the DOJ agreement at a press conference on Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2016, at the City of Ferguson Community Center….

Among its requirements: the Ferguson Police Department would no longer oversee the municipal court, stricter use-of-force policies would be drafted, the city’s most egregiously abused ordinances would be repealed, and a federal monitor would be appointed to ensure compliance.

Vanita Gupta, the acting assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, clearly irritated, issued a statement Tuesday saying the vote created “an unnecessary delay in the essential work to bring constitutional policing to the city, and marks an unfortunate outcome for concerned community members and Ferguson police officers”.

No case has been more closely watched than Ferguson, where the 2014 police killing of an 18-year-old black man, Michael Brown, set off nationwide protests – including in Dallas, where one march briefly shut down Interstate 35E – and attracted the scrutiny of federal authorities. They also added the city’s main focus on costs is the reason Ferguson’s official have never tried to change policies to decrease law enforcement officers’ misconduct which include discrimination to minorities, unconstitutional stops, unfair searches and arrests and use of force.

JOHNSON: Yeah, there were at least several months of negotiations. Messages left with Mayor James Knowles III were not returned, though hours before the lawsuit was filed, he said Ferguson leaders were willing to sit down with federal negotiators to draw up a new agreement.

The proposal also called for pay raises for police officers in order to attract qualified applicants.

“Residents of Ferguson have suffered the deprivation of their constitutional rights-the rights guaranteed to all Americans-for decades”, Lynch said. That led to a violent confrontation that ended when Wilson fatally shot Brown, who was black and unarmed.

The Justice Department on Wednesday announced that it would sue Ferguson, Mo., after the city rejected an agreement to overhaul its beleaguered criminal justice system and address allegations of widespread civil rights abuses. Police said Brown briefly ran away, then came menacingly at the officer, who opened fire.

Ferguson’s pushback against the Department of Justice’s demands highlights how broad reform efforts may require a more focused public investment, experts say. These findings were based upon information received from Ferguson’s own citizens, from Ferguson’s own records and from Ferguson’s own officials.

When Ferguson and Justice reached a tentative agreement last month, Knowles said the city did not have a clear understanding of the cost of implementing it.

This time previous year, the U.S. Department of Justice handed down a damning report on the state of law enforcement in Ferguson, Missouri.

“I am profoundly disappointed”, Attorney General Loretta Lynch told reporters.

“If Ferguson insists on making significant changes to the deal they’ve already worked out, that’s probably not going to work out well for them”, said Bagenstos, a law professor at the University of MI.