Justice Department sues Ferguson over police reform

If the Justice Department doesn’t approve, a lawsuit is possible.

The city council placed conditions on the agreement Tuesday, citing citizen concerns over the cost and “far-reaching scale” of the more than 100-page agreement negotiated with the Justice Department.

“They have waited decades for justice”, Lynch added.

“The city was well aware that by deciding not to accept it that they would choose the litigation”, she said.

Ferguson spokesman Jeff Small declined to comment. This sentiment was echoed by the city’s mayor, who was part of the group negotiating with the Justice Department since a year ago. Civil rights investigators from the Justice Department dived into Ferguson, this place near St. Louis, in the summer of 2014 after a white policeman killed an unarmed 18-year-old black man named Michael Brown.

Demonstrators celebrate as a business burns after it was set on fire during rioting following the grand jury announcement in the Michael Brown case on November 24, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri. Following months of negotiations, a deal between the federal agency and Ferguson was announced in January. The council voted 6-0 Tuesday to adopt the deal, but with seven amendments.

City officials claim the agreement, painstakingly negotiated over the last six months, would cost too much to implement, to which Attorney General Lynch replied, “There is no cost for constitutional policing”.

That seemed unlikely from the outset.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, alleges that Ferguson’s police department and municipal courts engage in an unconstitutional “patterns and practices” of using force without legal justification and “engaging in racially discriminatory law enforcement conduct”.

Ferguson has an operating budget of $14.5 million and already faces a $2.8 million deficit. It called for Ferguson to pay for an independent monitor, provide new training and give raises to police officers to attract qualified applicants. The 13th recommendation went beyond the purview of local leaders: Cooperate with the more than 90 municipalities that make up St. Louis County to bring meaningful reform to the metro area.

Authorities had no choice but to file a lawsuit after the Ferguson City Council voted Tuesday to change the terms of a deal negotiators had been hashing out for months, Lynch said.

Knowles doesn’t believe neighboring municipal departments would agree to cover Ferguson under the Justice Department’s requirements.

The night after Brown’s death, thousands of people gathered at the site of the shooting for a candlelight vigil. The video’s release only heightened anger among protesters.

“Our goal is to have our police department do our policing and be the gold standard of policing in the region, if not the country”, Bell said. But residents of Ferguson have suffered the deprivation of their constitutional rights-the rights guaranteed to all Americans-for decades.

Elected Fergsuon officials leave a press conference on Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2016, at the City of Ferguson Community Center.

It’s unclear why the Ferguson City Council decided that a federal lawsuit is preferable to compliance, or how it moves the city closer toward long-term viability.