Ferguson DOJ Report

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Anyone else read it? It's truly shocking and enraging, even to a generally cynical person such as myself.

Here's a pretty good look at some of the highlights, and I'll post more when I have more time, as I'm about to crash for the evening, but was surprised the topic hadn't come up yet.

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/arc ... rt/386887/

16,000 warrants out in a small town with a population of 21,000? That alone is shocking, and then you've got all those appalling cases.

I wonder if the people who said Ferguson's residents got the police force they deserved will revise their opinions now...

How did they manage to stay in power? Do they not have elections? Are the people there allowed to vote?

The average American lemming is too disinterested in voting. If you don't like how the police are used as revenue enforcement officers, clean house in the next election and let those in office know it is not acceptable.

Otherwise, you get what you deserve.

it has to be city hall, the court house, the prosecutors all in on this, yet the focus is only on the police ?

Every time I hear about violence perpetrated by the police, my political views get closer and closer to anarchy.

Eventually, you will - I hope - realise that putting on a blue uniform does not change a person's moral status, and that they remain bound (or unbound...) by the same moral rules as before they put it on, whatever anyone insistently claims to the contrary.

This IS freedom in the US of KKK.

Well, now we know that the worst is true about the Ferguson PD. Now comes the hard part: what is going to be done about it.

It's not just Ferguson, and it's not just the police; this was written well before the DOJ report came out, and confirms many of the concerns that people such as myself have been expressing for years:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the- ... m-poverty/

AND, for those who think it's only local cops and governments who are the problem:

http://reason.com/blog/2015/03/06/how-t ... -awful-fer

Still, the hard part is, what to do about it. Identifying a problem is one thing, but making changes in the face of corruption and bigotry is quite another.

All those municipalities need to be dissolved, their city councils and police officers charged and tried, and their victims compensated, for a start. Not that that's going to happen, liberals aren't going to want to acknowledge the out of control government part of the story, and conservatives aren't going to want to hear the racial angle, so nothing is likely to happen. Personally, were it within my power I'd have those people whacked, but fortunately for them I'm not yet a reclusive billionaire.

Democrats would only care to stand in the way if the city government were also Democrats.
Actually, I think your plan is pretty good. It's got my vote.

You know, I'm actually unsure of the party affiliation of those involved, but as we are talking minority neighborhoods, I'm guessing that they are likely Democrats. I could care less really, this kind of rampant civil rights abuse is the kind of thing that makes my blood boil regardless of who's doing it and who it's being done to, it's simply unacceptable and should be a much bigger story than it is.

WEIRD!

Ferguson has 70% black residents, yet ...

"In 2013, for example, just 6 percent of eligible black voters cast a ballot in Ferguson’s municipal elections, as compared to 17 percent of white voter" (note: "Eligible voters" means those % are much less. Possibly just 1% or less of black residents vote)

So, despite these abusive policies, few seem to give a hoot about voting.

-the mayor is a white Republican
-the city council has only 1 black member out of 6 members
-the police department has 3 black officers out of 53 total officers

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/08/1 ... -to-fix-it