For months the DOJ pursued civil rights charges against Darren Wilson predicated on the belief that Wilson's chose to engage Mike Brown due to racial prejudice. Now, 40 investigative agents and many weeks later, Holder was forced by facts to conclude that no such animus existed. Wilson was simply doing his job and Brown had attacked an officer. As a consolation prize, Holder released a report condemning the entire police department as racist. If the evidence didn't exist for Holder to charge Wilson with a civil rights violation, why make a similar, unofficial claim towards the department?
(Update from previous publication) I reach out to Ferguson Mayor James Knowles about the examples given, such as the unacceptable email we discussed on the program; the officers involved were fired and two suspended without pay and according to Knowles, they department was unaware that such incidents had existed but took immediate action after the DOJ report. (End update.) The Washington Post gave flimys “12 shocking” items from the report, with their major claim that stops for infractions seem to serve more as a revenue generator than for public safety. Welcome to Missouri, folks. It happens everywhere, even in the toniest of white, upperclass suburbs—and tell that to those of us who've long opposed red light cameras. The article claimed that a woman was fined a thousand dollars and spent six days in jail over an illegally parked car. Wrong. She was fined further for not paying her citation and was jailed after she skipped out on court appearances and a warrant was issued. Want to make that a racial incident? I have two friends who experienced similar: one was thrown into jail for a day because he forgot to pay his citation and skipped his court appearance for a seat belt violation. The other was also cited for an illegal park job, though he only spent a few hours in custody for also failing to pay his ticket and show up to court. Both are white and male. One is from Clayton, the other from Ladue, where both infractions occurred. Race has nothing to do with it.
Eric Holder is attacking the Ferguson PD because he, as others, would love nothing more than to see a nationalized police force where any ability for officer accountability and participation by local citizenry is nonexistent. That is the real concern. Enjoy the discussion below, via RightSightings:
