March 4, 2015

Department of Justice Ferguson Investigation

The U.S. Department of Justice found that the Ferguson, Missouri Police Department engaged in practices and conduct that clearly violated the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution, including police patterns of conducting stops without reasonable suspicion and arrests without probable cause. The investigation also revealed local court patterns in which unjustified and inappropriately high fines were imposed on Ferguson's most vulnerable residents as a source of revenue. The identified injustices were disproportionally aimed at African American residents.

HOW DOES THIS CONNECT TO STRUCTURAL RACISM?:

Many people falsely claim that blacks are disproportionately in prison because they commit more crimes. This example shows how blacks are disproportionately in prison because they are disproportionately targeted by police offers for minor offenses.