Ferguson police need to be charged


In response to the recent outcry over racial profiling, the U.S. Department of Justice built a case against the Ferguson, Missouri, police department to address the significant racial gap in arrest rates. On March 4, the Justice Department announced a lack of evidence for the indictment of Darren Wilson, the police officer involved in the Michael Brown case, but heavily criticized the police department’s conduct in racial profiling. The lawsuit, however, was on a conditional basis, and as such, litigation will persist if the police department continues its racially charged hyper-incarceration.

After the grand jury in St. Louis failed to indict Wilson for the death of Michael Brown in late November, severe skepticism toward the fairness of its ruling has since prompted Attorney General Eric Holder to action. Evidently, the possibility of legal action is a tool used to rid the police department of unjust and discriminatory practices as well as the unlawful, overuse of police brutality. At the same, this is also an effort to answer the marginalized black community and soothe racial tensions that are rampant in the U.S. The decision to do so is quintessential; this will ensure that minorities have equal protection under the law, as opposed to guaranteed criminalization under the law. It is the first logical step to bolster racial equality.

According to USA Today, FBI Statistics from 2011 and 2012 show that African-Americans are nine times more likely to be arrested than any other group. Based on these significantly disproportionate numbers, this pattern illustrates that criminality is not a “black person only” problem but a problem of the system and its promotion of racial profiling. In the case of Ferguson, the Justice Department’s sole responsibility should be to stymie the advancement of discrimination, as the government itself is responsible for institutionalizing racism by doing nothing to punish the Ferguson police department. The very system created to prevent this prejudice has actually been what proliferates it. Suing the police department is the Department of Justice’s way of correcting the problem of racial discrimination. As a result, Ferguson is a landmark case for the Department of Justice.

Since the failure to indict Wilson, the black population of the U.S. has experienced widespread distrust of the justice system. According to a study conducted by the Pew Research Center and USA Today, about 64 percent of African-Americans in the U.S. say race played a major role in both the Brown and Eric Garner decisions. About half of the black population expect relations between local police and people of color to worsen in 2015. Such findings illustrate the superseding doubt of the justness and capability of the American legal system. The Justice Department must ultimately sue the police department in order to restore its legitimacy and credibility in the eyes of the African-American community. Furthermore, failure to do so would constitute a violation of civil human rights.

Though policing racial profiling and other measures of discrimination is a daunting, seemingly neverending pursuit, it is important for the Department of Justice to follow through in its condemnation of racial inequality. Preparing a case sends a firm and a very important message to police departments nationwide: there are real and severe consequences to unlawful actions.

Moreover, the Department of Justice must follow suit in protecting the rights of all people, regardless of race or ethnicity; indicting the Ferguson police department would have done just that.

1 reply
  1. Don Harmon
    Don Harmon says:

    Lida writes “African-Americans are nine times more likely to be arrested than any other group. Based on these significantly disproportionate numbers, this pattern illustrates that criminality is not a “black person only” problem….” It would be helpful to know how many more times African-Americans COMMIT crimes in order to best understand this awful statistic. Until then, one cannot determine if the statistic is a racial pattern of criminal behavior; or is a pattern of unfair, discriminatory law enforcement arrests on a vast, nation-wide level.

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