On Thursday, the Department of Justice plans to
announce it will conduct a civil rights investigation of the Ferguson
Police Department. NBC’s
justice reporter, Pete Williams broke the story, noting the DOJ, with
help from the FBI is already investigating the department’s conduct in
the shooting death 18-year-old Michael Brown. They are also
investigating events related to the protests that followed. During those
protests, the police arrested journalists, a Holocaust survivor and
others for such infractions as moving too slowly, standing or not being
in a designated free speech zone. There were reports that the police
threw tear gas at people who were on their own property. Who can forget
the images of Ferguson police officers involved in crowd control, armed
as if they were at war in Iraq?
Brown, who was unarmed was shot at least 10 times by
Ferguson Police officer Darren Wilson. The DOJ is conducting a similar
investigation of the County police department.
Williams reports the investigation, to be announced
on Thursday, is far broader because it will look at the entire
department’s conduct over the past seven years.
Since 1994, the Justice Department has had the legal
authority to investigate law enforcement organizations that appear to
engage in a pattern of civil rights violations. While some
investigations end with agreements to improve the conduct, some have
resisted compliance with the recommendations. When that happens, the
matter is taken to court for a Judge to decide. In cases that the court
supports the DOJ’s recommendations, police departments that fail to
comply will be held in contempt of court.
During the past five years, the DOJ launched 20
investigations like this one nationwide. To give you some perspective,
that is twice the number of such investigations in the five years before
that.
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