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Ferguson Police Chief Resigns

By Jeralyn, Section Civil Liberties
Posted on Wed Mar 11, 2015 at 04:10:02 PM EST
Tags: Ferguson (all tags)
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In the latest fallout from DOJ's Ferguson report, Ferguson city officials announced that Police Chief Thomas Jackson resigned today. Ferguson City Manager John Shaw resigned on Tuesday, and Municipal Judge Ronald Brockmeyer resigned on Monday. Jackson's resignation letter is here.

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    Ferguson Police Chief Resigns | 33 comments (33 topical)

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    In case anyone is actually interested (5.00 / 7) (#8)
    by Peter G on Wed Mar 11, 2015 at 07:10:59 PM EST
    in whether your assertion that the DOJ's 100-page report (with two additional graphical presentations of the statistics) actually reads like an article on the Huffington Post and lacks support in the evidence, here is the DOJ's press release, at the foot of which are links to the actual documents.

    You cannot have read the report (5.00 / 4) (#10)
    by Peter G on Wed Mar 11, 2015 at 08:09:30 PM EST
    Or perhaps you did read it, and simply have no regard for the facts. Either way, I'm done responding. I provided the link.  Anyone who cares to can read the report for themselves and see whether it bears any resemblance to your false description.  I have, and it doesn't.

    "I'm done responding" (5.00 / 1) (#12)
    by NYShooter on Wed Mar 11, 2015 at 11:14:27 PM EST
    If more people actually followed that advice, maybe we could thin the ranks of intellectual embarrassments such as the one you're alluding to.

    Parent
    Yes (none / 0) (#13)
    by toggle on Wed Mar 11, 2015 at 11:21:31 PM EST
    Empty posturing is certainly an effective way to drive away those who want to talk about the substance of the report rather than its claimed conclusions. Maybe those who are left can form up in a circle, and, you know the rest...


    Parent
    Peter, the comment you are replying to by (5.00 / 5) (#32)
    by Jeralyn on Thu Mar 12, 2015 at 01:26:34 PM EST
    Toggle has been deleted. Thank you for pointing out that his comments don't match the actual documents. He is in timeout.

    Parent
    Facts (1.00 / 3) (#23)
    by Abdul Abulbul Amir on Thu Mar 12, 2015 at 09:02:52 AM EST

    So the fact that the report shows blacks getting more radar and laser generated speeding tickets is not proof of blacks committing more infractions but proof of racist radar and laser guns.

    Parent
    To paraphrase one of your favorites (5.00 / 3) (#39)
    by Yman on Fri Mar 13, 2015 at 09:14:15 AM EST
    Radar/lasers guns don't write speeding tickets.

    Police with radar guns write tickets.

    Parent

    White officials in Ferguson (5.00 / 4) (#41)
    by MO Blue on Fri Mar 13, 2015 at 09:38:39 AM EST
    And surrounding areas committed infractions at will. Just one example:

    FERGUSON, Mo. -- When Ferguson's municipal court judge, Ron Brockmeyer, blew through a red light in Hazelwood, he didn't have go to court to fight the ticket.

    He dashed off an email.

    Under the subject line: "City of Hazelwood vs. Ronald Brockmeyer," he enlisted the help of Ferguson's prosecutor, Stephanie Karr -- who just happens to also be the prosecutor in Hazelwood.

    "Pursuant to our conversation, attached please find the red light camera ticket received by the undersigned," he wrote. "I would appreciate it if you would please see to it that this ticket is dismissed."

    Karr did, according to the civil rights investigators. No questions asked.
    link

    Judge believed in stiff fines for black residents but thought he should be able to run red lights at will and not have to pay the consequences.

    Parent

    No, the fact (none / 0) (#36)
    by Mordiggian 88 on Thu Mar 12, 2015 at 10:14:10 PM EST
    that more whites got off for committing the same infractions that got tickets for black motorists in the same jurisdiction is what accounts for the disparity.

    Nice try, but no cigar.  Better luck next time.

    Parent

    "All of this to cover the report..... (5.00 / 1) (#14)
    by McBain on Thu Mar 12, 2015 at 01:21:12 AM EST
    ..... which didn't just conclude that charges could not be brought, but it detailed how actual witnesses to the shooting were intimidated into refusing to testify before the grand jury"

    It does seem like that the report was some kind of compromise.  The DOJ couldn't get Wilson but it had to say something bad about Ferguson to show it was listening to the public outcry.  

    Is anyone surprised some of the witnesses were intimidated?

    Intimidation (none / 0) (#18)
    by Uncle Chip on Thu Mar 12, 2015 at 08:33:40 AM EST
    Is anyone surprised some of the witnesses were intimidated?

    You mean by the police who had a history of intimidating the overall populace as corroborated by the DOJ report, MSSC takeover of Ferguson's municipal court, and the resignation of FPD's chief now???

    Ohhh and BTW in the DOJ Report it was 2 grown men, one an excon, neither living in the area, who claimed they were afraid of the community retribution if they talked.

    Meanwhile a couple of women in a minivan gave statements favorable to Wilson and yet they weren't intimidated at all.

    Maybe those intimidated grown men need to go get some testosterone shots and some truth serum while they are at it.

    Parent

    that comment was deleted (5.00 / 3) (#30)
    by Jeralyn on Thu Mar 12, 2015 at 01:18:31 PM EST
    Whitecap, your comments on race are unacceptable here. Please take them elsewhere.

    Toggle, you have previously been (5.00 / 1) (#31)
    by Jeralyn on Thu Mar 12, 2015 at 01:24:38 PM EST
    warned to stop your race-bating comments. I'm putting you in timeout.

    if you cannot discuss (5.00 / 2) (#33)
    by Jeralyn on Thu Mar 12, 2015 at 01:36:50 PM EST
    this topic without denigrating people of one race or another, this thread will close. It's why I generally don't write about racial issues, the comments are appalling and I have no interest in hosting them or having them linked back to TalkLeft via search engine. I don't have time to read them all now, but I will later and I'll delete those that are offensive or false and comments that quote them in a reply.  I've just deleted a few for now.

    It's interesting how (2.00 / 3) (#1)
    by toggle on Wed Mar 11, 2015 at 04:28:47 PM EST
    The DOJ report on the actual Mike Brown shooting has received so little attention.

    Whoever thought up the idea of simultaneously releasing the hit piece against the local government sure earned his or her share of the millions the feds spent investigating the case.

    And by "hit piece" you mean (5.00 / 8) (#3)
    by Peter G on Wed Mar 11, 2015 at 05:23:00 PM EST
    the systematic and thoroughly documented revelation of the depth of the brutality and corruption that pervaded that town, at the expense of its poor and non-white majority (regardless of whether there was a prosecutable case against a particular p/o in a particular controversial shooting)?

    Parent
    Not too suprising. (none / 0) (#2)
    by sarcastic unnamed one on Wed Mar 11, 2015 at 04:53:19 PM EST
    As I said in the other thread I hope the city's replacements have a positive effect, though their actions will depend a lot on the city's future practices regarding revenue generation.

    The problem for the city is (5.00 / 2) (#4)
    by scribe on Wed Mar 11, 2015 at 05:24:58 PM EST
    that they cannot continue to support the number and variety of existing government jobs (largely held by whites, I'll bet) without the continuing fine and penalty income (lsrgely extracted from blacks).  It's a kind of welfare state cum ewxtractice industry, this whole municipal court scam they've been running.  Missouri, recall from last summer's coverage of Ferguson, is replete with tiny municipalities that were created by white flight.  Each one of them has to have a police force, court, etc., all of which have to be paid for.  St. Louis County, where Ferguson is located, is perhaps one of the most extreme examples.
    So, the end game of this will be municipal consolidation because without turning their black residents into a resource to be exploited, they cannot support themselves.  Absent raising taxes on white and black people, which is anathema these days.

    Parent
    I do think many of Fergy's city emplyees (2.00 / 2) (#6)
    by sarcastic unnamed one on Wed Mar 11, 2015 at 05:33:34 PM EST
    are white, and I would imagine the replacements for the recently resigned/fired will not be.

    As an aside, Ferguson is not at all the most "aggressive" city in the area re: policing, fines, etc. There are a number nearby cities that extract much higher fines/resident/year and/or fund a significantly higher percentage of their budgets via infractions/fines/etc., and many of them have black mayors, etc.

    Parent

    Given how many times you've tried (5.00 / 4) (#16)
    by Anne on Thu Mar 12, 2015 at 06:59:45 AM EST
    to sell this particular theme - that Ferguson isn't really "that bad" - this is hardly an "aside;" it seems more like your purpose than an oh-by-the-way kind of thing.  

    First, it was non-stop shots at the report, and when that didn't get much in the way of traction - except with some people with whom I'm not sure I would want to be on the same side - you shifted to the comparative model, wherein you simultaneously attempted to diminish the value of the report while trying to divert attention to other municipalities.

    Drawing people's attention to statistics that ultimately point to the possibility that the entire greater St. Louis metropolitan area may be a cesspool of government-led and -encouraged economic and racial discrimination isn't quite the diversionary tactic you may have thought it was.

    But if cockroaches could clap, I imagine you'd be getting quite a lot of applause for your efforts.

    Parent

    Wow, such a considered and in-depth analysis. (2.00 / 2) (#27)
    by sarcastic unnamed one on Thu Mar 12, 2015 at 11:20:24 AM EST
    I guess I should be honored, or something.

    What I've noticed here on TL is that when some people are served a document, story, report, whatever, that feeds their feeling of self-righteous certitude, they lap it up without a second thought.

    And the more divisive the subject, the more eager the lapping. Is there any more divisive a subject in America than race?

    That there are some racist people in Ferguson, and that some individual interactions within "the system" there were affected by this racism, I have no doubt. That the popo, the courts, and the city leadership all colluded to "eff the black people," I do doubt.

    Parent

    Cockroaches? (none / 0) (#35)
    by Jack203 on Thu Mar 12, 2015 at 10:00:13 PM EST
    Considering that was the main term used by the Hutu instigators of the Rwandan genocide to demonize the Tutsi and moderate Hutu, you might be better off finding a better insult for those with a different point of view than you.

    Or perhaps even better, holding off on the insults altogether.  Just a suggestion.

    Parent

    ooops - typo alert (none / 0) (#5)
    by scribe on Wed Mar 11, 2015 at 05:27:07 PM EST
    Where I said:

    "It's a kind of welfare state cum ewxtractice industry"

    I meant:

    "It's a kind of welfare state cum extractive industry...".

    Parent

    Witness Intimidation (none / 0) (#11)
    by Jack203 on Wed Mar 11, 2015 at 09:19:17 PM EST
    A serious charge that I have not heard before.

    Yes indeed. (none / 0) (#19)
    by Abdul Abulbul Amir on Thu Mar 12, 2015 at 08:49:38 AM EST

    Blacks got a disproportionate share of the laser/radar generated speeding tickets.  Other than racial bias, what could explain the purchase of radar and laser units that can detect the race of the driver?

    As opposed to the officer ... (5.00 / 2) (#40)
    by Yman on Fri Mar 13, 2015 at 09:17:59 AM EST
    ... operating/reading the gun who issues the ticket?

    Who knew the radar/laser guns wrote their own tickets?

    Parent

    unlike (none / 0) (#38)
    by Reconstructionist on Fri Mar 13, 2015 at 08:42:32 AM EST
     remote camera speeding/ red light tickets issued in some jurisdictions, the laser/radar units here are manually operated by human beings. The devices do nothing more than provide evidence that the person cited was exceeding the limit. There use does nothing to support or refute claims of selective enforcement.

     

    Parent

    If you want to discuss something, (none / 0) (#20)
    by Uncle Chip on Thu Mar 12, 2015 at 08:50:11 AM EST
    then discuss this "credible witness" from page 27 of the report:

    Witness 102's vantage point was street level, about 450 feet from the SUV with a view of the driver's side of the SUV.

    450 feet from the SUV puts this "credible witness" 630 feet from where the shots were fired.

    Is that a credible witness to you???? Is it any wonder that his testimony morphed from "I'm positive" to investigators to "I'm not sure" in front of the Grand Jury.


    Latest report is the shots came (none / 0) (#22)
    by Mordiggian 88 on Thu Mar 12, 2015 at 08:59:52 AM EST
    from a nearby hilltop,not from the crowd of protestors.

     It was probably someone with some imagined grievance with the police.

    Probably a whte man.  White-on-white crime is still an unaddressed problem in this country.

    another lunatic with a gun.. (none / 0) (#34)
    by jondee on Thu Mar 12, 2015 at 03:54:41 PM EST
    who we need to protect ourselves from by distributing more guns.

    Parent
    Links Please (none / 0) (#26)
    by ScottW714 on Thu Mar 12, 2015 at 11:19:24 AM EST
    I would like to see your source.

    Without question, (none / 0) (#29)
    by sarcastic unnamed one on Thu Mar 12, 2015 at 11:26:50 AM EST
    in America, inter-racial murders are much more rare than same-race murders.

    Ron Brockmeyer, (none / 0) (#37)
    by MO Blue on Thu Mar 12, 2015 at 10:44:46 PM EST
    the Ferguson judge, who resigned this week also handed in his resignation to the City of Florissant where he held the position of city prosecutor.  

    Ferguson Police Chief Resigns | 33 comments (33 topical)

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