Justice Department deal with Ferguson MO - a good start

[JustAnotherGen]

http://news.yahoo.com/ferguson-us-reach-tentative-deal-police-overhaul-000518469.html

The agreement envisions a top-to-bottom reshaping of basic policing practices as the Justice Department calls for fundamental changes in how officers conduct stops, searches and arrests, use their firearms and respond to demonstrations. Ferguson officials also agreed to rewrite their municipal code to limit the use of fines and jail time for petty violations.

"The agreement also will ensure that the city's stated commitment to refocusing police and municipal court practices on public safety, rather than revenue generation, takes root and will not be undone," Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, wrote in a letter to Ferguson Mayor James Knowles III.

Among the highlights of the deal is a requirement that all patrol officers, supervisors and jail workers be outfitted within 180 days with body-worn cameras and microphones. The cameras, aimed at promoting accountability, are to be activated for all traffic stops, arrests, searches and encounters with people believed to be experiencing a mental health crisis. Officers also would be expected to justify as reasonable each shot they fire.

Police officers and court employees would be given annual training on "bias-free policing" to help them recognize unconscious stereotyping. New training would also be given on proper stops, searches and arrests, as well as on use of force and appropriate responses to demonstrators and protesters.

[brer cat]

1. K&R

[steve2470]

2. k&r! nt

[randys1]

3. kick

[Kind of Blue]

4. Thank You, JAG!

This is a wonderful development.

Had to include these

As part of the consent decree, police officers and court employees would be given training on "bias-free policing" to help them recognize unconscious stereotyping. And new training would also be given on proper stops, searches and arrests, as well as on use of force and appropriate responses to demonstrators and protesters.

You know this can't possibly happen until those oligarchs are gone.

Wilson was cleared in the shooting, but a federal investigation into the Ferguson police force found sweeping patterns of racial bias throughout the city's criminal justice system. A Justice Department report in March found that officers routinely used excessive force, issued petty citations and made baseless traffic stops in the city of about 21,000 residents, about two-thirds of whom are black. It also criticized the police force, which was nearly all white, and the court system for leaning heavily on fines for petty municipal violations as a source of revenue for the city government.

What?!? We don't have to wait for outcomes like this until a Social Democrat is elected to save us?

The city also will develop a recruitment plan to attract diversity to the police force.

My goodness! We don't have to wait for the Social Democrat's election who will then employ all of BLM's demands, as well as many others, for this vital piece of community policing?

[JustAnotherGen]

5. Okay on that Oligarch note . . .

Don't forget it was that vile Plutocrat Eric Holder who had to step in and get all this shit cleaned up.

Funny what happens when we demand change without waiting on the next best thing to fix it for us.

Crazy! Crazy I tell ya!

Pssst - I'm cracking up at your post.

And no - no we didn't have to wait for this -

My goodness! We don't have to wait for the Social Democrat's election who will then employ all of BLM's demands, as well as many others, for this vital piece of community policing?

If we waited around on political movements shit would never get done!

[Number23]

6. Are the cameras bullet proof? And tamper proof? Is there no way to "unintentionally" turn them off?

I got questions!

[JustAnotherGen]

7. We don't know yet

But those are good questions.

I'd like to see - you do that you are fired.

Then again - I would like to see it either become a licensed profession or the union goes away. We have teachers and nurses who are unionized with certifications - and they don't do shit like this!

[JustAnotherGen]

8. Kick for our newcomers!

Here's something to be happy about!

[FrenchieCat]

9. Excellent! Thank goodness!

My daughter who lived in St. Louis completing her PHD till this past June was quite active on this front!

She organized protests against some of the jails there, and because she is young but has credentials (Master & PHD Harvard/WASHU), she was a spokesperson to the press, and got great press....and so did the issue of the awful jails there....which were detaining folks who didn't have the money to pay BS fines! Jails in horrendous conditions, where guards have prisoners fighting each other, while the guards were betting on the winner, like it was a cock fight!

Here's some of the new stories:

http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2014/12/13/protesters-march-on-hall-street-work-house/

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/protesters-former-inmates-want-the-st-louis-workhouse-to-close/article_bb0ccde1-e15d-5f36-8fb7-3cee63f63e54.html (daughter is in pic with loud speaker in hand)

http://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/national-day-resistance-features-marches-washington-new-york-and-across-country (has speakerphone and chanting)

http://myinforms.com/en-us/a/11902876-protesters-former-inmates-want-the-st-louis-workhouse-to-close/

She's so happy with the fact that changes are happening....even if they are relatively slow! Just thought I'd share! (a daughter after her Mama's heart!)

[Starry Messenger]

10. K&R

Protesting works! XO

[Tarheel_Dem]

11. This is awesome. Hopefully Ferguson becomes a model for the rest of us. Thanks to all involved.

[lovemydog]

12. Thanks JAG.

Yes, a good start!