The Department of Justice on Wednesday filed a civil rights lawsuit against the city of Ferguson, Missouri, alleging that the city's police and courts continue to infringe on the rights residents. It comes just a day after the 18-month anniversary of the police shooting of Michael Brown.
Two weeks ago, after a DOJ investigation found that Ferguson's police department and municipal courts regularly violate the constitutional rights of citizens, a police reform deal was reached that would have better protected citizens' rights and kept them safer, according to The New York Times. On Tuesday night, the Ferguson City Council unanimously voted to approve the deal, but only if the DOJ accepts seven amendments.
The DOJ responded to the snub by filing a 56-page civil lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri in an attempt to force the reforms. It accuses law enforcement and courts of engaging in ongoing and pervasive "patterns and practices" of using force and "engaging in racially discriminatory law enforcement conduct," reported The Washington Post. The DOJ said many of the violations occur due to improper training and because the city uses law enforcement to generate revenue.
"Residents of Ferguson have suffered the deprivation of their constitutional rights - the rights guaranteed to all Americans - for decades," Attorney General Loretta Lynch said during a news conference Wednesday. "They have waited decades for justice. They should not be forced to wait any longer."
Ferguson Mayor James Knowles III said that the council members added the amendments to the agreement after an analysis showed that the DOJ's version would have been so expensive that the city may have to shut down. It would have cost between $2.2 million to $3.7 million in the first year, and between $1.8 million and $3 million in the second and third year, according to The Associated Press.
The amendments included provisions to alter the deadlines in the agreement, change certain fees and eliminate salary increases for police officers, which were intended to attract more qualified candidates.
Ferguson's policing initially came under the spotlight in August 2014 after a white police officer shot and killed Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old.
A DOJ investigation found no reason to charge the police officer involved, but a separate investigation by the DOJ's Civil Rights Division found routine patterns of constitutional violations committed against black residents by white officers who saw them "less as constituents to be protected than as potential offenders and sources of revenue." The report said that law enforcement and the municipal court "worked in concert to maximize revenue at every stage of the enforcement process."
