Tag: use of force

The United States found itself in the center of a heated national debate on race, policing, and justice in 2014. The shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed African-American teenager, by a white police officer sparked outrage and protests, shedding the spotlight on Ferguson. “Policing Ferguson, Policing America” dives into the heart of this time, offering an inside perspective from the man who was at the forefront of law enforcement during the entire spectacle.

As the former Chief of Police of Ferguson, Thomas Jackson provides a personal and candid account of the events leading up to, during, and after the shooting of Michael Brown. “Policing Ferguson, Policing America” is an interesting exploration of how race and community dynamics can intersect with policing, and how it took Ferguson, and America, by storm. At first glance, this book is built on the systemic issues that arose after the shooting of Michael Brown; though upon reading it, one can easily find out that this is also a book where Jackson makes his personal objections known, all of them stemming from either the DOJ report that was written following the shooting of Michael Brown, or the misconceptions placed on the police by the media. Jackson is quick to say that the DOJ did not have the Ferguson Police Department’s best interest in mind; according to Jackson (2017), “But the Ferguson portrayed in that report was an invention, a backwards, angry place that the Justice Department created to make a show of tearing it down.” (p. 10)

This report will analyze Jackson’s narrative, including his perspective on the tragedy that took place in Ferguson and the effects it had on policing in America. It will examine Jackson’s perspectives on community policing, racial bias within law enforcement, and the broader role of the police in our society. This report will discuss whether his accounts can be seen as an objective analysis or if they appear to be steeped in the personal experiences and grievances of a former police chief.

It’s widely known that the shooting of Michael Brown garnered an abundance of media attention at the time; but according to Jackson, the media garnered an abundance of biased standpoints that were all filtered through misconceptions. He even goes so far as to say, “I don’t think it’s a surprise to anybody that the big news media follow the rules of the entertainment industry as much as the rules of traditional journalism.” (Jackson, 2017, p. 46)

Jackson mentions how his acquaintance working in network news described how it was being in the middle of such a media storm that was only intensified with the involvement of smartphones, social media, and crowdsourced online journalism. While still expressing concerns about the lack of controls and filters in today’s methods of spreading information, he also acknowledges the benefits of modern technology and access to information. He calls attention to the fact that when society is being bombarded with information, it’s rather hard to determine the credibility of the information being shared.

Jackson explains how misinformation about Michael Brown’s death was spread through calls, texts, and social media, which only resulted in suspicion and hostility between the public and the police. He was even alerted by the city manager, John Shaw, about the negative portrayal of the city and its police in the media. Despite the push to control the narrative being spread, Jackson was still cautious about providing information as the investigation was still in its early stages.

Jackson refers to the concept of “optics” and how it swayed the public during Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson. ‘Optics’ refers to how things appear, and Jackson touches on how at the time of the events in Ferguson, politicians and the media viewed the story through those optics, which resulted in a story that was less than true about the entire incident. He maintains his stance that the story told through tweets, videos, and pictures was a tragedy based on optics.

Jackson uses the fact that Michael Brown’s body remained in the street for hours after the shooting to show just how much optics can sway and influence the entire story surrounding a set of circumstances. The story that accompanied the sight of Michael Brown’s body still lying in the street created the narrative that it was done by the police as a sign of disrespect, not only to the victim’s family but to the African-American community as a whole, which only emphasized how appearances often take precedence over intentions in shaping public opinion. He also uses the second incident, which involved the deployment of police dogs, which immediately created a tense and negative image; that tension only continued to grow between the police, the public, and even the Department of Justice.

On September 4th, 2014, the Department of Justice (referred to as “DOJ”) started an investigation into the Ferguson Police Department (referred to as “FPD”) under the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act established in 1994. The following year, they released a report titled “Investigation of the Ferguson Police Department.” The report calls attention to the multiple types of biases that exist in the FPD that, when viewed altogether, make it clear that “officers expect and demand compliance even when they lack legal authority.” (DOJ, 2015, p. 2)

Following the DOJ’s investigation, Jackson accuses the department of intentionally withholding information and presenting a biased view of Ferguson’s police department and the city itself. According to him, the department refrained from discussing, understanding, or even considering alternative interpretations, but instead focused on the appearance of bias. The biases purportedly focus on the department’s habit of aiming their law enforcement towards an almost aggressive enforcement of the municipal code despite the potential of these strategies being harmful to public safety and community trust, and their habit of including the number of citations issued as a part of an officer’s evaluation. Not only was this report particularly harrowing for then-Chief Jackson, but according to him, it was “…the final nail in the coffin for our community” (Jackson, 2017, p. 122) composed of “misperceptions, misrepresentations, and outright falsehoods.” (Jackson, 2017, p. 122)

A specific point of contention is the claim that Ferguson’s law enforcement efforts were primarily focused on generating revenue rather than addressing public safety needs. Despite the DOJ’s report suggesting that the city budgeted for increases in fines and fees each year, encouraging police and court staff to deliver those revenue increases, Jackson maintains that the budgeting process is a standard practice in any organization. The DOJ’s report also alluded to the practice of officers writing as many citations as possible and being rewarded for doing so. Jackson refutes this claim, stating that the number of tickets written did not play a role in evaluating officers for promotions and that said promotions were based on good police work and test scores.

The DOJ’s report raised multiple concerns for Jackson, one being how said report was not required to provide absolute proof of racial bias, but only needed to demonstrate the credible appearance of racial bias. He points out that a red flag should have been the leniency in how they approached the evidence given by the situation. He calls attention to the fact that the DOJ’s investigation relied on anonymous and/or unverified sources and that they ignored exculpatory evidence—evidence that is seen to favor a certain “side” in an investigation or case. The report mentioned violations of constitutional rights despite no legal findings being made to support this evidence, according to Jackson.

While the author recognizes that African-Americans do take up a large, disproportionate number of street stops, incarcerations, arrests, etc., he also believes wholeheartedly that we as a society have to be careful about placing the blame for all of these issues on racial bias in the police as a whole or the criminal justice system. He calls it misguided and dangerous, as it gives the police an “easy excuse” that’ll allow them to brush the mentioned problems to the side instead of actually working towards their improvement. He then discusses the origins of policing, as he believes that looking back at them can help society decide the actual role of the police. Those origins include calling the beginning of policing a “community-based enterprise,” in contrast to the widely known and widely taught fact that the early days of policing stem from slave patrols, where these individuals were tasked with finding and recapturing runaway slaves before forcing them back to their masters. In Jackson’s (2017) words:

The great irony is that policing really began as a community-based enterprise, where a constable, sheriff, or other public safety officer was a constant presence in a small town or neighborhood. That officer would know the business owners, families, and children, and could be a resource to the citizens for all kinds of assistance. As the towns and cities grew, these officers were organized into municipal forces that were paid for and regulated by the government. (p. 146)

In “Policing Ferguson, Policing America,” Jackson seems to follow a pattern of pointing out the misconceptions that are placed on police officers, both in general and those who work in the Ferguson police department, before attempting to explain how and why those claims are false. He has a habit of explaining how he personally attempted to stray from those misconceptions during his time as the chief of the Ferguson Police Department. This pattern makes the book seem more like a “think-piece”—an article or book written under the guise of being thought-provoking when, in reality, it is composed of personal opinions and analyses based on personal experience—instead of being an in-depth look into how Ferguson garnered the attention it had in 2014. He certainly provides reliable and verified information along with his personal thoughts, but due to his history of being Chief of the Ferguson Police Department, it’s nearly impossible to say that this book is completely objective in its purpose. One can even question whether Jackson’s intention was to provide an objective account of what happened in Ferguson, or if his own interpretation of the optics at work had a hand in the publication of “Policing Ferguson, Policing America.”