Holder Weighs Dismantling the Ferguson Police Dept.
By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS and RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA
New York Times
MARCH 6, 2015
WASHINGTON — Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. vowed a firm response on Friday to what he called “appalling” racial misconduct by law enforcement officials in Ferguson, Mo., suggesting he was prepared to seek the dismantling of the police force there if necessary.
“We are prepared to use all the powers that we have, all the power that we have, to ensure that the situation changes there,” Mr. Holder told reporters here after returning from Columbia, S.C., where he appeared with President Obama at a town hall-style meeting at Benedict College. “That means everything from working with them to coming up with an entirely new structure.”
Asked if that included dismantling the police force, Mr. Holder said: “If that’s what’s necessary, we’re prepared to do that.”
His remarks came after two police supervisors in Ferguson resigned after being linked to racist emails turned up by a Justice Department investigation.
The two supervisors, Capt. Rick Henke and Sgt. William Mudd, left the force on Thursday, the city’s information office said Friday. A third employee, Mary Ann Twitty, clerk of the Municipal Court, was fired on Wednesday for her role in the emails.
Officials did not say whether any of the three actually wrote the emails, or whether other employees were involved in writing or forwarding them.
Captain Henke had been with the Ferguson Police Department since 1979, and was acting police chief for several months in 1997 and 1998. Last fall, he led a “night muster” formation of officers from other departments assigned to protect Ferguson’s Police Headquarters.
Report: What Is Wrong With the Ferguson Police Department?
In a scathing report released Wednesday, the Justice Department concluded that the Ferguson Police Department had been routinely violating the constitutional rights of its black residents.
Sergeant Mudd had been with the Ferguson police for more than two decades. In 1992, he was involved in a courthouse shootout with a man who had killed his wife and wounded several other people. He and other officers who shot and wounded the gunman were hailed as heroes.
In a scathing report released on Wednesday, the Justice Department’s civil rights division described the Ferguson police and Municipal Court as a system whose primary function was to make poor black people pay as many fines and fees as possible for petty offenses, real or invented. It called the system and some of its people racially discriminatory, and the police brutal.
Capt. Rick Henke of the Ferguson force also resigned. Credit Charles Rex Arbogast/Associated Press
Though not identified by name, a court clerk was mentioned in the Justice Department report as routinely dismissing tickets for friends. “Your ticket of $200 has magically disappeared!” read one email from the clerk to a friend. “It’s gone baby!” the clerk wrote to another.
Investigators reported that they had found racist jokes and comments in email exchanges among police and court supervisors, but did not identify them or say how many people were involved. The report cited a handful of the emails, but said there were many more.
“Our investigation has not revealed any indication that any officer or court clerk engaged in these communications was ever disciplined,” the report said. “Nor did we see a single instance in which a police or court recipient of such an email asked that the sender refrain from sending such emails, or any indication that these emails were reported as inappropriate. Instead, the emails were usually forwarded along to others.”
One of the messages said President Obama would not be in the White House for long, because “what black man holds a steady job for four years.” Another email depicted the president as a chimpanzee, and one contained a picture of bare-chested African women, with the caption, “Michelle Obama’s High School Reunion.”
Julie Hirschfeld Davis reported from Washington, and Richard Pérez-Peña from New York.
New York Times
MARCH 6, 2015
WASHINGTON — Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. vowed a firm response on Friday to what he called “appalling” racial misconduct by law enforcement officials in Ferguson, Mo., suggesting he was prepared to seek the dismantling of the police force there if necessary.
“We are prepared to use all the powers that we have, all the power that we have, to ensure that the situation changes there,” Mr. Holder told reporters here after returning from Columbia, S.C., where he appeared with President Obama at a town hall-style meeting at Benedict College. “That means everything from working with them to coming up with an entirely new structure.”
Asked if that included dismantling the police force, Mr. Holder said: “If that’s what’s necessary, we’re prepared to do that.”
His remarks came after two police supervisors in Ferguson resigned after being linked to racist emails turned up by a Justice Department investigation.
The two supervisors, Capt. Rick Henke and Sgt. William Mudd, left the force on Thursday, the city’s information office said Friday. A third employee, Mary Ann Twitty, clerk of the Municipal Court, was fired on Wednesday for her role in the emails.
Officials did not say whether any of the three actually wrote the emails, or whether other employees were involved in writing or forwarding them.
Captain Henke had been with the Ferguson Police Department since 1979, and was acting police chief for several months in 1997 and 1998. Last fall, he led a “night muster” formation of officers from other departments assigned to protect Ferguson’s Police Headquarters.
Report: What Is Wrong With the Ferguson Police Department?
In a scathing report released Wednesday, the Justice Department concluded that the Ferguson Police Department had been routinely violating the constitutional rights of its black residents.
Sergeant Mudd had been with the Ferguson police for more than two decades. In 1992, he was involved in a courthouse shootout with a man who had killed his wife and wounded several other people. He and other officers who shot and wounded the gunman were hailed as heroes.
In a scathing report released on Wednesday, the Justice Department’s civil rights division described the Ferguson police and Municipal Court as a system whose primary function was to make poor black people pay as many fines and fees as possible for petty offenses, real or invented. It called the system and some of its people racially discriminatory, and the police brutal.
Capt. Rick Henke of the Ferguson force also resigned. Credit Charles Rex Arbogast/Associated Press
Though not identified by name, a court clerk was mentioned in the Justice Department report as routinely dismissing tickets for friends. “Your ticket of $200 has magically disappeared!” read one email from the clerk to a friend. “It’s gone baby!” the clerk wrote to another.
Investigators reported that they had found racist jokes and comments in email exchanges among police and court supervisors, but did not identify them or say how many people were involved. The report cited a handful of the emails, but said there were many more.
“Our investigation has not revealed any indication that any officer or court clerk engaged in these communications was ever disciplined,” the report said. “Nor did we see a single instance in which a police or court recipient of such an email asked that the sender refrain from sending such emails, or any indication that these emails were reported as inappropriate. Instead, the emails were usually forwarded along to others.”
One of the messages said President Obama would not be in the White House for long, because “what black man holds a steady job for four years.” Another email depicted the president as a chimpanzee, and one contained a picture of bare-chested African women, with the caption, “Michelle Obama’s High School Reunion.”
Julie Hirschfeld Davis reported from Washington, and Richard Pérez-Peña from New York.
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