The Justice Department has just filed a lawsuit against the city of Ferguson, Missouri. The departments filing the suit so that they can try and end violations by the Ferguson police department and municipal court. They have decide to do this after Ferguson rejected a deal that would negotiate reforming the police department as a whole.
U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, released a statement about the current lawsuit being filed. She said,
“The residents of Ferguson have suffered the deprivation of their constitutional rights – the rights guaranteed to all Americans — for decades. They have waited decades for justice. They should not be forced to wait any longer.”
After about 7 months of training, the city believed that the city needed a lot of improvement in their police department. They agreed on more police training and practice. Tuesday night, The Ferguson City council voted on the changes. They estimated that the changes would cost them about $4 million. They wound up dropping the requirements for giving police officers higher salaries and better staffing at the city jail. They also did away with a provision that said the agreement would apply to all future agencies that took over the department.
Vanita Gupta is a acting assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division. She released a statement saying that the vote they took created “an unnecessary delay in the essential work to bring constitutional policing to the city, and marks an unfortunate outcome for concerned community members and Ferguson police officers.”
Former attorney general, Eric Holder, started an investigation that looked into the cities law enforcement practices. This investigation started after the shooting of Mike Brown in 2014.
Source: NBC NEWS || HUFFINGTONPOST
