After a lengthy battle between the Department of Justice and the city of Ferguson, MO, negotiations are at a close. The Ferguson city council agreed to adopt the widespread reforms.
The city council voted to approve the deal unanimously on Tuesday to authorize the DOJ’s consent decree. The council had sent the reforms back to Washington to ask for amendments. But the Justice Department immediately made good on its promise to sue the city if the deal was not wholly accepted. Either way, it was going to cost the city a lot of money.
The DOJ reforms aim to prevent the civil rights injustices that plagued the city. These issues reached the national stage during the summer of 2014 when Michael Brown was shot by Ferguson police officers. Shortly after Brown's death, the city became a hotbed of civil unrest.
Civil liberties are priceless. But the city of Ferguson was already broke when the reforms landed on its door step. Fighting a lengthy battle with the federal government was not on the cards financially. Thus, Ferguson was stuck between a rock and a hard place: implementing change it couldn’t pay for or fighting an expensive battle against the government to combat the change.
The cost of retraining Ferguson’s police officers could be as much as between $3 and $3.5 million a year. The training would stop officers from targeting black people to meet arrest and citation quotas. Critics say the fines collected from these quotas line the city's pockets.
The $3 million will also ensure that the city changes its codes so that the provisions are clear. It also requires the city to find impartial judges. It’s the kind of money you could only make on Binary Uno playing the stock market and trading binaries.
The Justice Department also wants to retrain the police officers to be able to interact with the public without any violence. Under the new regulations, every police officer who does not report misconduct will face discipline.
All these things are essential for civil rights. Whether in Ferguson or any other city in America, the police should exist to serve and protect the public first. Thus, the Justice Departments ruling looks appealing on paper.
However, it is hard not to keep coming back to the cost. Someone needs to pay for this program. Most of the burden lies on the city, though it will have some help from the Department of Justice. Still, the city plans to introduce two new taxes to Ferguson residents to help pay for the program.
Essentially, the city is asking residents to pay more taxes to train police officers to stop targeting and hurting them and start protecting them instead. The thought is strange at the best of times. But after years of damaging violations of justice, it is more difficult to comprehend.
Something has to change and it is impossible to put a price on freedom, equality and civil liberties. However, the DOJ and the city council have put a price on equality and justice. Unfortunately, it seems that there's no fair way to pay.