Policing Ferguson, Policing America

July 17, 2017
Former Ferguson police chief Jackson adds little clarity to discourse around the controversial 2014 shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed African-American, by Darren Wilson, a white cop, which ultimately led to Jackson’s resignation. He firmly believes that his department was defamed by the unruly media and a biased federal investigation. Although the FBI concluded that the shooting was justified, the Justice Department’s review of the Ferguson police force under Jackson’s leadership found a pattern of unconstitutional conduct aimed at the city’s African-American population. While Jackson acknowledges some mistakes in handling the unrest that followed Brown’s death—for example, when police dogs were deployed as a means of crowd control—he dismisses such choices as bad optics, rather than substantive misjudgments: “Whether or not the canines legitimately or appropriately served the goal of public safety, the simple image... conjured up memories of Selma and Little Rock and Bull Connor, and provided the first piece of ammunition for anyone who wanted to paint the police out to be the dangerous aggressors.” Jackson noticeably passes on an opportunity to specifically rebut the critical report, stating that, while he was familiar with some of the incidents it cited, he did not have the time or space to address any of them in this book. His analysis reads more like a defense of himself and his department than a civic-minded reflection on lessons to be learned from a national tragedy.