Communism in the USA: Ferguson

Two police officers have been shot by at least one demonstrator in a crowd in the suburb of Ferguson in the state of Missouri.

Before I continue I will advise the reader about policing in the United States of America.  The USA as a whole has two police forces: the FBI and the United States Marshals Service.  It is normal for a state to have its own police force, and some states have two.  Nearly all states have county police forces headed by an officer called a sheriff, who is usually elected.  In addition to this, a city or a suburb can have its own police force which reports to the mayor.

On 9 August 2014, a police officer in Ferguson shot and killed a black teenager called Michael Brown who had robbed a store earlier that day.  Eyewitness reports were divided as to whether or not Brown had his hands raised when he was shot.

After an extensive police investigation, it was decided that the police officer, Darren Wilson, would not face any charges in relation to Brown's death, but this did not satisfy the federal government.  A recent report by the Justice Department used an infantile reading of some statistics to assert that the Ferguson Police Department had been deliberately stopping black motorists more often than white motorists, imposing fines, and thereby using black people as a source of revenue.

There is however no evidence that a black person who drives erratically in Ferguson is any more likely to be stopped by the police than a white person who drives erratically.  It is also noteworthy that white people in Ferguson have a better track record of paying fines than black people.

The bias of the Justice Department in this matter is unsurprising in the light of past events.  This quote is from Wikipedia:

Former lawyers who had served under the Bush Administration have stated that the current DOJ under Holder [the Attorney General] is unwilling to prosecute minorities for civil rights violations. Three other Justice Department lawyers, in recent interviews, gave the same description of the department's culture, which department officials strongly deny. In the months after the case ended, tensions persisted. Eventually, Christopher Coates (of the Justice's Civil Rights Division) acknowledged telling attorneys at a September 2009 lunch that the Obama administration was interested in filing cases – under a key voting rights section – only on behalf of minorities.

I find it disturbing not only that the federal government should show such a bias, but also that many people - both black and white - should be willing to protest in Ferguson about a shooting which for all they know may well have been entirely justified.  As for whoever fired the shots which injured two police officers, I hope an arrest will soon be made.