Ferguson Police Have a Long, Troubling Record of Racial Profiling

The Washington Post
dove deep into the Ferguson, Missouri, police department’s
record on racial matters and the results are not pretty. As the
Post notes, “the department’s problems stretch back years
[before the Michael Brown shooting] and include questions about its
officers’ training and racial sensitivity.” For example, “the
office of Missouri’s attorney general concluded in an annual report
last year that Ferguson police were twice as likely to arrest
African Americans during traffic stops as they were whites.”

Not surprisingly, that sort of policing has infuriated black
residents. As one man told the Post, “If you can find a
single person in this community who trusts the police, that is like
finding a four-leafed clover.”

Here’s a portion of that state report which shows the racial
disparities in terms of both vehicle stops and arrests.