DOJ REPORT IN FERGUSON IS HELPING MULTIPLE ST LOUIS COMMUNITIES



 

Ferguson, MO demonstrators

 

Department of Justice Report uncovered major abuses by local courts and police departments.

If you follow the news, then you know what affect the killing of the unarmed Michael Brown by the Ferguson, Missouri, Police Officer has had on race relations with police departments all over America.  The subsequent demonstration signs stating that “Black Lives Matter”, or “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” have now taken the nation.  There are also demonstrations against excessive police force and police militarization by many local US police departments all over America.

 

Ferguson Militarized Police Force

 

To give you a statistic that comes from all this latest attention, just think about this.  “According to police statistics, over 1000 individuals are killed in the United States every year by police shootings.” Since the figures for this statistic are not required to be reported annually by municipal police departments, there could actually be many more deaths than stated as these numbers are only "volunteered" by the individual cities and towns. 

 

But when these numbers are compared on a national basis, where today there are over 1000 police shooting deaths in America, for 2012 there were only 8 of these type deaths in Germany and zero for that year in Great Britain.  These countries are not less violent than cities in the US, but their police departments are not trained in the ”grab your guns and shoot first” approach as are many police departments in the US.

In addition, since the US Justice Department got themselves involved with the Ferguson Police Department, and since they performed a thorough investigation and published their findings, things are changing in the greater St Louis region, as well as in other US cities. And that includes all of the surrounding towns and communities around St Louis.  The reason being that the overall results of that justice department report on the local St Louis police departments were not very pretty.

As an example, objectionable police personnel in many of those local police departments have since been let go and there have been many changes in the judges and local prosecutors since the DOJ report was distributed.

As a case in point, three years ago a city council member had raised concerns about a local Ferguson judge, Ronald Brockmeyer.  The council person had complained that Brockmeyer should not be re-appointed as he didn't listen to witness testimonies, seldom reviewed the police reports, or even allowed some witnesses to testify.  However, since the local cities received over 50% of their monies from fines, court fees, parking and traffic violations, it was said that due to Judge Brockmeyer, “It goes without saying the city cannot afford to lose any efficiency in our courts, nor experience any decrease in our fines and forfeitures.”  With that kind of thinking, obviously, Judge Brockmeyer was re-appointed. 

But as it turned out, Brockmeyer’s name was cited over and over again in the DOJ’s Ferguson report. This caused Mr. Radley Balko, a reporter at the Washington Post to begin uncovering Brockmeyer's harsh ways of doing his judging business.  But they also learned that Brockmeyer’s efforts didn’t stop there in Ferguson.

In addition to being the only municipal judge in Ferguson, Ronald Brockmeyer was paid separately to serve as a judge and prosecutor in four other local municipalities.  He was the lead prosecutor for Florissant, the municipal prosecutor for Vinita Park, municipal prosecutor for Dellwood, and municipal judge for Breckenridge Hills.  These are all communities in the greater St Louis area.

The Guardian magazine, later revealed that Brockmeyer would send people to jail for owing only $100 in fines, and that today the hypocrite Judge Brockmeyer owes over $170,000 to the IRS.

Judge Brockmeyer has resigned in Ferguson and as a prosecutor in Dellwood. The Dellwood mayor also forgave all the fines levied under Brockmeyer's recent tenure.  The judge then resigned in Florissant and Vinita Park. As of today, his only remaining position is as a judge is in Breckenridge Hills.  But this city's officials are meeting soon for discussing the situation.

The obvious result is that without the authority of the DOJ's Ferguson report, Judge Brockmeyer and the local police departments would still be abusing the citizens in St. Louis County.

Copyright G.Ater  2015