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Six actions that would greatly facilitate healing in Ferguson
(Note: I posted this as a comment yesterday to Charles Blow's New York Times column titled, "Frustration in Ferguson, which is an excellent piece btw.)
[font size=3]Mark Kessinger[/font]
There are a few, simple measures that would,I believe, go a very long way in facilitating the kind of healing so needed in Ferguson, MO:
(1) Police Chief Thomas Jackson should be asked to resign, and if he refuses to do so willingly, should be fired. His every move, from the day Michael Brown was shot up to today, has served only to make a very bad situation worse by further inflaming tensions;
(2) The entire 53-member Ferguson Police Department should be placed on an extended, paid administrative leave, possibly as long as 30-60 days, during which every member of the department would be required to attend intensive training/retraining in matters involving not only the law and department policies, but also in techniques of de-escalation and conflict resolution as well as racial sensitivity; during this period, ALL policing matters should be handled by either the state police or the national guard;
(3) a panel should be created to review and revise department policies regarding the use of lethal force and also recruitment, with the goal of eventually having a police department that is a better reflection of the demographic make-up of Ferguson then it now is;
(4) The Ferguson PD should be required to immediately divest itself of its Defense Department hand-me-downs;
(5) The Ferguson PD should be permanently barred from any further role in investigating either the shooting or the earlier robbery; and
(6) Officer Wilson should be arrested and charged.
There are a few, simple measures that would,I believe, go a very long way in facilitating the kind of healing so needed in Ferguson, MO:
(1) Police Chief Thomas Jackson should be asked to resign, and if he refuses to do so willingly, should be fired. His every move, from the day Michael Brown was shot up to today, has served only to make a very bad situation worse by further inflaming tensions;
(2) The entire 53-member Ferguson Police Department should be placed on an extended, paid administrative leave, possibly as long as 30-60 days, during which every member of the department would be required to attend intensive training/retraining in matters involving not only the law and department policies, but also in techniques of de-escalation and conflict resolution as well as racial sensitivity; during this period, ALL policing matters should be handled by either the state police or the national guard;
(3) a panel should be created to review and revise department policies regarding the use of lethal force and also recruitment, with the goal of eventually having a police department that is a better reflection of the demographic make-up of Ferguson then it now is;
(4) The Ferguson PD should be required to immediately divest itself of its Defense Department hand-me-downs;
(5) The Ferguson PD should be permanently barred from any further role in investigating either the shooting or the earlier robbery; and
(6) Officer Wilson should be arrested and charged.
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