No Indictment on Canfield Drive

On March 4, 2015, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) ruled that Ferguson, Missouri had a race problem. In the aftermath of Michael Brown’s death, the DOJ released two incriminating reports, one substantiating this claim. The city of Ferguson had for years exhibited systemic racial bias in the municipal sector. The police department, which at the time of Brown’s death had 50 white officers and only 3 black officers, displayed a pattern of harassing, bullying, and arresting black citizens. Then once in the system, the court further exacerbated frivolous charges against them in order to issue fines and generate city revenue. In addition, the investigators of the DOJ report found evidence of racist jokes sent by email between police officers and court officials. The subsequent release of the report led the Municipal Judge, Ronald Brockmeyer, City Manager, John Shaw, and Police Chief, Thomas Jackson, to resign. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.