Holder's Race War: Ferguson.

Following the shooting of Micheal Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in August 2014 US Attorney General Eric Holder launched a civil rights investigation into the incident itself and policing in the city more generally. After seven months the Department of Justice (DoJ) finally released its report last Wednesday (4/3/15).

The main finding of the report was that the claim that Brown had been unarmed and was surrendering to the police when shot and killed was entirely false. Therefore the Grand Jury's decision not to indicate the officer over the shooting was entirely correct and there was absolutely no evidence to indicate that Brown had been murdered or that his civil rights had been violated in any way.

However the part of the report that everybody chose to focus on was the finding that despite accounting for just 67% of the local population Ferguson's black residents are responsible for 80-90% of all recorded crime. The report also found that when accused of crimes Ferguson's black residents were more likely to display contempt for the legal process by failing to pay fines or even attend Court hearings. As with all citizens regardless of race this contempt resulted in Ferguson's black residents incurring further penalties such as new fines and/or jail time.

Holder seems to have then quite clearly projected his own prejudice onto the evidence and concluded that the disproportionate rate of legal penalty imposed on Ferguson's black residents had nothing to do with the fact they were far more likely to engage in criminal behaviour but because of racism.

Fortunately the DoJ's report carries absolutely no legal weight and is best described as Eric Holder's opinion. In order for it to result in action the DoJ would have to apply to a Court that would assess Holder's opinion alongside all other legal opinions and the evidence. The Court would then make recommendations. The most likely of these would probably be a recommendation that Holder's opinion is disregarded because it contains some deeply flawed reasoning. For example it doesn't consider a breach of the criminal code to be a crime - a opinion that runs contrary to roughly a thousand years of legal precedent.

However rather then applying this due process the DoJ appears to have use the media and protesters to bully both the city of Ferguson and the state of Missouri into accepting the report as fact. As a result local authorities have made a series of concessions to appease Holder such as moving all of Ferguson's pending legal cases to a different jurisdiction. There has also been a series of high profile resignations including Ferguson police chief Thomas Jackson who stepped down yesterday.

This has done nothing to quell the hatred of the protesters who last night staged a protest outside Ferguson's police headquarters just the same as they have done over the previous 149 nights. Last night's protest quickly turned violent with punches, bottles and bricks being thrown at police officers in riot gear who curiously only made two arrests. The violence reached its peak when members of the crowd opened fire on the police line hitting two police officers one of whom was shot in the face.

Therefore I think it's time for the authorities in Missouri to do what they should have done back in August and stop appeasing the protesters. After all it's clear the mob don't want justice. Instead they want the right to behave as badly as they like without there being any consequences.

11:45 on 12/3/15 (UK date).