Despite the Justice Department’s decision to not indict former police officer Darren Wilson on civil rights charges related to his August fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager, one member of the Congressional Black Caucus said she sees cause for optimism.
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) remarked late last week that she is “extremely disappointed that Michael Brown’s killer will not face criminal charges,” but noted that an investigation into Wilson’s former employers “represents a clear path forward.”
“The report shows that the Ferguson Police Department engaged in a disturbing pattern of violating the constitutional rights and civil liberties of African Americans. This discrimination has no place in our society, especially within our police forces,” she said.
“We must continue to raise our voices and demand action to address the racial bias that are endemic in our society and institutions,” the Congresswoman added.
In recent weeks, Lee has taken to Twitter to stress these points. She was outspoken this weekend, in her social media dispatches from commemorations of the fiftieth anniversary of “Bloody Sunday” in Selma, Ala. On Feb. 28, she pledged to collaborate with the Justice Department “to ensure fed govt can prosecute civil rights crimes.”
“Reform is absolutely necessary #BlackLives matter,” she tweeted.
In an email to The Sentinel, a staffer for Lee noted that the Justice Department’s calls on the Ferguson Police Department–to focus “on public safety instead of revenue,” to improve training and accountability, and to “reduce bias”–make up a basic framework for changes needed in the St. Louis area and beyond.
“I continue to stand with Michael Brown’s family and all peaceful protesters demanding systemic and structural reforms to our broken criminal justice system,” Lee also said.
In the wake last week of the release of the Justice Department report on Ferguson, Congressional Black Caucus Chair Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.) appealed to fellow legislators to not squander the moment, alluding to the nationwide movement that sprung up in righteous outrage after Brown’s killing. Demonstrators across the US, in showing solidarity with protesters in Ferguson, demanded accountability in a vast number of incidents that demonstrated the abuse of people of color by law enforcement officers.
“This is a transformative moment for our country and Congress has a critical role to play in helping to restore trust in the criminal justice system to ensure that every American is treated equally before the law,” Butterfield said. “Black residents in Ferguson have called for justice on this disparity for many years. Their calls were ignored. The world now knows the truth about Ferguson.”
A recent collaborative effort between well-financed think tanks with close ties to both parties could see these issues vaulted up the Congressional agenda in the coming months. The right-leaning Koch Brothers and Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform last month announced that they would partner with the left-leaning Center for American Progress and the American Civil Liberties Union to lobby for changes to sentencing and incarceration statutes. The so-called Coalition for Public Safety, bankrolled to the tune of $5 million, has billed itself as “the largest national effort working to make our criminal justice system smarter, fairer and more cost effective at the federal, state and local level.”
