The murder of Michael Brown by Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, caused a resonance in American society. Thousands of angry citizens took to the streets, demanding a fair trial, as the reason for the shooting was a bare administrative violation, and the policeman acted in breach of protocol. Civil protests quickly escalated into violent clashes with police patrols. This paper aims to determine the causes of the incident and subsequent protests, and list the further reforms that proved to be the most effective.
Professor Leonard Herman believes that the main reasons behind the incident, and the subsequent clashes, were serious crisis management problems in police offices throughout the country. Herman emphasized that the reaction to the protests was gravely erroneous; he also noted that the situation in Ferguson desperately needed a “weapon-down posture” (Pazzanese, 2014, para 13). Scholar believes that when police officers deal with civilians rather than armed terrorists, they should not follow the protocol order to keep weapons ready.
Herman also drew attention to the role of political leaders, as well as leaders of investigative and law enforcement agencies, in resolving the conflict. He also marked the need for an adequate information policy in the police and recognized isolated cases of police harassment of media representatives.
The investigation subsequently recognized that Darren Willson acted in violation of the code. That is why his actions had the character of organizational deviation. Workplace and organizational deviation is a complex problem that arises mainly as a sign of passive aggression toward the organization. Scientists identify incivility, violence, and aggression, discrimination, sexual harassment, abusive behavior as manifestations of interpersonal misbehavior at the workplace (Vardi, & Weitz, 2016, p. 65).
Other manifestations have intrapersonal character – stress, fatigue, and burnout, workaholism (Vardi, & Weitz, 2016, p. 65). The main reason for the incident was officially defined as “focus on generating revenue” of Ferguson law enforcement officers (US Department of Justice Civil Rights). However, the direct cause of the shooting was the violation by Darren Wilson of his job descriptions.
As a result of protests, the Missouri State Police has gone through many reforms. St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that as a result of the reform, “highway shoulders are no longer lined with officers aiming radar guns,” municipal prisons are free, and the number of fines reduced significantly. Moreover, “municipal court collections in St. Louis and St. Louis County were down 60% in 2018 from their 2014 levels” (Kohler, 2019). Thus, it could be assumed that mass protests and the subsequent implementation of reforms allowed the police to shift the focus from filling the state budget to protecting citizens.
However, statistics on civilian killings have not changed much since 2014. In 2015, 994 citizens were killed by police throughout the country; in 2018, this figure was 992 people, and it remained at the same level in 2019 (McDermott, 2019). The journalist concludes that the introduction of body cameras, new police training methods, demilitarization of weapons and tactics, and court reforms did not add respect for human life to the police.
The author acknowledges that the reforms led to a reduction in “monetized abuse of poor minorities” by local systems of justice, including the courts and the police (McDermott, 2019, para. 10). The level of conscious citizens making video records of violent cases also increased. Besides, the federal government turned its attention to the local police officers, and the problem of unmotivated aggression by police arise in scientific discussions more and more often.
Thus, the causes of the incident and subsequent protests in Ferguson were identified, and the most effective reforms were named. To summarize it, the main causes of the incident and subsequent protests were problems with crisis management, focus on generating revenue, and organizational deviations. The most effective reform was court reform, which led to reducing monetized abuse by local systems of justice. Nonetheless, the police demilitarization reform was unsuccessful, as the civilian killings statistics remained the same.
References
Kohler, J. (2019). Punitive. Predatory. Dehumanizing. Criminal justice in the St. Louis area has changed, but is it enough? St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Web.
McDermott, K. (2019). Ferguson diagnosed a national illness. But five years later, it hasn’t been cured. St. Louis Post-Dispatch.Web.
Pazzanese, C. (2014). The fumbles in Ferguson. The Harvard Gazette. Web.
United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division (2015). Investigation of the Ferguson Police Department. Web.
Vardi, Y., & Weitz, E. (2016). Misbehavior in Organizations: A Dynamic Approach. London, England: Routledge.