...was the line handed out by Attorney General Loretta Lynch. And I suppose that's true, at least until one looks at the data, which USA Today did in this story, titled, "Providence one of many US police forces feeling Ferguson aftershocks." It notes:
In the past 16 months, the so-called "Ferguson Effect" has become a staple in the American vernacular. Yet very few agree on what exactly that means and what it may portend for the future relationship between law enforcement and the communities they serve.
Actually, we have seen a relationship. Murder is spiking across the country after more than two decades of sharp decline. If people want to convince themselves that the incidence of murder has nothing to do with the frequency and aggressiveness of police work, they are free to do so -- and, for political ends, they will.
In Chicago, now roiled by the police shooting of a black teenager, MayorRahm Emanuel suggested earlier this year that the national backlash against allegations of police brutality following Ferguson had caused police to disengage, resulting in recent spikes in violent crime. FBI DirectorJames Comey drew the ire of the White House in October when, like Emanuel, he proposed that recent surges in violence may be explained by "a chill wind that has blown through law enforcement.'' Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn, meanwhile, recently lamented that local law enforcement had all but been abandoned by the federal government, which has mounted more than 20 investigations of local police operations since 2009, with the most critical examination prompted by the shooting of black teenager by a white police officer in Ferguson.
My friend and former colleague Chuck Rosenberg, now head of the DEA, has said the same thing.
The debate about whether there is a Ferguson Effect is just so much politically-engineered hot air. When important power centers like the White House, DOJ's Civil Rights Division, and Al Sharpton's National Action Network are relentlessly portraying cops as racist bullies, if not Nazis, the police are going to feel the intimidation that's intended for them. This is not rocket science.
I might add that, to my knowledge, there has never been a DOJ investigation of a local police agency that did not result in some kind of consent decree, or some negative finding in that nature. It's not in the character of the DOJ's Civil Rights Division to take on an investigation without justifying that investigation, and I assume they would force the archangels into modifying their tactics against the Forces of Darkness, as being discriminatory and unlawful.
So any DOJ investigation has an immediate and automatic effect in local policing, because the cops are not completely stupid and realize they're under a microscope, with any transgression, however minor, being potentially the Big Deal DOJ will use to bludgeon the local department. Cops simply go into system shutdown in this scenario, and well they should. Media fads, AG's and the like come and go, but your working career is forever. Take the long view and don't let your sense of right-and-wrong compromise your ability to make a living for the rest of your life, because some hack wants to make a name for himself at your expense.
JCC
I'd be curious, Bill, if you share this commenter's view that many folks at DOJ are hacks and may pursue cases against cops and perhaps many others simply to make a name for themselves.