A federal judge has dismissed a $41.5 million lawsuit that protesters in Ferguson, Mo., had filed against police, the city and the county, alleging that police used excessive force against them during unrest that erupted after a white police officer shot an unarmed black teenager in August 2014.
In a 74-page decision, Judge Henry Autrey ruled that plaintiffs "have completely failed to present any credible evidence" that any actions by police "were taken with malice or were committed in bad faith" during protests in the wake of the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson. Brown was killed by Officer Darren Wilson. A grand jury declined to indict Wilson in Brown's death.
Autrey wrote that police gave numerous orders for the protesters to disperse and that police "clearly had argued probable cause to arrest any individual" who refused to comply with the orders.
The story is here.
The Justice Department issued a scathing report against the Ferguson Police Department in 2015. Even if [Michael] Brown's death was not racially motivated, the report found, the department used racially discriminatory tactics and officers sent racist jokes over department email. From 2012 to 2014, the report found, African Americans made up 93 percent of the department's arrests but constituted 63 percent of the city's population.
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