Why Why the People of Ferguson Don't Trust the Cops

[Tom Joad]

Some pretty eye-opening accounts of Policing in Ferguson as they were told to one reporter by some of the locals.

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/2...trust-the-cops

It was getting late, and it seemed that, after several nights of unrest and police crackdowns, the protest might end in peace.

I sat down on a curb to jot down some notes, and a young man with dreadlocks asked me if I was a reporter. He called to his friends, and soon several young black men from Ferguson joined us, each with his own story to tell.

A young man named Christopher Lane told me police had beaten him up three times since he moved to Ferguson in 2007. The beatings happened well before a local officer fatally shot an unarmed teenager on August 9 and sparked the protests that now occur daily in Ferguson. "These cops are real prejudiced," Lane said, later adding, "Ferguson is an old slave town, if you know your history."

Lane asked if I had noticed that many of the side streets in Ferguson do not have sidewalks. I had. He told me that police regularly harass and even cite young black folks for failing to walk on the sidewalk, even when there is none to be found.

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