Private: Attorney General Announces Guidance for Law Enforcement in Response to Ferguson Protests

by Thomas Nolan, Associate Professor of Criminology & Director of Graduate Programs in Criminology, Merrimack College; former Senior Policy Advisor at the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties; former lieutenant, Boston Police Department

Attorney General Eric Holder recently announced an initiative sponsored by the Department of Justice through the Bureau of Justice Assistance and the Office of Community Oriented Police Services that provides guidance and support for law enforcement agencies in their response to protesters who are engaging in constitutionally protected activities, particularly those activities protected by the First Amendment such as freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of the press. The provision of this guidance appears to coincide with the expected announcement of the findings of a grand jury hearing evidence in the case of the death of Michael Brown at the hands of Officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri on August 9, 2014.

In the aftermath of the shooting death of Brown, the world watched as protesters took to the streets in Ferguson and were met with a hyper-exaggerated, highly militarized response from the police in Ferguson that unilaterally trounced the First Amendment rights of the protesters and unequivocally suspended the provisions of the United States Constitution that guarantee the protections of free speech, free assembly, and a free press.  The world saw law enforcement officers engage in a shameless and hysterical display of unrestrained force against a relatively small group of largely peaceful protesters using sound cannons (designed for use in wars by the military), tear gas (chemical weapons banned by the Geneva Conventions for use during war), rubber bullets (potentially lethal), smoke bombs and grenades, stun grenades (potentially lethal), wood bullet projectiles, pepper pellet rounds (of the type that killed student Victoria Snelgrove in Boston in 2004), and bean bag rounds (also potentially lethal).

Law enforcement in Ferguson “deployed” with military vehicles, military aircraft, military weapons, and dressed as soldiers engaging the enemy on the field of battle.  Except that this wasn’t Fallujah, Anbar Province, or Kandahar: it was a small city in the “Show-Me State.”  There can be no question that the tactics and strategies employed by law enforcement in Ferguson in August of 2014 exacerbated and inflamed tensions among protesters that were already nearing fever pitch, tensions that only began to abate with the assignment of Missouri Highway Patrol Captain Ron Johnson as the officer in charge of the police response. Inexplicably, Captain Johnson will not be in command of the law enforcement presence in the aftermath of the announcement of the findings of the grand jury that is expected imminently.  That duty will fall to commanders of the St. Louis County Police Department, the department responsible for the riotous and tumultuous response of the police in the immediate aftermath of the shooting of Michael Brown.  This decision may prove a fateful one.

Attorney General Holder’s admonition to law enforcement to “choose appropriate equipment and uniforms” when responding to instances where citizens of our communities are engaging in constitutionally protected activities is prescient; it should be given every consideration by law enforcement officials as they engage in their obligation to keep protesters safe and to ensure that their constitutional rights and civil liberties are honored and protected.  In the coming days the eyes of the world will once again be cast upon Ferguson, Missouri and the United States.  If law enforcement in Ferguson and St. Louis has become the wiser for lessons learned in the disastrous and calamitous response to the August shooting of Michael Brown, then peace will prevail and the Constitution will begin to regain its inviolability.  Should the law enforcement juggernaut adopt the “warrior” posture and mentality, we may see “civilian casualties” and the continued erosion of our civil rights and civil liberties at the hands of those sworn to protect us.

Criminal Justice