We want Transparency, Fairness and Truth
From the very start, with Eric Holder announcing the release of a “scathing” report on the City of Ferguson, the Department of Justice has selectively collected and presented information to cast Ferguson as an abusive, even racist town that was violating the rights of many of its residents. Now the DOJ is trying to use this distorted view to justify turning Ferguson into some kind of “Holderville”, a civil rights attorney’s dream of what the perfect city would look like if all of its institutions had been designed from the start to promote social justice, even if it means destroying the Ferguson that exists. The DOJ is overstepping the bounds of federal power to engage in ideologically driven social engineering that will dissolve the very infrastructure of a good town and most likely result in its bankruptcy and destruction.
If the DOJ is able to force this transformation of Ferguson, changes that go far beyond the scope of the problems, without disclosing proof or reason, the DOJ will have created a new federal right to socially engineer local municipalities.
The residents of Ferguson and yes, the citizens of the United States, want transparency from the Department of Justice, the full transparency that the DOJ points to time and again as a requirement of fair, equitable government. We want to know what the DOJ found in Ferguson, how they collected and validated citizens’ complaints, how they verified that common policing practices were used unjustly, what the Department of Justice is demanding of the City, and how each demand is supported by evidence.
The only way to force this transparency is to give the City of Ferguson the financial resources it needs to defend itself against the DOJ, including possibly forcing an actual trial. We are asking for your support to raise a Ferguson Legal Defense fund, to allow Ferguson a chance for a fair fight in court; a fight that the DOJ started and will unjustly finish without your help.
Ferguson is an average American City, with its leaders and residents doing the best they can to create and maintain a livable City. If the DOJ is allowed to use a crime that didn’t happen to fish for other problems and then justify a massive and destructive restructuring of the City’s government and law enforcement, then every City in America is at risk. We need to stop this now. We must demand the Department of Justice live by the very same principals and laws it is mandated to enforce.
If the DOJ is able to force this transformation of Ferguson, changes that go far beyond the scope of the problems, without disclosing proof or reason, the DOJ will have created a new federal right to socially engineer local municipalities.
The residents of Ferguson and yes, the citizens of the United States, want transparency from the Department of Justice, the full transparency that the DOJ points to time and again as a requirement of fair, equitable government. We want to know what the DOJ found in Ferguson, how they collected and validated citizens’ complaints, how they verified that common policing practices were used unjustly, what the Department of Justice is demanding of the City, and how each demand is supported by evidence.
The only way to force this transparency is to give the City of Ferguson the financial resources it needs to defend itself against the DOJ, including possibly forcing an actual trial. We are asking for your support to raise a Ferguson Legal Defense fund, to allow Ferguson a chance for a fair fight in court; a fight that the DOJ started and will unjustly finish without your help.
Ferguson is an average American City, with its leaders and residents doing the best they can to create and maintain a livable City. If the DOJ is allowed to use a crime that didn’t happen to fish for other problems and then justify a massive and destructive restructuring of the City’s government and law enforcement, then every City in America is at risk. We need to stop this now. We must demand the Department of Justice live by the very same principals and laws it is mandated to enforce.
