Attorney General Loretta Lynch on Wednesday announced a federal civil rights lawsuit against Ferguson, Missouri, after its city council moved away from a negotiated settlement to reform its police and court system.
The lawsuit, which was filed Wednesday, comes after the city council voted Tuesday to change a proposed settlement on police and government oversight in the community where 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot dead by a white police officer in 2014.
"They waited decades for justice," Lynch said. "They should not have to wait any longer."
Jacquelyn Martin / AP
The city council's vote had already been met with pushback by the Justice Department's head of the civil rights division, Vanita Gupta. She noted the city acted unilaterally to amend the proposed settlement, which had been negotiated over several months by the local and federal government.
"Their vote to do so creates an unnecessary delay in the essential work to bring constitutional policing to the city, and marks an unfortunate outcome for concerned community members and Ferguson police officers," Gupta said in a statement Tuesday night.
As negotiated, the settlement would have ensured the city's police departments and courts protected residents' civil rights and operated without racial discrimination, Gupta said.
"The Department of Justice will take the necessary legal actions to ensure that Ferguson’s policing and court practices comply with the Constitution and relevant federal laws," she added.
At its meeting on Tuesday, the Ferguson city council approved of many of the settlement's provisions, the Associated Press reported. But city leaders voted against raising police salaries, as well as a provision that would require any other agency with employees working in the city — for example the St. Louis County Police Department — to adhere to the settlement.
Councilman Wesley Bell said he believed the Justice Department would agree to the changes, which he had proposed.
"I don't think there's anything unreasonable," Bell said at the time.
But as Lynch said Wednesday, the city council's vote was only to approve or reject the consent decree. The city rejected the agreement that had been painstakingly negotiated over 26 weeks, she said.
"Their decision leaves us no further choice," she said.
LINK: Ferguson, Justice Department Reach Agreement On Police Oversight
from BuzzFeed - USNews http://ift.tt/20pnUkJ
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