Ferguson cautious after black police chief named
While optimistic, citizens are skeptical of local force
The announcement Thursday that a veteran black law enforcement officer will take over the beleaguered police department in Ferguson, Mo., might seem emblematic of change in a city where, just a year ago, power seemed tilted firmly toward the city’s white residents.
But in Ferguson, 67 per cent of the residents identify as black, and many of them say they are approaching the appointment of interim Chief Andre Anderson with a measure of caution. Even black residents in neighbouring towns who were caught up in last year’s protests feel that way.
“I’m optimistic . . . but just because he looks like me doesn’t mean he’s the right one,” said Cat Daniels, a 63-year-old Florissant woman who routinely cooked for protesters outside the town’s police headquarters last year. “It could just as well mean they put a puppet in place.”
That feeling of systemic disenfranchisement exists in Ferguson. At this time last year, the police department was more than 90 per cent white. Five of the town’s six council seats were filled by white residents. If Anderson is to heal the deep divide between Ferguson’s residents and its police department, he had better be prepared to dig in for a lengthy fight, experts and local leaders say.
Ferguson Mayor James Knowles III on Wednesday praised the selection of Anderson, a U.S. army veteran who previously oversaw criminal investigations for the Glendale, Ariz., Police Department.
“The city of Ferguson and our police department have endured a tremendous amount of distrust during the past nine months,” Knowles said in the statement. “We believe that Cmdr. Anderson can make recommendations to the police department that will be innovative and will have long-standing improvements for our citizens and to the entire community.”
Anderson will replace Lt. Col. Al Eickhoff, who took up the chief’s post after the resignation of Thomas Jackson. It was Jackson who oversaw the chaos that enveloped Ferguson following the death of 18-yearold Michael Brown on Aug. 9, 2014.
Brown was shot and killed by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, sparking months of protests that left parts of the St. Louis suburb burned and dozens of buildings destroyed.
Ferguson officials were heavily criticized for their response to violent protests that followed Brown’s death and a grand jury’s decision not to indict Wilson in the shooting.
A federal investigation later charged that racism was essentially institutionalized within the department, with black residents facing an overwhelming amount of stops and citations.