The lessons of Ferguson

AFTER more than a week of rioting in Ferguson, Missouri, what can America learn? The first and simplest lesson is that cops should wear cameras. Knowing that they are being recorded, the police would be less likely to shoot suspects, and vice versa. Also, had Officer Darren Wilson been wearing a camera on August 9th, Americans would know what happened just before he shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old. As it is, there are two conflicting stories and no way to choose between them. The police say that Mr Brown attacked Mr Wilson and tried to wrestle away his gun. In the ensuing struggle the officer, fearing for his life, shot and killed the teenager. Mr Brown’s friend, who was with him at the time, gives a completely different account: he says the officer grabbed Mr Brown by the neck and later shot him as he was trying to surrender. Early autopsy results show that Mr Brown was hit by at least six bullets but do not settle the dispute.

His death sparked protests that soon turned violent. Looters smashed up shops and picked them clean. The police responded with a staggering display of force, rolling military-style armoured cars onto the streets, pointing rifles at the protesters, dispersing crowds with tear gas and detaining not only rioters but also peaceful demonstrators and journalists.

There is a racial gulf in how these events are perceived. Some 65% of black Americans think the police went too far in responding to the protests; only 33% of whites agree. Many blacks in Ferguson disbelieve anything the police say (see article). Mr Brown’s family describe him as a gentle giant (he was six foot four). The Ferguson police beg to differ: they released a video purportedly showing him violently robbing a liquor store minutes before he met Officer Wilson. Some locals dismissed this as a smear. The liquor store was promptly looted.

Rioting will do nothing to resolve Ferguson’s problems. On the contrary, it will make businesses flee, leaving locals with fewer jobs and shops. So the immediate priority is to restore order. Next, the investigations of the shooting already under way must be pursued vigorously and transparently. In the longer term, America should ponder three things.

To protect and serve

First, as Barack Obama noted on August 18th, “there is a big difference between our military and our local law enforcement and we don’t want those lines blurred.” In fact, those lines have already been blurred, as the armoured cars on the streets of Ferguson attest. In 2012, according to the FBI, American police officers shot and killed 409 people. Their British counterparts shot and killed no one. The German police, who unlike the Brits are routinely armed, shot and killed eight people; the Japanese have killed one in the past six years. In their defence, American cops face greater risks than those in other rich countries. The civilians they meet are often armed; small wonder they are jumpy when they cannot see your hands.

Yet this is a reason for cops to work harder to improve relations with the communities they serve. Many police forces in America are good at this, but some have developed a warrior culture that stresses brute force over pounding the beat. A Pentagon programme that gives surplus military hardware to local law-enforcement agencies can make them seem like occupying armies rather than public servants. That is both costly and counterproductive—the public are more likely to volunteer information to officers they trust than to those they fear.

Second, unlike plumbers or accountants, it matters what colour police officers are. Ferguson’s population has shifted from 75% white in 1990 to 67% black in 2010, but the police force is still 95% white. This is partly due to bureaucratic inertia. Public servants have rock-solid job security and generous pensions, so the workforce turns over slowly. A fast-food joint in a town that becomes Hispanic will quickly hire Spanish-speaking cashiers. The police are much slower to hire officers with a feel for a changing community. This is not to say that Ferguson should have sacked the white officers and replaced them with blacks; that would be illegal. But it ought to be easier to shift officers between towns, bring in fresh faces and retrain the old hands to be more racially sensitive.

Third, policing would be a lot easier, and race relations a little more cordial, if America legalised drugs. One reason why so many African-Americans distrust the police is that so many young black men are sent to prison for non-violent drug offences. If drugs were legal, no one would be patted down for pills or jailed for possessing them. Illicit drug gangs would go out of business. And the police would be able to concentrate on tracking down thieves and rapists, making everyone safer. Legalising marijuana would be a good first step, following the examples of Colorado and Washington state.

The ills of shrinking rust-belt towns with tetchy race relations cannot be fixed quickly. But the broken windows of Ferguson should remind America’s leaders that they have to try.