Voices: It's time for Ferguson to face difficult reality

FERGUSON, Mo. — Just across the border of this town, someone has paraphrased in spray paint a biblical admonition on the plywood that covers up what remains of a laundromat that was destroyed in the August 2014 riots that put the spotlight on this city.

“Human anger does not meet God’s justice & righteousness,” the tagger intones in big red letters.

After the last few weeks in Ferguson, the leaders of this city might be better served with some advice on the fine art of negotiation and a pep talk on facing its grim reality.

The U.S. Justice Department sued Ferguson on Wednesday to forcibly overhaul the city’s troubled police department and municipal court. The suit came one day after the city council balked at approving an agreement known as a consent decree to revamp Ferguson's police and court operations. Ferguson's city council called for changes in the agreement despite the fact that the city's negotiators had agreed to the deal just weeks ago.

Feds sue Ferguson to force police reform

The latest episode in this community near St. Louis that 18 months ago became the poster child for institutional racism and governmental dysfunction marks another low point for a municipality that has made no shortage of questionable choices.

Mayor James Knowles was part of the Ferguson negotiating team that forged the tentative agreement with Justice over the last seven months. But after completing the negotiations, he reversed course and argued that Ferguson, a community of 21,000, simply cannot afford what the Justice Department is demanding.

“There’s no point in agreeing to something we can’t afford,” Knowles says.

Knowles, who famously said in a television interview in the first days of unrest following the August 2014 police shooting death of Michael Brown that Ferguson has no racial divide, is calculating that it’s going to be cheaper to fight the Justice Department than to implement the agreement's changes.

The mayor and his fellow council members want Justice to back off on several elements in the decree, including a crucial mandate for the city to raise police officer pay so it can attract better candidates. By the city’s estimate, implementing the decree could cost as much as $3.7 million in the first year and perhaps nearly $10 million over three years. The city’s annual budget is about $14.5 million.

The city also has raised eyebrows in the community with its call for the DOJ to release the city from its obligations if Ferguson decides to shutter its police department and enlist another agency to take charge of public safety.

Even as they press for the amendment, Knowles and council members insist they don’t want to disband their department and hand over policing to the St. Louis County Police.

But reality may soon dictate otherwise.

What Ferguson faces in fighting the Justice Dept.

Revenue has declined for the city since the shooting of Brown sparked unrest and scrutiny of how Ferguson cops and the local court system treat black people.

A St. Louis County grand jury and federal prosecutors declined to prosecute officer Darren Wilson for the shooting. But a subsequent federal investigation sparked by the controversial incident found that black residents were disproportionately targeted by Ferguson’s overwhelmingly white police force. (African Americans accounted for 95% of manner of walking in roadway charges; 94% of failure to comply charges; and 92% of peace disturbance charges. The St. Louis suburb is about 67% African American.)

After the city was thrown into the spotlight, Ferguson began taking steps toward changes, perhaps most notably capping the amount of its budget that can come from municipal court revenue to 15%.

Constitutional policing has been costly for a city that got used to the spigot of cash produced by traffic tickets and court fees.

The city has run up about $2.8 million debt, much of which accumulated from paying overtime to cops during the months of protests, lost tax revenue from businesses that were damaged or destroyed in the riots, and perhaps most significantly, diminished cash flow as a result of court reform.

Their fiscal reality is difficult. But a city that for years stayed afloat by generating millions of dollars in revenue by targeting and ticketing poor black people may find itself hard-pressed to get sympathy from a federal judge.

With their perplexing move, Knowles and the city council have taken a gamble they seem likely to lose.

Madhani, USA TODAY's Chicago-based correspondent,  was recently on assignment in Ferguson.