Digital Commons Network^™

The Value In Emphasizing Critical Thinking, Leah Bigl

Agora

No abstract provided.

Ulead: The Effects Of A Civics-Based Educational Program On Urban Youth, Rodney W. Smith, Aaron H. Willis, Mario Pascal Charles

Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Urban Legal Education and Academic Development: The Effects of a Civics-Based Educational Program on Urban Youth

There is a critical need for urban youth to have working knowledge of the legal and civic nuances of their communities and political state that affects their daily lives. The pressing problems of the daily existence that these students face inhibit them from utilizing this understanding to exhibit appropriate behavior and engage in civil discourse. Urban Legal Education and Academic Development (ULEAD) provided these students with the knowledge of the functions of the legal and civic processes that facilitate behavior modification to allow …

Fighting Fines & Fees: Borrowing From Consumer Law To Combat Criminal Justice Debt Abuses, Neil L. Sobol

Faculty Scholarship

Although media and academic sources often describe mass incarceration as the primary challenge facing the American criminal justice system, the imposition of criminal justice debt may be a more pervasive problem. On March 14, 2016, the Department of Justice (DOJ) requested that state chief justices forward a letter to all judges in their jurisdictions describing the constitutional violations associated with the illegal assessment and enforcement of fines and fees. The DOJ’s concerns include the incarceration of indigent individuals without determining whether the failure to pay is willful and the use of bail practices that result in impoverished defendants remaining in …

Police-Worn Body Cameras: An Antidote To The “Ferguson Effect”?, Alberto R. Gonzales, Donald Q. Cochran

Missouri Law Review

This Article explores the questions raised by this scenario, focusing on police-worn body cameras, the role these cameras may play in officer-citizen encounters, and the resolution of legal disputes that arise from such encounters. Part II discusses what role, if any, citizen-recorded videos and the effect they have on society play in the prevalence of crime – what has sometimes been called the “Ferguson effect.” Part III explores the role police-worn body cameras could play in counteracting any such effect, addressing arguments in favor of body cameras and exploring their potential to encourage positive police and citizen behavior. Part IV …

Written Testimony For Briefing On Targeted Fines And Fees Against Low-Income Minorities: Civil Rights And Constitutional Implications, Neil L. Sobol

Neil L Sobol

A Mixed-Methods Investigation On Contributing Factors To The Political Efficacy Of Eighth Grade Students In A Suburban School District In Missouri, Colette Edson

Dissertations

This study investigated the relationship between the political efficacy and expected civic engagement of eighth grade students in the Ferguson-Florissant School District, Missouri and demographic factors, reading ability, and parental attitudes. Data on students’ attitudes on topics such as citizenship, trust in institutions, opportunities, political efficacy, school efficacy, and political engagement were analyzed. The 180 students who completed the questionnaire demonstrated lower trust and assessment of access to opportunities and higher youth political engagement than the participants in the 1999 International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IAE) Civic Education (CIVED) study. Tests to determine the impact of student …

The Everyday Economic Violence Of Black Life, Renee Hatcher

Renee Hatcher

Missouri*@!!?*@! - Too Slow, Mae Quinn

Journal Articles

When asked to share my thoughts at this symposium about contemporary human rights issues in domestic criminal law—and how they manifest in St. Louis, Missouri in particular—I could not help but think of these words. Nina Simone, the brilliant vocal artist and civil rights activist, wrote these lyrics over fifty years ago and then bravely and controversially sang them for a mostly-white audience at New York City’s Carnegie Hall following the 1963 shooting death of Medgar Evers.2 Evers was a military veteran who turned civil rights activist and organizer for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (“NAACP”) …

Challenging The System? The Potential For Radical Politics In The Age Of Ferguson, Danae Hart

Ethnic Studies Review

As a social movement continues to grow challenging the justice system that fails to prosecute and convict police officers use of deadly force, it is crucial to note what hegemonic constructs maintain the institutional power structures that continue to harm people of color. When police officers are acquitted when they inflict deadly harm on unarmed citizens the justice system is working to maintain the power structures that devalues Black lives. When hegemonic power structures perpetuate injustice it appears necessary to challenge and deconstruct the system as a whole. Do the protest movements choose to challenge hegemony or rather seek to …

The Grand Jury: A Shield Of A Different Sort, R. Michael Cassidy, Julian A. Cook

Scholarly Works

According to the Washington Post, 991 people were shot to death by police officers in the United States during calendar year 2015, and 957 people were fatally shot in 2016. A disproportionate percentage of the citizens killed in these police-civilian encounters were black. Events in Ferguson, Missouri; Chicago, Illinois; Charlotte, North Carolina; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and Staten Island, New York - to name but a few affected cities - have now exposed deep distrust between communities of color and law enforcement. Greater transparency is necessary to begin to heal this culture of distrust and to inform the debate going forward …

Different Lyrics, Same Song: Watts, Ferguson, And The Stagnating Effect Of The Politics Of Law And Order, Lonnie T. Brown

Scholarly Works

This Article critically examines the Watts riots and their aftermath in comparison to the Ferguson situation, and demonstrates how little progress America has made in a span of fifty years in the area of race relations. More importantly, the Article points to the politics of “law and order” as the primary culprit for this static social condition.

Race And Policing On The Second Anniversary Of Ferguson, Donald Roth

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"There’s a tendency to make each civilian death an indictment of all police and to make each officer death the fault of those who dare criticize police."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­changes in law enforcement from In All Things - an online hub committed to the claim that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has implications for the entire world.

http://inallthings.org/race-and-policing-on-the-second-anniversary-of-ferguson/

Learning From Ferguson: African American Attitudes Towards Community Policing In Saint Louis, David Graham

Theses

This study combines an American Political Development approach to researching the history of racial segregation in Saint Louis with quantitative data focusing on African American attitudes related to politics, police and social prejudice following the civil unrest in Ferguson and Saint Louis City. The research I present emphasizes that decades of race-based municipal segregation in the Saint Louis area has combined with recent events and caused a majority of African American residents to become more suspicious of white police officers patrolling their neighborhoods

The U.S. Supreme Court And The Nation’S Post-Ferguson Controversies, Christopher E. Smith

University of Miami Race & Social Justice Law Review

No abstract provided.

Legal Aid's Once And Future Role For Impacting The Criminalization Of Poverty And The War On The Poor, Aneel L. Chablani

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

Recent media coverage and advocacy efforts on behalf of individuals subjected to criminal sanctions as a result of their poverty status has resulted in increased attention on this nation’s troubled history of oppression and control of the poor and people of color. At the federal, state, and local levels, a growing number of policies create criminal sanctions for poverty-related circumstances. These, in turn, result in collateral consequences that unfairly affect those who lack the means to afford their criminal justice experience (i.e., processing costs, fees, and fines), or affect their ability to access employment, housing, or other basic services. These …

Closing The Gap Between What Is Lawful And What Is Right In Police Use Of Force Jurisprudence By Making Police Departments More Democratic Institutions, Jonathan M. Smith

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

On August 9, 2014, Michael Brown was shot to death in Ferguson, Missouri, by police officer Darren Wilson. Members of the Ferguson community rose up in response. Protests demanding that police violence against African Americans cease and that accountability for police misconduct be addressed erupted across the country, and they have not subsided since. Incidents in Baltimore, Maryland; Chicago, Illinois; WallerCounty, Texas; and elsewhere have kept the movement alive. The mass media, the political elite, and the White middle class woke up to a reality that had been long known to communities of color – force is used disproportionately against …

Keynote Remarks: How The Criminalization Of Poverty Has Become Normalized In American Culture And Why You Should Care, Sarah Geraghty

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

The subject of my talk today is how the criminalization of poverty has become normalized in American culture and why you should care.

All Lives Matter: Media Agenda, Brittany Minard

Masters Theses

This thesis proposal addresses the role that the media play in influencing public opinion with specific attention paid to CNN and Fox News in the way that they covered the shooting of Mike Brown by officer Darren Wilson in August 2014, in Ferguson, Missouri. The research has been divided into several sections starting with an introduction which includes, a statement of the problem being addressed, the significance and purpose of this study, and a section about myself as the researcher. This is followed by a literature review which consists of explaining the Agenda Setting Theory to examine how the media …

Identifying The Social And Technical Barriers Affecting Engagement In Online Community Archives: A Preliminary Study Of “Documenting Ferguson” Archive., Kodjo Atiso, Chris Freeland

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This pilot study seeks to explore the social and technological barriers affecting user engagement in online community archives. We have explored this question using the Documenting Ferguson digital archive, which was built by Washington University Libraries at Washington University in St. Louis in response to the shooting death of unarmed teenager Michael Brown on August 9, 2014, by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, and the resulting social protests. The archive, online at http://digital.wustl.edu/ferguson/, was initially built for anyone who participated in events in and around Ferguson to upload their digital images and videos from the protests, with a …

Introduction, David L. Gregory, Elizabeth Anne Tippett

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

Through this Title VII Symposium, St. John’s University School of Law proudly participates in a larger and continuing national discussion of the role and state of civil rights in the United States.

Fearless Friday: Senait Weldemariam, Senait S. Weldemariam

SURGE

Senait Weldemariam ’16 is today’s Fearless Leader! Senait, originally from the Bronx, NY, is currently a senior at Gettysburg College who is majoring in History and minoring in Educational Studies. During her time here, she has been involved with the Black Student Union (BSU), the Gospel Choir, and the Latin American Student Association (LASA). Specifically, Senait has been involved with the BSU since her freshman year. [excerpt]

From Cuba To Ferguson: A Reflection On Memory As Bridge Across Communities Of Struggle, Joe Kaplan

Race and Pedagogy Journal: Teaching and Learning for Justice

I wrote this piece spontaneously as I reflected on the anniversary of Ferguson while working on my summer research project on former Black Panther and current political exile, Assata Shakur. I wanted to stress the role that memory plays in the creation of communities, whether nationally imagined, or based around a shared sense of justice. Shakur's asylum status in Cuba should serve as a reminder to all advocates of social justice in the U.S. that transnational communities of struggle can serve a vital function in redressing domestic racial injustice. I go on to make the recommendation that contemporary activists harness …

Trading Police For Soldiers: Has The Posse Comitatus Act Helped Militarize Our Police And Set The Stage For More Fergusons?, Arthur Rizer

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Moral Panics And Body Cameras, Howard M. Wasserman

Howard M Wasserman

This Commentary uses the lens of "moral panics" to evaluate public support for equipping law enforcement with body cameras as a response and solution to events in Ferguson, Missouri in August 2014. Body cameras are a generally good policy idea. But the rhetoric surrounding them erroneously treats them as the single guaranteed solution to the problem of excessive force and police-citizen conflicts, particularly by ignoring the limitations of video evidence and the difficult questions of implementing any body camera program. In overstating the case, the rhetoric of body cameras becomes indistinguishable from rhetoric surrounding responses to past moral panics.

Epilogue: Moral Panics And Body Cameras, Howard M. Wasserman

Howard M Wasserman

This brief follow-up to Moral Panics and Body Cameras comments on the weeks after that essay was published and what those events show about the efficacy of body cameras and video evidence as a response to police-public conflicts.

From Garner To Graham And Beyond: Police Liability For Use Of Deadly Force — Ferguson Case Study, Kyle J. Jacob

Chicago-Kent Law Review

On August 9, 2014, an unarmed black teenager was shot to death by a white police officer in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, Missouri. Just over a year later, the dust has yet to settle. Since that fateful afternoon, tensions between law enforcement and segments of American society seem to have reached a critical mass. Far, far too many tragedies have ensued. The wildfire that is social media has led to a polarization and politicization of what unfortunately seem to have become competing movements. “Black Lives Matter” and “Police Lives Matter” have somehow become competing socio-political battle cries. While …

"That Was The Day Them Folks Was Like, We Ain't Afraid No More" A Community Case Study Of The Ferguson Uprising, Brent Patrick Taylor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Ferguson Uprising was ignited by the August 2014 police killing of a Black teen in a St. Louis, Missouri suburb. In order to understand the Uprising, a community case study method is utilized which combines an analysis of the historical, political and economic context of Ferguson and North St. Louis County with an interpretive phenomenological analysis of interviews with 10 Ferguson area residents who participated in the Uprising. The study began by asking why such a militant uprising occurred in Ferguson. Through a reflexive process the study expanded to ask questions about the meanings community members held of the …

Keynote Remarks, Vanita Gupta

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

In communities across America today, from Ferguson, Missouri, to Flint, Michigan, too many people—especially young people and people of color—live trapped by the weight of poverty and injustice. They suffer the disparate impact of policies driven by, at best, benign neglect, and at worst, deliberate indifference. And they see how discrimination stacks the deck against them. So today, as we discuss the inequality that pervades our criminal justice system—a defining civil rights challenge of the 21st century—we must also acknowledge the broader inequalities we face in other segments of society. Because discrimination in so many areas—from the classroom, to the …

Post-Ferguson Social Engineering: Problem-Solving Justice Or Just Posturing, Mae C. Quinn

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Civil Arrest? (Another) St. Louis Case Study In Unconstitutionality, Mae Quinn, Eirik Cheverud

Journal Articles

This Article advances a simple claim in need of enforcement in this country right now: no person may be arrested for an alleged violation of civil, as opposed to criminal, law. Indeed, courts have long interpreted the Fourth Amendment as prohibiting arrest except when probable cause exists to believe that a crime has been committed and that the defendant is the person who committed the crime. However, in many places police take citizens into custody without a warrant for the non-criminal conduct of allegedly breaking civil laws. This unfortunate phenomenon received national attention in St. Louis, Missouri following the death …