Ferguson Political Leader: DOJ Report Validates Protesters

Transcript

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

And we're going to hear some reaction now from Patricia Bynes. She is a Democratic committeewoman of Ferguson Township. Welcome back to the program.

PATRICIA BYNES: Thank you.

BLOCK: And first of all, overall, your reactions to the overall conclusion of the Justice Department that police have been routinely violating the constitutional rights of Ferguson's black residents.

BYNES: Well, my first initial reaction was first a sigh of relief that everything that the community and protesters here have been saying has been validated. People have not been in the streets for months and fighting against this - not just the police department but also the most municipal courts - for nothing. So this gives us the hard data and a lot more detail into exactly the type of practices that have been taking place. And then, of course, just anger to actually see the arrogance and the ignorance and how embedded and nasty that this is. To tell racist jokes on taxpayers' time using e-mail and to think that this is OK - to know that dogs, they're used to attack people. To read this kind of stuff, it's really heart-wrenching.

BLOCK: You mentioned the hard data and the numbers that emerged in this report. Carrie mentioned them. The black population of Ferguson, 67 percent, but blacks make up 93 percent of the arrests - 88 percent of the cases where police used force. Were you at all surprised by those numbers?

BYNES: No. This is an unfortunate reality that we have been living with. What data does is makes it so that way you really can't dispute it. We've had an investigation. At first, through the initial - our city defenders came out with a report, but this gives a lot more detail to exactly what's been going on. So I'm not surprised. But we have the hard data here, and nobody can say this does not happen. You can't say the community is exaggerating or taking anything out of context. This is exactly what the reality is here.

BLOCK: There was a lot of anger in Ferguson when Officer Wilson was not indicted for shooting Michael Brown. Carrie just mentioned that the Justice Department isn't expected to bring civil rights charges against him. If this patterns and practices investigation does lead to real changes in policing in Ferguson, will you be satisfied with that?

BYNES: This needs to lead to real changes in policing not just in Ferguson, but in the St. Louis region because this is not just a Ferguson issue. And I'm hoping that this wakes people up across this country because this is not just taking place in the St. Louis region. Will I be satisfied? You know, we have a lot of adjustments to make because it's not just the police culture. It's the municipal court structure that's also has a huge blame. And that - they go hand in hand. The revenue derived from the municipal courts is what's driving the police interaction and the racial profiling. So we have to fix both. One is not going to do without the other. But then there are clearly other things that have to change in order to make these two things change as well.

BLOCK: And if the Justice Department wants to restore trust in the Ferguson community, does that seem doable to you?

BYNES: That's going to be a very long process. This did not happen overnight. This is ingrained, institutional racism that we're dealing with. That may not even happen in our lifetime. And the first steps of that are going to be people who are going to step up and have to take responsibility for this. They've either looked the other way while these patterns and practices have continued, or they've helped - been a part of the system. So the first thing that really needs to happen is people need to stand up and take responsibility for this. And that's going to go a long way in restoring some trust.

BLOCK: OK, well, Ms. Bynes, thanks very much for talking with us again.

BYNES: Thank you.

BLOCK: That's Patricia Bynes, Democratic committeewoman of Ferguson Township, Mo. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.