the justice department confirmed what residents of ferguson, missouri have long claimed, that the ferguson police department routinely disregards the rights of the people it is supposed to protect, especially those who are african-american. the department of justice found while african-americans make up only 67% of ferguson s population, 85% of people pulled over 90% of people issued tickets and 93% of people arrested were african-american. 88% of physical force was used against african-americans. and when police dogs have been ordered to bite they have bitten african-americans exclusively including an unarmed 16-year-old boy suspected of stealing a car who was dragged from his closet by his legs by a police dog and tased three times while the dog was still biting
our memory and history for two key reasons. one is about that struggle for the vote, but that has been a long struggle here in selma. it s really about that misuse of police power and kind of the whole country looking at it and saying this is obscene. this is not american this is not what we stand for. and although the individual officer in ferguson was not found culpable for federal charges, nonetheless, that report suggests that there s a set of patterns and practices in that police department which are similarly the sort of thing that this should not be america. who should be responsible for addressing that? we all are. it s bigger than ferguson. in my family i have three african-american stepsons and when my husband when they turned 16 years old, he had to take them to the police department and tell them where they lived and to quit pulling them over because they were african-american in a majority white neighborhood. so our family understands this.
senator mccaskill, thank you for joining us. i know you re part of a historic delegation here particularly for democrats who are here in selma today, why is it necessary to be here? first of all, it s important to celebrate a pivotal moment in our history, which bloody sunday was in terms of our country really standing for what our constitutional principles said. secondly, our voting rights are under attack again. in my state the missouri legislature has passed legislation to make it more difficult to vote. making sure that it is easy to express your opinion about the government in. the united states of america. you have to remain vigilant. and obviously, i m very focused on the report that came out from the department of justice on ferguson this week because that represents another bat thal we have to fight for equal justice under the law. this moment is burned into
so history has crashed into the present in terms of what s going on in ferguson. let me ask you about the three ferguson employees who sent racist e-mails who were fired or resigned and that includes a top court clerk. is that enough? it s not only not enough it s almost ludicrous. so we have an unarmed teenage boy who is dead and the person responsible for his death has not, in fact, faced any consequences consequences. someone forwards an e-mail and he is fired. frankly the entire department needs to be dismantled. ferguson is no worse or any better than any municipalities in the u.s. unless we are thinking about how we can systemically change from the top to the bottom then firing one or two people won t address the institutional racism that is obviously there s a breeding ground right there. i want to go back to melissa
it s not just that they are being racially profiled. it s racial profiling that s funding the towns that they live in. there s a a very serious revenue incentive there when you have a town of 21,000 people that budgets perspectively collect 2 2.7 million in fines and fees from their municipal courts. and i would say this is not just about ferguson. it would be a mistake to focus the attention solely on ferguson. i want you to say more about that in terms of what you know of the region. are these abuses limited to ferguson or how widespread are they? i mean let s not pretend. this is a region wide problem, it s an american problem, frankly. this is happening in georgia, it s happening in mississippi, it s happening in alabama, it s happening in california. we have effectively criminalized being black and being poor in