Norm Stamper - To Protect and Serve

Copyright 2016 by Norm Stamper.

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Designed by Timm Bryson

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Stamper, Norm, author.

Title: To protect and serve: how to fix Americas police / Norm Stamper.

Description: 1 Edition. | New York: Nation Books, 2016. | Includes index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016000403| ISBN 9781568585413 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: PoliceUnited States. | Law enforcementUnited States. | Police misconductUnited States. | Community policingUnited States. | BISAC: POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Freedom & Security / Law Enforcement. | SOCIAL SCIENCE / Criminology. | POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Freedom & Security / Civil Rights.

Classification: LCC HV8139. S675 2016 | DDC 363.20973dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016000403

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To the survivors:

Those who have lost loved ones through wrongful acts of law enforcement Those who have lost police officers to on-the-job violence

Table of Contents

CONTENTS

ITS A QUIET SATURDAY morning, a pleasant 82F in Ferguson, Missouri. Patrol officer Darren Wilson, who began work at 6:30 a.m., responds to a midshift 911 call from a woman at Park Ridge Apartments: a man is out to shoot her. By the time the twenty-eight-year-old patrol officer arrives, the suspect is gone, and the complainant declines to pursue charges.

Wilson clears the call, ready for whatever crops up next in the 911 queue. He is dispatched right away to the Northwinds Apartment complex. A two-year-old is having difficulty breathing; emergency medical personnel will soon be on scene. Wilson gets there quickly, sticks around, reassures the mother before watching the ambulance drive off with its little patient.

Back in his marked Chevy Tahoe, Wilson motors down Canfield Drive, where he spots a couple of young black men strolling down the middle of the street. Not safe for them, plus theyre interfering with traffic. The officer stops about twelve yards away, gets out of his car and approaches. Hey, Mike.

Yeah? the bigger of the two says. He is eighteen-year-old Michael Brown, his companion twenty-two-year-old Dorian Johnson. What you want? Brown asks.

Just wondering why youre walking in the middle of the street. Why dont you try the sidewalk? Safer there.

Fuck what you have to say, Brown says. He doesnt shout it, but he doesnt whisper it, either.

Wilson calls for backup, then smiles at Brown. Really, Im not here to cause any problems.

And he isnt. He loves working the Canfield Green community, enjoys the diversity of the area. As a white cop in a black neighborhood, he gets it. He understands the chip-on-the-shoulder attitudes, especially among young black men. His fellow cops have labeled Canfield Green anti-police, their most charitable pet name. They stop and frisk everything that moves and write traffic tickets by the bucketfulgenerating revenue, safeguarding their salaries, adding to the economic hardship of the areas low-income residents. They make skinny arrests, most for low-level, nonviolent drug offenses and a panoply of constitutionally shaky municipal code violations, often fabricating probable causeif they bother with it at all. They misuse their batons, their dogs, their Tasers. And they pepper their speech and e-mails with racial slurs, ridiculing the nations first black president and his wife, and the nations first two black attorneys general. But Wilson, one of the departments fifty white cops (four others are black, in a city whose population is over two-thirds African American), works hard to get along with the residents, forging positive relations, aiming to build trust. In fact, he believes a big part of his job is to create a partnership with the people on his beat, to work collaboratively with them to solve problems. More than anything, he wants to put an end to the deep-seated, historical animosity between the community and his police department.

Seriously, I just want you guys to be safe.

Then why you always hassling us? Brown says, his tone softening. We aint done nothing wrong.

Wilson notices that Brown is clutching a fistful of cigarillos. During his last call, the officer overheard other units being dispatched to a theft from Ferguson Market and Liquor, a convenience store not far from Canfield. The loot? Cigarillos. The crime report has been upgraded from misdemeanor shoplifting to strong-arm robbery, a felony. Wilson plays it cool. Alert, fully aware of his surroundings, he nevertheless assumes a nonthreatening stance and speaks in calm, soothing tones. Last thing Im gonna do is hassle you guys. You got my word.

They chat like that briefly, Brown continuing to goad Wilson, the officer refusing to get sucked in. Ninety seconds after his request, a backup unit pulls in, followed immediately by another. Wilson briefs his fellow cops, one of whom had taken the report at the convenience store. Our guy? Wilson says, glancing over at Brown.

The officer nods.

When Wilson informs Brown what hes learned about the crime, that it was captured on CCTV, the youth shakes his head and sighs. He surrenders the cigarillos and puts his hands behind his back. Wilson cuffs him without incident.

THE COP AND THE prisoner talk on the way to jail. Seriously, Mike. Whats it like out here for you? I mean, dealing with your police department?

My police department? Thats some crackass bullshit. He pauses. Wilson says nothing. Truth is, its messed up, man. You guys jack us around all the time, for nothing. Its nigga this and nigga that. Always stopping us for no reason, throwing us to the ground, busting us for failure to comply...

Tell you what, Wilson says as he removes the cuffs inside the new sally port of the city jail at police headquarters. Ill have a talk with the prosecutor. Not making any promises, but it might help. But, you gotta know: what you did in that store was bad, real bad. You gotta promise, no more. Word?

Brown hesitates for the longest time, then nods. Word, Officer Wilson. No more.

Wilson has heard it before, but he believes the kid.

The next day, Wilson chats up the prosecutor, puts in a good word for the young defendant. Originally charged with robbery, Brown cops a negotiated plea to misdemeanor theft. He pays a small fine, gets credit for time served, and is assigned three weekends of community service.