A St. Louis Alderman who received national attention for his coverage of the protests in Ferguson, Mo. on social media last year is calling for the resignation of Ferguson’s police chief.
Alderman Antonio French spoke to HuffPost Live Wednesday about how drastic changes need to be made in light of the new Justice Department Report.
“[It] really just confirms what many of us already knew and what has been experience by many African Americans here in the St.Louis region for quite some time,” he told HuffPost Live in on Wednesday. “Some of the specific details were shocking, [but] there’s a culture that’s been allowed to fester in Ferguson and one that’s really been experienced by African Americans for years and boiled over last year.”
In the report, the DOJ found that Ferguson’s police were arresting African Americans at a disproportionate rate, using racial slurs and excessive force, spreading racist emails at work and writing punitive tickets to residents for often specious, petty reasons.
With a report so damning, French thinks it’s time for some heads to roll.
“My recommendation is that immediately there needs to be some level of accountability,” he said. “For the last seven months I’ve been calling for the resignation of the Chief of the Ferguson Police department and I think some of the specific details outlined in this Department of Justice report really make it impossible for him to stay there. When you have the culture that exists with these racist emails… the stats alone suggest he needs to go.”
Watch more of what French had to say below.
