jakke:

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, says law enforcement met a broad public outcry over the Aug. 9 killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown with “militaristic displays of force and weaponry,” (and) engaged U.S. citizens “as if they were war combatants.”

Hey so Ferguson residents are suing the municipal government, the county government, the police chief, and other police officers over damages during the crackdown. The level of proof required to receive damages is way lower than the level of proof required to put officers in jail, so this suit probably has way more chance of success than any criminal charges. If the residents win compensation, this kind of suit is probably the closest the Ferguson police will come to facing any kind of repercussions.

This is probably the most clever way to go forward here; keep in mind that a successful case would not only “punish” the individuals/agencies concerned and set an example for others but would encourage the tactic otherwise which would probably serve to raise the cost of liability insurance (either for government agencies directly or individual cops, who would probably end up getting it through unions and affinity organizations). Unlike electorates, insurers don’t really give a shit about feels or public opinion in regards to Officer Friendly or the Negro Brute, exist on a broader geographic and chronological frame than any given election, and exert relentless pressure rather than sparking up after a media event and then forgetting about it when they get distracted by the next one. If they crank up rates by 50% and demand changes, training, “best practices”, whatever if you want to get them back down again, people are going to listen.

The downside of insurance companies being soulless economachines is that insurance companies are soulless economachines and will push their costs down however they can; put them on the hook and they’ll start lobbying legislatures, funding campaigns, and spending on cases to generate useful precedents with the goal of shielding police from liability, adding to whatever power police unions and local governments are already applying in that regard.

Tradeoffs.