Ferguson mayor: ‘Conventional wisdom didn’t hold up’

Insight

Nearly one year after violent protests and riots in the U.S. city of Ferguson, the city’s mayor tells CCTV America’s Asieh Namdar that mistakes were made in the police response.

Mayor James Knowles said there were things that the city would do differently in the future.

“Some [police] commanders didn’t feel the unrest would last as long as it did,” Knowles said. “The conventional wisdom didn’t hold up.”


CCTV America anchor Asieh Namdar pressed Knowles about two separate reports from the U.S. Department of Justice, which found evidence of racial bias in police policies in Ferguson and issues with how police responded to the unrest last year.

Efforts to repair relations between U.S. police and the communities they serve is being stepped up, especially in cities like Ferguson where a high profile police shooting happened. The town has implemented a set of initiatives called “Moving Ferguson Forward.”

Police shootings raised protests this past year in the U.S. after deaths at the hands of police. Little is known about how many are killed by U.S. police officers every year as the data is not officially tracked. Many of the killings are ruled ‘justified’, and no charges are filed. CCTV America’s Roee Ruttenberg filed this report from the U.S. state of Maryland.