Change is coming to Ferguson, Missouri, as yet another official has resigned. John Shaw, Ferguson city manager, announced his resignation on Tuesday during a meeting of the Ferguson city council. Shaw was specifically named in the recent U.S. Department of Justice report as being a major participant in the racist and discriminatory practices of the Ferguson Police Department and Ferguson court system.
The DOJ report said that Shaw was responsible for overseeing the police and courts as they engaged in racially biased practices. According to the DOJ report, an email was sent in March of 2010 from Shaw that read in part “unless ticket writing ramps up significantly before the end of the year, it will be hard to significantly raise collections next year.”
After that email new laws and increased fines were put in place that generated $179,000 in revenue for just one month. This amount was the highest monthly total generated by the courts in over four years. In response to the revenue windfall, Shaw sent another email to the city financial manager in which he called the amount generated “wonderful.”
Shaw’s resignation comes one day after Ferguson Municipal Court Judge Ronald Brockmeyer resigned and was replaced by a state appellate judge. The report by the DOJ has exposed widespread racism within the Ferguson city government and may lead to even more resignations.
