FERGUSON POLICE REMAIN DEFIANT IN IGNORING THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE'S MANDATE TO WEAR NAME TAGS

FEGUSON, MISSOURI POLICE DEPARTMENT

The tense situation in Ferguson, Mo. since the police shooting death of Mike Brown has persisted with curious actions from the officers present on the ground.

Despite being warned by U.S. Department Of Justice officials twice to display their names on department-issued uniforms, some officers have defiantly obscured these tags.

The Justice Department twice last week sent a pair of letters to the Ferguson Police Department regarding the name tag issue, with specific instructions to discontinue the act from its Civil Rights Division.

As stated in the first letter, “[T]he Justice Department said its investigators had observed Ferguson police officers not wearing, or obscuring, their name tags on their uniforms, a violation of the police department’s rules. The failure to wear name plates conveys a message to community members that, through anonymity, officers may seek to act with impunity.”

Several news outlets, including Reuters and Slate, have reported on the letters coming from the DOJ brass. The New York Times added that this past Sunday, an officer was spotted not wearing a name tag. When reporters approached the officer for his information, he vacated the scene.

To be clear, the second of the DOJ letters was more so focused on the so-called “solidarity bracelets” in support of Brown’s killer, officer Darren Wilson. The letter had instructions for the officers to remove these bracelets, adding the portion of the name tag issue within the body of the text.

No further correspondence from the Justice Department has come forth as of yet.