ISU professor comments on Ferguson discrimination

Posted on March 4, 2015

Ferguson was the site of protests against police last year. (Flickr)

By Terry James

NORMAL – A civil rights investigation by the U-S Justice Department has found that the police and courts in Ferguson, Missouri showed a pattern of discrimination against African-Americans. 

Illinois State University Professor of Criminal Justice Michael Gizzi tells WJBC's Dan Swaney this is not just a Missouri problem.

"In this country we have a lot of data from the Illinois traffic stop studies that have been done now for decades and we see disparities in Illinois as well," says Gizzi. "But, what you're seeing in Ferguson is the extreme."

Gizzi says some students in his classes want to become police officers to change the current trends.

Terry James can be reached at [email protected].

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