IOP-Lessons From Ferguson Ronald Johnson and Charlene Carruthers
423 views · Published 29 January 2015 · 7:45 · Indexed 20 September 2026
Channel: UChicago Institute of Politics · 2015 · News & Politics
Capt. Ronald Johnson of the Missouri State Highway Patrol & Charlene Carruthers of the Black Youth Project 100 debate the future of policing in this country. JOHNSON: “Policing is going to be around. It is going to be around. Is it perfect? No, it’s not. You talked about being stopped when you were 23 years old and how that affected you. I got stopped at 16. A boy at 16 who thought he was tough and I went home and by the time I talked to my mother, I was in tears because of what happened at that traffic stop… When I was in charge of Ferguson, we shot tear gas two nights… I can tell you those were the toughest decisions I’ve ever made, but when I made them and I knew that people were out there who were going to endure that, I said I’m going to endure it with them, so I never put my gas mask on. Never." CARRUTHERS: “You said something that was really interesting to me, that police will always be here. I’m not convinced… I do believe that we have a very strong possibility to have alternative systems where we are able to deal with conflict and harm in our communities that are not tied to the state in the way that they are tied today. That absolutely fundamentally has to change. There are reform ways that we can get there by taking power away from the police and there are ways that we can get there by creating new systems. How do we actually have restorative justice in our communities where when there is harm that is done my first response is not to call the police because when I was a child and the police came to my house they were not ever helpful?” If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to [email protected].
