While I’m pleased that the offending officer is going to jail, I think it’s important to point out that Inkster is an economically disadvantaged community, and the $1.4M settlement is going to be paid by the residents in the form of a special assessment on their property taxes.
So not only are the predominantly black residents of Inkster very possibly getting harassed with regularity from its predominantly white police force, but now they get punished some more by having to directly pay the settlement a couple particularly racist white cops precipitated. I’m so disgusted right now. Most communities have insurance policies to pay out such settlements, it’s a bit unheard of around here for taxpayers to get hit directly for police malfeasance.
