Critics slam Chris Christie for mentioning disputed 'Ferguson effect' during debate

Some say the rhetoric is a distraction from concerns of civil rights activists

Chris Christie yells at the CNBC Republican debate.

A leading civil rights lawyer has condemned remarks by Chris Christie, in which the New Jersey Governor blamed President Obama for “failing to support police officers.”

During Wednesday’s night Republican debate, Mr Christie referred to comments made earlier in the week by FBI Director James Comey. who claimed extra scrutiny on police in the year since the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, had exacerbated crime.

Some have called this idea the “Ferguson effect,” and it has drawn derision from civil rights activists, law enforcement officials and, on Monday, the White House.

“The evidence that we’ve seen so far doesn’t support the contention that law enforcement officials are somehow shirking their responsibility,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said on Monday at a news briefing in Washington.

Chris Christie prepares for interviews after the debate. Associated Press (Jeremy Papasso/Daily Camera/Associated Press)

Jonathan Smith, Associate Dean of Experiential and Clinical Programmes at the UDC David A Clarke School of Law and former head of the Special Litigation Section of the Department of Justice — which produced the Ferguson Report — told The Independent that Mr Christie’s comments were “very disturbing.”

“There’s no evidence that the police are withdrawing their services,” he said.

While there has been a rise in murders, it was not uniform across the US and “there’s nothing that links that rise to the attention that’s been paid to police misconduct in the last several years," Mr Smith continued.

Mr Smith said: “The real problem is that there’s a breakdown in the trust between police and the communities that they serve, and that trust is essential is to producing public safety.”

He added: “The other thing that’s very troubling about what Christie said in particular is [that it] points a finger at the president, and by implication, Attorney General Holder. This administration has been enormously supportive of police from the very beginning.”

Attorney General Eric Holder, who took office in 2009, has invested heavily in protecting officer safety.

He presented the Preventing Violence Against Law Enforcement and Ensuring Officer Resilience and Survivability [VALOR] initiative in 2010.

The initiative was created by the Department of Justice to specifically to reduce and prevent law enforcement officer line of duty injuries and deaths by training officers in techniques for approaching violence encounters.

Mr Smith added that: "the idea that police officers are choosing not to fulfill their duty really dishonours the majority of police officers who get up every morning and go to work and put on that badge and put on that uniform to do the right thing.”