Eric Holder: Ferguson Police Cultivated A #39;Toxic #39; Environment
Attorney General Eric Holder said the tensions between law enforcement and residents that erupted after the killing of Michael Brown were unsurprising given the "toxic" environment created...
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Eric Holder: Ferguson Police Cultivated A 'Toxic' Environment - Video
Police Officer Won #39;t Face Charges Federal Charges In Ferguson Shooting
However, in a highly critical reports Attorney General Eric Holder said Ferguson police routinely targeted African-Americans. CBS2 #39;s Adriana Diaz reports.
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Police Officer Won't Face Charges Federal Charges In Ferguson Shooting - Video
WTF! Ferguson Police Used Dogs Exclusively On African-Americans
http://www.undergroundworldnews.com Eric Holder Announced Shocking Details in Regards to the DOJ Investigation Into the Ferguson Police Department.
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WTF! Ferguson Police Used Dogs Exclusively On African-Americans - Video
People rally to demand Justice for Michael Brown stand in solidarity with the people of Ferguson and demand police reform in Washington, DC, on October 4, 2014. AFP PHOTO/YURI GRIPAS (Photo credit should read YURI GRIPAS/AFP/Getty Images)
People march to demand Justice for Michael Brown stand in solidarity with the people of Ferguson and demand police reform in Washington, DC, on October 4, 2014. AFP PHOTO/YURI GRIPAS (Photo credit should read YURI GRIPAS/AFP/Getty Images)
FERGUSON, MO - SEPTEMBER 30: Brianna Smith holds up the arms of her 11-month-old son, Ethan Smith, during protests across the street from the police department on September 30, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri. Protests continued in the St. Louis suburb after the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown. (Photo by Whitney Curtis/Getty Images)
FERGUSON, MO - SEPTEMBER 30: Protesters gather in front of the police department on September 30, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri. Protests continued in the St. Louis suburb after the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown. (Photo by Whitney Curtis/Getty Images)
FERGUSON, MO - SEPTEMBER 30: Protesters gather in front of the police department on September 30, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri. Protests continued in the St. Louis suburb after the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown. (Photo by Whitney Curtis/Getty Images)
FERGUSON, MO - SEPTEMBER 30: Ferguson Mayor James Knowles (L) speaks with resident Juanita Stone after a town hall meeting with local government officials and residents on September 30, 2014 at Our Lady of Guadalupe in Ferguson, Missouri. Protests continue in the St. Louis suburb after the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown. (Photo by Whitney Curtis/Getty Images)
The parents of Michael Brown, Lesley McSpadden, left, and Michael Brown, Sr., right, talk to The Associated Press during an interview in Washington, Saturday, Sept. 27, 2014. Michael Brown's parents say they are unmoved by the Ferguson police chief's apology in their son's shooting death by a police officer. Instead, McSpadden and Brown Sr. told The Associated Press they would rather see an arrest, and Brown Sr. said he wants the police officer "in handcuffs." (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
The mother of Michael Brown, Lesley McSpadden, wears a shirt showing a message she wrote to her children during her interview with The Associated Press in Washington, Saturday, Sept. 27, 2014. She and her son's father Michael Brown, Sr., told the Associated Press Saturday that they are unmoved by the Ferguson, Missouri Police Chief Tom Jackson's apology in their son's shooting death by a police officer. McSpadden said "yes" when asked whether Jackson should be fired. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
A fire burns Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2014 at a memorial in Ferguson, Mo., on the site where a Missouri police officer fatally shot 18-year-old Michael Brown. Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson says the cause is under investigation. He says the first officer to arrive tried to extinguish the blaze but couldn't. The Fire Department eventually put it out. (AP Photo/Jacob Crawford)
Brown family attorney Anthony Gray, center, speaks as he is flanked by Michael Brown's parents Lesley McSpadden, left, and Michael Brown Sr., right, during a news conference Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2014, in Ferguson, Mo. The news conference was held to call for the arrest of Darren Wilson, the Ferguson police officer responsible for Michael Brown's fatal shooting on Aug. 9. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
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Eric Holder: Ferguson Police Created A 'Toxic' Environment
Attorney General Eric Holder delivers remarks about the Justice Department's findings related to two investigations in Ferguson, Missouri, at the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building March 4, 2015 in Washington, DC. Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images
Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday that "implicit and explicit racial bias" in the Ferguson, Missouri police department created the atmosphere for the intense and angry reaction of the community after unarmed 18-year-old black teenager Michael Brown was shot to death over the summer.
The Justice Department (DOJ) announced earlier in the day that it would not prosecute Darren Wilson, the officer who shot Brown. He was similarly cleared by a grand jury in November. At the same time, however, the department released a scathing report that found evidence of disproportionate use of force toward blacks by the city's police department.
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Federal investigators believe the Ferguson police department is racially biased. The Justice Department is due to release a report Wednesday spel...
"This investigation found a community that was deeply polarized; a community where deep distrust and hostility often characterized interactions between police and area residents," Holder said. He described Ferguson as "a community where local authorities consistently approached law enforcement not as a means for protecting public safety, but as a way to generate revenue. A community where both policing and municipal court practices were found to disproportionately harm African American residents. A community where this harm frequently appears to stem, at least in part, from racial bias - both implicit and explicit."
The "highly toxic environment" created by years of problems explains why Ferguson was set off "like a powder keg" after Brown's death, Holder said.
The attorney general attributed the lack of trust in the community to "numerous constitutional violations by their law enforcement officials including First Amendment abuses, unreasonable searches and seizures, and excessive and dangerous use of force; exacerbated by severely disproportionate use of these tactics against African Americans; and driven by overriding pressure from the city to use law enforcement not as a public service, but as a tool for raising revenue."
Holder said the department interviewed and re-interviewed more than 300 residents as part of its investigation, and analyzed statistics about citations and arrests and work emails from the department.
He cited several examples, including a woman who had paid fines well in excess of the parking tickets that she owed and was still arrested for having unpaid tickets, and a man who lost his job after an officer searched him without cause and then arrested him after he objected. The Ferguson police department's use of Tasers, Holder said, was "not merely unconstitutional, but abusive and dangerous."
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Eric Holder: "Implicit and explicit racial bias" in Ferguson policing