Mediaboss Marketing

Law enforcement officers watch on during a protest on West Florissant Avenue in Ferguson, Missouri on August 18, 2014. Michael B. Thomas/AFP/Getty Images

In the eyes of many progressives and civil rights advocates, the police shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri earlier this month was a tragic and familiar story: the latest example of the law enforcement community's prejudiced administration of justice.

Now, a group of notables and activists, joined by several members of the Congressional Black Caucus, are demanding the establishment of a federal police "czar," employed by the Justice Department, to oversee local law enforcement practices and help prevent racial bias in policing.

Play Video

Nearly 2,500 people gathered to memorialize Michael Brown, the teenager who was shot dead by police in Ferguson, Missouri. The memorial was atten...

Play Video

In January 2009, Alex Landau was almost beaten to death by Denver police during a traffic stop. None of the officers involved were prosecuted or ...

"In cities across America, local law enforcement units too often treat low-income neighborhoods populated by African Americans and Latinos as if they are military combat zones instead of communities where people strive to live, learn, work, play and pray in peace and harmony," explained a letter to President Obama posted as an advertisement in Monday's Washington Post.

The letter was signed by more than 100 people, including CBC Chairwoman Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka, and Jim Wallis, the president of Sojourners, a left-leaning faith-based organization.

Brown is "is only the latest in a long list of black men and boys who have died under eerily similar circumstances," the letter added. "The pattern is too obvious to be a coincidence and too frequent to be a mistake."

Read more:
In wake of Ferguson shooting, progressives demand federal police czar