2nd LD Writethru: U.S. Attorney General says Ferguson police officers biased against black communities

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on Wednesday said a widespread discrimination against the black communities existed among law enforcement officials in Ferguson, warning that the Department of Justice (DOJ) reserves the rights to force immediate change in Ferguson policing and court practice.

Holder said both policing and municipal court practices were found by a DOJ report to "disproportionately harm" African American residents. The report also found local authorities in Ferguson approached law enforcement as a way to "generate revenue" and excessively used unjustified force.

"As detailed in our searing report, this investigation found a community that was deeply polarized, and where distrust and hostility often characterized interactions between police and area residents," said Holder at a press conference to unveil the investigation report.

The 100-page DOJ report laid out patterns or practice in both Ferguson Police Department and the municipal court and found out that both institutions had deviated from its supposed function of protecting citizens and had engaged in a widespread pattern or practice of violations of the U.S. Constitution or federal law.

"Seen in this context - amid a highly toxic environment, defined by mistrust and resentment, stoked by years of bad feelings (between local police officers and the public), and spurred by illegal and misguided practices - it is not difficult to imagine how a single tragic incident set off the city of Ferguson like a power keg," said Holder.

The Attorney General urged both Ferguson Police Department and Municipal Court to undertake "meaningful, sustainable and verifiable" reforms to restore trust with the local communities, warning that the DOJ reserves all rights and abilities to force compliance and implement basic change.

Meanwhile, the DOJ report also cleared former police officer Darren Wilson from civil rights violations in his deadly shooting of the unarmed black man Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri last summer.

"There is no evidence upon which prosecutors can rely to disprove Wilson's stated subjective belief that he feared for his safety," the DOJ said in a report, concluding that "Wilson's actions do not constitute prosecutable violations" of relevant federal civil rights law.

The DOJ investigation was ordered by Holder after the deadly shooting occurred in Ferguson last August.

Widespread protests erupted last year after local grand juries declined to indict police officers involved in the Ferguson incident and the choking death of black man Eric Garner on Staten Island in New York City. Enditem