Federal Inquiry of Ferguson Police Will Include Apparent Racial Profiling

[kpete]

Federal Inquiry of Ferguson Police Will Include Apparent Racial Profiling
By MATT APUZZOSEPT. 4, 2014


WASHINGTON — The Justice Department’s civil rights investigation into the police department in Ferguson, Mo., will focus on whether officers there made discriminatory traffic stops, mistreated prisoners or used excessive force in the years before last month’s fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white officer, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said on Thursday.

Mr. Holder said the decision to open the inquiry was influenced by his trip to Ferguson after the shooting of the teenager, Michael Brown, 18, led to protests and confrontations with heavily armed police officers. Residents complained that the police had abused their authority for years and disproportionately targeted African-Americans for stops and searches.

“These anecdotal accounts underscored the history of mistrust of law enforcement in Ferguson,” Mr. Holder said.




http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/05/us/racial-profiling-by-ferguson-police-to-be-part-of-federal-inquiry.html

[Gothmog]

1. The investigation into racial profiling is needed