U.S. Dept. of Justice report highlights large racial bias in Ferguson

World Today

Federal investigators say shocking examples of racial discrimination is happening at the hands of the Ferguson police department in the U.S. state of Missouri. Ferguson was made infamous recently after the highly publicized killing of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown by white Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, sparking months of protests.

CCTV’s Roee Ruttenberg reports from Washington DC.

Highlights:

  • US Justice Department officials say they have found patterns of racial bias in the Ferguson, Missouri, police department.
  • The US Justice Department report confirms that Ferguson, Missouri’s predominantly white police department repeatedly discriminated against the city’s African-American residents.
  • The DOJ report found black Americans account for just two-thirds of Ferguson’s population, yet between 2012 and 2014, their cars were most frequently pulled-over and searched.
  • The report also shows that black Americans in Ferguson received nearly all of the citations handed out by Ferguson police and they disproportionately filled the jails, accounting for 93 percent of arrests.
  • U.S. Attorney General Holder commissioned the report and recommended a number of institutional changes for the city of Ferguson, its police department and its courts.
  • White House officials said they support the report and its conclusions.

Read the full Department of Justice report: