On Wednesday, the Justice Department released two reports: One detailing the ways in which the Ferguson police department has been demonstrably racist over the past two years, and another explaining why federal civil rights charges will not be pursued against Darren Wilson, the police officer who killed Michael Brown in August.
The Washington Post reports that the DOJ found that there was "no evidence upon which prosecutors can rely to disprove Wilson's stated subjective belief that he feared for his safety" and that Wilson's killing of Brown did "not constitute a prosecutable violation."
The second reportdetails from which were reported yesterdayrevealed that black people accounted for 93 percent of all arrests in Ferguson from 2012 to 2014, plus 88 percent of cases in which the police used force, 85 percent of traffic stops, and 90 percent of all citations.
The report includes several horrific examples of police brutality:
The DOJ also uncovered seven racist emails written by Ferguson officials and police officers, including one which said President Obama would not stay in office for long because "what black man holds a steady job for four years" and another that described black women having abortions as a way to lower crime rates.
"As detailed in our report, this investigation found a community that was deeply polarized, and where deep distrust and hostility often characterized interactions between police and area residents," Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said, according to the Washington Post. "Our investigation showed that Ferguson police officers routinely violate the Fourth Amendment in stopping people without reasonable suspicion, arresting them without probable cause, and using unreasonable force against them."
