“Police officers in Ferguson, Mo., have routinely violated the constitutional rights of the city’s black residents, the Justice Department has concluded in a scathing report that accuses the officers of using excessive force and making unjustified traffic stops for years.
The Justice Department, which opened its investigation after a white Ferguson police officer shot and killed a black teenager last summer, says the discrimination was fueled in part by racial stereotypes held by city officials. Investigators say the officials made racist jokes about blacks on their city email accounts…
Black motorists were twice as likely as whites to be searched but were less likely to be found in possession of contraband such as drugs or guns.
The findings reinforce what the city’s African-American residents have been saying publicly for the past year: that years of discrimination and mistrust created the volatile environment that erupted after Mr. Brown’s shooting.”
I’m also thinking about – what if it actually found that the black citizens of Ferguson were more likely to be committing crimes or whatever. Would everything be okay then? Like, what level of race-based harassment of a community could be legitimized.
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