A report on the Department of Justice’s civil-rights inquiry into the Ferguson Police Department will include details of racially charged emails sent by officers and court officials, according to sources who spoke with St. Louis Today. The report will also pinpoint racial bias in the department’s policing procedures.
Among its reported findings:
- While African-Americans make up 67 percent of Ferguson’s population, they accounted for 85 percent of vehicle stops, 90 percent of citations, and 93 percent of arrests.
- African-American drivers were “twice as likely as white drivers to be searched during vehicle stops but were 26 percent less likely to be in possession of illegal material,” according to St. Louis Today.
- 88 percent of documented uses of police force were used against African-Americans.
- 95 percent of people held in jail for longer than two days were African-American.
And then there are the racist emails. From St. Louis Today again:
One, written in November of 2008, said that Barack Obama could not be president for four years because “what black man holds a steady job for four years.”
Another, written in May 2011, read: “An African-American woman in New Orleans was admitted into the hospital for a pregnancy termination. Two weeks later she received a check for $5,000. She phoned the hospital to ask who it was from. The hospital said, ‘Crimestoppers.’ ”
The DOJ’s report could be made public by Attorney General Eric Holder as early as Wednesday.
