WASHINGTON
A Justice Department report set to be released as soon as Wednesday will likely reveal routine violations of constitutional rights, and widespread racial discrimination in the Ferguson, Missouri, police, judicial and penal systems.
The St. Louis suburb attracted global media attention after the August 2014 shooting death of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown by white police officer Darren Wilson. The incident ignited fierce street protests and elicited an initially heavy-handed police crackdown on protesters.
A grand jury declined to indict Wilson in November, reigniting public discontent, and a separate Justice Department report is likely to clear him of any civil rights violations during his encounter with the 18-year-old Brown.
But throughout the months of demonstrations that followed Brown’s death, residents maintained that they faced systemic racial discrimination by the town’s police, and doubted the chances that Brown would receive justice in the city’s courts.
The killing prompted the Justice Department to launch a months-long inquiry into the local police force there. The report is the culmination of that investigation.
It will say that blacks were unduly discriminated against throughout the city’s criminal justice system, according to media reports that cited a briefing by anonymous law enforcement officials.
Blacks constitute 93 percent of arrest in Ferguson, 85 percent of vehicle stops, and 88 percent of cases involving use of force to subdue a suspect. They are also twice as likely to be searched during traffic stops, but are less likely to be found in possession of contraband.
In the city's courts, blacks are targeted for arrest on outstanding warrants, according to the report.
The Justice Department’s investigators reportedly held hundreds of interviews, analyzed police stop data, and combed 35,000 pages of police records. Investigators also allegedly found racist e-mails about blacks on city officials’ accounts.
Among the jokes was reportedly one that made fun of President Barack Obama, saying he wouldn’t be president much longer because “what black man holds a steady job for four years.”
The city is roughly two-thirds black, but its police force is nearly all white. Its officials now have to decide whether to accept the report and work toward negotiating a settlement, or risk facing a federal constitutional rights lawsuit.
Ferguson officials reportedly met with the Justice Department in the city Tuesday to discuss the report.
