Holder May Dismantle Ferguson PD

In a vow to end what he called “appalling” racial misconduct by law enforcement officials inside the Ferguson Police Department, Attorney General Eric Holder said he is prepared to dismantle the entire police force if necessary.

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The U.S. Justice Department has completed a thorough investigation into the practices of the Ferguson, Missouri police force, after the shooting death of Michael Brown last year by former cop Darren Wilson. Although Holder found insufficient evidence to charge Wilson with murder, he did find several discrepancies within the department that were blatantly discriminatory against African-Americans.

In a scathing report released last week, the Justice Department’s civil rights division described the Ferguson police and Municipal Court as a system whose primary function was to make poor black people pay as many fines and fees as possible for petty offenses, real or invented. It called the system and some of its people racially discriminatory and the police brutal.

Investigators also found racist jokes and comments in email exchanges among police and court supervisors.  One of the messages said President Obama would not be in the White House for long, because “what black man holds a steady job for four years?” Another email depicted the president as a chimpanzee, while one contained a picture of a bare-chested African women, with the caption, “Michelle Obama’s High School Reunion.” Yet another email from June 2011 described a man trying to put his dogs on welfare because the canines were “mixed in color, unemployed, lazy, can’t speak English and have no … clue who their Daddies are.”

William Mudd, Rick Henke and Mary Ann Twitty

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Police officers Capt. Rick Henke and Sgt. William Mudd resigned last week over the emails, while the city’s top court clerk, Mary Ann Twitty, was fired for her role, as well as her preferential treatment toward friends.

“Your ticket of $200 has magically disappeared!” read one email from the clerk to a friend. “It’s gone baby!” the clerk wrote to another, while steadily fining poor black citizens for minor or non-existent offenses.

None of the police or court officials were ever disciplined for their racist remarks and the emails were merely circulated freely — until the Justice Dept. stepped in.

“We are prepared to use all the powers that we have, all the power that we have, to ensure that the situation changes there,” Mr. Holder said. “That means everything from working with them to coming up with an entirely new structure.”  When asked if that included dismantling the police force, Mr. Holder said: “If that’s what’s necessary, we’re prepared to do that.”