Obama criticizes Ferguson as city seeks settlement over racial bias

President Barack Obama condemned the Missouri city of Ferguson on Friday for “oppressive and abusive” actions against African-Americans that were laid bare in a U.S. Justice Department report accusing police and court officials of racial bias. The Justice Department said it found that the mostly white police force routinely targeted African-Americans for arrests and ticketing, in part to raise revenue for the city through fines and fees. It found a pattern of officers using excessive force and illegally arresting people without cause, deploying attack dogs and tasers on unarmed people “unreasonably.”

What we saw was that the Ferguson Police Department in conjunction with the municipality saw traffic stops, arrests, tickets as a revenue generator, as opposed to serving the community, and that it systematically was biased against African-Americans in that city who were stopped, harassed, mistreated, abused, called names, fined.

U.S. President Barack Obama

Ferguson Mayor James Knowles said three city workers who demonstrated “egregious racial bias” are no longer employed by the city, and said Ferguson officials are pursuing other reforms to try to reach a settlement with the Justice Department. Police officers Rick Henke and William Mudd resigned on Thursday and Ferguson’s top court clerk, Mary Ann Twitty, was fired after the release of the Justice Department report on Wednesday. The president’s comments came as U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said on Friday dismantling the city’s police department was a possibility.

We are prepared to use all the power that we have… to ensure that the situation changes there. That means everything from working with them to coming up with an entirely new structure.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder

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