Holder keeps Ferguson guessing over threatened lawsuit

By WND Staff

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A few months ago when left-leaning activists were posturing over the tragedy in Ferguson, Missouri, that left black teenager Michael Brown dead in an apparent self-defense shooting by police officer Darren Wilson, there were concerns that the Department of Justice’s intervention was only making things worse.

Now, Townhall’s Katie Pavlich has obtained a copy of a letter to President Obama from Ron Hoski, a former FBI assistant director, charging “damage” has been done to the relationship between police and the DOJ.

“The hyper-politicization of justice issues has made it immeasurably more difficult for police officers to simply do their jobs,” he wrote. “The growing divide between the police and the people – perhaps best characterized by protesters in Ferguson, Missouri, who angrily chanted, ‘It’s not black or white. It’s blue!’ – only benefits … members of a political class seeking to vilify law enforcement for other societal failures.”

It appears little has changed, as Liberty News ran the headline “Holder Strikes One Last Time” in reference to reports that the Department of Justice was hurriedly preparing a lawsuit against Ferguson police before Holder leaves office.

The Associated Press quoted city officials saying they had not heard anything about any action, and WND was unable to obtain a response because the voice mail for the city media relations office was filled and couldn’t accept messages.

The report said Stephanie Karr, the Ferguson city attorney, and Mayor James Knowles III reported no contact regarding any Department of Justice investigation findings or a time frame for completing the task.

“We haven’t had any recent conversations with the Department of Justice, so we don’t know what they’re going to say,” Knowles said.

Just within the last day, CNN reported the DOJ was preparing a lawsuit “over a pattern of racially discriminatory tactics used by officers, if the police department does not agree to make changes on its own.”

A grand jury declined to indict Wilson in the shooting based on evidence indicating Brown had been the aggressor, reaching into Wilson’s police vehicle to try to take away his service weapon.

The CNN report said sources reported Wilson would not face federal counts, but the DOJ wants court supervision of changes inside the department to its procedures.

The left-leaning Think Progress, under Carimah Townes’ byline, suggested that there might not be a lawsuit after all.

“This is also not the first time Holder has launched investigations into police departments and forced them to make substantive reforms. By the time he announced his plan to resign last September, he’d initiated 20 department probes across the country, from Miami to Portland. And after those investigations turned up patterns of misconduct, such as ‘police brutality, abuse of the mentally ill, and excessive deadly force,’ those departments committed to making changes that lined up with DOJ recommendations.”

Liberty News’ Eric Odom suggested it smacked of politics.

“A grand jury fully investigated the now infamous Ferguson police shooting and found no wrong doing. Then, a federal investigation was launched and completed, which also found no wrong doing. But Obama and Holder apparently just can’t let Ferguson law enforcement move forward without it being officially labeled racist by the fed.”

St. Louis Today reported the DOJ had created a list of changes it wants, but the ideas haven’t been shared yet with the city.

Knowles told the newspaper he was disappointed in the way Washington has operated.

“They told me we would be kept in the loop every step of the way. That hasn’t happened, not one bit,” he said.

Police officials told a St. Louis television station they already have implemented some DOJ recommendations.

And Holder said, “I think everybody will see when we announce our results that the process that we have engaged in is, as I said back at the time when I went to Ferguson, independent, thorough, and based on all the facts.”

 

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