Ferguson releases racist emails from former city official, officers
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Racist emails released Friday by the city of Ferguson reveal that most were sent by a former city court clerk to two police officers and there is no indication other city officials were involved.
The emails were discovered during the investigation into the Aug. 9 shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown, who was black and unarmed, by Darren Wilson, a white police officer.
Most of the emails were sent from Court Clerk Mary Ann Twitty to police Capt. Rick Henke and Sgt. William Mudd.
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Twitty was eventually fired over the emails, while Henke and Mudd resigned. The Associated Press reports multiple names are redacted and that non-city employees are not named.
Wilson was not indicted by a grand jury in November and was also cleared of civil rights violations by the Justice Department in March.
A separate Justice Department report found widespread racial bias in Ferguson’s policing efforts and the municipal court system, which it said was driven by profit mostly extracted from black low-income residents.
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The report cited a series of inappropriate messages sent by an unspecified number of city employees, including one message that compared black welfare recipients to mixed-breed dogs. Several of the emails focused on President Obama, including one that stated he wouldn't be in office for long because "what black man holds a steady job for four years."
The Associated Press contributed to this report