article_snippet.sent: Analysis of more than 35,000 pages of police records in Ferguson last month found racist comments from officers as well as statistics that showed African-Americans make up 93 percent of arrests while accounting for only 67 percent of the population in Ferguson, an unnamed department official said.
article_snippet.sent: The Department of Justice report also found that 88 per cent of people against whom police used excessive force were black.
article_snippet.sent: According to figures recorded between 2012 and 2014, blacks were also twice as likely to be searched than whites during traffic stops, though contraband showed up more during searches of white drivers.
article_snippet.sent: What's more, charges for minor violations such as 'manner of walking in roadway' disproportionately affected black residents and were used 'not as a public service, but as a tool for raising revenue.'
article_snippet.sent: Nationwide protests of police actions that resulted in deaths of African Americans in Ferguson, New York and Cleveland laid bare racial tensions and what President Barack Obama called 'simmering distrust' between police and communities.
article_snippet.sent: Black offenders are also less likely to have Black offenders cases dismissed by a municipal judge and Black offenders are more likely to be taken into custody on outstanding warrants during traffic stops, compared to Black offenders white counterparts.
article_snippet.sent: The report's findings vindicate critics who have cited a pattern of abuse in Ferguson.
article_snippet.sent: What it shows is that a culture existed and was allowed to fester in Ferguson municipal government and Ferguson Police Department.