Local police and a former court clerk in the US city of Ferguson sent racially charged and religiously insensitive emails, copies of the emails released by the city show.
The emails comparing minority welfare recipients to dogs and making insensitive comments about Muslims and Islam were cited by the US Justice Department in its report issued last month.
The emails were released on Friday. Most of them, dating from 2008 to 2011, were sent by Court Clerk Mary Ann Twitty to police Capt. Rick Henke and Sgt. William Mudd.
The Justice Department report found widespread discrimination against people of color in the Ferguson police force and in court proceedings.
The St. Louis suburb of Ferguson came under spotlight after white police officer Darren Wilson killed unarmed black teenager Michel Brown on August 9, 2014, which led to massive Black Lives Matter protests across the country.
“We have found substantial evidence of racial bias among police and court staff in Ferguson,” the report said, citing the emails that described African American as criminals and joked about an abortion by a black woman being a means of crime control.
Mudd sent Twitty an email in 2011 that slammed welfare recipients.
“Last week I went to sign my dogs up for welfare. At first the lady said, ‘Dogs are not eligible to draw welfare,’” the email reads. “So I explained to her that my dogs are mixed in color, unemployed, lazy, can’t speak English and have no frigging clue who their Daddies are. They expect me to feed them, provide them with housing and medical care. So she looked in her police book to see what it takes to qualify. My dogs get their first checks Friday.”
Several emails targeted then-newly elected President Barack Obama, one saying he would quit soon because “what black man holds a steady job for four years.”
One email showed a picture of black women during a tribal gathering and called it “Michelle Obama’s high school reunion.”
The Justice Department report detailed the ways in which the Ferguson police created fear and resentment among African American residents in the Missouri town by disproportionately targeting them with fines, tickets and excessive force.
US Attorney General Eric Holder has accused the Ferguson police of creating “a highly toxic environment” in the Missouri town.
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http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2015/04/05/404730/Ferguson-releases-racist-emails