Justice Department blasts brutal police tactics in Ferguson

The US Justice Department has sharply criticized brutal police tactics in responding to last year’s widespread protests in Ferguson, saying they incited fear and anger among the protesters.

The report, compiled by the Justice Department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, or COPS, said police used "inappropriate" tactics, lacked clear leadership and had little understanding of the local community's concerns about law enforcement.

It said some tactics, such as use of tear gas, canine units deployed inappropriately and the use of military weapons and snipers, were often unsafe, ineffective and served to inflame tensions rather than ease them.

The use of dogs for crowd control was "inappropriate," inciting fear and anger in the crowd, the report said.

It found police inconsistent in using force and making arrests, saying it also used teargas inappropriately.

The "after action" report, which conducted over 160 interviews over more than six months, found a deep mistrust between community members and local police in Ferguson.

It said that the chasm helped fuel ineffective police response to the protests in the wake of shooting death of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown on August 9, 2014.

White police officer Darren Wilson who shot Brown was later cleared of the wrongdoing by a local grand jury.  Protests gained momentum in Ferguson after the grand jury’s decision.

The Justice Department said the protests “were also a manifestation of the long-standing tension between the Ferguson PD and the African-American community,” beyond Brown’s shooting.

St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar, however, defended the department’s actions in responding to the protests. “Senior law enforcement leaders from across the country should learn from our successes and lessons learned that have been outlined in this report.”

In March, the Justice Department issued a separate report that documented discriminatory actions by Ferguson police and the small community's municipal court system.

How the cops dealt with two weeks of protests there “produced a negative reaction” in the community and set a tone that “limited options for a measured, strategic approach”, read the report.

It announced that a comprehensive inquiry had found a range of unlawful and unconstitutional practices in Ferguson’s courts and policing system.

Several Ferguson officials, including police chief, municipal court judge and three police department employees left their jobs or were fired in the wake of the report.

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