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Ferguson, Missouri, police fostered a "highly toxic environment" of racism and misconduct that turned the city into a "powder keg" that was ready to explode after the fatal shooting of unarmed teenager Michael Brown last year, Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday even though the officer who shot Brown was determined to have committed no crime.

In a lengthy explanation of the Justice Department's two investigations in Ferguson of police in general and of former Officer Darren Wilson's shooting of Brown in August specifically Holder agreed with a local grand jury that declined to indict Wilson, stressing that "the facts do not support the filing of criminal charges."

"Michael Brown's death, though a tragedy, did not involve prosecutable conduct on the part of Officer Wilson," Holder said.

A visibly disturbed Holder said "it is not difficult to imagine how a single tragic incident set off the city of Ferguson," which he described as "defined by mistrust and resentment, stoked by years of bad feelings and spurred by illegal and misguided practices."

Those illegal practices included constitutional violations and excessive and dangerous use of force disproportionately targeted against African Americans, Holder said.

St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch, who was widely criticized by activists and critics of local law enforcement, told reporters later, "I don't feel any need to be vindicated," saying it was Wilson who was vindicated by the physical evidence and the consistency of witnesses' statements.

"Those who say that, well, charges should be filed just so we can have a trial we don't operate that way in this country," McCulloch said.

McCulloch said he had not had a chance to read the second report, documenting misconduct by Ferguson police. But "we've all got a long way to go to restore and to build that trust in the community."

In his remarks, Holder said the systemic problems in Ferguson went far beyond just the police department. A trove of work emails from not only police but also other city officials revealed "racist comments or gender discrimination, demonstrating grotesque views and images of African Americans in which they were seen as the 'other,' called 'transient' by public officials and characterized as lacking personal responsibility," he said.

The Justice Department report further denounced the emails as unequivocally derogatory, dehumanizing and demonstrative of impermissible bias." It found that none of the officers or court clerk employees who wrote them was ever disciplined. Senior Justice Department officials said some of them, in fact, were still employed by Ferguson.

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Holder Slams Ferguson Cops for Racist, Money-Grubbing Practices

Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday that the Justice Departments investigation provided a searing account of unconstitutional police practices in Ferguson, Missouri and that all options are on the table in pursuit of reform.

The speech came after the department released two reports on its investigation in Ferguson one of which cleared Officer Darren Wilson of all federal charges in the shooting death of Michael Brown last August, the other of which outlined a pattern of practice investigation into police and municipal court conduct in Ferguson.

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The report on Wilson led the Department of Justice to multiple, often conflicting witness accounts, sometimes provided by the same individuals whose stories changed over time.

Holder said a possible explanation for this discrepancy was the distrust outlined in the second, larger investigation into police-community relations in Ferguson.

The attorney general spent a chunk of his remarks sharing the stories of Ferguson residents whose rights he said had been violated by Ferguson law enforcement.

One woman, Holder said, was given two parking tickets in 2007 that together tallied $152. To date, she has paid $550 in fines and fees, been arrested twice for unpaid tickets and spent 6 days in jail. Still, she owes the city $541.

Local authorities consistently approached law enforcement not as a means for protecting public safety, but as a way of generating revenue, Holder said, adding that racial bias both implicit and explicit results in the unconstitutional execution of the law.

Officers in Ferguson routinely violate the Fourth Amendment, Holder said, and stop citizens without reasonable suspicion and then use unreasonable force against them. Incidents often blatantly cross the line, he said.

Holder outlined another incident from the summer of 2012 in which a Ferguson police officer detained a 32-year-old African-American man, ostensibly for having car windows tinted darker than the citys ordinances allowed. The officer then accused the man of being a pedophile, ordered him to get out of the car for a pat-down, and then, when he refused, arrested him on eight different charges. The arrests caused the man to lose his job.

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Holder slams Ferguson police force: 'Collection agency'

LAPD Shooting of Unarmed Homeless Man Underscores Holder #39;s Failures
Black Agenda Report #39;s Glen Ford says outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder has determined his legacy by failing to address systemic issues.

By: TheRealNews

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LAPD Shooting of Unarmed Homeless Man Underscores Holder's Failures - Video

The attorney general makes a strong case in a USA Today op-ed and says the Justice Department will filed a pro-equality brief with the Supreme Court.

Attorney General Eric Holder

The time has come for nationwide legal recognition of same-sex couples and their families, says U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in an opinion piece published in USA Today.

As the Supreme Court prepares to consider the issue of marriage equality, Holders Justice Department will file a brief this week setting forth our position that state bans on same-sex marriage violate the fundamental constitutional guarantee of equal protection of the laws, Holder writes. It is clear that the time has come to recognize that gay and lesbian people deserve robust protection from discrimination.

He goes on to say, Marriage bans inflict concrete harms that touch nearly every aspect of daily life for gay and lesbian couples. He mentions problems with taxation, inheritance, adoption, and hospital visitation as well as the stigma these bans inflict on same-sex couples and their children.

He also notes how far the nation has come in the realm of marriage equality when he took office in 2009, only two states, Massachusetts and Connecticut, allowed same-sex couples to marry, but now 37 do, leaving fewer states with same-sex marriage bans in force today than there were with interracial marriage bans in 1967 when the Supreme Court deemed them unconstitutional. And the Justice Department played a role in this, he says, by refusing to defend the Defense of Marriage Act, struck down by the Supreme Court in 2013 and leading to a surge of court decisions securing marriage rights in states from coast to coast.

Holder adds that even with nationwide marriage equality, our work is not complete until every lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender citizen has achieved equal footing and equal treatment under the law. He does not mention the Employment Non-Discrimination Act or other specific legislation, nor his departments intrepretation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to cover gender identity. But he concludes, In the coming months, this administration and this Department of Justice will continue to stand with all LGBT Americans, to hold fast to our principles, and to bring about the change our citizens deserve.

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Eric Holder: 'Time Has Come' for Marriage Equality

Unflappable Eric Holder declines to quack
Rachel Maddow shares a clip of Melissa Harris-Perry #39;s interview with Attorney General Eric Holder in which Holder appreciates being compared to a duck but de...

By: MSNBC News

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Unflappable Eric Holder declines to quack - Video