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US: Federal report slams policing of Ferguson

POLICE in the US city of Ferguson, Missouri, antagonised protesters against the killing of black man Michael Brown and violated free-speech rights, the Department of Justice (DoJ) said yesterday.

A new DoJ report covers the two-week period of unrest that followed white police officer Darren Wilson’s fatal shooting of Mr Brown in August.

It also faulted officers for inappropriately using tear gas, withholding information that should have been made public and relying on military-style equipment “that produced a negative public reaction.”

The report suggests that these factors aggravated community hostility when authorities did not quickly divulge details of Mr Brown’s death.

A grand jury declined to prosecute Mr Wilson, who later resigned, but another DoJ report in March criticised the city’s profit-driven municipal court system.

The summary, which includes 45 findings, identified a range of poor policing tactics, including the use of dogs for crowd control and inconsistency in making arrests.

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