JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – Missouri’s lieutenant governor is accusing Justice Department officials of “fanning the flames of racial division,” as the federal agency is criticizing Ferguson police for alleged racial biases following the fatal shooting of Michael Brown.
Republican Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder on Tuesday also asserted that the department was “staffed with Marxists and black radicals” and defended statements he had made a day earlier accusing agency officials of racism.
Justice Department spokesman Brian Fallon declined to comment about Kinder’s statements.
The Justice Department recently cleared Ferguson officer Darren Wilson, who is white, of any civil rights violations for the Aug. 9 shooting. A department report said Wilson was acting in self-defense when he shot Brown after a physical struggle during which Wilson said the unarmed black 18-year-old grabbed for Wilson’s gun.
But the Justice Department simultaneously released a report citing widespread racial bias in Ferguson’s policing.