ATLANTA (AP) – U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is advising law enforcement and community leaders in Atlanta to help make something constructive grow out of the reaction to the killing of a teenager by a police officer in Missouri.
The president instructed Holder to set up regional meetings on building trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve in the wake of clashes between protesters and police in Ferguson, Missouri. A meeting in Atlanta on Monday was the first one.
Tensions between police and the community in Ferguson boiled over after a white police officer shot a black teenager in August. Protests turned violent again last week, after a grand jury declined to indict officer Darren Wilson in Michael Brown’s death.
Holder told local leaders that he sees the meetings as a precursor to action.