Washington/Kansas City - A US probe found systemic racial bias targeted blacks and created a "toxic environment" in Ferguson, Missouri, but cleared a white officer in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager there, Attorney General Eric Holder said on Wednesday.
The report said the St Louis suburb overwhelmingly arrested and issued traffic citations to blacks to boost city coffers through fines, used police as a collection agency and created a culture of distrust that exploded in August when Ferguson Officer Darren Wilson fatally shot 18-year-old Michael Brown.
"This investigation found a community that was deeply polarised; a community where deep distrust and hostility often characterised interactions between police and area residents," Holder told reporters.