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According to an 86-page report issued by the Department of Justice, six of the most credible witnesses to the shooting of Michael Brown were afraid to give testimony in support of Ferguson, MO, police officer Darren Wilson, because they knew it would undercut the “Hands up, don’t shoot” narrative being advanced by their neighbors and, eventually, by the media. Several expressed concern for their safety should they choose to contradict that narrative publicly. As one witness noted, there were signs in the neighborhood reading “snitches get stitches.” The fear experienced by witnesses to the incident is a constant refrain in...

Michael Brown’s uncle says a Department of Justice decision not to charge the Ferguson police officer who fatally shot his nephew is deflating. Brown was killed during a confrontation with Darren Wilson on Aug. 9 in the St. Louis suburb. A St. Louis County grand jury decided in November not to file state charges against Wilson, who has since left the department. …

In August of 2014, Ferguson, Missouri, and the surrounding towns erupted in violence as outraged protesters clashed with police following the shooting death of local teen Michael Brown. In November, that city was again rocked by riots and protests after a local grand jury determined that the officer responsible for that shooting did not violate the law when he used lethal force to subdue Brown. At the heart of these clashes was the contention that racial bias – in the actions of Officer Darren Wilson, in the efforts of riot police to suppress peaceful demonstrators as well as rioters, and...

WASHINGTON (CNN) —A Justice Department civil rights investigation has concluded that the Ferguson Police Department and the city's municipal court engaged in a "pattern and practice" of discrimination against African-Americans, targeting them disproportionately for traffic stops, use of force, and jail sentences, according to a U.S. law enforcement official briefed on the investigation. ... Among the findings, reviewed by CNN: from 2012 to 2014, 85% of people subject to vehicle stops by Ferguson police were African-American; 90% of those who received citations were black; and 93% of people arrested were black. This while 67% of the Ferguson population is black....

The Justice Department has cleared a Ferguson, Mo., police officer of civil rights violations in the shooting of Michael Brown, a black teenager whose death set off racially charged and sometimes violent protests last year. The decision, which was announced on Wednesday, ends a lengthy investigation into the shooting last August, in which Officer Darren Wilson shot and killed Mr. Brown in the street. Many witnesses said Mr. Brown had his hands up in surrender when he died, leading to nationwide protest chants of “Hands up, don’t shoot.” But federal agents and civil rights prosecutors rejected that story, just as...

Currently, 61 members of Congress have confirmed they will not attend the speech. Arizona Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) California Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA) Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA) Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) — “I am disappointed Speaker Boehner chose to irresponsibly interject politics into what has long been a strong and bipartisan relationship between the United States and Israel. As President Obama has noted, it is inappropriate for a Head of State to address Congress just two weeks ahead of their election. I agree that Congress should not be used as a prop in Israeli election campaigns,...

In an interview with The Daily Caller’s Ginni Thomas published on Sunday, Milwaukee Co., WI Sheriff David Clarke cautioned against making the likes of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown into civil rights figures, arguing doing so desecrates the legacy of figures of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, including Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr.

A gunman killed seven people and wounded an eighth person in an overnight house-to-house rampage in a small Missouri town before apparently committing suicide in a vehicle, authorities said Friday. The victims were found in four homes in Tyrone, about 40 miles north of the Arkansas line. The 36-year-old gunman was discovered in a neighboring county, dead of what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Missouri Highway Patrol Sgt. Jeff Kinder said. …

Nine people are dead Friday morning after a string of murders in Texas County, Mo. Missouri State Highway Patrol confirmed that an investigation is on going into the deaths of these individuals, which includes the alleged shooter. Eight people were found dead in Texas County and one was found dead in Shannon County. According to police, there were at least four crime scenes with a fifth and sixth possible, the Houston Herald reports.

(CNN)Nine people are dead after shootings in south-central Missouri, the Houston Herald newspaper in Missouri reported Friday morning, citing a sheriff there. There are multiple crime scenes, including four in the Texas County community of Tyrone, county Sheriff James Sigman told the Herald. The Missouri State Highway Patrol is expected to hold a news conference about the deaths at about 9 a.m. CT (10 a.m. ET) Friday, CNN affiliate KYTV reported. Tyrone is about 135 miles (84 kilometers) southwest of St. Louis.

JEFFERSON CITY, MO (KTVI) – Missouri Auditor Tom Schweich died Thursday as a result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was 54. Clayton Police Chief Kevin Murphy said officers were called to the auditor’s home in the 7100 block of Wydown Boulevard just before 9:50 a.m. for a reported gunshot victim.They found Schweich on the floor of his residence with a single bullet wound. Chief Murphy would not disclose where the gunshot wound occurred. Schweich was rushed to Barnes Jewish Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

ST. LOUIS • Tom Schweich, Missouri's Republican state auditor and a leading contender for the governor's office in next year's election, has died, according to his office. Earlier in the day, a police source said Schweich had sustained a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The police source said Schweich's wife was in another room of their house when she heard her husband making phone calls, followed by a single gunshot. He was 54. His death was confirmed by his office early Thursday afternoon, just hours after Schweich had requested an interview with reporters for the Post-Dispatch and the Associated Press at his...

Tom Schweich, Missouri's Republican state auditor and a leading contender for the governor's office in next year's election, has died, according to office. Earlier in the day, a police source said Schweich had sustained a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The initial statement from Schweich's office said only that he was being treated. Schweich was 54. His death was confirmed by his office early Thursday afternoon

Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) alleged that the Tea Party wants to bring back segregation and make women “secondary citizens” at an event that on Saturday.

Todd Akin is considering a primary challenge to Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) in 2016. “I have not ruled anything out,” the former congressman and 2012 GOP Senate nominee told The Hill in a phone interview on Wednesday. “I think there is a high level of dissatisfaction among conservatives, that they have to some degree been pushed out of the Republican Party,” he continued. “The sentiment is there. The Tea Party is skeptical and wants some fresh blood, not just the same establishment guys.” Akin’s reemergence is sure to be an unwelcome development for national Republicans. During his 2012 race against...

INDEPENDENCE, MO (KCTV) - A high-speed police chase wound through Independence and Kansas City, and the suspect driver hit at least one innocent motorist before he ditched the car and hid underneath a mattress. Police were then able to arrest the man. Independence police began to pursue the vehicle about 3:30 p.m. Monday. The light-colored Cadillac was reported stolen in the northwest part of Independence. The driver weaved dangerously through traffic at high-speed on a crowded I-70. Independence police were joined by Kansas City officers. The man drove from Independence into Kansas City where he hit an innocent motorist driving...

The Toys R Us store in Ferguson, which was burglarized during last year’s unrest, will close at the end of March, the company confirmed Tuesday. The store, open since 1989, will close “to prepare for the sale of the property,” said company spokeswoman Alyssa Peera. The store was “not meeting the needs of the business,” Peera said. “That is separate from the events that took place,” she added, referring to the protests and looting. “We have enjoyed serving the Ferguson community for many years. At this time, we do not have any plans for a new store in the Ferguson...

Washington (CNN)—The Justice Department is preparing to bring a lawsuit against the Ferguson, Missouri, police department over a pattern of racially discriminatory tactics used by officers, if the police department does not agree to make changes on its own, sources tell CNN. Attorney General Eric Holder said this week he expects to announce the results of the department's investigation of the shooting death of Michael Brown and a broader probe of the Ferguson Police Department before he leaves office in the coming weeks.Brown's shooting death at the hands of Officer Darren Wilson has thrust Ferguson into the center of a...

In weighing whether to bring discrimination charges against the Ferguson Police Department, the Justice Department has been “seriously examining” allegations that the city’s enforcement of minor offenses discriminated against minorities and often led to jail times and fines that lined the city’s coffers, a law enforcement official confirmed to POLITICO. Department lawyers handling the investigation have repeatedly met with lawyers for a St. Louis non-profit that filed a federal lawsuit last week alleging that the city of Ferguson and its neighbor, Jennings, were running what amounted to modern-day debtors’ prisons, people familiar with the meetings said. The organization, Arch City...

The great city of St. Louis has a major problem with gun violence. Even as homicide rates have continued to decline elsewhere in the country, they have surged in St. Louis, which last year saw a 33 percent rise in killing, to 159 in a city of 318,000. (Note: this does not include the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, which is in St. Louis County, a separate jurisdiction with 1 million people.) Criminologists point to all the usual reasons for the violence: a thriving drug trade, high unemployment among young men, and so on. But a New York Times...