NYTimes: Federal Inquiry of Ferguson Police Will Include Apparent Racial Profiling

"WASHINGTON — The Justice Department’s civil rights investigation into the police department in Ferguson, Mo., will focus on whether officers there made discriminatory traffic stops, mistreated prisoners or used excessive force in the years before last month’s fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white officer, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said on Thursday.

Mr. Holder said the decision to open the inquiry was influenced by his trip to Ferguson after the shooting of the teenager, Michael Brown, 18, led to protests and confrontations with heavily armed police officers. Residents complained that the police had abused their authority for years and disproportionately targeted African-Americans for stops and searches."