Outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to threaten a lawsuit against the Ferguson, Missouri, police department if it doesn't address alleged discriminatory practices is just an attempt to make himself look good, says the African-American sheriff of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin.
"Eric Holder has been the most race-obsessed attorney general in the history of the United States," Sheriff David Clarke said Monday on
Fox News Channel's "The Kelly File."
Justice is supposed to be not only blind, but colorblind, as well, Clarke said. He accused Holder of making decisions that are "color-coded."
"Everything he does is put through the racial lens," Clarke said. "He's had Ferguson, Missouri, and its police department in his crosshairs ever since he went down there in that tragic situation with … Mike Brown and Darren Wilson, and he said 'we're going to make this right.' On his way out the door he's got one more kick at the cat."
White Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson shot and killed Mike Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old, on Aug. 9. Conflicting witness testimony led a grand jury not to indict Wilson, who has since resigned from the force.
Many days of protests, sometimes punctuated by rioting, looting, and fires, divided the community.
Clarke said Holder's accusation that Ferguson police unfairly target blacks doesn't make sense. The population of Ferguson is predominately black, so blacks would naturally receive more tickets, he said.
"Eric Holder is using traffic stops … simply because he can exploit that data," Clarke told host Megyn Kelly. "That's the first thing that race hustlers jump to is looking at traffic stops to make some sort of determination that some sort of racial improprieties are going on here."