The Justice Department's finding of rampant racism in the Ferguson police force is more about the redistribution of wealth and power than it is race, says the Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, president and founder of The Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny.
"I am not surprised about the outcome of this. I said from Day 1 that the Ferguson situation was never about Michael Brown, it was an opportunity for [President Barack] Obama, [Attorney General] Eric Holder, [the Rev.] Al Sharpton … to redistribute wealth and power," Peterson said Thursday on "the Steve Malzberg Show" on
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"That's all that they care about, so they did a thorough investigation of Officer Darren Wilson and they couldn't find anything that indicated this was about race. Instead of going back and apologizing to him, helping this man and his family … [to get] their lives back together, they just go to the next scene.
"Now, they have investigated the police department there and I said a while back … what we're going to hear is the Ferguson police department is racist and we've now got to get rid of the white officers, at least some of them there and replace them with officers of color."
The Justice Department cleared white police officer Darren Wilson of civil rights charges this week in last year's fatal shooting death of African-American teen Michael Brown. But the agency said it found a pattern of racial bias within the Ferguson Police Department.
It concluded the shooting took place in an environment of systemic mistreatment of blacks, where officials traded racist emails and jokes and minorities were disproportionately stopped and searched, fined for petty offenses, and subjected to excessive police force, according to The Associated Press.
Peterson, who hosts a syndicated radio show, said he doesn't trust the Justice Department findings.
"In all honesty, yes, you could find wrongdoing anywhere, but I personally don't believe the full report of the Justice Department because these people have lied to us so much that it is impossible for me to believe the full outcome of what they're reporting," he said.
Peterson said he doesn't expect the Justice Department to look into new reports that six of the most credible witnesses were afraid to come forward to challenge a made-up neighborhood story that Brown had his hands in the air in surrender when he was shot.
"They're not going to investigate it, they don't care about that and they don't care about innocent black Americans who are living in these communities that are out of control," he said.
"I've said for a long time that most black Americans are suffering not because of racism, but they lack moral character. They are very angry and that anger they take out on one another since they can't get to the white man.
"Any black person in the black community who decides that they want to be a man or woman of truth, they want to judge people based on character and not color … [is] considered a bitter enemy of those who hate good … Too many black people hate good … I used to be into blackness, but when God changed my heart and took away my anger, I am now into the character of the person and not the color."
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