Attorney General Eric Holder strongly condemned the shooting of two police officers in Ferguson, MO referring to the attack as “repugnant,” “a pure ambush,” and a “disgusting and cowardly attack” by “a damn punk” that “turned my stomach” in a statement on Thursday.
“I want to be very clear here, I unequivocally condemn these repugnant attacks. I know that all of us in the law enforcement family, and all Americans, really across the country are praying for the safe recovery of their — those two officers. And I stand ready to offer the full investigative resources of the United States Department of Justice, the FBI to solve this crime and to hold these perpetrators fully, fully accountable” he stated.
Holder continued, “now, my brother’s a retired law enforcement officer. And he always tells me that cops have the right, you know, to come home at night. And that’s exactly right. These are people who protect us, who keep us safe, and they have the right, they have the right to come home at night. You know, seeing this attack last night really kind of turned my stomach because in the last week since the Justice Department released its pattern and practice report on Ferguson, I thought we’d begun to see really important signs of progress. [There] were good-faith steps being taken within the city’s leadership to move in a new, more cooperative direction, that I think is beneficial to law enforcement and to community residents. But make no mistake, we still have — we still have a long way to go to bring about this systemic change that is needed, and that is long overdue in that area. But I think the early indications have really, truly been positive. But what happened last night was — was a pure ambush. What happened last night was a pure ambush. This was not someone trying to bring healing to Ferguson. This was a damn punk, a punk, who was trying to sow discord in an area that is trying to get its act together and trying bring together a community that has been fractured for too long. This really disgusting and cowardly attack might have been intended to unravel any sense of progress that exists, but I hope that that does not, in fact, happen.”
He concluded, “incidents like the one we have witnessed throw into sharp relief why conversations like the one that we’ve convened today, and that we’re going to be having, to build trust between law enforcement and the communities that they serve, are really so important.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett