The embattled police chief of the Midwestern city of Ferguson, Missouri, resigned Wednesday after a highly critical U.S. Justice Department report called the city's police biased against African-Americans.
Chief Thomas Jackson became the focus of bitter complaints of racial discrimination aimed at his department after one of his white officers fatally shot an unarmed black teenager during a street confrontation in August. The criticism and anger touched off protests in cities across the country.
On Tuesday, City Manager John Shaw, responsible for municipal operations, resigned.
A day earlier, the Missouri Supreme Court announced it was taking over all cases in Ferguson's city court. Afterward, Municipal Court Judge Ronald Brockmeyer resigned.
The federal report said officials operated city courts as a moneymaking venture.
Ferguson, a suburb of St. Louis, is still reeling from the shooting, which set off days of violence in the city.
The officer was not charged with violating any federal civil rights laws. But the Justice Department investigated allegations that Ferguson's nearly all-white police force was biased against the city's black majority and targeted blacks for traffic stops and arrests.
President Barack Obama announced last week that he fully stood behind the report, saying Ferguson's black residents had been harassed and abused.
