DOJ Tells Ferguson Cops To Stop Wearing ‘I Am Darren Wilson’ Bracelets

St. Louis County Police Sgt. Colby Dolly and Charles Mayo talk while waiting out a thunderstorm during a protest of the shooting of Michael Brown Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2014, in Ferguson, Mo. Brown's shooting in the mid... St. Louis County Police Sgt. Colby Dolly and Charles Mayo talk while waiting out a thunderstorm during a protest of the shooting of Michael Brown Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2014, in Ferguson, Mo. Brown's shooting in the middle of a street Aug 9, by a Ferguson policeman has sparked more than week of protests, riots and looting in the St. Louis suburb. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel) MORE LESS
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The U.S. Justice Department has asked the Ferguson, Mo. Police
Department to order its officers to stop wearing bracelets in support of
Darren Wilson, the white officer who fatally shot an unarmed black
teenager last month.

The DOJ wrote Friday in a letter to Ferguson police Chief Tom Jackson that the bracelets “upset and agitated” people and “reinforce the very ‘us versus them’ mentality that many residents of Ferguson believe exists,” according to Reuters. The agency wrote that residents told its investigators on the ground in Ferguson that they saw officers who oversaw protest sites Tuesday wearing “I Am Darren Wilson” bracelets.

A letter sent to Ferguson police from the DOJ earlier this week also said investigators had noticed some officers either not wearing or obscuring the name tags on their uniform in violation of the police department’s own rules, according to Reuters.

A photo purporting to show a cop wearing the “I Am Darren Wilson” bracelet circulated widely this week on social media:

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