[JURIST] Ferguson, Missouri Mayor James Knowles reportedly fired [Reuters report] three city employees on Thursday after an investigation by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] exposed racist e-mails and racially disparate police practices in the city. One of the employees was a former City Court Clerk [AP report], and two others employed by the police department have not been identified. The mayor hopes to work out an agreement with the DOJ when they meet in two weeks to discuss reform. Knowles did not comment on whether Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson will lose his position.

Ther Ferguson Police Department has been heavily criticized after the shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown last August and the police response to protests. The DOJ report released on Wednesday cleared [JURIST report] the former Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson from federal prosecution for Brown’s death. Attorney General Eric Holder [official profile] additionally stated that the report shows [press release] that racial disparities in police practices could not be alternatively explained other than through racial bias, which he says is proven through statistics and an examination of records and emails. Last October Amnesty International reported that police in Ferguson committed human rights abuses [JURIST report] against peaceful protesters last August. Also in October a federal judge ruled [JURIST report] that a tactic employed by the Ferguson police to control protesters, in which protesters had to constantly keep moving, is unconstitutional because it prevented protesters from peacefully assembling on public sidewalks.