By Bob McClay | KTAR Radio
A Washington attorney is asking the U.S. Justice Department to investigate the Florence Police Department and the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office, saying that both departments are filled with racism.
Lynne Barnabei made the request in a letter to Jonathan M. Smith, the chief of the Department of Justice’s Special Litigation Section of the Civil Rights Division.
Barnabei claims that Florence could be the next Ferguson, Missouri, if racism inside the two departments doesn’t improve.
Ferguson was the scene of several recent riots over a police shooting of an African-American teenager.
Barnabei represents two former Florence police officers who are suing the city over their firing in 2012.
