Attorney General: Cleveland Police Department Uses 'Excessive Force'

The Justice Department has ruled that the police department in Cleveland, Ohio uses excessive force methodically when dealing with local residents and crimes.

Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement Thursday that an investigation into the Cleveland Police Department back in March 2013 has found that police officers often use excessive force. The investigation was launched after officials shot 140 rounds of ammunition into a vehicle that was apart of a high-speed chase, killing the two unarmed passengers inside.

In its conclusion, the federal investigation said it found evidence of "unreasonable and in some cases unnecessary force" within the department.

More recently, a Cleveland policeman shot an unarmed 12-year-old in November because he thought the boy was carrying a real gun, when in fact the weapon was fake with plastic pellet bullets.

Holder is reportedly traveling to Cleveland on Thursday to discuss possible ways to reform the Cleveland Police Department so excessive force may be avoided.

The federal investigation's ruling comes after multiple protests in the U.S. have broken out regarding racial tensions between local citizens and police departments. In Ferguson, Missouri, residents protested when it was announced that Officer Darren Wilson would not receive criminal charges for the shooting of unarmed teen Michael Brown back in August.

Protests are also rocking New York City, where residents are protesting the choke-hold death of unarmed man Eric Garner, who was put in the dangerous hold back in July for selling individual cigarettes.

"When it comes, unfortunately, as we've seen in recent days, to our criminal justice system," Obama said Thursday in Washington, "too many Americans feel deep unfairness when it comes to the gap between our professed ideals and how laws are applied on a day-to-day basis."