(CNN) -- Attorney General Eric Holder announced last week that the Justice Department's civil rights investigation of Cleveland's police department found that it engaged in a "pattern or practice" of unreasonable and unnecessary use of force. Coming on the heels of the death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who was shot and killed by a Cleveland police officer, many have wondered if this conclusion and damning report proves anything about Rice's death. Not directly. But this report doesn't exactly help the public's perception of the Cleveland police, either. To many, the involvement of the federal government in investigating the killings of Rice, Michael Brown, and Eric Garner are a welcome event. After all, federal law enforcement does not have the intimate working relationship that local state investigators likely have with the police force -- a relationship that could compromise an internal investigation.
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Justice Dept. found a pattern of unnecessary use of force by Cleveland cops
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Danny Cevallos: Report reveals that these concerns were longstanding
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In 2004, Justice Dept. and CDP agreed to correct problems, but little was changed, he says
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Cevallos: Report damages perception of CDP as it deals with controversial killing of 12-year-old
To other members of the community and to the Justice Department, this is disturbing evidence of police culture: that @placeholder is more of an occupying army than a community partner.
DOJ and @placeholder have now committed to developing a consent decree.