Fmr. St. Louis cop: Racism in St. Louis police department 'is widespread'

(CNN) – A former St. Louis police officer says racism in the St. Louis police force "is widespread."

"It's a major problem. The anger you see in the streets right now is in no small part due to the fact that you do have officers that bring that racism to the job and the power to act on it," Redditt Hudson said in an interview with CNN's "The Lead with Jake Tapper.

Hudson now chairs The Ethics Project, and wrote a Washington Post op-ed bluntly titled: "Being a cop showed me just how racist and violent the police are. There’s only one fix."

"I don't want to leave you with the impression that it's only white officers that abuse their authorities. It is not. You have some black officers, Asian officers, Hispanic officers that do it. The issue is the abuse of the authority," said Hudson.

For more of our interview with former St. Louis police officer, check out the video above.