The U.S. Justice Department has asked the Ferguson, Mo. Police

Department to order its officers to stop wearing bracelets in support of

Darren Wilson, the white officer who fatally shot an unarmed black

teenager last month.

The DOJ wrote Friday in a letter to Ferguson police Chief Tom Jackson that the bracelets “upset and agitated” people and “reinforce the very ‘us versus them’ mentality that many residents of Ferguson believe exists,” according to Reuters. The agency wrote that residents told its investigators on the ground in Ferguson that they saw officers who oversaw protest sites Tuesday wearing “I Am Darren Wilson” bracelets.

A letter sent to Ferguson police from the DOJ earlier this week also said investigators had noticed some officers either not wearing or obscuring the name tags on their uniform in violation of the police department’s own rules, according to Reuters.

A photo purporting to show a cop wearing the “I Am Darren Wilson” bracelet circulated widely this week on social media:

