Racial tensions between the police and citizens of St. Louis, are at an all time high following the Smith verdict. However, there also appears to be internal tension within the department itself.

Captain Ryan Cousins of the St. Louis police force was fired in May 2016 following a controversial burglary investigation. Now, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Cousins has been reinstated with a just a written reprimand and will receive back pay.

In early 2016, Cousins found himself accused of knowingly breaking several laws, and lying to cover up his misdeeds.

Cousins was in charge of St. Louis' Sixth District police office; his officers responded to the scene of a burglary.

What happened next was, until today's decision, unclear.

A black man who was a felon was handcuffed at the scene; he had a gun, an item felons are not allowed to posses. The man's wife was at the scene as well.

A group of officers, most of them white, told officials that Cousins told them to release the man they'd handcuffed, and to give the gun to his wife. They also said that Cousins ordered them not to mention that any shots were fired, and not to give the shells to CSI.

However, it turns out that this black man wasn't trying to rob anyone; he lived in the house officers reported to, and was trying to stop himself from being robbed. He had gotten the gun after being robbed not long before. Making matters worse, the officers handcuffed the man without cause, searched his home without a warrant and did not read him his Miranda rights before asking him questions.

“Because their home had been burglarized twice within a short period of time, officers assumed that they were criminals instead of victims,” a lawsuit Cousins filed read.

All these things the officers did are very, very illegal. 

“To cover up their actions and keep Cousins from finding out what they had done, the officers claimed that Cousins told them to file a false police report and not to seize evidence at the scene,” the suit documents claimed.

It didn't escape Cousin's lawyer that most of the officers accusing him of wrongdoing were white. She called it “race-based scapegoating.”

And according to Cousins, it is par for the course at the STLPD.

His lawsuit claims that officers routinely violate the legal rights of the city's black citizens “because they know they will be protected (not disciplined) when they engage in such misconduct.”

Before today's ruling, a lawyer for the city was skeptical about Cousin's version of events. 

“In order to believe Mr. Cousins’ claims of racism, you have to believe that seven to eight officers are lying and conspiring to get him fired. We’ll have to see if the Civil Service Commission believes that and now, a jury. We do not,” city attorney Michael Garvin said.

As it turns out, the Civil Service Commission did and does believe that.

The commission unanimously voted to reinstate the black captain.

Former Alderman and current head of St. Louis’ office of the register, Dionne Flowers, said that Cousins' reinstatement “gives us hope.”

“I have so many emotions right now. How people didn’t believe in him. How hard we, his family and community, had to fight to be heard, to fight for a man we felt had our community’s interest in his heart,” Flowers said.