Ferguson, Missouri on edge awaiting grand jury decision on police shooting

FERGUSON, Mo. - An uneasy quiet settled over Ferguson, Missouri, on Saturday evening after another day without a decision from a grand jury on whether to bring charges against a white police officer for fatally shooting a black teen.

With the St. Louis suburb and the rest of the country waiting for an announcement, activists and police have been taking steps to avert more street violence. The Aug. 9 shooting triggered months of protests and a national debate over police violence.

Officer Darren Wilson has said he fired on 18-year-old Michael Brown in self-defense, while Brown's companion has said the teen had his hands raised and was trying to surrender.

On Saturday, the dead teenager's father, Michael Brown, and some of the family's supporters handed out Thanksgiving turkeys to residents in the street where his son was gunned down. Many were surprised when he knocked on their doors.

"I had to come and just give back to the people," Brown told reporters. He wore a red T-shirt bearing a picture of his son's face and the messages "Gone Too Soon" and "I Will always Love You."

"Everyone is suffering over this," he added. "I just feel that this was needed, so I came back to make sure that people have a nice Thanksgiving."

Looking across the street, over the memorial of flowers and stuffed toys placed on the spot where his son fell in August, he held up a bird and called to a young woman: "You get one yet?"

She smiled and waved back, yes.

St. Louis prosecutors have said they will hold a news conference to announce the grand jury decision, although the date, time and location remained undetermined.

NBC News reported on Saturday that the 12-member panel will resume meeting behind closed doors on Monday, meaning a decision whether to bring charges in the emotive case could still be some way off. Reuters could not independently confirm that report.

Anthony Gray, an attorney for the Brown family, told reporters on Friday that the deliberations could last an hour, a day, a week, or a month. "No one can forecast when that decision will actually be reached," Gray said.

For three nights running, small groups of demonstrators have gathered outside the Ferguson police station to chant slogans and wave placards, sometimes outnumbered by members of the news media expecting a confrontation.

There have been a handful of arrests since Wednesday night. Almost all of them were for failure to disperse after officers told protesters not to block traffic, and were ignored.

The killing became a flashpoint for strained US race relations, triggering weeks of sometimes violent protests in Ferguson calling for the arrest of Wilson. He has instead been placed on administrative leave and gone into seclusion.

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon has declared a state of emergency and called in National Guard troops to back up police. Groups across the country have said they would take to the streets again in large numbers if charges are not brought. — Reuters

At Ferguson March, Call to Halt Traffic in Labor Day Highway Protest

FERGUSON, Mo. — Activists on Saturday called for mass civil disobedience on the highways in and around this St. Louis suburb to protest the killing of an unarmed black teenager by a white police officer, with the leaders of one coalition encouraging supporters to stop their cars to tie up traffic on Labor Day.

The appeal came at a peaceful if at times tense march and rally on Saturday that drew what appeared to be well more than 1,000 demonstrators to some of the same Ferguson streets where the police clashed with protesters in the days after the killing of Michael Brown. Mr. Brown, 18, was shot Aug. 9 by Officer Darren Wilson of the Ferguson Police Department, and his bloody body lay on Canfield Drive for about four and a half hours before it was removed.

Organizers at the rally called on demonstrators to drive on Interstate 70 and other area highways at 4:30 p.m. Monday, turn their hazard lights on and stop their vehicles for four and a half minutes to symbolize the four and a half hours that Mr. Brown’s body lay in the street.

“We’re going to tie it down, lock it down,” Anthony Shahid, one of the lead organizers of the rally, told supporters from the stage at a park. The following week, if the coalition’s demands were not met, including that Officer Wilson be fired and arrested on charges of murder, another four-minute traffic shutdown would occur on two days instead of just one, he said.

“I want the highways shut down,” he said of the Monday protest. “I know it’s a holiday, but it won’t be no good holiday.”

Mr. Shahid’s announcement was met with applause by many marchers, but it was unclear how many people would take part. Only a few hundred demonstrators were in the park when Mr. Shahid made the appeal, and another organizer suggested that the plan for Monday could change because the action was still under discussion. It was also unclear what the authorities intended to do in response to the civil disobedience plan.

“There will be an appropriate, measured response based on conditions, but we cannot discuss the specifics of operational plans,” said Mike O’Connell, a spokesman for the Missouri Department of Public Safety.

The march and rally were organized by a coalition of black activists and leaders largely from the St. Louis region, including state legislators, lawyers, and representatives of the Nation of Islam, the N.A.A.C.P., the New Black Panther Party and the Green Party. Organizers with the group, called the Justice for Michael Brown Leadership Coalition, said they wanted Saturday’s event to be peaceful and had coordinated with city, county and police officials. They estimated the crowd at 10,000. For much of the event, the police had a light presence compared with the show of force seen at other protests.

“They’ve already seen the whole world look at the missteps that they made, how they handled the black community like an army going to war in Iraq,” said Akbar Muhammad, an organizer of the demonstration and a top aide to Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam. “If they had any sense, they will handle it in a tactful manner.”

The march on Saturday showed how difficult it may be to direct the actions of a young, decentralized and assertive protest movement. A mile into Saturday’s demonstration, the march seemed to split, with some heading to a scheduled rally in a public park and others insisting that the marchers continue to the Ferguson police station. Few seemed to know whether the turn into the park was the plan all along or an unscheduled deviation, and several marchers began a chant of “Ain’t no justice in the park!”

“If they stop here a lot of people will feel misled,” said Trinette Buck, 40. She said that the younger protesters were not waiting on leadership, nor were they concerned about what might happen if things turned ugly at the police station.

“There is no fear anymore,” she said. “It’s either stand up or die.”

A few marchers began heading to the police department without waiting for official word, peeling off in small groups and walking along the shoulder for two miles of road, drawing supportive honks from cars along the way. By the time the main body of the march, as well as the demonstration’s leaders, arrived at the police station, well more than a 100 had already gathered and were chanting in a somewhat tense face-to-face confrontation with a line of police officers.

Shortly after 5 p.m., one of the marchers who had been taunting the police line was surrounded by law enforcement officers and was apparently placed under arrest. It was unclear why.

source: nytimes.com

Missouri suburb braces for more racial unrest but calm prevails

FERGUSON, Mo. - Police in Ferguson, Missouri, braced for another night of racially charged unrest on Tuesday as the governor and US attorney general renewed appeals for calm 10 days after the fatal shooting of black teenager Michael Brown.

Street protests in the predominantly African-American community of 21,000 people have been punctuated by looting, vandalism and clashes between demonstrators and police every night since the unarmed, 18-year-old Brown was killed by a white police officer.

In the hours after darkness fell Tuesday, protesters were notably fewer in number and more subdued than on previous nights, with more onlookers milling about the fringes as civic leaders, members of the clergy and even Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster mingled with demonstrators.

Two dozen police in military-style uniforms took positions across the street from a burned-out gas station where protesters on Monday threw at least one gasoline bomb.

But confrontations between police and protesters seemed mostly isolated. A group of people playing music and dancing on top of a white truck bearing the slogan "Don't loot don't shoot" were ordered by police to move on.

Earlier in the day, St. Louis metropolitan police said they shot and killed a 23-year-old black man who brandished a knife at officers and yelled at them to "shoot me now, kill me." Two officers opened fire after he refused repeated orders to drop his weapon, police said. The incident occurred a few miles from the scene of the protests.

While apparently unrelated to the Brown killing or protests surrounding it, the shooting sparked concerns about an escalation of public anger over what many perceive as a pattern of excessive police force against minorities.

Tuesday's shooting drew scores of angry protesters who lingered well past dark outside the convenience store where the man with the knife had snatched some drinks and snacks before he was confronted by police. Police remained in a show of force to keep a lid on any potential trouble there.

Grand jury review commences

The aftermath of the Brown shooting was due to take a new turn on Wednesday, when the St. Louis County prosecutor's office said it expected to begin presenting evidence to a grand jury investigating the case.

In an appeal for public conciliation and calm on Tuesday, Governor Jay Nixon promised a "vigorous prosecution" of the case and "justice for the family of Michael Brown."

US Attorney General Eric Holder, who planned a visit to Ferguson on Wednesday to be briefed on a separate civil rights investigation he ordered into the Brown shooting, likewise called for demonstrators to remain law-abiding in an opinion piece published online by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The officer involved in Brown's shooting, Darren Wilson, has been placed on administrative leave and went into hiding as Brown's family and supporters called for his arrest.

Accounts of Brown's slaying differ. According to police, Wilson reported that Brown reached into the policeman's cruiser when Wilson approached him on the street, then grabbed for the officer's gun.

A companion of Brown said the teenager was initially shot after the officer tried to grab him through the car window and again after Brown staggered back with his hands in the air.

An independent autopsy arranged by Brown's family found he had been shot six times, including twice in the head.

Sharp words from the UN

The turmoil in Ferguson, while generating international headlines, has exposed simmering racial tensions in a mostly black town whose police force, political leadership and public education administration are dominated by whites.

It also has reignited a national debate over racial disparities in the US criminal justice system, even drawing sharp words from the United Nations' top human rights envoy, Navi Pillay, a native South African.

"I condemn the excessive force by the police and call for the right of protest to be respected," she said in Geneva.

At least 57 people were arrested in Ferguson on Monday night and early Tuesday, most accused of disobeying police orders to disperse, during hours of clashes marked by volleys of tear gas fired at demonstrators and rocks, bottles and gasoline bombs hurled at police.

State Highway Patrol Captain Ron Johnson, placed in command of security in Ferguson last week after local police tactics that were criticized as overly harsh, said officers had come under "heavy gunfire" on Monday night but did not return it.

The governor and some civic leaders have suggested that the most of the trouble was generated by thugs or outside agitators bent on goading police into action. Many people heeded city officials' appeal for citizens to stay off the streets after sunset on Tuesday.

"Our innocent people need for a moment to go into their homes and not allow this criminal element to hide behind them," Johnson said Tuesday evening.

National Guard troops ordered by Nixon to assist with security in town have mostly kept their distance from demonstrators, and a mandatory curfew imposed days earlier to little effect was lifted on Monday.

Emotions could run high again next Monday, when a funeral service for Brown is scheduled.

Wilson has yet to make a public statement, but investigators said he had been cooperative in interviews with detectives.

Support for the officer was growing in the form of fundraisers and street demonstrations. A Facebook page titled "I SUPPORT OFFICER WILSON," which describes itself as a voice for law enforcement, said Wilson acted in self-defense. A separate Facebook page was offering T-shirts for sale with proceeds to go to Wilson and his family. — Reuters

One shot, seven arrested in clashes after curfew in Ferguson, Missouri

FERGUSON, Mo. - One person was shot and critically wounded and seven arrested early on Sunday as police in Ferguson, Missouri, clashed with protesters when a curfew was imposed following days of unrest over a black teenager being shot dead by a white police officer.

Scores of demonstrators had remained in the streets after the curfew took effect at midnight (0500 GMT). Law enforcement officials used loudspeakers to warn protesters to disperse immediately. Officers, equipped with gas masks and full-length shields, stood among and on top of armored vehicles.

Governor Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency and announced the five-hour curfew after a week of racially charged protests and looting over the shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, 28, in the suburban St. Louis community in the Midwest US state on Aug. 9.

Missouri State Highway Patrol Captain Ron Johnson said the person shot at a restaurant was in critical condition. Police were unable to identify the victim, who he said was not shot by police, and that the alleged shooter was still at large.

Seven people were also arrested for failing to disperse after the curfew took effect.

Johnson said canisters of smoke and later teargas were fired as part of police attempts to reach the victim of the restaurant shooting, "and not in relation to the curfew." The shooting victim was taken to hospital by bystanders before police could reach him.

Johnson also said someone had shot at a passing police car but was not apprehended, adding "I was disappointed in the actions of tonight," noting "the crowds we've had for the last two nights [were] citizens obeying, protesting."

The smoke and teargas canisters largely dispersed the crowd, some of whom had been chanting "No justice, no curfew, no peace", while others implored the crowd not to move forward towards police.

On Saturday evening the mood among the protesters on a main road in Ferguson had been tense and defiant following days of demonstrations and some looting.

"The curfew is going to make things worse," said protester Phones Scott, 24. "I think the cops are going to get violent tonight, but they can't lock us all up."

Prayer rally

Tensions had been running high over the past week but escalated on Friday, pitting mostly black protesters against mostly white police as the demonstrators overran a residential and retail district that has become a center of the unrest.

Brown's family and supporters have demanded that the officer who shot Brown be held accountable. The US Department of Justice is investigating the shooting for any civil rights violations, and the St. Louis County Police department has also launched a probe.

The police version of how Brown was shot differs from witness accounts, including that of the friend who was walking with Brown at the time, Dorian Johnson, 22.

Police say that after Wilson asked Brown to move out of the road onto a sidewalk, Brown reached into the patrol car and struggled with Wilson for the officer's service gun. Wilson, who sustained a facial injury, then shot Brown a number of times.

Johnson and at least one other witness have said the officer reached out through his car window to grab at Brown and the teenager was trying to get away from the officer when he was shot. Brown held up his hands in a sign of surrender but the officer got out of his patrol car and shot Brown several times, they said.

FBI agents were at the scene of Brown's shooting on Saturday interviewing residents. Civil rights activist Jesse Jackson also visited the site, leading a prayer near a makeshift memorial to Brown just a few feet from where he died.

The Reverend Al Sharpton has said he would lead a rally with Brown's family in Ferguson on Sunday. — Reuters