Troops stem arson, looting in US protests
Obama calls for federal probe
ABOUT 2 000 National Guard troops helped ward off a second night of rampant arson and looting in suburban St Louis after a grand jury declined to indict a white policeman in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager, and sympathy protests spread to several US cities.
President Barack Obama appealed for dialogue, and his attorney-general promised that a federal probe into the August 9 slaying of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, would be rigorous.
Officer Darren Wilson, the policeman who shot him, said his conscience was clear. Despite a beefed-up military presence in Ferguson, a police car was torched near the city hall and police fired smoke bombs and teargas to scatter protesters. A crowd of demonstrators later converged near police headquarters, scuffled with officers who doused them with pepper spray.
“Generally, it was a much better night,” St Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar said yesterday, adding there was little arson or gunfire and that lawlessness was confined to a small group.
Police and National Guard troops mounted a vigorous defence of the city hall out of concern it might come under attack by arsonists, but damage to the building was limited to some shattered windows, Belmar added.
The unrest surrounding Brown’s death in Ferguson, a predominantly black suburb with a white-dominated power structure, underscored the often-tense nature of US race relations and strained ties between African-American communities and police.
Protests swelled from Los Angeles to Washington on Tuesday. In New York, police used pepper spray to control the crowd after protesters tried to block the Lincoln Tunnel and Triborough Bridge and marched to Times Square. Hundreds also marched in Harlem, chanting “Racist police!”
Protesters in Los Angeles threw water bottles and other objects at officers outside the city police headquarters.
Four people were arrested for blocking a roadway in Denver, where police said hundreds turned out for a protest march. In one of the night’s biggest rallies, an estimated 1 500 people took to the streets of Boston.
Inmates at a correctional facility in Boston taped Brown’s name on a window.
Wilson’s lawyer, Jim Towey, later told CNN that his client’s life as a police officer was over.
Wilson, who was placed on administrative leave after the shooting, told the grand jury that Brown had tried to grab his gun, and that the officer felt his life was in danger when he fired.