FERGUSON ON EDGE
Shooting seen as threat to progress made by city
FERGUS ON, MO. A police-involved shooting Sunday on the anniversary of the death of Michael Brown ripped open partially healed wounds from last year’s violence and reminded many that much work needs to be done in the region.
St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar said after a shootout involving at least six people, a suspect ran away but then shot at police who were chasing him in an unmarked vehicle with emergency lights flashing. The incident happened exactly one year after 18-year-old Brown was shot and killed by then-police officer Darren Wilson. After Sunday’s shooting, several people said another officer-involved shooting would threaten progress made by Ferguson in the past year.
“Just when people were getting comfortable, we are back on edge,” said Charles Mayo, 45, of St. Louis. “This sets us back a whole year. It’s like running on a treadmill.”
Monday afternoon, St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger declared a state of emergency. “The recent acts of violence will not be tolerated in a community that has worked so tirelessly over the last year to rebuild and become stronger,” Stenger said in a statement.
The encounter between Wilson and Brown lasted just two minutes, but the shooting led to months of massive and, at times, violent protests.
Although a grand jury did not indict Wilson and the Justice Department declined to bring criminal charges against the officer, Brown’s violent death prompted a national look at alleged racial profiling, police brutality and the relationship between police officers and communities of color.
The protests prompted political change in Ferguson. In a city where 67% of the 21,000 residents are black, the majority of its political leaders at the time of the shooting were white. Ferguson’s police chief, city manager and a judge at the time of the shooting, who are all white, resigned after the Justice Department issued a critical report that found the Ferguson Police Department engaged in a broad pattern of racially biased enforcement. The city hired interim City Manager Ed Beasley on June 9, and interim Police Chief Andre Anderson began work July 22. Both are black.
Yet Mayo, who along with hundreds of others heard and ran from the gunshots Sunday night, fears the shootings will mean several more nights of violence because people may seek retaliation. He said that in this case he believes that different groups came to peaceful protests and decided to be disruptive and push agendas of violence. Several people, including St. Louis Alderman Antonio French, said they saw people looting stores nearby.
Mayo, a floor technician, described Ferguson as a “community under siege” and said the violence makes life incredibly difficult for residents.
Belmar echoed those sentiments in a news conference early Monday, saying the incident is an impediment to posi- tive change.
“There is a small group of people out there who are intent on making sure we don’t have peace that prevails,” Belmar said. “We can’t afford to have this kind of violence.”
He also asked for the community’s help to identify the shooters and to obtain any video of the incident.
“We can’t sustain this as a community as we move forward,” Belmar said.
DeRay McKesson, 30, a protester, said he heard gunshots “whiz past” him before he ran from the scene.
“This feels like August 2014 all over again,” he said. “It’s a reminder that there is a lot of work to do in terms of ending police violence.”
French said he doesn’t believe the shooting will set Ferguson back a year because he hasn’t heard anything that indicates police acted improperly.
“If it is the guy who was shooting 100 feet away from me, I know he had a gun and he was using it,” said French, who ducked when he heard the gunshots. “We’ll wait to find out exactly what happened, but I don’t think last night was like the Mike Brown incident. In that case, you clearly had an unarmed teenager who I think, had the police officer handled the situation differently, he would still be alive.”
French also expressed frustration. Sunday night, he allowed several men to take refuge in his office only to find that they stole six laptops, two iPads and camera lenses. “It’s unfortunate that you had thousands of people out here ... peacefully marching ( but) ... that gets overshadowed by the acts of a few selfish criminals.”