Ferguson calm after night of mayhem
GRAND JURY DECISION IN POLICE SHOOTING OF BLACK TEENAGER HIGHLIGHTS LONG- STANDING RACIAL TENSIONS IN US
Missouri Governor Jay Nixon ordered more National Guard troops to Ferguson as chaos erupted after a grand jury declined to indict a white police officer for the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager.
Enraged protesters set fire to buildings and cars and looted businesses after the grand jury’s decision in one of America’s most racially charged cases in recent years. Smoke billowed from burned- out buildings and sidewalks were strewn with broken glass yesterday morning.
Monday night’s protests were far more destructive than any of the others that followed an unarmed black 18- year- old Michael Brown’s August 9 death.
Yesterday, clergy and others blocked morning traffic in the St. Louis suburb. About 100 demonstrators assembled in downtown Clayton, Missouri, shortly after sunrise and spent several hours blocking intersections.
There were 61 arrests in Ferguson and 21 arrests in St. Louis. The violence erupted despite pleas for calm from President Barack Obama and the family of Brown. “This is not just an issue for Ferguson,” Obama said at the White House minutes after the grand jury’s decision was announced. “This is an issue for America.”
Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch said witnesses had given the grand jury inconsistent accounts of the shooting, including whether Brown’s hands were raised and whether he was stumbling or charging towards the police officer, Darren Wilson. Authorities later released Wilson’s own account of the shooting, in which he said Brown had punched him in the face and tried to grab his gun.
Protests also were staged in New York, Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles, Oakland, California, and Washington, D. C., over the case that has highlighted longstanding racial tensions not just in predominantly black Ferguson but across the US. Brown’s mother, Lesley McSpadden, joined the protesters after the decision was announced, crying as she repeated, “Y’all wrong, y’all wrong!”