Monday, August 11, 2014

Rebellion Erupts In Ferguson, Missouri After Demonstrations Against Police Killing of African American Student
A rebellion against police violence has erupted in Ferguson, Missouri.
By Steve Giegerich sgiegerich@post-dispatch.com
314-725-67580

The QuikTrip in the 9400 block of Florissant Road is looted on Sunday, Aug. 10, 2014, one day after a Ferguson officer shot and killed Michael Brown. Photo by David Carson, dcarson@post-dispatch.com

FERGUSON--Authorities said Sunday that a police officer shot an unarmed black teenager after the teen attacked the Ferguson officer. But pressure for a deeper explanation grew locally and nationally through the day.

Hundreds of people gathered at the shooting site Sunday night for a vigil for Michael Brown, 18, who was to begin college classes today.

While some people prayed, others spilled onto West Florissant Avenue, choking off traffic. Police were wearing riot gear. Some demonstrators pounded on police cars.

The situation grew more tense as the night wore on. Looting was reported at a QuikTrip at 9420 West Florissant Avenue about 9 p.m., and a fire was reported. Firefighters were warned to set up their staging area away from the site.

Hundreds of demonstrators blocked the road. They were taunting police officers, who were lined up in riot gear, carrying shields and batons.

“It could have been one of your kids,” yelled Charles Staton, 35, of Ferguson, at the officers. “Protect and serve. They aren’t protecting.”

At the same time, about 100 people remained in front of the Ferguson police station, where South Florissant Road was also blocked by demonstrators. There the emphasis was on keeping emotions under control.

St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar promised a thorough outside investigation.

In Washington, a spokesperson said Attorney General Eric Holder asked civil rights lawyers in the Justice Department to monitor the case. In St. Louis, Special Agent Cheryl Mimura said, “I can confirm that the FBI is working closely with the St Louis County PD to review the matter at this time.”

Protesters complained that the killing was emblematic of deep tensions between black residents of North County and a predominantly white Ferguson police force. Officials have not revealed the race of the officer who killed Brown.

“We have to stick together because we are targets,” said Robert Brefford, 26, an African-American musician from Berkeley who spoke in front of the police station Sunday night. He said police in the area pull over, poke and prod black drivers.

“The bleeding began long before Michael Brown,” said Pastor Traci Blackmon of Christ the King United Church of Christ, in nearby Florissant.

She passed a petition seeking a dialogue with officials. “We come in peace,” she said. “But we are angry and in need of action and answers.”

Shontell Walters, of Berkeley, complained to stone-faced police outside their headquarters: “This child was ready to go to college and you killed his dream.” She added, “He is not coming back. He could have owned a business and made money for Ferguson someday, but you killed him.”

Driving past the angry scene had Joan Havis-Fish, 47, of Normandy, in tears. “It’s like a volcano constantly erupting that never gets resolved,” she said. “I don’t know what it’s going to take to change that culture.”

St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley visited the protesters around noon Sunday to acknowledge their “justifiable anger” and implore them to “channel this anger into justice.” But the group turned on him for expressing confidence in the ability of county police to do a fair investigation, buffeting him with heated rhetoric and questions.

“How can we protect our children?” one mother screamed at him.

The shaken Dooley responded, “This is not the way to console the family right now.”

The NAACP and State Sen. Jamilah Nasheed, D-St. Louis, joined a chorus seeking a federal investigation.

State Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal, D-University City, said, “This demonstration has to happen to release all the negative energy people are feeling on the inside. And we are doing it peacefully.”

Activist Zaki Baruti said the presence of police dogs near demonstrations reinforced the perception of bias against black people. “It sends a very negative message, and it is a very insensitive reaction to the outrage of the people,” he said.

Another protest was scheduled for 10 a.m. today outside the police station. And the St. Louis County NAACP is planning a mass public meeting at 6 p.m. today at Murchison Tabernacle Church, 7629 Natural Bridge in St. Louis.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, a New York-based civil rights leader, called the shooting “very disturbing” and said he planned to meet here with Brown’s family today or Tuesday.

The demonstrations Sunday drew national news media attention to two sites: the police station, at 222 South Florissant Road, and the street where Brown fell, in the 2900 block of Canfield Drive.

Brown’s stepfather, Louis Head, sat cross-legged, head in hands, sobbing Sunday morning before a memorial on Canfield that would grow exponentially though Sunday with teddy bears, flowers and tributes.

“Ferguson killed my son,” he said. “Ferguson flat-out murdered my son in the street, a cold-blooded murder.”

In a news conference Sunday morning, Belmar, the county police chief, said the Ferguson officer had an encounter with two “individuals” about noon Saturday and that Brown pushed the officer back into his car and “assaulted” him in the vehicle.

Belmar said one shot was fired by the officer’s gun inside the car during the struggle, hitting no one, and that the officer then fired multiple times as Brown ran away. Brown fell dead in the street. Belmar said the crime scene covered a distance of just 35 feet.

Belmar did not describe the reason for the initial contact, nor indicate whether police think the shooting was justified. He also did not provide any details about the person who had been with Brown.

He said the shots that hit Brown were “more than just a couple but I don’t think it was many more than that.” He said an autopsy was pending. Toxicology tests results would take as long as six weeks, he said.

The chief said the investigation’s results will be forwarded to St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch, whose office would decide whether criminal charges were justified.

Belmar noted that as Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson arrived at the scene Saturday, he called Belmar to ask for a county investigation. “I would not think anybody would do that if they had anything to hide,” Belmar said.

Jackson sat beside Belmar but did not speak in a short news conference at 10 a.m. at the community’s firehouse.

Belmar emphasized that the outside investigation and consultation with the FBI — which has jurisdiction over allegations of civil rights violations by police — are “standard protocols.”

The officer who fired, whose name has not been disclosed, is now on administrative leave. Belmar said that officer has been on the Ferguson force for six years and appears to have “no other issues” in his past.

Belmar and Jackson abruptly left the news conference as reporters continued to call out questions.

Ferguson police and demonstration leaders were forced late Sunday morning to tamp down a rumor that a youth who had been with Brown in the police encounter was found dead.

It apparently began on social media and was still circulating Sunday afternoon despite a promise from Baruti, a demonstration organizer, that it was not true.

About a block from the police station, at Wellspring Church, Pastor F. Willis Johnson Jr. urged Sunday morning that frustration and anger be channeled into constructive acts, such as praying and volunteering in schools.

“We can’t act unjust in the name of justice. We can’t act uncivil, and then cry for civility,” Johnson preached.

Some protesters, including Vivian Dudley, 52, who runs a nonprofit housing agency, recommended an economic protest against Ferguson. “Don’t spend a dime here,” she said. “Hit them where it hurts.”

By late afternoon, after a service organized by the St. Louis Clergy Coalition, the crowd split into two factions.

Some, like Blackmon, the Christ the King pastor, called for improving relations with police. She announced an open strategy meeting for 7 p.m. Tuesday at her church, at 11370 Old Halls Ferry Road.

But many protesters continued to spill into the streets, shouting expletives and “police the police!” One man rejected a call for conciliation with police, complaining, “They are killing us!”

Brown, a 2014 Normandy High School graduate, was scheduled to begin classes today at Vatterott College.

Michele Munz and Jesse Bogan of the Post-Dispatch, and the Associated Press, contributed to this report.


Looting reported during vigil for teen shot by police

Thousands gathered for a vigil for slain teen Michael Brown, 18

Grant Bissell, Brandie Piper and Elizabeth Matthews, KSDK-TV, St. Louis 11:52 p.m. EDT August 10, 2014

Chief Jon Belmar with the St. Louis County Police Department said a struggle over a Ferguson Police Department officer's gun led to 18-year-old Michael Brown's death Saturday, Aug. 9, 2014. KSDK-TV, St. Louis

FERGUSON, Mo. — Some incidents of looting and vandalism have been reported after a vigil held for an unarmed black man shot and killed by a suburban St. Louis police officer.

Police reportedly donned tear gas masks during the vigil for Michael Brown, 18, who died on Saturday after being shot multiple times by a suburban St. Louis police officer.

A few thousand people crammed the street where the shooting occurred. One group of young men broke off to spray paint "R.I.P. Michael" on the street, and others placed candles, flowers and a teddy bear at the exact location where Brown was killed.

There were reports of windows in a QuikTrip convenience store being broken and the store looted. A liquor store also was damaged and a fire set behind it, according to reporters on the scene.

In response Ferguson police have called in an extra 60 officers as well as officers from all surrounding jurisdictions. St. Louis city police are assisting by answering calls in St. Louis County and a St. Louis SWAT team is staging at Ferguson West Florissant tonight.

Earlier in the day, shouts of "No justice, no peace" and "We want answers" nearly drowned out a news conference as St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar detailed the shooting.

It began with an altercation involving two men and the officer around noon Saturday, Belmar said. One of the men pushed the officer into his patrol car, there was a scuffle inside the car over the officer's gun, and the officer fired one shot inside the cruiser.

Seconds later, outside the cruiser, he fired several more shots and 18-year-old Michael Brown lay dead.

Brown was unarmed, and all the shell casings found on the ground were from the officer's gun, Belmar said.

Brown's mother, Lesley McSpadden, said Sunday she doesn't understand why police didn't subdue her son with a club or Taser. She said police have not explained why the officer confronted him.

"I would like to see him fired," McSpadden said. "I would like to see him go to jail with the death penalty."

"My son just turned 18 and graduated from high school, and he don't bother nobody," she said Saturday night. She said he was looking forward to starting at Vatterott College next week.

"They told me how many times my son was shot. Eight," McSpadden said.

She said he was visiting his grandmother, who lives in the complex, and was returning from the store.

The St. Louis County NAACP has called for an FBI investigation and Belmar has contacted the FBI.

John Gaskin, with the St. Louis County NAACP, alluded to the racially charged 2012 shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch organizer who was subsequently acquitted of murder, and the death of a New York man from a police chokehold after he was confronted on suspicion of selling individual cigarettes.

"With the recent events of a young man killed by the police in New York City and with Trayvon Martin and with all the other African-American young men that have been killed by police officers … this is a dire concern to the NAACP, especially our local organization," Gaskin said.

Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson said police are in contact with the second person who was involved in the altercation. Authorities aren't sure if the second person was unarmed, Jackson said.

Belmar said that when the investigation is complete, the findings will be turned over to the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney's Office.

The identity of the officer who shot Brown has not been disclosed by police. He has been with the Ferguson Police Department for about six years, Belmar said. He was put on paid administrative leave and was being interviewed by investigators. Jackson told Belmar the officer will undergo two psychological evaluations if it is determined he can return to active duty.

The St. Louis County Police Department said Ferguson police cars do not have dash cameras and there is no surveillance video at the apartment complex where the shooting occurred.

St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay tweeted Sunday saying he stands with County Executive Charlie Dooley in his call "for a full and open inquiry into yesterday's shooting in Ferguson."

A Missouri teenager is dead and a community outraged after a police officer opened fire during a shootout. VPC

Outside the Ferguson Police Department's headquarters Sunday morning protesters raised their hands in the air and chanted, "Don't shoot."

On Saturday, witnesses said Brown had raised his hands in the air before he was shot, but that was not confirmed by Belmar.

Protesters called for 10,000 people to join them at 10 a.m. Monday at the Ferguson Police Department. The crowd marched through the streets Sunday morning and afternoon.

The Rev. Al Sharpton says the shooting death of Brown is "very disturbing," and the civil-rights leader is planning a visit toFerguson to make that known.

Sharpton tells The Associated Press that he's spoken with a grandfather of Michael Brown and plans to meet with the family in person Monday night or Tuesday in Ferguson.

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