Ferguson protests grow
Hundreds of demonstrators gather in Washington, D. C., on Tuesday, the day after the grand jury decision to not indict officer Darren Wilson in the Michael Brown killing.
As night fell Tuesday in Ferguson, Mo., protesters faced rows of police and National Guard troops outside the city’s police station.
Police repeatedly moved en masse across the street when demonstrators strayed too far into the roadway and obstructed traffic, but mostly, the two sides maintained a tense yet non- physical standoff. A large contingent of news media, rivalling the protesters and security forces in numbers, looked on.
At one point, about 50 protesters converged on a barricade guarded by 30 troops. The group chanted “Whose streets, our streets,” “This is what democracy looks like” and “Hands up, don’t shoot,” a slogan that has become a rallying cry in protests over police killings.
Outside the police headquarters, one woman was taken into custody after protesters threw what appeared to be smoke bombs, flares and frozen water bottles at a line of officers. Two other protesters wearing masks were arrested after defying police instructions to get out of the street.
Authorities also responded after a police car was set on fire outside city hall. The car appeared to have been set on fire Tuesday night by a group of people who had broken off from what had been a largely peaceful crowd of protesters.
In nearby St. Louis, protesters disrupted downtown traffic for several hours Tuesday by blocking major intersections, an interstate highway and a Mississippi River bridge connecting the city to Illinois.
Riot police arrested several demonstrators who sat in the middle of Interstate 44 near the Edward Jones Dome. They used pepper spray to disperse the crowd.
Demonstrators swarmed the steps of the federal courthouse, overturning barricades, chanting, “You didn’t indict. We shall fight.”
Back in Ferguson, Natalie DuBose said she hasn’t had time even to think about the controversial grand- jury decision that ended a police shooting case here. She had more practical matters to contend with on Tuesday.
Out- of- control protesters the night before tried twice to smash her bakery’s plate- glass window, were unsuccessful, then stole chairs from a neighbouring law office and finally got the job done, showering stacks of her packaging with glass shards.
Tuesday should have been a push to get American Thanksgiving orders done; instead DuBose spent it cleaning up and calculating costs of the damage.
“I’m in such an emotional state of mind right now. I’ve been crying all morning,” she said, amid the rich scent of baking cakes. “It’s like a grieving process. … This is my livelihood, this is the only income I have to raise my children. If business stops coming in here, then I can’t be whom I’m supposed to be — a mom to them.”
DuBose was not the only one feeling despondent in this St. Louis suburb Tuesday. As smoke drifted from the ruins of businesses destroyed by fire during the previous night of looting, arson and vandalism, residents voiced dismay both at the decision not to indict a white police officer for killing an unarmed black teenager — and at the chaos that enveloped the city afterward.
James Knowles, Ferguson’s mayor, paid a call to Natalie’s Cakes and More as DuBose was talking to Postmedia News and said afterward the city was victimized by a “divide- and- conquer” effect. The violent minority of protesters essentially dispersed into so many different pockets of the community that police could not keep a lid on the situation, he said.
“It’s heartbreaking — a community I’ve grown up in, lived in all my life,” said Knowles in an interview. “I’ve never seen this kind of unrest, this kind of frustration played out in any way, much less in this violent manner, with destruction of businesses in our community.”
He complained that the Missouri National Guard did not deploy early enough and said he later convinced Jay Nixon, the state governor, to send more of the troops. Dozens of the camouflaged soldiers, also wearing riot gear, fanned out in front of the nearby police headquarters as the mayor spoke.
A grand jury decided Monday that it would not indict Darren Wilson, the police officer who shot Michael Brown, the unarmed black teenager, during a confrontation in August that has sparked months of upheaval and a renewed focus on race relations in America.
Monday ’s news set off both peaceful demonstrations, and violence and vandalism by a seemingly out- of- control minority.
Police say a dozen buildings at a handful of different locations were set on fire, while rioters also tossed various objects at police, looted stores and fired numerous gunshots, as officers responded with repeated volleys of tear gas.
The smell of charred and smouldering buildings still hung in the air Tuesday afternoon over Ferguson’s main street where several buildings were set ablaze overnight. Workers boarded up windows at stores and restaurants not touched by fire while police kept cars and pedestrians off the long stretch of West Florissant Ave. that has seen much of the unrest since Brown was killed in August.
Some of the people who came to the site and peered over police tape Tuesday lamented that the rioting would only take away from the protesters’ grievances.
“They are just ignorant people who took advantage of an opportunity; they don’t have anything to do with us,” said Carmen Ross, 32, a student. “That’s just sad because now you have us black people represented as a bunch of hooligans burning down cities.”
Donavan Plummer, 27, who works in medical sales, said the destruction of so much property would have economic fallout, meaning lost jobs and less investment in the community. While he disagrees with those tactics, he noted they have brought attention to how local police interact with African- Americans. “Honestly, people want to be heard,” said the St. Louis resident. “It has definitely drawn attention.”
Despite misgivings about the vandalism, black people in the region seem united in believing the lack of charges against Wilson was a blatant case of injustice.