Missouri’s governor moved to ease tensions on Thursday after days of racially charged protests over the police shooting of an unarmed black teenager, putting the African-American captain of the Missouri Highway Patrol in charge of security in the St Louis suburb of Ferguson.
Missouri Highway Patrol Captain Ron Johnson, who grew up in Ferguson, told reporters he that would take a “different approach” to policing after complaints that officers used heavy-handed tactics, arresting dozens of protesters and using tear gas and pepper pellets to break up crowds.
Protesters filled the streets for a fifth night on Thursday in the mostly black suburb of Ferguson and also assembled in other US cities following the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown last weekend.
Photo: Reuters
The mood was boisterous but peaceful, even festive at times, in sharp contrast to tense standoffs between heavily armed police flanked by armored cars and angry protesters, as well as alleged episodes of looting, vandalism and violence.
Thousands of demonstrators, including more white protesters than on previous evenings, gathered late into the night near the site of Saturday’s shooting.
In sharp contrast to Wednesday night’s deployment of riot police, Johnson and a handful of African-American officers without body armor walked among the crowd.
Photo: AFP
“We just want to be able to come and demonstrate together without the fear of being shot. It is that simple,” 53-year-old protester and Iraq war veteran Cat Daniels said. “What you see tonight is people coming together. When that kid was killed, the hurt and the pain was real.”
In front of a gas station burned out earlier this week, a cowboy rode a horse and children danced on pavement covered in chalk drawings reading: “Now the world knows your name, RIP Mike.”
“It is because of this young man right here,” Johnson told a CNN reporter, holding up a picture of Brown to shouts of approval from protesters around him. “It is about the justice for everyone.”
The protests cast a spotlight on racial tensions in greater St Louis, where civil rights groups have complained in the past that police racially profiled blacks, arrested a disproportionate number of blacks and had racist hiring practices.
Seeking to defuse the situation earlier on Thursday, US President Barack Obama had called on police to respect peaceful demonstrations.
Missouri Governor Jay Nixon said Ferguson lately “has looked a little bit more like a war zone and that is unacceptable.”
Police have pledged to do better, but have also attempted to justify the tactics, saying they have responded to the threat of violence during protests.
Protesters have decried what they say is a lack of transparency by police investigating Saturday’s shooting, including the refusal to release the officer’s name.
On Thursday night in Ferguson, around 200 demonstrators chanted, “What’s his name? What’s his name?” at Johnson and the St Louis County police chief, Jon Belmar.
Police said they planned to release the name of the officer who shot Brown yesterday, according to CNN and Los Angeles Times reports.
Some critics have also called for St Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCullough to be removed from the case.
US Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement that police had accepted an offer of technical assistance from the Department of Justice “to help conduct crowd control and maintain public safety without relying on unnecessarily extreme displays of force.”
The Justice Department, the FBI and the St Louis County prosecutor’s office are all investigating Brown’s death.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was