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.
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