The first Ferguson City Council meeting since the police killing of Michael Brown one month ago erupted on Tuesday into an outpouring of grievances — accusations of racism, police harassment and government incompetence — as hundreds of residents made angry appeals for change.
It was 10 minutes into the meeting when the audience turned emotional, chanting Brown’s name and shouting at the council members and Ferguson Mayor James Knowles, who sat on the stage in a packed church.
Residents pelted the stone-faced officials with angry questions: Why had Darren Wilson, a white Ferguson officer who allegedly shot the unarmed black teenager on Aug. 9, not been arrested? Why were young African-American men so frequently arrested by the police? And why were so few black residents elected to city government?
Photo: AFP
They called for a police department overhaul, including dashboard cameras in police cars and mandatory name badges for officers.
Some people told the council of what they called routine mistreatment by the police and indifference from city officials. Debora Young of Ferguson said that when she called the police last year to report that her car had been stolen, “they came and locked me up.”
“Mike Brown had to die for our voices to be heard,” she said.
Shelly Gradford, of West Florissant Avenue, faced the elected officials and echoed a frequent warning from the crowd: They were all in political danger.
“You are now on notice,” Gradford said. “It is evident that residents of Ferguson have for a long time been harassed. This must end.”
John Chasnoff, of nearby University City, told the officials that they had become the “face of structural racism.”
“You’ve lost your authority to govern this community,” Chasnoff said. “You’re going to have to step aside gracefully if this community is going to heal.”
The meeting began quietly enough, with the church’s pastor, Bishop L.O. Jones, asking audience members to address one another with respect and to “remember that you’re still in the house of God.”
Ferguson Police Department Chief Thomas Jackson walked through the church, but said he was there to coordinate security, not to interact with the crowd.
“Hopefully everything will be smooth and quiet,” he said.
Knowles quickly introduced ordinances that the City Council had announced on Monday, in a move meant to preemptively address criticism stemming from Brown’s death. The council established a citizen review board to help reform the Ferguson Police Department, which is mostly made up of white officers. Ferguson is about two-thirds African-American.
Knowles referred to the “devastating events” of the previous weeks, which saw Ferguson, a city of 21,000 people, roiled by nightly protests, tear gas deployed by the police and occasional looting in the aftermath of Brown’s death.
“We will do everything we can to restore a high quality of life for all Ferguson residents,” Knowles said.
However, the measures did little to soothe the crowd, which was made up of residents from Ferguson, St Louis and the surrounding suburbs. Each speaker was allowed a three-minute speaking slot and audience members formed long lines to wait to speak.
Brown’s parents held their own news conference earlier on Tuesday to call for the immediate arrest of Wilson, the officer who allegedly killed their son. Wilson is on administrative leave from the Ferguson Police Department and has not been seen in public since the shooting.
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