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LA Times

The protesters, almost all of them black, raised their fists and chanted, “We shall not be moved!”

Down the hill, advancing against them late Monday night, were police officers in gas masks and riot gear, most of them white.

“Don’t shoot!” some of the demonstrators yelled, inching closer to the barely visible police line. One man drifted several dozen feet closer with his arms up, lifting his shirt and spinning around as if to say: Look, no gun.

Then an older woman in a dust mask to shield her a bit from the swirling tear gas spotted him and shouted, “Get your ass back here!”

The two sides were locked in confrontation in this working-class suburb of St. Louis, where the police shooting of an unarmed young black man triggered a night of looting Sunday — and demands for justice from a predominantly black population.

The nighttime standoff and billowing tear gas on West Florissant Avenue reflected simmering racial tensions in Ferguson, population 21,000, where two-thirds of residents are black but police and city officials are predominantly white.

In a suburb abandoned by some whites as blacks moved in decades ago, the death Saturday of Michael Brown, 18, brought national attention to what many black residents say is a pattern of racial injustice here.

As the U.S. Justice Department announced an investigation in conjunction with a separate county police inquiry, black leaders called for nonviolence but accused local police and other officials of condoning racism in Ferguson and greater St. Louis for too long.

“In the greater picture, what we saw … was the boiling over of tensions that had been going on for a long while,” said Antonio French, a St. Louis city alderman who is black.

James Clark, vice president of a St. Louis nonprofit, Community Outreach for a Better Life, said the violence following Brown’s death was “due to a total alienation of a certain class of African Americans.”

Ferguson’s police chief and mayor are white. Of the six City Council members, one is black. The local school board has six white members and one Latino. Of the 53 commissioned officers on the police force, three are black, said Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson.

Blacks in Ferguson are twice as likely to be stopped by police as whites, according to an annual report on racial profiling by the Missouri attorney general. Last year, 93% of arrests following car stops in Ferguson were of blacks. Ninety-two percent of searches and 80% of car stops involved blacks, the report said.

Brown was walking down a street with a friend Saturday when, according to police, an officer drove up and attempted to get out of his patrol car. Brown pushed the officer back into the car, then entered the vehicle as the two men struggled over the officer’s gun, according to Jon Belmar, chief of the St. Louis County Police Department.

During the altercation a shot was fired inside the car, Belmar said. The officer and Brown then got out of the car, and at that point the fatal shooting occurred, Belmar said. Brown was shot “more than just a couple of times,” but it was unclear how many shots were fired, Belmar said.

Witnesses challenged the police version of events. One resident, Piaget Crenshaw, said Brown “ran for his life.”

“They shot him and he fell,” Crenshaw said. “He put his arms up to let them know that he was compliant and he was unarmed, and they shot him twice more and he fell to the ground and died.”

Ferguson Mayor James Knowles pledged in a televised interview that “justice will be served” and called on the people of Ferguson to “have faith in the process.”

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Belmar told reporters: “I understand that the public has a right to be skeptical … but I would also ask the public to be reasonable because it takes a long time to make sure we do this investigation the right way.”

At the police station Monday morning, protesters said they wanted the police officer identified, fired and charged in the killing. They also demanded that the Ferguson police force reflect the racial demographic of the community. The demonstrators raised their hands in mock surrender, chanting: “Hands up! Don’t shoot!”

“People are angry, people are hurt, people are fed up,” said one protester, Derek Laney, 49, of St. Louis.

Jerryl Christmas, 50, a defense attorney and former prosecutor for the city of St. Louis, watched from the sidewalk Monday in a bright striped tie, holding a small bullhorn.

Police shooting in Missouri
A crowd is stopped by police as it tries to reach the spot where 18-year-old Michael Brown was fatally shot by police in Ferguson, Mo., on Saturday. (Huy Mach / St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
“Look out here right now,” Christmas said, gesturing to the line of white police officers. “The lack of black police officers either on the street or at the administrative level…. This whole area, this city is a racial powder keg.”

As riot police squeezed protesters farther down the street Monday morning, Jackson, the city’s police chief, stood, sunburned and sweating, in the shade of a billboard across from the police station. He said he was shot at three times outside Wal-Mart during Sunday night’s riots.

He said about 12 businesses were damaged by a crowd that smashed windows, looted stores and set a fire inside a mini-mart. Some chanted: “No justice! No peace!”

Police arrested 32 people for looting. Several police officers were slightly injured.

Jackson said he planned to identify the suspended officer involved in Brown’s shooting after he contacted him — in case the officer wanted to go elsewhere for his own safety.

Police arrested seven people during Monday’s demonstration in the morning, Jackson said. “We want them to be able to protest,” he said. But after peaceful protesters left, they were replaced by angry demonstrators “not so much interested in peaceful resolution,” Jackson said.

As Brown’s parents wiped away tears at a news conference in Ferguson, their lawyer, Benjamin Crump, told reporters: “I don’t want to sugarcoat. That brother was executed in broad daylight.”

Crump, who also represented the parents of slain Florida teen Trayvon Martin, said the Brown family and many other Ferguson residents didn’t trust the police or local authorities.

“They are devastated that this happens again and again and it’s swept under the rug again and again,” Crump said. “Not this time.”

Brown’s parents said they had planned to drop off their son to begin community college on Monday. Instead, they were planning his funeral.

Lesley McSpadden, Brown’s mother, wept as she held up a photo of her son. “We are going to do this right,” she said. “We don’t want no violence because Michael wouldn’t have wanted violence.”

Michael’s father, Michael Brown Sr., repeated three times: “We need justice for our son.”

Earlier Monday, a school district adjacent to Ferguson canceled the first day of school, saying it was concerned for student safety following Sunday night’s violence.

On Monday afternoon, the sound of hammers could be heard for more than a mile up and down West Florissant Avenue, where looters had smashed windows at fast-food restaurants, auto shops and other buildings the night before.

Workers hustled to replace Zisser Tire’s windows with plywood. Thieves had stolen tire rims from the showroom; video captured one thief using a rim to smash out each of the windows.

Dennis G. Ferguson, a salesman for the store, said he had called the owner the night before and debated bringing in rifles as looters worked their way down the street. Ultimately, he decided against it.

Ferguson insisted that the looting did not reflect the neighborhood.

“This is a nice community,” he said, recounting that residents had helped protect businesses overnight. “We had several teenagers come by to see if they could help clean up.”

Aftermath

At least four people, including two officers, suffered injuries and 47 people were arrested in the aftermath of an officer-involved shooting that killed 18-year-old Michael Brown.

"Fortunately several of the looters were caught during the crime," said Jon Belmar of the St. Louis County Police. "It's an easy case to wrap up." Various reports say that several looted items were already sold online, but Belmar says that has not been confirmed.

Police say social media also played a role in the looting saying it was "an efficient way to communicate," helping direct looters to various locations.

Brian Schellman, with the St. Louis County Police Department, said close to 300 police officers from at least 15 different departments were called to Ferguson when angry mobs began smashing windows, setting fires and looting businesses in the area.

Raw Video: Aftermath of looting in Ferguson
Schellman said a St. Louis County officer injured his knee while at a Foot Locker store during the rioting. He said another officer was injured when he had a brick thrown at him.

Throughout the evening, numerous cop cars sustained damage and Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson said someone in a yellow pickup truck fired shots at officers while circling a WalMart parking lot. Chief Jackson said he got into a cop car to give chase to the truck but the truck got away.

Police said shots were also fired at a police helicopter in the area.
According to police, two men were assaulted at a Phillips 66 in the 1100 block of Riverview during the riots. Police say three suspects used a bat to injury a 54-year-old man who attempted to stop them for leaving the store with stolen merchandise. Authorities said the victim was taken to an area hospital in stable condition following the assault.

According to St. Louis County police, 32 people were arrested Sunday night, 10 for looting and 22 for destruction of property, and 15 people were arrested during a protest in Ferguson Monday morning.

Raw Video: Exclusive interview with witness of looting in Ferguson
Ferguson Mayor James Knowles III and Chief Jackson told News 4 they are confident the people who rioted last night are from Jennings and Dellwood, not Ferguson.

Police also responded to reports of shootings throughout the area. At one point, windows of a News 4 live truck were smashed out by the angry crowd.

One witness told News 4 a group of people attempted to steal an ATM from a gas station.
News video and amateur video from the scene captured mobs of crowds racing into stores and businesses and then rushing out with armloads of stolen goods.

Tear gas was reportedly used by police in some areas.
Two groups of protesters gathered around 8:00 Sunday night in Ferguson to bring awareness to the death of Michael Brown, 18, who was shot and killed by police Saturday.

Police set up a staging area at West Florissant and Ferguson Road. Police also staged at the Plaza at the Boulevard parking lot, where officers were seen putting on riot gear. Dozens of police vehicles were on scene, from all over St. Louis County, including Chesterfield, Country Club Hills and the Missouri Highway Patrol

The President and civil rights leaders call for calm

US President Barack Obama has appealed for calm in Ferguson, Missouri, after the shooting of a black teenager by police sparked two nights of violence.

He described the death on Saturday of Michael Brown as heartbreaking and added: "Remember this young man through reflection and understanding."

In two nights of unrest in the St Louis suburb, dozens were arrested, shops looted and tear gas fired by police.

On Tuesday night, anger had turned to reflection at a community forum.

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon told a packed crowd at Christ the King United Church of Christ that the shooting felt "like an old wound torn fresh".

Ferguson's mayor and police chief also attended the meeting and were greeted with applause.

Earlier, the Reverend Al Sharpton, the civil rights activist, appealed for peace.

"To become violent in Michael Brown's name is to betray the gentle giant he was," he said, flanked by Mr Brown's parents.

He said no-one had the right to take Michael Brown's name and "drag it through the mud".

Police say Brown was shot several times after a struggle in a police car, but witnesses have said the unarmed Brown was shot when he had his arms raised.

Lesley McSpadden, the mother of 18-year-old Michael Brown, wipes away tears as Brown's father, Michael Brown Sr., holds up a family picture of himself, his son, top left, and a young child during a news conference 11 August 2014
Michael Brown's mother, Lesley McSpadden, was distraught during the press conference
Ferguson protester
Protests on Tuesday were peaceful but tense
Speaking after around 50 demonstrators marched on the police headquarters, Mr Sharpton joined others in demanding police reveal the name of the officer who shot and killed Mr Brown.

"The local authorities have put themselves in a position, hiding names, not being transparent, where people will not trust anything but an objective investigation," Mr Sharpton said.

Police say death threats on social media have prevented them naming the officer, who has been placed on paid administrative leave.

Protests during the day on Tuesday were peaceful if tense, but they came after police used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse a large crowd in Ferguson the night before.

Jump media playerMedia player helpOut of media player. Press enter to return or tab to continue.
Sharpton appeals for peace after two nights of unrest in Ferguson
Police said the crowd threw rocks at officers and there was gunfire coming from the crowd.

Thirty-two people were arrested on Sunday night after people looted shops, vandalised cars and stores, and set a building alight.

The FBI is investigating the shooting and US Attorney General Eric Holder said the case deserved a "fulsome review".

The justice department has also sent its community relations team to the area.

State Troopers ordered in to take over from city police

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon ordered state troopers to take over security in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson and U.S. President Barack Obama made a plea for calm as protests raged after police fatally shot an unarmed black teenager.

Nixon said the multi-force policing would be led by Captain Ron Johnson of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, who is black. Police and protesters are engaged in a standoff entering its sixth day in the wake of the Aug. 9 shooting of Michael Brown. Police say the 18-year-old had fought the officer over his weapon, while Ferguson residents say Brown was shot while putting his hands up in surrender.

“We all have been concerned about the vision that the world has seen about this region,” Nixon, a 58-year-old Democrat, said in a news briefing after meeting with area clergy at a church in Florissant. “We’re all about making sure that we allow peaceful and appropriate protests.”

Related:

St. Louis Standoff Escalates as Missouri Governor Visits
Opinion: 'Jack-Booted Thugs' With NRA Approval?
U.S. Representative William Lacy Clay, a Democrat from St. Louis, who disclosed the governor’s plans earlier, said that he has been urging U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to “take over the entire situation because we will not get justice for Michael Brown and his family and friends if the St. Louis County police and prosecutor have a say.”


Photographer: Scott Olson/Getty Images
Police stand watch on Aug. 13, 2014 as demonstrators protest the shooting death of... Read More
Obama ‘Disturbed’

Obama promised a full and independent investigation of the circumstances surrounding the fatal shooting.

“I know that many Americans have been deeply disturbed by images we’ve seen in the heartland of our country,” Obama said in Edgartown, Massachusetts, where he is vacationing.

“Now’s the time for healing,” he said. “Now’s the time for peace and calm on the streets of Ferguson. Now’s the time for an open and transparent process to see that justice is done.”

Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill urged local authorities to “de-militarize” the situation.

“This kind of response by the police has become the problem instead of the solution,” McCaskill, a Democrat, said in a statement. “I obviously respect law enforcement’s work to provide public safety, but my constituents are allowed to have peaceful protests, and the police need to respect that right and protect that right.”

Holder’s Directives

The FBI on Aug. 11 opened an investigation into the Brown shooting, with Holder calling for a “fulsome review” by the Justice Department. Like McCaskill, Holder expressed concern about the military-style response of local police.

“I am deeply concerned that the deployment of military equipment and vehicles sends a conflicting message,” Holder said today in a statement. “At my direction, Department officials have conveyed these concerns to local authorities.”

He said the department is offering technical assistance to local authorities “to help conduct crowd control and maintain public safety without relying on unnecessarily extreme displays of force.”

Clay said federal and state authorities have waited too long to take control of the situation.

“They are relying on the St. Louis County authorities to do the right thing,” Clay said. “Now the governor realizes that they’re not going to do the right thing.”

‘Police Terrorism’

About 2 a.m. today, a group of more than 50 police officers in full protective gear drove three black armored vehicles to the Ferguson police department. Officers pointed guns at the crowd and told everyone to disperse immediately or face arrest. Protesters, who raised their hands and dropped to their knees, later departed, with some shouting expletives at the police.

“This is police terrorism at its finest,” said Kyra Rayford, a 24-year-old from St. Louis who was waving a sign across the street from the police department. “They’ve been using unnecessary aggression and force. They’re violating our civil rights.”

The name of the officer involved in the shooting hasn’t been released.

Police officers in military-style regalia yesterday fired tear gas at groups of protesters, and reporters from the Washington Post and The Huffington Post were arrested.

Wesley Lowery, a reporter for the Washington Post, wrote that he was handcuffed by officers in a McDonald’s restaurant after attempting to videotape them. Lowery and Huffington Post reporter Ryan Reilly were briefly detained, then released without charges, he wrote on the Washington Post’s website.

Marty Baron, the executive editor of the Washington Post, said he was “appalled” at how reporters were being treated.

“There was absolutely no justification for his arrest,” Baron said in a statement.

I'm planning on posting some pictures after I eat, but for the most part the police were wearing more gear than I was to invade Iraq. There's also quite a few allegations of media harassment and arresting peaceful protesters.

Alright, I promised you pics, you get pics. Buckle up.


What are you nuts doing? That's not how you deploy to peacefully contain anything, nor is it how you deploy for a firefight. Seriously, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?


...Okay...




You got to me kidding me.


This fucker you're all about to pile onto had better be some kind of terrorist mastermind or werewolf or something. Because there's like 4 of you with automatics and NBC gear and vest and he's got... empty hands. Also those pouches are driving me insane, WTF could you possibly need them for?


See it's not just me saying it.

Senator Rand has written about how this is a perfect example of why we need to demilitarize the police. God Help me I agree with Senator Rand. He wrote this while T.V crews and newspaper reporters were arrested, tear gassed and fired on with bean bag rounds.

Another witness has come forward. She doesn't agree with the police version of events.

I should note that since taking over Captain Ron Johnson and the state troopers have calmed this goat fuck down considerably. Among other things he has affirmed the right of citizens to protests without getting gassed or arrested which is always a good first step.

I see the local police adhere to the TACTICOOL school of gear.

Although it does go to show why the militarization of police is a bad thing. From their perspective, it's safer and easier for them to just pull that gear out, even if it means coming off as being more an occupying army than a civilian police force. Plus there is clearly a major gulf between the local PD and the populace, so Ferguson PD was already going to be of the mindset of "Us vs. them". Again not good.

While I don't at all care for what's going on, I'm glad these pictures are out there. This bullshit goes back to the sixties and has been getting more and more blatant by the decade.

On the one hand, it's a bad day when the police are outgunned during a crime. The mayhem of the North Hollywood Shootout was pretty bad.

That said, this shit is way worse. We don't need small towns with SWAT gear that makes the National Guard (much less the Marines) look on with envy. I question the need for it in anything but our biggest cities, and even there, what's the point? If we look at the numbers of innocent lives lost because of these departments versus that of normal police action, I think we end up losing in the end.

HAVING a force that can respond to highly armed individuals is not a bad idea, but the result of having such a force means that we have to justify its operation on a daily basis, and so they often get sent in on things that they're not needed for, or worse yet, the creation of such a force when it's not necessary, like we see above.

Incidents like North Hollywood are so vanishingly rare is to not be something truly worth considering in terms of equipping an American police force. Yeah, having some long arms on hand in case lightning strikes isn't a bad idea. But there's no justification for this bullshit level of gear up at all beyond the fact that it makes peckers hard, like Arpaio and his fucking howitzer.

We've been going down the wrong road vis a vis policing in this country for decades. Maybe this will finally start to walk the trend a bit in the other direction.

Today I found this.

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That said, the guy next to her gives her the greatest look of "The FUCK did you just say?"

The situation down there is still pretty bad. The Governor has declared a state of emergency, a curfew has been enacted, the National Guard have been called in, the Federal Prosecutor has come in today to try and show how quickly the Federal side of the Investigation will happen, but yeah.

From the New York Times:

As Tension Eases on Ferguson’s Streets, Focus Turns to Investigation
By ALAN BLINDER and CAMPBELL ROBERTSONAUG. 20, 2014

FERGUSON, Mo. — Even as Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. was scheduled to arrive in St. Louis on Wednesday, law enforcement officials and local leaders said they were hopeful that they had turned a corner in calming the restive community of Ferguson after 12 days of protests and unrest.

Capt. Ronald S. Johnson of the Missouri State Highway Patrol said that there were only sporadic problems during overnight protests on Tuesday, and he believed they had reached “a turning point.”

“Tonight, we saw a different dynamic,” said Captain Johnson, whose agency is overseeing security here. “Protest crowds were a bit smaller, and they were out early. We had to respond to fewer incidents than the night before. There were no Molotov cocktails tonight. There were no shootings.” Police did make 47 arrests overnight.

Continue reading the main story
RELATED COVERAGE

Reports on Twitter: Smaller Crowds in Ferguson, but Continued TensionAUG. 20, 2014
Protesters marched Tuesday in Ferguson, Mo., where the shooting death of a black teenager by a white police officer has spurred 10 days of unrest.Shooting Accounts Differ as Holder Schedules Visit to FergusonAUG. 19, 2014
As the tension on the street seemed to ease, the focus turned to the investigation into the shooting death of an unarmed black teenager, Michael Brown, by a white police officer on Aug. 9.

Missouri police arrested 47 protesters in Ferguson, Mo., late Tuesday night, as relative peace gave way to another night of demonstrations over the fatal shooting of Michael Brown. Publish Date August 20, 2014. Image CreditEric Thayer for The New York Times
A grand jury has been convened and was scheduled to meet Wednesday to begin hearing evidence, said Edward Magee, a spokesman for Robert P. McCulloch, the prosecuting attorney for St. Louis County.

Protesters gathered outside Mr. McCulloch’s office on Wednesday, calling for him to step aside. They argued that he could not be impartial because his father, a police officer, was shot and killed by a black man while on duty when Mr. McCulloch was a child.

Mr. McCulloch, speaking to a local radio station, said he has only one interest: conducting a fair and thorough investigation. But he acknowledged that Gov. Jay Nixon of Missouri has the power to appoint a new prosecutor.

“Anyone who wants me off the case needs to call up the governor and express their opinion to him,” Mr. McCulloch told KTRS radio.

By failing to act, Mr. McCulloch said, the governor “undermines everything except the cover he has pulled over his head.” He told him to “man up” and make a decision so that the case will not be further delayed.

Mr. Magee cautioned that it could take weeks for the grand jury to consider all of the evidence. He said that Officer Darren Wilson, who shot Mr. Brown, had been interviewed by police investigators and would be given the opportunity to testify. The Justice Department has started a separate inquiry.

More than 40 F.B.I. agents have been dispatched to Ferguson, and Mr. Holder said they are not only investigating the shooting but also looking for any broad patterns of civil rights violations.

In an open letter to the people of Ferguson, Mr. Holder said he understood the desire of residents for an “independent” inquiry.

“This is my pledge to the people of Ferguson: Our investigation into this matter will be full, it will be fair, and it will be independent,” Mr. Holder wrote in The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “And beyond the investigation itself, we will work with the police, civil rights leaders, and members of the public to ensure that this tragedy can give rise to new understanding — and robust action — aimed at bridging persistent gaps between law enforcement officials and the communities we serve.”

Continue reading the main story
The frustrations in the community have been fueled in part by the slow pace with which the authorities have released information.

In a sign of just how deep the distrust runs, there were three separate autopsies performed on Mr. Brown’s body: one by the county medical examiner, one by a private pathologist hired by the family, and one by federal authorities.

In addition to the many lingering questions about the shooting, the local authorities have also come under criticism for how they have handled the protests.

Norm Stamper, the former Seattle police chief who was in charge during the protests that rocked that city in 1999, said that the wrong tone was set from the first day in Ferguson.

“The basic perspective that I have over this whole thing, dating back to the shooting incident itself, what we had were largely peaceful vigils and protests that were met with police tactics that were highly aggressive and militaristic,” he said. “That response ignited what we have seen all week.”

He reserved his harshest criticism for the use of tear gas by the police — a mistake he said he made in Seattle and one he regrets to this day.

Continue reading the main story

Graphic: What Happened in Ferguson?
Since the first day of protests in Ferguson, the authorities shifted their response almost daily, adding to the sense that the situation was out of control.

On one day, protesters were told to gather in one place. Another day, they were told to keep moving. Then a curfew was imposed. The next night, there was no curfew. The local police were in control; then another unit took over. The National Guard was finally brought in to try to temper the unrest, but its role was not exactly clear.

“You get governors and police chiefs and everyone gnashing their teeth,” Mr. Stamper said. “Even the protesters are commenting on that: what are they doing?”

On Tuesday night, however, it seemed that some of that energy had gone from the streets. And the police also seemed more restrained, refraining from using tear gas.

The evening began in a familiar fashion: Demonstrators marched along the street and chanted “Hands up! Don’t shoot!” and other slogans that have become common here since Mr. Brown’s death.

The authorities made at least 47 arrests after demonstrators tossed bottles toward police officers, some of whom used pepper spray to subdue some protesters. In some instances, teams of officers abruptly entered the crowd, detained a single person whom they had apparently focused on, and returned to West Florissant Avenue, where many of the recent confrontations have occurred.

Although law enforcement officers in riot gear eyed the protesters while a police helicopter occasionally circled the city, there were no signs of trouble for long stretches of the evening.

When a demonstration ended shortly before midnight, many of the demonstrators prayed.

“Now that’s what I call a good protest,” Jonathan Smith, 45, said. “Ending in a prayer, no gas in the air.”

A local lawyer, Jerryl T. Christmas, urged demonstrators to leave the street and join a protest planned for Wednesday morning.

But tensions soon resurfaced, as people whom Captain Johnson labeled “the agitators, the criminals” tossed urine and bottles toward the authorities. Those actions, Captain Johnson said, were part of what prompted the police to restrict movement on West Florissant Avenue and to make arrests.

One person, Captain Johnson said, was from Austin, Tex., and was arrested on Tuesday night for the third time since the unrest began.

The fleeting clash, though, was far less fierce than previous encounters between the police and demonstrators, and it followed a night of extraordinary violence in Ferguson, a city of about 21,000 people northwest of St. Louis. The police fired tear gas to control the crowd on Monday and made dozens of arrests, and two people were wounded by gunfire.

While the authorities were hopeful that the worst of the street violence had passed, they were also aware that similar lulls had failed to hold in the past. Last Thursday night, officials here were encouraged when a break in the violence led to such a relaxed scene along West Florissant Avenue that one woman compared it to a parade.

But the next night, the police and a band of protesters engaged in a four-hour standoff after demonstrators barricaded part of the road. By Saturday afternoon, Governor Nixon had ordered a curfew for the city, which ran from midnight to 5 a.m., and declared a state of emergency.

Yet more violence followed, including a chaotic episode on Sunday when the police said demonstrators had tried to overrun their command post at a Ferguson shopping center. Mr. Nixon quickly ordered the Missouri National Guard to Ferguson, and soldiers on Tuesday night again manned checkpoints at entrances to the command post.

And from Reuters:

U.S. attorney general visits racially charged St. Louis suburb
BY SCOTT MALONE AND ELLEN WULFHORST
FERGUSON Mo. Wed Aug 20, 2014 12:27pm EDT

A demonstrator protesting against the shooting of Michael Brown talks to the police in Ferguson, Missouri August 19, 2014. REUTERS-Joshua Lott
1 OF 19. A demonstrator protesting against the shooting of Michael Brown talks to the police in Ferguson, Missouri August 19, 2014.
CREDIT: REUTERS/JOSHUA LOTT

(Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder was visiting Ferguson, Missouri, on Wednesday, hours after nearly 50 protesters were arrested in the 11th straight night of demonstrations over the killing of an unarmed black teenager by a white police officer.

The St. Louis County prosecutor's office will also begin presenting evidence on Wednesday to a regularly seated grand jury investigating the August 9 shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown.

Prosecuting attorney Bob McCulloch said his office could continue presenting evidence to the grand jury through mid-October as he confronts conflicting pressures for speed and thoroughness.

"On one side, people are saying you're rushing to justice, and on the other side, they're saying you're dragging this thing out," he said at a news conference. "We're going to present this as expeditiously as possible, but we are not going to present it in a half-hearted manner."

Outside McCulloch's office, a few dozen protesters called for him to be removed from the case and for the immediate arrest of the officer involved in the shooting. The officer, 28-year-old Darren Wilson, has been placed on leave and gone into seclusion.

"The criminal justice system in America ... is as racist as it was 50 years ago," said 62-year-old African-American minister Stanton Holliday, who said he was a longtime civil rights activist and was concerned that prosecutors were taking too long.

Holder said he planned to visit Ferguson, a predominantly black St. Louis suburb of 21,000 residents, to be briefed on the progress of a separate civil rights investigation he has ordered into the Brown killing.

In Ferguson, some said they hoped Holder's visit would lead to a speedy arrest and prosecution of the police officer involved in the shooting, while others cautioned against hasty justice.

Jason Schmidt, a 28-year-old black man who works for a temporary agency, said he hoped the federal government's involvement would lead to "the killer paying for his actions.

"... If this was done to any other race, to any other place, in any other situation, I don't think it would have taken this long to get justice," Schmidt said.

Another resident, 66-year-old retired Vietnam War veteran Walter Garrett, also black, called for patience.

"You don't want to rush it and have him get off if it turns out he is guilty," Garrett said.

In a special message to the community published online by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Holder said about 40 FBI agents have been assigned to the case, along with prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's Office in St. Louis.

Hundreds of people have already been interviewed, Holder said, and federal medical examiners have performed an independent autopsy, the third conducted in the killing.

"Our investigation into this matter will be full, it will be fair, and it will be independent," Holder said.

He joined Governor Jay Nixon and other officials in a renewed appeal for public calm following demonstrations that have gripped Ferguson since Brown was killed.

Most of the protests have been punctuated by looting, vandalism and clashes between demonstrators and police.

EYES OF THE WORLD

The turmoil has generated international headlines and exposed simmering racial tensions in Ferguson, whose police force, political leadership and public education administration are dominated by whites.

The case also has re-ignited a national debate over racial disparities in the U.S. criminal justice system, even drawing sharp words on Tuesday from top United Nations human rights envoy Navi Pillay, a native South African.

"I condemn the excessive force by the police and call for the right of protest to be respected," she said in Geneva.

Police and the governor have insisted that thugs or outside agitators have caused most of the trouble.

On Tuesday, demonstrators were noticeably fewer in number and more subdued than on previous nights. Onlookers milled about as civic activists, members of the clergy and even Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster mingled with protesters.

The relative calm abruptly dissolved just before midnight, however, as police in riot gear ordered lingering demonstrators to disperse, then charged into the crowd to make arrests.

Police later said they took 47 people into custody and seized several loaded firearms, but no gunshots were fired.

(Additional reporting by Lucas Jackson in Ferguson, Carey Gillam in Kansas City, Mo.; Writing by Fiona Ortiz; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

So...yeah, still a mess. The Feds are going to be walking on Eggshells for this one.

Witness accounts differ

[quoteAs a county grand jury prepared to hear evidence on Wednesday in the shooting death of a black teenager by a white police officer that touched off 10 days of unrest here, witnesses have given investigators sharply conflicting accounts of the killing.

Some of the accounts seem to agree on how the fatal altercation initially unfolded: with a struggle between the officer, Darren Wilson, and the teenager, Michael Brown. Officer Wilson was inside his patrol car at the time, while Mr. Brown, who was unarmed, was leaning in through an open window.

Many witnesses also agreed on what happened next: Officer Wilson’s firearm went off inside the car, Mr. Brown ran away, the officer got out of his car and began firing toward Mr. Brown, and then Mr. Brown stopped, turned around and faced the officer.

But on the crucial moments that followed, the accounts differ sharply, officials say. Some witnesses say that Mr. Brown, 18, moved toward Officer Wilson, possibly in a threatening manner, when the officer shot him dead. But others say that Mr. Brown was not moving and may even have had his hands up when he was killed.

F.B.I. agents went door to door looking for witnesses. Credit Eric Thayer for The New York Times
The accounts of what witnesses have told local and federal law enforcement authorities come from some of those witnesses themselves, law enforcement authorities and others in Ferguson. Many spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not want to be identified discussing a continuing investigation.

The new details on the witness accounts emerged as Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. was scheduled to visit Ferguson on Wednesday to meet with F.B.I. agents who have been conducting a civil rights investigation into the shooting.

Mr. Holder and top Justice Department officials were weighing whether to open a broader civil rights investigation to look at Ferguson’s police practices at large, according to law enforcement officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal talks. The issue came up after news reports revealed a 2009 case in which a man said that four police officers beat him, then charged him with damaging government property — by getting blood on their uniforms.

Under Mr. Holder, the Justice Department has opened nearly two dozen such investigations into police departments, more than twice as many as were opened in the previous five years, according to department data.

Michael Brown on his Facebook page.
Also on Tuesday, federal authorities learned the results of an autopsy performed on Mr. Brown by military coroners that showed that he had been shot six times, though they declined to release further details until their investigation was finished. An autopsy conducted on behalf of Mr. Brown’s family also found that he had been shot at least six times — including once in the face and once in the top of his head — with all bullets striking him in the front. The county has also done its own autopsy, which found evidence of marijuana in Mr. Brown’s system.

The Brown family has scheduled a funeral for Monday.

Clashes between the police and protesters have become a nightly ritual, although the scene on Tuesday was initially calm. The authorities took their positions before sunset, and Missouri National Guard soldiers staffed checkpoints at the shopping center that is now a police command post. Demonstrators marched without incident while officers watched. The quiet nature of the protests raised hopes that they had entered a calmer phase, but more confrontations were reported overnight, with 47 people arrested.

In a statement on Tuesday night, Gov. Jay Nixon expressed sympathy for the Brown family and praised residents for “standing against armed and violent instigators.” But he also said that “a vigorous prosecution must now be pursued.”

Michael T. Brady, 32, said in an interview that he saw the initial altercation in the patrol car, but he said he struggled to see exactly what was happening. Credit Eric Thayer for The New York Times
“The democratically elected St. Louis County prosecutor and the attorney general of the United States each have a job to do,” Mr. Nixon said. “Their obligation to achieve justice in the shooting death of Michael Brown must be carried out thoroughly, promptly and correctly, and I call upon them to meet those expectations.”

The fatal confrontation began on Aug. 9 shortly after the police received reports that two men had robbed a convenience store in Ferguson. Officer Wilson, who was not responding to the robbery, had stopped to speak with Mr. Brown and a friend, Dorian Johnson. The Ferguson police chief, Thomas Jackson, said that it was around the time that Officer Wilson started talking to the two that he realized they fit the description of the suspects in the convenience store robbery.

A lawyer for Mr. Johnson said that his client was interviewed by the F.B.I. and the St. Louis County police last week for nearly four hours. In that interview, Mr. Johnson admitted that he and Mr. Brown had stolen cigarillos from the store, said the lawyer, Freeman R. Bosley Jr.

Mr. Bosley said that the officer told the two to get off the street, adding that Mr. Johnson told the officer that he lived nearby. They got into a bit of a verbal dispute with the officer about whether walking in the street constituted a crime, Mr. Bosley said.

Contrary to what several witnesses have told law enforcement officials, Mr. Bosley said that the officer then reached out of the window with his left hand and grabbed Mr. Brown by the throat.

He said Mr. Brown pushed him off, and the officer then grabbed Mr. Brown’s shirt.

“My client sees the officer pull a gun and hears him say, ‘I’ll shoot you’ — then ‘pow!’ there was a shot,” Mr. Bosley said, referring to the one that apparently went off in the car. “He did not describe a scuffle. It was more of a scuffle for him to get away.”

Asked if Mr. Brown had punched the officer, Mr. Bosley said that Mr. Johnson “did not observe that.”

Officer Darren Wilson at a meeting. Credit City of Ferguson, via Associated Press
However, law enforcement officials say witnesses and forensic analysis have shown that Officer Wilson did sustain an injury during the struggle in the car.

As Officer Wilson got out of his car, the men were running away. The officer fired his weapon but did not hit anyone, according to law enforcement officials.

Mr. Johnson took cover near a parked car as he saw the officer confronting Mr. Brown, Mr. Bosley said.

A man who lives nearby, Michael T. Brady, said in an interview that he saw the initial altercation in the patrol car, although he struggled to see exactly what was happening.

“It was something strange,” said Mr. Brady, 32, a janitor. “Something was not right. It was some kind of altercation. I can’t say whether he was punching the officer or whatever. But something was going on in that window, and it didn’t look right.”

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Mr. Brady said he had been interviewed by county investigators, but not the F.B.I.

Mr. Brady said he could see Mr. Johnson at the front passenger side of the car when he and Mr. Brown suddenly started running. Mr. Brady did not hear a gunshot or know what caused them to run. But he said he did see a police officer get out of the patrol car and start walking briskly while firing on Mr. Brown as he fled.

What happened next could be what the case turns on. Several witnesses have told investigators that Mr. Brown stopped and turned around with his arms up.

According to his account to the Ferguson police, Officer Wilson said that Mr. Brown had lowered his arms and moved toward him, law enforcement officials said. Fearing that the teenager was going to attack him, the officer decided to use deadly force. Some witnesses have backed up that account. Others, however — including Mr. Johnson — have said that Mr. Brown did not move toward the officer before the final shots were fired.

A lawyer for the police union, Greg Kloeppel, did not return calls for comment.

The F.B.I., Mr. Bosley said, pressed Mr. Johnson to say how high Mr. Brown’s hands were. Mr. Johnson said that his hands were not that high, and that one was lower than the other, because he appeared to be “favoring it,” the lawyer said.

James McKnight, who also said he saw the shooting, said that Mr. Brown’s hands were up right after he turned around to face the officer.

“I saw him stumble toward the officer, but not rush at him,” Mr. McKnight said in a brief interview. “The officer was about six or seven feet away from him.”

Also Tuesday, a few miles from Ferguson, St. Louis Metropolitan Police officers shot and killed a 23-year-old black man. The shooting threatened to further inflame a community still reeling from Mr. Brown’s death.

Sam Dotson, the chief of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police, said two officers encountered a man at the Six Stars Market in northwest St. Louis behaving “erratically” and brandishing a knife. The officers repeatedly warned, “Stop, drop the knife,” but he refused, Chief Dotson said.

The man approached the officers, knife raised, and was shot after he came within three or four feet, the chief said.

In a sign of how tense the situation remains, Chief Dotson went out into a crowd at the scene of the shooting to tell it what the police understood had occurred. “I think it’s important that people understand what happened,” he said. He said witnesses, including a local alderman, had confirmed the account of the officers. “I want this message to be out as truthfully and quickly as possible,” the chief said.

But not all in the crowd were willing to listen. A small group of protesters, most of them black, gathered at the scene chanting, “Hands up! Don’t shoot!”

“Even if this is a legitimate shooting, they are going to capitalize on this and try to use it for their martial law agenda,” said Christopher Hobbs, 21, who had joined dozens of other residents at the scene.][/quote]