Ferguson businesses, residents clean up as demonstrations recede

FERGUSON, Mo. – Business owners and residents boarded up windows and cleared away debris Wednesday as Ferguson sought a tentative return to normal after two nights of unrest over the grand jury decision in the Michael Brown case.

Protesters continued to hold scattered demonstrations, including a group that rushed into St. Louis City Hall screaming “Shame, shame.” Police locked down the building and called in more than 100 extra officers. Three people were arrested.

About 200 demonstrators marched through downtown St. Louis and held a mock trial of Darren Wilson, the white police officer who shot and killed the unarmed Brown, who was black, during an Aug. 9 struggle.

Meanwhile in Ferguson, many residents hoped that the relative calm of the daylight hours would last through the night and into the Thanksgiving holiday.

About a dozen people painted over boarded-up windows on businesses in the St. Louis suburb’s historic downtown, where National Guardsmen were stationed every few feet and some looked down from rooftops.

“This is my Ferguson, you know?” said Kari Hobbs, 28, as she watched 17-year-old Molly Rogers paint “Love Will Win” in bright pink on a board that covered a smashed window at Cathy’s Kitchen, a restaurant not far from the Ferguson Police Department.

The footage people see on the news “is such a small bit of what’s happening here,” Hobbs said.