Protests target police shootings in Missouri
FERGUSON, Mo. – Hundreds of people protesting the death of Michael Brown and other fatal police shootings in Missouri and elsewhere stood inches from officers in riot gear late Friday before demonstrators dissipated, anticipating a long weekend of events.
Organizers of the four-day Ferguson October events expected 6,000 participants, but the initial protest Friday outside the St. Louis County prosecutor’s office in Clayton didn’t draw nearly that amount. Later Friday, tensions increased, with hundreds of protesters gathering outside the Ferguson Police Department and chanting anti-police remarks as a wall of about 100 officers in riot gear stood near them.
Soon after, most of the crowd left, with organizers urging people to avoid arrest so that they could come back for more protests throughout the weekend.
Protesters renewed their call for Prosecutor Bob McCulloch to charge Darren Wilson, a white Ferguson officer, in the Aug. 9 death of 18-year-old Brown, who was black and unarmed. A grand jury is reviewing the case, and the U.S. Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation into Brown’s death and a broader inquiry into the Ferguson police force.
In Clayton, officers escorted the several hundred demonstrators through the suburb’s downtown as they marched past high-end restaurants, jewelry stores, banks and law offices, before the protests moved to Ferguson. After the Ferguson demonstration broke up, some protesters planned to go to the site of a police shooting in St. Louis.
Meanwhile, the St. Louis Police Department announced it had encrypted its radio communications system, saying tactical information relayed to officers had been compromised during recent events.
Tensions remain high in the wake of another black 18-year-old’s shooting death by a white police officer Wednesday night in St. Louis. Police said Vonderrit D. Myers shot at the St. Louis officer, who was in uniform but working off-duty for a private neighborhood security patrol. Myers’ parents said he was unarmed.
The officer’s name hasn’t been released.