For a third consecutive night, restraint prevailed at protests on Friday in , Missouri, as the National Guard began withdrawing from the St. Louis suburb racked by turmoil after a white police officer shot dead an unarmed black teenager.
Hundreds of protesters marched in the hot summer night near the site of the Aug. 9 slaying of 18-year-old Michael Brown, chanting 'Hands up, don't shoot,' while police vehicles observed the demonstration, without intervening.
After dwindling in numbers, the protesters, marshaled by volunteers from the clergy, made their way to a parking lot across from the police station, where they prayed and chanted while about 20 officers stood in a line outside.
Despite a notable easing of tensions in recent days - police made only a handful of arrests on Wednesday and Thursday - authorities braced for a possible flare-up of civil disturbances ahead of Brown's funeral, which is planned for Monday.Another suspension
In the latest embarrassment for local law enforcement, an officer from the St. Louis County Police Department was removed from active duty on Friday after a video surfaced in which he boasted of being 'a killer.'
Officer Dan Page, a 35-year police force veteran who had also served in the U.S. military, was removed from patrol duties and placed in an administrative position pending an internal investigation.
In the video, Page is seen addressing a St. Louis chapter of the Oath Keepers, a conservative group of former servicemen, saying, 'I'm also a killer. I've killed a lot, and if I need to I'll kill a whole bunch more. If you don't want to get killed, don't show up in front of me.'
He also made disparaging remarks about Muslims, gays, Supreme Court justices and expressed the view that the United States was on the verge of collapse.
St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar apologized, saying the comments were 'bizarre' and unacceptable.
Two days earlier, another St. Louis-area policeman, an officer from the town of St. Ann, was suspended indefinitely for pointing a semi-automatic assault rifle at a peaceful demonstrator, yelling obscenities, and threatening to kill the protester.
The incidents have highlighted the racial divide in , a largely black town where almost all the police force and local politicians are white. Civil rights activists say Brown's death followed years of police targeting blacks.
A grand jury, made up of three blacks and nine whites, met this week to begin hearing evidence in the case.
Ferguson memorial
Ever since Michael Brown was shot nearly two weeks ago, De'Joneiro Jones has found himself drawn again and again to the makeshift memorial that has grown at the site of the violent encounter.'This has become the epicenter of racial tensions in America,' said Jones, 40, an abstract artist who lives in St. Louis. 'This was just an explosion that was waiting to happen.'Jones took off his sunglasses for a moment to wipe his eyes, then donned them and added: 'I just hope maybe this could be the last tragedy of its kind.'On the sleepy two-lane street in a working-class apartment complex where he was shot, the memorial to Brown sums up the conflicting feelings stirred by his death: a yearning for reconciliation but also continuing anger.Alongside soft toys, a wooden cross leans against a tree on the side of the road bearing the words 'Love your neighbor and you would love yourself.' Other signs say 'Pray for light' and 'Pray for truth.'But below those a large white placard reads 'Beware killer cops on the loose, watch out children.'A line of red roses on the street stretching some 150 feet leads from the memorial to the main road where protesters have gathered nightly.Almost like pilgrims, hundreds of well-wishers now come daily from near and far, following the roses to the spot where Brown died.Edward Scott, 38, visiting for the day from Chicago some 300 miles away, arrived with two friends on Friday.'I feel like we needed to pay our respects and show solidarity,' he said. 'I don't want people to forget what happened here.'
Posted by Unknown on Saturday, August 23, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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