Ferguson: Barack Obama calls for calm after violence erupts in Missouri suburb
THOUSANDS of people have rallied in New York’s Times Square to honour the victims of police brutality, including one teenager killed in Ferguson.
THOUSANDS of people have rallied in New York’s Times Square to honour the victims of police brutality, including one teenager killed in Ferguson.
People originally gathered in Union Square as part of a National Moment of Silence to remember people that organisers say died at the hands of police brutality.
It included events in 90 cities and follows the shooting death of a teenager in Ferguson, Missouri and the death of a New York City man apparently caused by a police officer’s chokehold.
The protesters chanted “hands up, don’t shoot” as the rally eventually turned into a march, which made its way to Times Square.
NOW: Thousands flock to Times Square to protest #MichaelBrown death. (@Mike_Ruga, @PzFeed, @jasonkeath, @samsanders) pic.twitter.com/jcox80LjFG
— Connor Ryan (@connortryan) August 15, 2014Cars, taxis, buses stopped in their tracks in middle of Times Square. #JusticeForMikeBrown #Ferguson #NMOS14 pic.twitter.com/s6AIAjLdLx
— Occupy Congress (@OCongress) August 15, 2014Meanwhile, a source close to the investigation of the shooting of Michael Brown, 18, told CNN that the name of the officer who shot him in Ferguson would be released on Friday.
The teenager’s death has prompted protests in the St Louis suburb and a tough response from police.
But the state trooper appointed Thursday to bring peace back to the Missouri town rocked by violence this week, reportedly hugged and shook hands with demonstrators tonight.
The response from Captain Ron Johnson, an African-American, marked a radical change from the heavily armed and armoured riot police who shot tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters earlier in the week.
Police in riot gear and military garb have clashed nightly with protesters since the August 9 shooting of Brown and at times have trained weapons on them from armoured trucks.
The officers have been criticised for resembling paramilitary forces and one Democratic congressman plans to introduce a bill to restrict a program that provides machine guns and other surplus military equipment to police for free.
Democratic Rep. Hank Johnson said city streets should be a place for businesses and families, “not tanks and M16s.”
“Militarising America’s main streets won’t make us any safer, just more fearful and more reticent,” he said.
Ferguson Police Department has been part of the surplus equipment program and it has received two tactical vehicles - both Humvees - as well as a generator, a trailer and other equipment, Defense Logistics Agency spokesman Joe Yoswa said.
State police have been asked to take over from local force after criticism of the heavy handed used on protesters including tear gas, smoke bombs and dogs for crowd control, which for some invoked the civil rights protests from a half-century ago.
Residents have been posting photos of their war wounds and receiving advice from Palestinians on how to deal with tear gas thrown at them by US police.
This woman who was helping to calm the crowd last night got shot by a rubber bullet later on. #Ferguson pic.twitter.com/o4f5YjNUNs
— Antonio French (@AntonioFrench) August 14, 2014
This image is unreal. Cops in #Ferguson dressed & armed for war, confronting a lone protestor http://t.co/yFqUtwkrjC pic.twitter.com/htQ1OjGjVr
— Frank Matt (@fxmatt4) August 12, 2014RELATED: Americans take to Twitter to express dismay over Ferguson violence
RELATED: Journalists arrested as warrior-cops stalk the streets
One report suggests that a university graduate was shot in the head while protesting. Mya Aaten-White posted an Instagram photo of herself in the back of an ambulance on Wednesday, and later said she had been “shot in the head” but her life was “intact”.
A Howard University spokesman has reportedly confirmed the photo was of Aaten-White.
In a strange twist some Palestinians have expressed solidarity with residents of Ferguson, 70 per cent of which are black, and have been giving them advice through Twitter on how to deal with the effects of tear gas.
Solidarity with #Ferguson. Remember to not touch your face when teargassed or put water on it. Instead use milk or coke!
— مريم البرغوثي (@MariamBarghouti) August 14, 2014Made in USA teargas canister was shot at us a few days ago in #Palestine by Israel, now they are used in #Ferguson. pic.twitter.com/y3co6DMFM6
— مريم البرغوثي (@MariamBarghouti) August 14, 2014It feels so weird using my experience from #Palestine and Israeli oppression to give advice to #Ferguson. Much love and solidarity!
— مريم البرغوثي (@MariamBarghouti) August 14, 2014US President Barack Obama has tried to calm the situation and said there is no excuse for excessive force used by police in the aftermath of the shooting. He said he had asked the Justice Department and FBI to investigate the incident.
“I know emotions are raw right now in Ferguson, and there are certainly passionate differences about what has happened,” Obama said. “But let’s remember that we’re all part of one American family. We are united in common values, and that includes the belief in equality under the law, respect for public order and the right to peaceful public protests.”
Missouri Governor Jay Nixon said security would now be overseen by Captain Ron Johnson of the Highway Patrol. Johnson, who is black, said he grew up in the community and “it means a lot to me personally that we break this cycle of violence.”
“Ferguson will not be defined as a community that was torn apart by violence but will be known as a community that pulled together to overcome it,” Nixon said at a news conference.
Crowds have gathered in Ferguson since Saturday’s shooting of Michael Brown to protest the 18-year-old’s death.
St. Louis County police spokesman Brian Schellman said officers on Wednesday night tossed tear gas to disperse a large crowd of protesters after some threw molotov cocktails and rocks at officers. More than 10 people were arrested in Ferguson.
“In talking to these guys, it is scary,” Schellman said of officers on the front lines of the protest. “They hear gunshots going off, and they don’t know where they’re coming from.”
County Police Chief Jon Belmar also defended the police response and said his officers had acted with “an incredible amount of restraint” as they’ve had rocks and bottles thrown at them, been shot at and had two dozen patrol vehicles destroyed.
But the city and county are also under criticism for refusing to release the name of the officer who shot Brown, citing threats against that officer and others.
The hacker group Anonymous released a name purported to be the officer’s on Thursday, but The Associated Press could not immediately verify that the name was correct.
Twitter quickly suspended the Anonymous account that threatened to post the officer’s identity and personal information. The site’s code of conduct strictly forbids the publication of private and confidential information without permission.
WHAT HAPPENED?
Two-thirds of Ferguson’s 21,000 residents are black and all but three of the police force’s 53 officers are white.
Police have said Brown was shot after an officer encountered him and another man on the street. They say one of the men pushed the officer into his squad car, then physically assaulted him in the vehicle and struggled with the officer over the officer’s weapon. At least one shot was fired inside the car.
The struggle then spilt onto the street, where Brown was shot multiple times. In their initial news conference about the shooting, police didn’t specify whether Brown was the person who scuffled with the officer in the car and have refused to clarify their account.
Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson said Wednesday that the officer involved sustained swelling facial injuries.
Dorian Johnson, who says he was with Brown when the shooting happened, has told media outlets that the officer ordered them out of the street, then tried to open his door so close to the men that it “ricocheted” back, apparently upsetting the officer.
Johnson says the officer grabbed his friend’s neck, then tried to pull him into the car before brandishing his weapon and firing. He says Brown started to run and the officer pursued him, firing multiple times. Johnson and another witness both say Brown was on the street with his hands raised when the officer fired at him repeatedly.
Brown’s family is asking the Justice Department to oversee a second autopsy. The St. Louis County medical examiner’s office performed an autopsy Sunday. But family attorney Ben Crump said relatives want an independent examination.
Funeral arrangements are on hold until the autopsy can be performed, he said.
‘PROTECT OUR YOUNG PEOPLE’
Families of young shooting victims called Thursday for more to be done to protect minority youths in the United States.
Sybrina Fulton, the mother of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin who killed in 2012 shooting by a neighbourhood watchman in a case that sparked national outrage, said young black teens in America today feel threatened.
“We should put our heads together to come up with a solution so our young people can stop dying and so they can have a future,” Fulton said.
“I think far more needs to be done,” she told AFP on the sidelines of a United Nations review in Geneva of the US record on fighting racial discrimination.
The shooter in the Martin case, volunteer neighbourhood watchman George Zimmerman, was controversially acquitted after claiming self-defence under Florida’s “stand your ground” law.
The killing sparked outrage over racial profiling and lax US gun laws. Ron Davis, the father of another young black man who was killed in a shooting, also urged more action to end discrimination.
“If my son had been white, I think it wouldn’t have happened,” Davis told AFP.
Jordan Davis, 17, was killed in Florida in November 2012 when Michael Dunn, a white man, fired shots into the vehicle Davis was sitting in with three other unarmed black teens.
Dunn claimed he had felt threatened by the teens following an argument over their loud “thug music”.
The jury in the case could not determine whether his self-defence claim was legitimate or whether he was guilty of murder, and the judge declared a mistrial.
Both Fulton and Davis said they had been very affected by the shooting, which has stirred comparisons with their sons’ cases.
“My heart goes out to the family ... It’s a tragedy to have to bury your child at such a young age,” Fulton said.
The case has once again stirred up fear among African Americans, who can never know if they are going to be “harassed, profiled, followed or shot and killed,” she said.
They have reason to worry. African Americans make up 13 per cent of the US population but 50 per cent of homicide victims, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination pointed out during its two-day review of the United States.
Fulton and Davis especially lamented the proliferation of “stand your ground” self-defence laws, currently in place in around half the states, which they said disproportionately affected African Americans.
Those laws, along with “mass incarceration” of minorities, has the community feeling under siege, Davis said.
The message to minorities, he said, is “either we’re going to load up and shoot you, or we’re going to incarcerate you.” During the UN committee review, which all UN member states must undergo periodically, US officials insisted their country was a “vibrant, multiracial, multiethnic, and multicultural democracy” dedicated to fighting racial discrimination.
They did acknowledge that gun violence, especially among minority communities, was a serious problem, but said efforts were being made to improve safety and that states with the “stand your ground” laws had been asked to review them.
They also emphasised efforts to crack down on unequal treatment within the criminal justice system, and stressed that racial profiling was illegal.
Fulton welcomed the dialogue, but said she remained unconvinced by the measures taken so far.
“The bottom line is that more lives are still being taken,” she said. “Until you stop that, this is all just a shadow with no meaning.”
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