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Bracing for more unrest in Ferguson

November 26, 2014

Authorities have made new arrests in protests over the Ferguson grand jury decision not to indict the officer accused of shooting teen Michael Brown. Several demonstrators have stormed City Hall in nearby St. Louis.

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Ferguson Protest Missouri St. Louis USA
Image: Reuters/Jim Young

With more than 2,000 National Guard troops deployed across the area, residents of Ferguson say they hope protests will abate after a grand jury decided not to charge a white police officer who shot an unarmed black teenager August 9. Protests in New York, Atlanta and Los Angeles - cities with tension between police and minorities - suggest that anger continues to simmer.

Shouting "Shame, shame," protesters stormed St. Louis City Hall Wednesday after a march of several hundred that began with a mock trial of Darren Wilson, a member of the mostly white force that polices the mostly black town of Ferguson, for killing 18-year-old Michael Brown. More than 100 additional police officers headed to the building to lock it down.

Police arrested a total of 58 at area protests overnight, including 45 in Ferguson. Civil rights leaders have called for more protests against the grand jury's decision on Saturday.

'Insult after injury'

On the NBC network's "Today" news talk show Wednesday, Brown's mother, Lesley McSpadden, said an interview with Wilson broadcast on Tuesday had added "insult after injury," calling the police officer's words "so disrespectful." In his first televised interview since killing the teenager, Wilson had said that he feared for his life, accusing Brown of starting their confrontation and grabbing at the officer's gun and later rushing toward him. Wilson said that Brown had resembled an angry "demon" just before he fired 12 shots at him and that he had a "clean conscience" after killing the teenager.

"I don't believe a word of it," McSpadden added in an interview with the competing national morning news talk show "This Morning" on CBS. "He would never do anything like that," she said of her son. "He would never provoke anyone to do anything to him and he wouldn't do anything to anybody. I don't believe a word of it." She added: "Our son doesn't have a history of violence."

Ferguson Demonstration: Michael Brown
With their hands up, protesters have told police: Don't shootImage: Getty Images/Aaron P. Bernstein

His father, Michael Brown Sr., said Wednesday on NBC that he, too, considered the version of the events that the officer had given to be false.

mkg/jr (Reuters, AFP, dpa, AP)