At times pausing for composure, Brown said he had felt none of the benefits of the victories claimed by protesters in the past year, such as the criminal charges brought against officers who fatally shot unarmed African American men in South Carolina and Ohio, or reforms to criminal justice systems in Ferguson and elsewhere.
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“They were in our face, but we didn’t react”, said Ferguson police Sergeant Dominica Fuller, clad for Friday night’s police work in a polo shirt bearing the phrase “community engagement team” rather than the body armor and riot helmets common in the unrest following the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown on August 9, 2014. In November 2014, a grand jury did not indict him in the shooting.
But unlike last summer, when police responded to even peaceful protests with batons, tear gas and rubber bullets in the aftermath of rioting and arson that tore apart the St. Louis suburb of 21,000 people, this time officers watched quietly but did not respond.
Mayor James Knowles III acknowledged that events after Brown’s death exposed fissures that had long existed. “Ain’t nothing been accomplished for me”, said Brown. But on Saturday, Brown said the outcome of the case would change little.
“I wanted to show him he needs to stand up for what he believes in”, said Bussey, who is black. Morris asks. “This was a trying time for me and…”
In March, the Justice Department released a blistering report that found the city’s police had engaged in sweeping patterns of bias against black residents in recent years. Wilson has left the Ferguson police department but remains in the St Louis area.
“If there’s no trouble in your life, how would you grow?” “Ferguson seems to be taking the attitude that they want to do some internal adjustments to kind of meet those community needs”. Our city government has not become any more communicative. “It allowed us to finally open up our ears to listen to some of them… the ones that really had a goal to being out there”.
She attended city council meetings regularly, helped push for the recall of the mayor, joined ONE Ferguson, a community group dedicated to addressing racial and other disparities, and protested for several months.
“I lost my boy”.
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While much of the spotlight last year was on black residents’ mistrust of the predominantly white police force, Davis says there are new fractures among white residents. The city chose the new judge, city manager and police chief on an interim basis. “But we’re working on that”.
