Michael Brown Sr., his heart heavy and his arms filled with stuffed animals, led a memorial march Saturday to mark the coming anniversary of his son’s polarizing death.
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In November, though, after a Missouri grand jury decided not to indict Wilson, cars were vandalized, shots fired and businesses burned including her own.
Close to 250 mourners marched through the streets of Ferguson to commemorate the first anniversary of the killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown by white police officer Darren Wilson, Friday. “No. We have got a variety of work to do, however this metropolis is shifting in the correct path, and I feel anybody who’s being goal and truthful can see that”. I think we’re just trying to make a statement to say it’s not over.
That’s a question many will try to answer as the nation continues to scrutinize police shootings of unarmed persons of color.
At least one black officer quit the force after Brown’s shooting and others have shied away due to the negative attention the department has received, said Fuller. “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”.
“I feel many people have been re-ignited, re-engaged … even challenged by this specific era and this specific motion to fireside again up”, he says.
Outlets are pointing to local changes in Ferguson’s government and community, and changes in the national discussion of police brutality and systems of inequality.
Mary Chandler, a 37-year-old black Ferguson resident, said she has seen a “180-degree change” for the better in the city’s police. The city council has new members, too, several of whom are black. “This is our opportunity to show another state, another department that’s having the same problem (they) can learn from us”.
The city has a new police chief, a new city manager and a new municipal judge – all blacks who replaced white leaders.
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Out of the 53 officers in uniform last year, only three were black.
