Some families got justice through Michael Brown’s legacy, and that helped them.
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By midnight, a couple of hours after they arrived, most protesters had left the area without incident and traffic was flowing again. She is one of five black officers on the 50-member police force who in May became the city’s first black female police sergeant. The decision not to charge officer Darren Wilson caused renewed anger.
On the eve of the anniversary of Michael Brown being shot and killed during a confrontation with a police officer, Brown’s father said Saturday that the family still mourns the 18-year-old’s death. Actions have been called across the United States to demand justice for Brown, whose killing ignited racial tensions and sparked month-long protests, with heavily-militarised police squads being deployed on the ground. Because the parade started, he took an armful of stuffed animals and positioned them in the midst of the road the place his son died.
A weekend of events to mark the anniversary began in earnest on Friday evening as a few hundred people demonstrated at the scene of Brown’s shooting and outside the Ferguson police headquarters.
At a parade Saturday, Michael Brown Sr. told about 200 people who had gathered on the street at Canfield Green apartments that the anniversary of his son’s death brings about grief and raw emotions but that they must continue to stand up for concerns about police brutality, reported the AP.
“On the finish of the day, I nonetheless misplaced my boy”, he stated. “I have to stay moving, going, running, just to keep me from going insane”.
Another march is planned for Sunday, starting on Canfield Drive.
The unity that broke out among disparate local groups in the days following his son’s death should be recaptured, Brown said.
On Saturday, as a crowd marched for miles, police monitoring the demonstration handed out water bottles and popsicles to the protesters. The rally ended at Normandy High School, which Brown attended. “We just came together to make a movement, and that was lovely”. The shirts also featured the slogan “chosen for change”, which is also the name of a nonprofit foundation established by Brown in his son’s memory that aims to “empower youth and strengthen families”. The city has started a program to pay for black police candidates to go through the police academy, but has struggled to find any takers, she said. “I moved”, said Mosley.
In March, the U.S. Justice Department found no grounds to prosecute Wilson.
Jeff Roberson/AP Michael Brown Sr. stops to touch an adopt-a-highway sign as he takes part in a parade in honor of his son, Michael Brown, on Saturday.
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In Ferguson, Mo. residents are hopeful for the future, as the town of about 21,000 looks at changes both big and small a year after the death of Michael Brown.
