An unarmed African American male was shot six times and killed August 9, by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Mo., a suburb of St. Louis. The killing of 18-year old Michael Brown initiated protests and outrage in the city and on social media sites that have been continuing for a month.
“This whole thing is so tragic,” said Emilia Migliaccio, sophomore. “The fact that Michael Brown was unarmed and shot multiple times is awful.”
There is a lot of debate about what actually happen surrounding Brown’s death. There are conflicting reports from eyewitnesses and the police statement; the police said that there was a fight that resulted in gun shots, while eyewitnesses said Brown’s hands were up in the air during the last shots.
“I feel like there is a lot of information that the general public doesn’t have,” said Trena Kirby, civics and economics teacher.
The aftermath of the death of Brown included numerous violent protests that resulted in riots met by police in military grade riot gear. The night of August 10, a convenience store was looted and burned to the ground, ending in the arrest of 32 people. This store later became a rally point where police fired sound canisters and tear gas into a crowd of protesters.
Four days after Brown’s death, August 13, a 19-year-old male was shot by the police, who were responding to a call about people with masks and shotguns.
That same day reporters from both The Washington Post and The Huffington Post and a St. Louis alderman, who had chronicled the events happening in Ferguson online since the Brown’s death, were arrested.
“I feel like the media has portrayed these events so that what happened is okay, and it’s not,” said Migliaccio.
After Missouri Highway Patrol Capt. Ronald S. Johnson, an African American who grew up in the area, was put in charge of security, the mood of the city calmed. With the riot gear and blockades gone, the evening protests were not violent.
However August 16, chaos erupted when the name of the police officer who shot Brown was released, with little other information. The Ferguson police instead linked Brown to the robbery of a convenience store on the night of his death. This sparked outrage and protests, and at least four business were looted. Police used tear gas and flash grenades on the crowd.
The chaos resulted in a curfew from midnight to 5 a.m. that same night. The second night of the curfew, hundreds of people gathered on Ferguson’s main avenue to protest the events. The curfew was lifted August 18, when the autopsy of Brown revealed he had been shot six times.
Violence and protest continue in Ferguson.
After nearly a month the U.S.Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division announced, August 3, that they will launch a broad investigation of policing practiced in the city to determine whether there was a pattern of discriminatory actions and excessive force. The investigation will not only be for the Ferguson police, but for the county police as well. Some of these police forces are predominantly white, generally serving African American communities.
“This isn’t racism, but it is an illustration of racial tensions that have gone on for too long,” said Kirby.
