Ferguson (US), August 11: Riot police clashed early on Tuesday with protesters in the streets of Ferguson, Missouri marking the anniversary of the police shooting of an unarmed black teen whose death sparked a national outcry over strained race relations.
About 200 demonstrators, some waving flags, beating drums, and shouting anti-police slogans, marched along a street that was a flashpoint of riots that erupted last year after white police officer Darren Wilson killed 18-year-old Michael Brown.
Police carrying shields rushed into a crowd of protesters around midnight, prompting many to scream and run away. Twenty-three people were arrested, some for throwing frozen water bottles and rocks at officers, according to the St. Louis County Police Department.
Authorities declared a state of emergency on Monday for the St. Louis suburb and surrounding areas after police officers shot and critically wounded a man in an exchange of gunfire Sunday night, marring what had been a day of peaceful demonstrations to commemorate the anniversary.
Protesters on the streets beat drums and chanted as bottles and rocks were thrown, while cops used pepper spray as they detained demonstrators during the standoff, which continued into the early hours this morning.
A police officer holds his weapon as a protester is detained (rear) in Ferguson, Missouri, August 10, 2015.
"Officers are being hit with rocks and bottles. We continue to support free speech, but agitators who ignore orders to disperse risk arrest," tweeted the St Louis County police department.
The protests came after unrest and a shootout in Ferguson Sunday night that led county officials to declare a state of emergency yesterday.
St Louis County executive Steve Stenger said county police would immediately take charge of "police emergency management" in Ferguson and surrounding districts.
"In light of last night's violence and unrest in the city of Ferguson, and the potential for harm to persons and property, I am exercising my authority as county executive to issue a state of emergency, effective immediately," he said in a statement.
His statement was issued as an 18-year-old was charged in connection with the shootout in Ferguson on Sunday, following a day of mostly peaceful protests marking the first anniversary of the fatal police shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown.
Tyrone Harris is accused of first-degree assault on police officers, armed criminal action and shooting at a motor vehicle, police said.
Harris, from Northwoods, another section of St Louis County, remained in the hospital yesterday with wounds sustained in the shootout.
In St Louis city center, more than 50 protesters were arrested after climbing the barricade around a federal courthouse during a midday demonstration, local news media reported.
Media reports late yesterday said protesters had blocked a main highway, Interstate 70, just outside Ferguson.
Two anti-police demonstrators walk away from a line of St Louis County police officers during protests in Ferguson, Missouri August 11, 2015.
Demonstrators were also arrested elsewhere in town, including scholar and activist Cornel West, Complex magazine reported.
Early this morning a crowd of about 100 protesters remained on the streets of Ferguson.
Activist groups said the plainclothes officers who shot Harris should never have been deployed to the scene. Missouri Governor Jay Nixon called Sunday's violence "a sad turn of events."
Protester Rayna Martin, 17, who lives in the neighborhood where Brown was shot, said the violence within her community has been made worse by the actions of police. "They kill us, they get away with it. It's crazy," she said. — AFP
No comments:
Post a Comment