police officer shot an unarmed black teenager to death turned violent
Wednesday night, with some people lobbing Molotov cocktails and other
objects at police who responded with smoke bombs and tear gas to
disperse the crowd.
Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson, who has been the public face of
the city torn by Saturday's death of 18-year-old Michael Brown, told
reporters earlier in the day that the St. Louis County investigation
of the shooting could take weeks to complete.
In the meantime, he said, his department welcomes Justice Department
training on racial relations in the suburb, where two-thirds of the
21,000 residents are black while all but three of the police force's
53 officers are white.
Residents in the low-income, mostly black neighborhood where Brown was
killed say they are often harassed by police. Ferguson has seen a
sharp demographic shift in recent decades, going from virtually all
white to mostly black.
"Unfortunately, an undertow (of racial unrest) has bubbled to the
surface," said Jackson. "Race relations is the top priority right
now."
While Jackson said he wanted to mend fences with the community,
protesters were on the streets of Ferguson again Wednesday, facing
heavily armed police who at time trained weapons on them from an
armored truck.
The situation became more tense after nightfall, with police ordering
people to go home and then using smoke bombs and later tear gas after
some people threw Molotov cocktails and other things at them. Most of
the crowd then dispersed.
Multiple journalists reporting at the scene have reportedly faced
pressure from Ferguson police. On Wednesday evening, Washington Post
reporter Wesley Lowery and Ryan J. Reilly wrote on Twitter that they
had been assaulted and detained by police, who at the time were
attempting to "kick everyone out" of McDonalds.
"Detained, booked, given answers to no questions. Then just let out,"
Lowery tweeted.
The Washington Post reported that Lowery said he was slammed against a
soda machine and plastic cuffs were put on his wrists. Reilly told
MSNBC that an officer slammed his head against the glass
"purposefully" on the way out of the restaurant "and then
sarcastically apologized for it." The reporters were subsequently
released without any charges.
Martin D. Baron, The Washington Post's executive editor, issued a
statement saying "there was absolutely no justification" for Lowery's
arrest and said the organization was appalled by the officers'
conduct.
Ryan Grim, Washington, D.C., bureau chief for The Huffington Post,
said in a statement that "compared to some others who have come into
contact with the police department, they came out relatively
unscathed, but that in no way excuses the false arrest or the militant
aggression toward these journalists."
Earlier on Wednesday, a police officer shot and critically wounded a
man who allegedly drew a handgun near the site of the protests, the
St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper reported, citing a police spokesman.
President Barack Obama on Tuesday called Brown's death a tragedy and
urged people to come up with a thoughtful response, but the ongoing
tensions were underscored by the new shooting incident.
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