FERGUSON, Mo. (Reuters) - More than 2,000 National Guard troops spread out across the St. Louis area on Tuesday to prevent another night of rioting and looting after a grand jury declined to indict a white policeman in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager. As darkness fell, in a scene that appeared significantly more controlled than Monday night, dozens of protesters chanted No justice, no peace! near the police station in suburban Ferguson before officers swiftly moved in to detain at least two people who defied orders to clear the road. About a mile away, camouflaged Guardsmen toting assault rifles quietly surrounded businesses damaged on Monday by protesters angry over the decision not to indict officer Darren Wilson in the August shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown. The killing in Ferguson, a predominantly black city with a white-dominated power structure, underscored the occasionally tense nature of U.S. race relations and sometimes strained ties between African-American communities and the police. Racially charged protests that erupted after Mondays grand jury decision were more intense than unrest that broke out in the immediate aftermath of the shooting itself, but still much smaller than those that followed the acquittal of police officers in the beating of black motorist Rodney King in Los Angeles two decades ago. Last night the rioters did some things to our community we all couldnt have woke up this morning imagining, Captain Ron Johnson of Missouri Highway Patrol told reporters. About a dozen buildings, including a pizza shop and a beauty parlor, burned overnight as protesters took to the streets in anger. Police said protesters fired guns at them, set patrol cars on fire and hurled bricks into their lines. Police, who had been preparing for months but admitted they were overtaken by the violent events that unfolded, fired tear gas and flash- bang canisters at demonstrators. Sixty-one people were arrested. Protests also erupted in major cities from Los Angeles to Washington on Tuesday. In New York, police used pepper spray to control the crowd after protesters tried to block the Lincoln Tunnel and marched to Times Square. GUARD DEPLOYMENT In Missouri, Governor Jay Nixon said about 700 guard troops were deployed on Monday to the Ferguson area and hundreds more would be out on Tuesday night to protect homes and businesses, bringing to 2,200 the number of guardsmen in the region. This community deserves to have peace, Nixon said. We must do better and we will. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told reporters he was disappointed by the violent protesters he saw in Ferguson and has asked for a review to identify and isolate “criminal elements” from peaceful protesters. Fergusons mayor, James Knowles, lamented in a news conference that the National Guard had not been deployed in enough time on Monday to save all of our businesses. The decision to delay the deployment of the National Guard is deeply concerning, Knowles said. We are asking that the governor make available and deploy all necessary resources to prevent the further destruction of property and the preservation of life in the city of Ferguson. Police were investigating as suspicious a body found in a car in Ferguson, and couldnt rule out a link between the death and the rioting. Schools in Ferguson and its surrounding cities were closed on Tuesday, as were Ferguson city offices. This is going to happen again, said Ferguson area resident James Hall, 56, as he walked past a smoldering building. If they had charged him with something, this would not have happened to Ferguson. BROKEN PROCESS Attorneys for Browns family condemned as biased the St. Louis County grand jury process that led to the decision not to bring charges, saying the prosecutor in the case had a conflict of interest and that Wilson was not properly cross- examined. The process should be indicted, Brown family lawyer Benjamin Crump said, adding the family wants police to be equipped with body video cameras to provide an indisputable account of their actions. The grand jury decision shifted the legal spotlight to an ongoing U.S. Justice Department investigation into whether Wilson violated Browns civil rights by intentionally using excessive force and whether Ferguson police systematically violate rights by using excessive force or discrimination. Holder said he had been briefed by Justice Department officials overseeing federal probes surrounding Browns death, but did not say when investigators might complete their work. President Barack Obama asked Americans on Tuesday to be constructive by engaging in debate about racial tensions and law enforcement, and said demonstrators who engage in criminal acts should be prosecuted. Wilson, who could have faced charges ranging from involuntary manslaughter to first-degree murder, thanked supporters in a letter attributed to him on a Facebook page for those who have rallied to his side, saying your dedication is amazing. Later, he told ABC News in an interview that was aired in part on Tuesday that there was nothing he could have done differently in his confrontation with Brown that would have prevented the teenagers death. The reason I have a clean conscience is because I know I did my job right,” he told ABC News, adding he would have acted no differently had Brown been white. His lawyer, Jim Towey, later told CNN that his clients life as a police officer was over. Documents released by prosecutors said that Wilson, who was placed on administrative leave after the shooting, told the grand jury Brown had tried to grab his gun, and that the officer felt his life was in danger when he fired. I said, Get back or Im going to shoot you, Wilson said, according to the documents. He immediately grabs my gun and says, You are too much of a pussy to shoot me. (Additional reporting by Brendan OBrien in Milwaukee, Julia Edwards in Washington, Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles, Carey Gillam in Kansas City, David Bailey in Minneapolis, Fiona Ortiz and Mary Wisniewski in Chicago, Jonathan Kaminsky in New Orleans, and Laila Kearney and Letitia Stein in New York; Writing by Jon Herskovitz and Cynthia Johnston; Editing by Will Dunham, Bernard Orr and Ian Geoghegan)
Posted on: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 05:34:20 +0000
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