FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) — Disrupting commerce, transit and traffic became
focal points for demonstrators across the country days after the
announcement that a grand jury in Ferguson, Missouri declined to indict
the police officer who fatally shot 18-year-old Michael Brown.
As Small Business Saturday
approached, numerous storefronts in the Ferguson area had their windows
covered with plywood with messages painted across many of them letting
neighbors know that the shops are still open. Demonstrators temporarily
shut down three large malls in suburban St. Louis on Black Friday, one
of the busiest shopping days of the year, and then marched in front of
the Ferguson police department to protest the grand jury's decision.
Several
stores lowered their security doors or locked entrances as at least 200
protesters sprawled onto the floor while chanting, "Stop shopping and
join the movement," at the Galleria mall in Richmond Heights a few miles
south of Ferguson, Missouri, where Officer Darren Wilson fatally shot
Brown, who was unarmed, in August.
The
action prompted authorities to close the mall for about an hour Friday
afternoon, while a similar protest of about 50 people had the same
effect at West County Mall in nearby Des Peres. And several dozen
demonstrators led to a temporary closure of the Chesterfield Mall.
Later
Friday night, a group of about 100 protesters marched down West
Florissant Avenue Florissant in front of the city's police and fire
departments chanting, blocking traffic and stopping in front of some
businesses.
"I served my
country. I spent four years in the Army, and I feel like that's not what
I served my country for," said Ebonie Tyse, 26, of St. Louis as
National Guard trucks and police cruisers roamed the street in front of
her. "I served my country for justice for everyone. Not because of what
color, what age, what gender or anything," she said.
Fifteen people were arrested,
according to Missouri Department of Public Safety spokesman Mike
O'Connell. He said charges would include peace disturbance and impeding
the flow of traffic, and two people would be charged with resisting
arrest and one with assault.
Monday
night's announcement that Wilson, who is white, wouldn't be indicted
for fatally shooting Brown, who was black, prompted violent protests
that resulted in about a dozen buildings and some cars being burned.
Dozens of people were arrested.
The
rallies have been ongoing but have grown more peaceful this week, as
protesters turn their attention to disrupting commerce. Elsewhere on
Friday, protests in Chicago, New York, Seattle and northern California —
where protesters chained themselves to trains — were among the largest
in the country on Black Friday.
In
Oakland, more than a dozen people were arrested after about 125
protesters wearing T-shirts that read "Black Lives Matter" interrupted
train service from Oakland to San Francisco, with some chaining
themselves to trains. Later in San Francisco, a march by hundreds turned
ugly as protesters smashed windows and hurled bottles and other objects
at police, leaving two officers injured. Police respond by making
arrests but have not said how many. Dozens of people in Seattle blocked
streets, and police said some protesters also apparently chained doors
shut at the nearby Pacific Place shopping center.
In
Chicago, about 200 people gathered near the city's popular Magnificent
Mile shopping district, where Kristiana Colon, 28, called Friday "a day
of awareness and engagement." She's a member of the Let Us Breathe
Collective, which has been taking supplies such as gas masks to
protesters in Ferguson.
"We want them to think
twice before spending that dollar today," she said of shoppers. "As long
as black lives are put second to materialism, there will be no peace."
Malcolm
London, a leader in the Black Youth Project 100, which has been
organizing Chicago protests, said the group was also trying to rally
support for other issues, such as more transparency from Chicago police.
"We are not indicting a man. We are indicting a system," London told the crowd.
Missouri
Gov. Jay Nixon on Friday announced that he will call a special session
of the General Assembly to provide funding for public safety efforts
related to protests. A news release from his office said that due to the
increased presence of the State Highway Patrol and the Missouri
National Guard in the region, the state's financial obligations for
emergency duties are on track to exceed what had been appropriated.
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