Demonstrations Mark Anniversary of Michael Brown Shooting in Ferguson
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On the eve of the anniversary of Michael Brown being shot and killed during a confrontation with a police officer, Brown's father said Saturday that the family still mourns the 18-year-old's death.
Several weekend events are planned to commemorate Brown's death. Among them was a parade on Saturday led by Michael Brown Sr., starting at the memorial on Canfield Drive in Ferguson that marks the site where Brown was fatally shot by former officer Darren Wilson on Aug. 9, 2014.
Time has not healed his wounds, Brown said before the procession, in which several hundred people, a drum corps and some cars joined in on the five-mile route to Normandy High School.
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Pastor Charles Burton lies on the driveway at the Ferguson, Mo., police station as a chalk drawing is made as a memorial to Michael Brown, Monday, Oct. 13, 2014. Activists planned a day of civil disobedience to protest Brown's shooting in August and a second police shooting in St. Louis last week. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
On Aug. 9, 2014, Michael Brown and a friend were walking in the middle of Canfield Drive, a two-lane street in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, Missouri, when a police officer drove by and told them to use the sidewalk.
nAfter words were exchanged, the white officer confronted the 18-year-old Brown, who was black. The situation escalated, with the officer and Brown scuffling. The officer shot and killed Brown, who was unarmed.
nThe next night, as thousands attended a candlelight vigil, people protesting Brown's death smashed car windows and carried away armloads of food, alcohol and other looted items from stores. Other businesses were damaged or destroyed. It was the first of several nights of unrest.
nFive years after the death of Brown, we look back at the protests and riots that sparked a national debate about race relations and police brutality.
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Pastor Charles Burton lies on the driveway at the Ferguson, Missouri, police station as a chalk drawing is made as a memorial to Michael Brown, Monday, Oct. 13, 2014.
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An explosive device deployed by police flies in the air as police and protesters clash Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2014, in Ferguson, Missouri.
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Capt. Ronald Johnson of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, who was appointed by the governor to take control of security operations in the city of Ferguson, greets demonstrators on August 16, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri.
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People hold hands in prayer on Saturday, Aug. 16, 2014, at a convenience store that was burned after Michael Brown was shot.
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A man who declined to be identified stands outside a boarded up business Thursday, Nov. 20, 2014, in Ferguson, Missouri. Ferguson and the St. Louis region were on edge in anticipation of the announcement by a grand jury whether to criminally charge Officer Darren Wilson in the killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown.
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In this Feb. 11, 2014 file image from video provided by the City of Ferguson, Mo., officer Darren Wilson attends a city council meeting in Ferguson.
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Protestors block the street in front of the Ferguson Police Department as part of continued demonstrations in regards to the shooting death of Michael Brown by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, USA, on November 19, 2014.
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A protestor in a Guy Fawkes mask, raises his hands in front of a line of police outside the Ferguson Police Department as part of continued demonstrations in regards to the shooting death of Michael Brown by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, USA, on November 19, 2014.
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Businessman Richard McClure and minister Starsky Wilson embrace after Missouri Governor Jay Nixon, announced them as the co-chairs of a 16-member Ferguson Commission on November 18, 2014 in St. Louis, Missouri. The 16 member commission was brought together to study issues that have arisen since the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown.
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Police watch as peaceful demonstrators continue protesting the shooting death of Michael Brown August 23, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri. Protesters have been vocal asking for justice in the shooting death of Michael Brown by a Ferguson police officer on August 9th.
Steven King, left, fills out paperwork before selling a handgun to first-time gun owner Dave Benne at Metro Shooting Supplies, in Bridgeton, Missouri, November 15, 2014. King says heu2019s sold two to three times more weapons in recent weeks than normal as a grand jury decides whether to indict Ferguson police Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown.
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Michael Brown Sr. (L) and Civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton (2nd from left) hold up their hands as attorny Benjamin Crump (R) speaks at Peace Fest music festival in Forest Park on August 24, 2014 in St. Louis, Missouri.
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A woman gets help as she tries to recover from tear gas after police dispersed a crowd of demonstrators protesting the killing of teenager Michael Brown on August 17, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri.
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Protesters display signs during a rally in support of Officer Darren Wilson on August 23, 2014, in St. Louis, Missouri.
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Supporters of Ferguson, Missouri police officer Darren Wilson hold a rally on August 23, 2014 in St. Louis, Missouri.
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Roses line the street leading to a makeshift memorial for Michael Brown on August 22, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri.
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Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, speaks at Peace Fest in Forest Park on August 24, 2014 in St. Louis, Missouri.
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A man is led away by police during a protest Monday, Aug. 18, 2014, for Michael Brown, who was killed by a police officer Aug. 9 in Ferguson.
Police advance through a cloud of tear gas toward demonstrators protesting the killing of teenager Michael Brown on August 17, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri.
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A man wearing a police hat protests Sunday, Aug. 17, 2014, for Michael Brown, who was killed by a police officer last Saturday in Ferguson, Missouri.
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Demonstrators protesting the shooting death of Michael Brown hold signs on August 16, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri.
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People protest the police shooting death of Michael Brown a week ago in Ferguson, Mo., Saturday, Aug. 16, 2014.
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Protester Janelle Pittman holds her 6-year-old daughter, Kat, as police in riot gear stand guard in Ferguson, Mo. on Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2014.
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Civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton speaks during a news conference outside the Old Courthouse Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2014, in St. Louis.
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People take to the streets to protest the killing of Michael Brown despite the fact that U.S. Missouri State Governor Jay Nixon Saturday declared a curfew and a state of emergency in Ferguson, a suburb of St. Louis, on August 17, 2014.
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A member of the St. Louis County Police Department points his weapon in the direction of a group of protesters in Ferguson, Mo. on Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2014.
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Jeremiah Parker, 4, stands in front of his mother, Shatara Parker, as they attend a protest Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2014, in Ferguson, Missouri.
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Protesters hold up signs along a road Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2014, in Ferguson, Mo. Racial tensions ran high in in the predominantly black city of Ferguson, following the shooting death by police of Michael Brown, 18, an unarmed black man.
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Tirezz Walker, a resident of Ferguson speaks to Missouri Highway Patrol offers in riot gear during a protest of the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown by a Ferguson police officer, outside Ferguson Police Department Headquarters August 11, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri.
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Protestors march along Florissant Road in downtown Ferguson, Mo. Monday, Aug. 11, 2014.
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Lesley McSpadden, right, the mother of 18-year-old Michael Brown, watches as Brown's father, Michael Brown Sr., holds up a family picture of himself, his son, top left in photo, Monday, Aug. 11, 2014.
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Protestors confront police during an impromptu rally, Sunday, Aug. 10, 2014 to protest the shooting of Michael Brown.
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Protestors confront police during an impromptu rally, Sunday, Aug. 10, 2014. The protesters rallied in front of the police and fire departments in Ferguson.
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St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar, left, delivers remarks as Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson listens during a news conference Sunday, Aug. 10, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri.
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This undated family photo provided by the Brown Family and held by Michael Brown Sr., shows Michael Brown Sr., at right, his son, Michael Brown, top left, and a young child. Michael Brown, 18, was shot and killed in a confrontation with police in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, Mo, on Saturday, Aug. 9, 2014.
"At the end of the day, I still lost my boy," he said. "I'm still hurting. My family's still hurting."
Although the protests were largely subdued during the day, they picked up after dark as hundreds marched outside Ferguson's police department, mocking the handful of officers who stood watch.
Some of the demonstrators carved and ate from the head of a roasted pig, which earlier in the day had the name "Darren Wilson" written on the side of the animal. The pig's head was placed on a concrete barrier near the sidewalk separating the protesters from the officers.
Earlier Saturday, Brown Sr. said the anniversary brings back all of the grief and raw emotions, but that it's important to continue standing up to concerns about police brutality and the use of force. His son's death helped spur a national "Black Lives Matter" movement. As the parade began, he took an armful of stuffed animals and placed them in the middle of the street where his son died.
The U.S. Justice Department and a St. Louis County grand jury cleared Wilson, who resigned in November, of wrongdoing. A separate Justice Department investigation of Ferguson's justice system found evidence of a profit-driven court system and widespread racial bias by police.
Onlookers were mostly scattered in small clusters during the earlier protest. Ferguson interim Police Chief Andre Anderson stood alongside St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar and Capt. Ron Johnson of the Missouri State Highway Patrol on West Florissant Avenue, waving to participants in the afternoon parade and shaking hands with some. The street was the site of protests, looting and riots in the aftermath of Brown's death.
A vocal group of about 30 people marching in the parade began chanting "Hands up! Don't shoot!" as they neared the officers, then "Pigs in a blanket fry like bacon." Otherwise, the crowd was peaceful. Police presence was limited mostly to officers at intersections keeping traffic away from the parade, and there were no immediate reports of confrontations.
Darius Simpson, 22, made the trip to Ferguson from Eastern Michigan University for the weekend and was in the parade. Simpson, who is black, said he had never been an activist until Brown's death, but said a visit to Ferguson last year during the height of the unrest changed him.
"Something snapped in me, seeing the memorial, seeing how Ferguson reacted inspired me to take it back to Michigan," Simpson said.
St. Louis resident Carlatta Bussey, 41, brought her 7-year-old son.
"I wanted to show him he needs to stand up for what he believes in," said Bussey, who is black. "It's important for him to know he has a voice."
Hours after the march attended by the elder Brown, hundreds — many with "Black Lives Matter" placards — took part in a similar processional in St. Louis in memory of VonDerrit Myers Jr., a black 18-year-old shot and killed last October by an off-duty St. Louis police officer. The city prosecutor in May announced the officer acted in self-defense after being fired upon by Myers. An attorney for Myers' family says Myers was not armed.
Another march is planned for Sunday, again starting on Canfield Drive. That procession will stop just before noon for a moment of silence to mark the moment Brown was killed.
Brown's father said a lot of families in the St. Louis area and across the nation are hurting because they've lost loved ones to police violence. Though some groups are pledging civil disobedience in the St. Louis region, Brown urged everyone to mark his son's death in peace.
"No drama," he said. "No stupidity, so we can just have some kind of peace."
