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Michael Brown shooting: Attorney General Eric Holder heads to Ferguson, Missouri
The turmoil has cast the St. Louis suburb of 21,000 people into the international spotlight as a symbol of often troubled U.S. race relations. Ferguson is predominantly African American, but its police force, political leadership and public education administration are dominated by Caucasian Americans. Activists and demonstrators have complained that Brown’s death was the culmination of years of unfair police targeting of black people.
An hour before sundown on Wednesday, a few dozen protesters began marching peacefully along a main thoroughfare that has been the scene of nightly demonstrations and sporadic violence. The group chanted: “Hands up, don’t shoot,” which has become demonstrators’ rallying cry, as they moved along a street fronted by businesses with boarded-up windows and the ruins of a gasoline station burned out in a previous night of unrest.
Among students meeting with Holder at St. Louis Community College was Molyric Welch, 27, who said her brother died three years ago after Ferguson police used a stun gun on him. “A lot has happened here,” she said. “Holder promised things were going to change.”
But Melvin Brown, 61, a pastor visiting Ferguson from Rockford, Illinois, to support the protests, was skeptical. “I don’t have any faith in it,” he said. “The whole system is corrupt.”
St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch said his office could continue presenting evidence to the grand jury – which meets once a week – through mid-October as he confronts conflicting pressures for speed and thoroughness.
“There is no trust in Bob McCulloch,” said Clinton Stancil, senior pastor of Wayman AME Church in St. Louis. “We are seeking justice. We don’t think he can be fair.” McCulloch has repeatedly promised a fair and impartial investigation.
Accounts of Brown’s slaying differ. According to police, Wilson reported that Brown reached into the policeman’s cruiser when Wilson approached him on the street, then grabbed for the officer’s gun.
