FERGUSON, Mo (Reuters) – Missouri Governor Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency and imposed a curfew in Ferguson yesterday, trying to restore order after a week of racially charged protests and looting over the shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white police officer.
The curfew will run from midnight until 5 am until further notice, said Highway Patrol Captain Ron Johnson. Johnson was named by the governor this week to oversee security in the suburban St Louis community that has been roiled by the Aug 9 shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown.
“The eyes of the world are watching. This is the test of whether a community, this community, any community, can break the cycle of fear, distrust and violence, and replace them with peace, strength and, ultimately, justice,” Nixon told a gathering at a church near Ferguson.
Some in the crowd reacted angrily to the news and several said the police officer who killed Brown must be prosecuted for murder if peace is to return to the community. There were shouts of “hands up, don’t shoot,” a phrase that has become a rallying cry in Ferguson over the last week.
But Nixon said public safety had to be protected. “We cannot have looting and crimes at night, we can’t have people fearful,” he said.
The unrest erupted after police officer Darren Wilson, 28, shot and killed Brown shortly after noon a week ago as Brown and a friend walked down a street that runs through an apartment complex where Brown’s grandmother lives.
Tensions have been high all week but escalated on Friday evening as protesters again swarmed through a residential and retail district that has become a centre of the unrest, pitting mostly black protesters against mostly white police.
Yesterday, people marching through city streets held signs that read “black lives matter,” and “Don’t shoot.”
Brown’s family and supporters have demanded for days that the officer who shot Brown be held accountable. The US Department of Justice is investigating the shooting for any civil rights violations, and the St Louis County Police department is also investigating the shooting.
