FERGUSON: A St Louis suburb that faced weeks of sometimes violent protests following August’s fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white policeman remained on edge as it waited to learn if the officer would face charges.
A grand jury has been meeting for nearly three months, considering whether to indict Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson for the August 9 shooting of Michael Brown, an incident that laid bare long-simmering racial tensions in the mostly
black city. Missouri Governor Jay Nixon on Tuesday named a panel of 16 commissioners to develop solutions to the deep-seated socioeconomic disparities in and around Ferguson.
“This commission is not focused so much on changing hearts as on changing behaviours and we plan to do this by pushing through very aggressively legislation to change the way law enforcement acts,” said Reverend Traci Blackmon, one of the newly named members of the Ferguson Commission.
Nixon has declared a state of emergency ahead of the grand jury’s report, which officials said would likely come this month and that many expect to provoke another wave of protests.
Nixon has defended the emergency declaration, which some called heavy-handed, particularly given that protests in recent days had been peaceful. The state of emergency allows the National Guard to deploy to the St Louis area. Officials said Guard members will not play a frontline role in interacting with protesters.
REUTERS
