BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY The shooting of Michael Brown occurred on August 9, 2014, in Ferguson, Missouri, United States, a suburb of St. Louis. Michael Brown Jr., an unarmed 18-year-old African-American male, died after being shot at least six times by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, who is white.[1][2][3][4]
According to Ferguson police, Brown was a suspect in a robbery committed minutes before the shooting, although the initial contact between Wilson and Brown was unrelated to the robbery.[5][6] Brown had no criminal record.[7] Wilson had served four years with the Ferguson Police Department after two years with another local police department.[8] He has no disciplinary history.[9]
The shooting sparked unrest in Ferguson due to longstanding racial tensions in a region that is "among the most segregated metropolitan areas in the nation."[10] Peaceful protests,[11] vandalism, and other forms of social unrest continued[12] for more than a week, with night curfews being imposed and escalating violence.[13][14] Widespread media coverage examined the trend of local police departments arming themselves with "military-grade" weapons and when dealing with protests. [15][16]
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) opened a civil rights investigation of the shooting.[17] U.S. President Barack Obama issued a statement expressing condolences to Brown's family and committed the U.S. Department of Justice to conduct an investigation.[18]
Parties involved
Michael Brown Jr.
| Michael Brown Jr. | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 20, 1996[19] |
| Died | August 9, 2014 (aged 18) Ferguson, Missouri, U.S. |
Cause of death
| Gunshot wounds[20] |
| Ethnicity | African American[21] |
| Occupation | Student |
Michael Brown Jr. (May 20, 1996 – August 9, 2014) was the son of Lesley McSpadden and Mike Brown Sr.[22] Brown graduated from Normandy High School in St. Louis eight days before his death, completing an alternative education program.[23] His teachers said he was "a student who loomed large and didn't cause trouble", referring to him as a "gentle giant".[24][25] At the time of his death, he was 6'4" (1.93m) tall and weighed 292 lb (132 kg).[3] He was an amateur rapper and posted tracks online under the name Big'Mike.[26]
Brown was to have started attending Vatterott College, a technical school, on August 11.[25][27] According to Benjamin Crump, the lawyer representing the Brown family, Brown wanted to become a heating and cooling engineer.[25] A friend of Brown said that while everyone else wanted to be a basketball or football player, Brown had wanted to own his own business.[24]
Darren Wilson
| Darren Wilson | |
|---|---|
| Ethnicity | White[21] |
| Occupation | Police officer |
| Employer | Ferguson Police Department |
Darren Wilson lives in Crestwood, Missouri, a city of 11,000 people about 18 miles southwest of Ferguson. He was 28 years old at the time of the shooting.[28][29]
In February 2014, Wilson received a commendation for "extraordinary effort in the line of duty".[30][31] The citation was related to an incident in which he struggled with and detained a driver for arrest, who police said was preparing a large amount of marijuana for sale.[32]
Wilson was placed on paid administrative leave after the shooting.[33] His name was released by Ferguson police one week after the shooting.[34] An online fundraising drive for Wilson has attracted more than $200,000 in donations as of August 22.[35][36] According to family and friends, Wilson said he knows the shooting was justified, but is "broken hearted" about taking a life in the line of duty.[37]
Shooting incident
At 12:01 p.m. on August 9, 2014,[3][14][38] Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson[39][40] drove up to Brown and Dorian Johnson in the 2900 block of Canfield Drive and ordered them to move off the street and onto the sidewalk. Then, an altercation took place between Brown and Wilson through the window of the police car. A shot was fired from within the vehicle and the two men began to flee.[41] Wilson left his vehicle and pursued them. He fired at least six shots,[3] fatally wounding Brown. Brown died approximately 35 feet (11 m) from the police cruiser.[14] According to CNN, documents show that less than three minutes passed from the time that Wilson encountered Brown to the time of Brown's death.[42]
As of August 15, the official police report about the shooting has not been made public.[43]
Accounts
A number of individuals and the police have come forward with accounts of the incident.
Police
In a news conference on August 10, St. Louis County police chief Jon Belmar stated, "The genesis of this shooting incident was a physical confrontation" during which Brown "physically assaulted the police officer".[1] According to Belmar, Wilson attempted to exit his vehicle but was pushed back into the car by Brown, who then assaulted him inside.Dashboard cameras are not used in Ferguson police cars.[44] Brown then allegedly attempted to seize Wilson's gun, which was fired at least once during the struggle. Belmar acknowledged that "more than a couple" of shots were fired in the course of the encounter.[1][44][45]
At that time, the Ferguson City Police Department declined to release Wilson's identity and stated that he had been placed on administrative leave.[46] Tom Jackson, Ferguson's chief of police, stated on August 13 that the officer who shot Brown was injured in the incident.[46] In a news conference the morning of Friday, August 15, nearly a week after Brown was shot, Chief Jackson announced the name of the officer involved in the shooting was Darren Wilson. Jackson stated that Wilson was a 6-year police veteran with no disciplinary actions against him.[34][8][9]
Jackson prefaced the name announcement by describing a "strong-arm" robbery that had allegedly occurred a few minutes before the shooting at a nearby convenience store. A police report released to members of the media described Brown as the suspect involved in the alleged robbery.[34] The owners of the convenience store told KTVI that no one working at the store reported a robbery, but that the 911 call came from a customer inside the store.[47]
Hours later, Jackson held another news conference in which he said Wilson was not aware of the robbery when he stopped Brown.[48][49] Still later, Jackson later told NBC News that while Wilson initially stopped Brown for walking in the street and blocking traffic, "at some point" during the encounter Wilson saw cigars in Brown's hands and thought he might be a suspect in the robbery.[50] The Atlantic Wire and MSNBC have reported on the changing nature of the department's statements.[51][50] Several days later, they reported that Wilson said in his account to the Ferguson police that "Brown had lowered his arms and moved toward him" and that "fearing that the teenager was going to attack him, the officer decided to use deadly force".[52]
MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell reported on August 21 that Wilson did not complete an incident report about the shooting, after being advised by a union lawyer not to do so.[53]According to O'Donnell, Wilson did file a report, but not until ten days after the shooting, and the report contained no information other than his name and the date.
On August 20, Fox News and ABC News reported that, according to an anonymous source, Wilson sustained a serious facial injury during the incident. ABC News said the source is "close to Wilson",[54] while Fox News characterized the source as "close to the department's top brass". According to Fox News, the source said Wilson was beaten nearly unconscious and suffered a fractured eye socket.[55] Fox News quoted the source as saying that Wilson is "traumatized, scared for his life and his family, injured and terrified [that a grand jury will] make some kind of example out of him".[55] According to Vox.com, an anonymous source "close to the investigation" told CNN that Wilson did not suffer a fractured eye socket, and that he was treated and released for a swollen face.[56] On August 20, Ferguson Mayor James Knowles III told Fox News that he could not confirm the reports that Wilson suffered a fractured eye bone.[57]
Dorian Johnson
According to Brown's friend Dorian Johnson, who was walking with him at the time, Wilson pulled up beside them and said, "Get the fuck on the sidewalk."[58][59][60][61][62] Johnson said the young men replied that they were "not but a minute away from [their] destination, and [they] would shortly be out of the street".[62] Johnson stated that Wilson drove forward without saying anything further, only to abruptly back up, positioning his vehicle crossways in their path, almost hitting the two men. He said, "We were so close, almost inches away, that when he tried to open his door aggressively, the door ricocheted both off me and Big Mike's body and closed back on the officer."[41]
Wilson, still in his car, grabbed Brown through the open window around the neck. Brown tried to pull away, but Wilson continued to pull Brown toward him. Johnson said that Brown "did not reach for the officer's weapon at all", insisting that Brown was attempting to get free of Wilson rather than attempting to attack him or take his weapon from him.[63][64][60][65][66] Johnson said Wilson drew his weapon, and "he said, 'I'll shoot you' or 'I'm going to shoot,'" and almost instantaneously fired his weapon, hitting Brown.
Following the initial gunshot, Johnson stated that Brown was able to free himself, at which point the two fled for their lives. Wilson exited the vehicle, after which he fired a second shot, striking Brown in the back, according to Johnson. At that point, according to Johnson, Brown turned around with his hands in the air and said, "I don't have a gun. Stop shooting!" Wilson then shot Brown several more times, killing him.[41][67] Johnson's attorney stated that Wilson did not attempt to resuscitate Brown, did not call for medical help, and "he didn't call it in that someone had been shot."[68]
James McKnight
James McKnight said he witnessed the shooting and that Brown's hands were up right after he turned to face Wilson. "I saw him stumble toward the officer, but not rush at him. The officer was about six or seven feet away from him," McKnight said.[52]
Michael Brady
Michael T. Brady, a 32-year-old man who lives near the scene of the shooting, said that he observed an initial altercation on the patrol car, and that "it was something strange. Something was not right. It was some kind of altercation. I can't say whether he was punching the officer or whatever. But something was going on in that window, and it didn't look right." Brady said he could see Johnson at the front passenger side of the car when he and Brown started running suddenly; he did not hear a gunshot or see what caused them to run. He also said he saw Wilson get out of the patrol car and "start walking briskly while firing on Brown as he fled".[52]
Brady then ran outside with his camera phone to record the event. By the time he got outside, Brown had turned around and was facing Wilson. Brown was "balled up" with his arms under his stomach and he was "halfway down" to the ground. As he was falling, Brown took one or two steps toward Wilson because he was presumably hit and was stumbling forward; Wilson then shot him three or four times. Brady said that the pictures he took of Brown with his arms tucked in under his body is the position he was in as he was shot three or four more times by Wilson before hitting the ground.[69]
Piaget Crenshaw
Piaget Crenshaw said that, from her vantage point, it appeared that Wilson and Brown were arm wrestling before the former shot Brown from inside his vehicle. Wilson then chased Brown for about 20 feet before shooting him again. Crenshaw stated, "I saw the police chase him ... down the street and shoot him down."[70] She added that when Brown then raised his arms, the officer shot him two more times, killing him.[71]
According to earlier reports that appeared on August 10, Crenshaw said she saw Brown attempt to flee with his hands in the air and that he was hit with several shots as he ran.[66][72]
On August 18, after the release of Baden's autopsy report, Crenshaw told CNN that no shots hit Brown's back as he was running away, "Clearly none of [the shots] hit him, but one, I think, did graze him as they said on the autopsy report. At the end, he just turned around ... after I'm guessing he felt the bullet grazed his arm, he turned around and he was shot multiple times."[73]
Tiffany Mitchell
Tiffany Mitchell arrived in the area to pick up coworker Piaget Crenshaw.[41] In an August 13 televised interview with a local CBS affiliate, Mitchell said she saw Brown and Wilson struggling through the window of Wilson's vehicle. "The kid was pulling off and the cop was pulling in," she said. She started to take out her phone to record video, but then she heard a gunshot, "so I just started getting out of the way". After the first shot was fired, she said, Brown started to run away. "After the shot, the kid just breaks away. The cop follows him, kept shooting, the kid's body jerked as if he was hit. After his body jerked he turns around, puts his hands up, and the cop continues to walk up on him and continues to shoot until he goes all the way down," she said.[74]
Mitchell also appeared on CNN that evening, describing what she witnessed as follows: "As I pull onto the side, the kid, he finally gets away, he starts running. As he runs the police get out of his vehicle and he follows behind him, shooting. And the kid's body jerked as if he was hit from behind, and he turns around and puts his hands up like this, and the cop continued to fire until he just dropped down to the ground and his face just smacks the concrete."[75]
Bystander heard on video
Some sources suggest that an unidentified bystander, heard speaking in the background of a video filmed shortly after the shooting, appears to support the police account.[76][77]According to The Daily Caller, after Brown stopped running and turned his back: "Next thing I know he's coming back towards the police. The police had his gun drawn on him. Police kept dumping on him, I'm thinking that the police missed him." The bystander said that he heard "at least five shots". He continued, "I think ... dude start running, kept coming toward the police".[76][77]
Investigations
Procedure
On August 10, Jon Belmar, chief of the St. Louis County Police Department, announced that their department would be in charge of the investigation, after receiving a request from Ferguson police chief Tom Jackson to investigate the shooting.[44][78] The Ferguson Police Department initially declined to name the officer involved in the shooting, citing concerns for his safety, and refused to commit to a deadline for releasing a full autopsy report.[79] St. Louis County prosecuting attorney Robert P. McCulloch will be the official charged with determining if state charges will be filed.[78] On August 20, a grand jury started hearing evidence in the shooting.[80]
County executive Charlie Dooley called for a special prosecutor, arguing that McCulloch is "biased and shouldn't handle the case".[81] Democratic politicians argued that the investigation should be conducted by a higher authority than the local prosecutor officer, because of a poor history of prosecuting law enforcement officers in controversial cases, and argued that McCulloch should withdraw.[82]
On August 11, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) opened a parallel civil rights investigation into the incident,[17] and United States Attorney General Eric Holder instructed the Justice Department's staff to monitor the developments.[83] According to the spokeswoman for the FBI's St. Louis field office, the protests and riots played no role in the FBI's decision to investigate.[84] On August 13, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri, Richard G. Callahan, announced a civil rights investigation into the case.[85] On August 17, Attorney General Holder authorized a second autopsy of Brown by a federal medical examiner.[86] A spokesman for the Justice Department said that Holder authorized the second autopsy of Michael Brown to ensure objectivity, citing "the extraordinary circumstances involved in this case" and a request by the Brown family.[86]
On August 16, Missouri State Highway Patrol captain Ron Johnson said there were 40 FBI agents going door-to-door looking for potential witnesses that may have information about the shooting.[87][88] Additionally, the Justice Department confirmed that attorneys from its Civil Rights Division and from the United States Attorney's Office were participating in the investigation.[88]
Robbery incident report
According to information released by the Ferguson Police Department on August 15, Brown and Dorian Johnson were suspects in a "strong-arm robbery" of a convenience store (defined as a robbery in which physical force is used but not a weapon).[89] The report stated that the convenience store's surveillance footage (which was also released) showed Brown grabbing a box of Swisher Sweet cigars, followed by an "apparent struggle or confrontation" between Brown and a store clerk.[68][43] According to Tom Jackson, Ferguson's police chief, a 911 call was received at 11:51 a.m., and after a description of the robbers was communicated by dispatchers, officer Darren Wilson encountered Brown and Johnson at 12:01 p.m.[43][90] At an afternoon press conference on August 15, Chief Jackson confirmed "the initial contact with Brown was not related to the robbery." He also stated that the officer was unaware that Brown was a suspect in the robbery, instead Brown and Johnson had been stopped for blocking traffic.[5][50][91]
Freeman Bosley, the attorney for Dorian Johnson, who was with Brown at the time, confirmed that they had in fact entered the store and cigarillos were taken, and that Johnson had informed the FBI, DOJ, and St. Louis County Police of this fact.[50] In previous interviews, Johnson described the events of the shooting but did not mention that he and Brown had been in a convenience store just before, or that Brown had stolen anything.[50] Chief Jackson said that Johnson would not be charged in the alleged robbery stating that they had determined he did not steal anything or use force.[92]
On August 15, police released other details of the robbery incident (Ferguson Police Offense/Incident Report: "complaint No. 12-12388") and the shooting incident ("Ferguson Police Report #2014-12391" and "St Louis County Police Report #2014-43984")[93] in a packet of materials.[6][94] Chief Jackson also released the name of the police officer who shot Brown,[94] identifying him as Darren Wilson, a six-year veteran of the department, who lived in Crestwood, Missouri.[95]
When asked why the police department released the report and video about the alleged robbery when it was unrelated to the shooting, Jackson said "because the press asked for it", adding that he decided to do so in response to a large number of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. When he was asked about Wilson, Jackson called him "a gentleman" and "a quiet officer", and said that he "never meant for this to happen".[9] Ronald Johnson, the Highway Patrol Captain put in charge of policing Ferguson, was not informed before the release of the robbery report, and said "I would have liked to have been consulted".[96] The Department of Justice had urged the tape not be released, arguing a release would inflame tension,[97] but the surveillance video was released by Jackson over their objections.[98]
This was the first time the police provided details on the alleged robbery, but they did not provide any additional information regarding the confrontation or why Brown was ultimately shot and killed.[43]
Reactions
The Brown family's lawyer said that "Nothing, based on the facts before us, justifies the execution-style murder by this police officer in broad daylight. The police are playing games here and the parents are beyond incensed with the way that the police are handling the distribution of information. The police are not being transparent and they are strategically trying to justify this execution-style murder."[8]
Johnson's attorney, Freeman Bosley, confirmed that Brown had taken cigars from the store, and said that "We see that there's tape, that they claim they got a tape that shows there was some sort of strong-armed robbery," said Bosley. "We need to see that tape, my client did tell us and told the FBI that they went into the store. He told FBI that [Brown] did take cigarillos. He told that to the DOJ and the St. Louis County Police."[50] In previous interviews, Johnson described the events of the shooting but did not mention that he and Brown had been in a convenience store just before, or that Brown had stolen anything.[50]
The family of Michael Brown released a statement in which they condemn the way the police chief chose to disseminate information, which they said it was "intended to assassinate the character of their son, following such a brutal assassination of his person in broad daylight", and "there is nothing based on the facts that have been placed before us that can justify the execution style murder of their child by this police officer as he held his hands up, which is the universal sign of surrender."[99]
Anthony Rothert, the legal director for the Missouri branch of the ACLU, who had sued for the release of the incident report describing Brown's shooting, told ABC News in response to the report that "I think it's fair to say that releasing some records, but not releasing others when they're equally public record seems to be an intentional effort to distract the public. They're hiding it for whatever reason.... That leaves the public to imagine why that's being hidden."[100]
Wayne Fisher, a professor with the Rutgers University Police Institute in New Jersey, said that "if the robbery in any way caused the initial contact, it has relevance ... if it didn't, it has none. The use of deadly force in this situation will be authorized if the officer reasonably believed his life was in danger, that question does not appear to be directly related to whether or not Brown was a suspect in a robbery." Eugene O'Donnell, a former district attorney in New York City who now serves as a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said that while the police officer may have stopped Brown for jaywalking, Brown may have been thinking the officer knew about the robbery: "Obviously the cop's reaction is not affected, but what could be affected is [Brown's] reaction to the cop."[101]
Daniel Isom II, a retired St. Louis police chief who now teaches at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, was critical of Jackson's leadership, saying that: "It's clear the Ferguson chief is overwhelmed by the magnitude of this incident. He has been releasing information as he sees appropriate, but maybe not taking into consideration the impact of releasing that information."[102]
In an interview with CBS's Face the Nation on August 17, Nixon blamed the local police chief for the renewed violence in Ferguson after the release of the robbery tapes, stating, "it had an incendiary effect. When you release pictures and you clearly are attempting to besmirch a victim of a shooting, shot down in his own street, a young man, and at the same time you're releasing information ... to tarnish him, then properly, there was a lot of folks that were concerned about that, and I do think it flamed it back up and has caused us to have to deal with some of that."[103]
Autopsies
Independent autopsy
On August 17, a preliminary autopsy was conducted by Dr. Michael Baden, the former chief medical examiner for the City of New York, at the request of the family. According to the report, Brown was shot six times into his front: four of the bullets entered his right arm, one entered his right eye on a downward trajectory, and one entered the top of his skull.[3] According to Baden, all of the rounds were fired from a distance of at least one to two feet.[104] Baden stated, "This one here looks like his head was bent downward, it can be because he's giving up, or because he's charging forward at the officer."[3][105][106]
The autopsy appears to contradict some aspects of eyewitness accounts, including that Wilson shot Brown in the back[3] and that Wilson shot Brown while holding Brown's neck.[107]
One of the shots to Brown's head shattered his right eye, traveled through his face, then exited his jaw and reentered his collarbone. The shot that entered the top of Brown's skull caused the fatal injury, according to Baden. Baden also provided a diagram of the entry wounds, noting that the six shots produced multiple wounds, with some of the bullets entering and exiting several times.[3] He also said that Brown could have survived the first bullet wounds, but the bullets that entered the top of his head resulted in a fatal injury.[108]
Shawn L. Parcells, who assisted Baden on the autopsy, said that the wounds to the right arm were consistent with Brown either having his back to the officer, facing the officer with his hands above his head, or in a defensive position.[109] Parcells has been accused of inflating his qualifications and performing autopsies without a medical license.[110]
Baden had no access to X-rays showing where the bullets were found to clarify the autopsy results, nor did he have access to witness reports. He stated that in his capacity as the forensic examiner for the New York State Police, he would say, "'You're not supposed to shoot so many times'. Right now there is too little information to forensically reconstruct the shooting."[3]
County autopsy
The local medical examiner autopsy report released to state prosecutors said that Brown was shot in the front part of his body. When St. Louis County medical examiner Mary Case was asked to provide details, she declined to comment further, citing the ongoing investigation into Brown's death. [111][52]
Federal autopsy
Grand jury
On August 20, a grand jury started hearing evidence in the shooting of Brown and they will decide "whether a crime was committed and whether there is probable cause to believe the defendant committed it." St. Louis County prosecutor Robert P. McCulloch said the state will finish presenting evidence to the grand jury "hopefully by the middle of October".[80][115] On August 17, Cornell Brooks, the president of the NAACP, had called for a special prosecutor in the case, saying that was needed to restore credibility with Ferguson's black community.[116] On August 21, State Senator Jamilah Nasheed presented a petition with 70,000 signatures calling for McCulloch's recusal.[117]
At least nine members of the 12-person grand jury panel must agree to issue an indictment.[118] The panel includes three African-Americans.[119]
Aftermath in Ferguson
Peaceful protests and civil disorder broke out the day following Brown's shooting and lasted for several days. As the details of the original shooting event emerged from investigators, police grappled with establishing curfews and maintaining order, while members of the Ferguson community demonstrated in various ways in the vicinity of the original shooting.
Overview
The protests began the day after the shooting. On August 10, a day of memorials began peacefully, but some crowd members became unruly after an evening candlelight vigil.[120] Local police stations assembled approximately 150 officers in riot gear.[121]Some people began looting businesses, vandalizing vehicles, and confronting police officers who sought to block off access to several areas of the city.[120] At least 12 businesses were looted or vandalized, and a gas station was also set on fire, leading to over 30 arrests. Many windows were broken and several nearby businesses closed on Monday.[122] The people arrested face charges of assault, burglary, and theft. Police used a variety of equipment, including riot gear and helicopters, to disperse the crowd by 2:00 a.m.[123] Two police officers suffered minor injuries during the events.[124]
Reactions
Domestic
Federal government
- August 12 — President Obama offered his condolences to Brown's family and community. He stated that the Department of Justice was investigating the situation along with local officials.[18]
- August 12 — Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Representative Justin Amash of Michigan tweeted similar descriptions of Ferguson as a "war zone" in the aftermath of the police actions, with Amash calling the situation "frightening" on August 13 and Warren demanding answers on August 14.[125]
- August 14 — In an op-ed in Time Magazine, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky said that police forces need to be demilitarized and that "[t]he shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown is an awful tragedy" and that "Anyone who thinks race does not skew the application of criminal justice in this country is just not paying close enough attention."[126]
- August 16 — Missouri Representative William Lacy Clay, Jr., who represents Ferguson, stated that he had "absolutely no confidence in the Ferguson police, the county prosecutor" to conduct a fair investigation into Brown's death.[127] Clay suggested that the police had released the information about the robbery in order to "negatively influence a jury pool in St. Louis County" and to "assassinate Michael Brown's character". On August 17, Clay called for "a national conversation about how police forces should interact with the African-American community".
- August 18 — President Obama announced that the Department of Justice had launched an independent, federal civil rights investigation into Brown's death.[128]
Missouri government
- Augsut 14 — Missouri Governor Jay Nixon stated that the Ferguson riots were "deeply challenging" and "promised 'operational shifts' to ease the situation,[129] using theMissouri State Highway Patrol to direct security.[130]
- August 15 — Maria Chappelle-Nadal, a Missouri senator who represented parts of Ferguson and was tear-gassed during the demonstrations, said in an interview that "It doesn't matter if Michael Brown committed theft or not. That's not the issue. The issue is what happened when Darren Wilson encountered Michael Brown, and when he died—when he was killed. Those are the only facts that are necessary."[131]
- August 16 — Following looting and violence, Governor Nixon declared a state of emergency and imposed curfews.[132]
- August 18 — When curfews failed to stem the violence, Governor Nixon lifted them and activated the Missouri National Guard to support police operations.[133][134]
- August 21 — Nixon withdrew the National Guard from Ferguson.[135]
Local authorities
- August 11 — The school district in nearby Jennings cancelled its first day of classes, "due to safety concerns for students who walk to school".[136][137]
- August 12 — St. Louis Police Department chief Sam Dotson decided against providing any more manpower to Ferguson owing to concerns about the welfare of the protesters and police handling of the situation.[138]
- August 13 — The Ferguson-Florissant School District postponed its first day of classes from Thursday to the following Monday, "in order to allow time for the situation to stabilize and all of our students and their families to resume normal routines".[139] On Sunday, August 17, the school district cancelled Monday classes due to ongoing unrest, as did Jennings and Riverview Gardens.[140]
- August 18 — Shortly after 9 p.m. on Monday, administrators for the district announced that school would continue be closed through the end of the school week.[141][142]
Brown family
- August 10 — Responding to widespread looting and violence in the area, an unidentified cousin of Michael Brown released a statement to a local television station: "[We] just want everyone to know and understand that the stealing and breaking in stores is not what Mike will want, it is very upsetting to me and my family. Our family didn’t ask for this but for Justice and Peace. Please let my family grieve in Peace in stop the violence in the street tonight, we don’t want this happing when we protest for justice for my cousin Mike Brown, please get this message out to the people that the Mike Brown family do not want this."[123]
Polls
- August 18 — Pew Research published the results of a poll conducted August 14–17 among 1,000 adults, which found stark racial and political divisions in reactions to the shooting. By about four-to-one (80% to 18%), African Americans said the shooting raised important issues about race, while whites, by 47% to 37%, said the issue of race is getting more attention than it deserves. The divide in public opinion was also observed across partisan lines, with 68% of Democrats (including 62% of white Democrats) saying they believe the incident raises important issues about race that merit discussion, while 61% of Republicans said the issue of race has gotten too much attention. Republicans were also more likely than Democrats to view the police response to as appropriate (43%), compared with 56% of Democrats who said police response went too far. Sixty-five percent of Republicans expressed confidence in the investigations into the incident, compared with 38% of Democrats.[145]
Third parties
- August 10 — Reverend Al Sharpton and the National Action Network announced their plans to travel to St. Louis.[146][147]
- August 10 — Local pastors held a vigil on Sunday morning.[147] Another vigil was planned on the same day, at 8:00 p.m. in the area where Brown was killed.[147]
- August 14 — National vigils and marches occurred on Thursday evening, in over 100 cities around the U.S., with thousands in attendance. They were organized by @FeministaJones, using Twitter and the #NMOS14 hashtag.[148][149]
- Hacktivists claiming an association with Anonymous and operating under the codename "Operation Ferguson" organized cyberprotests by setting up a website and a Twitter account.[150] The group promised that if any protesters were harassed or harmed, they would attack the city's servers and computers, taking them offline.[150] City officials said that e-mail systems were targeted and phones died, while the Internet crashed at the City Hall.[150][151] Prior to August 15, members of Anonymous corresponding with Mother Jones said that they were working on confirming the identity of the undisclosed police officer who shot Brown and would release his name as soon as they did.[152] On August 14, Anonymous posted on its Twitter feed what it claimed was the name of the officer involved in the shooting.[153][154] However, police said the identity released by Anonymous was incorrect.[155] Twitter subsequently suspended the Anonymous account from its service.[156]
- August 17 — A group of Tibetan monks joined the protesters in Ferguson on Sunday.[157]
- August 17 — About 150 people protested in downtown St. Louis in support of Darren Wilson. The protesters argued that Wilson had been victimized and that any punishment for him would cause law enforcement officers to be "frightened to do their jobs".[158]
- August 17 — Cornell Brooks, the president of the NAACP, called for a special prosecutor in the case, saying that was needed to restore credibility with Ferguson's black community.[116]
International
The Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon called for U.S. authorities to ensure protection of the protesters' rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression. Through a spokesman, Ban called for "all to exercise restraint, for law enforcement officials to abide by U.S. and international standards in dealing with demonstrators".[159]
Amnesty International sent a team of human rights observers, trainers, and researchers to Ferguson. It was the first time the organization deployed such a team in the United States.[160][82][161] In a press release, AI USA director Steven W. Hawkins said, "The U.S. cannot continue to allow those obligated and duty-bound to protect to become those who their community fears most."[162]
Various heads of state and foreign news organizations have commented on the shooting and subsequent protests including the Chinese Xinhua News Agency, Germany's Der Spiegel,[163] Egypt's Ministry of Foreign affairs,[164] the Iranian Islamic Republic News Agency,[163] protestors throughout the Middle East,[165] the Russian Foreign Ministry,[163]Spain's El Mundo,[166] the British Metro,[167] and others.[163]
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