Protests held in Michigan after Ferguson decision
DETROIT – Protesters upset by a grand jury’s decision not to indict a white police officer in the fatal shooting of a black 18-year-old in Ferguson, Mo., demonstrated peacefully in East Lansing and around Michigan on Tuesday.
About 60 people chanted outside a federal courthouse in downtown Detroit, hours after a vigil there the night before when authorities in Ferguson announced officer Darren Wilson would face no charges in Michael Brown’s death.
Brown was unarmed when Wilson shot him during an Aug. 9 confrontation in the St. Louis suburb.
“It was a serious blow to justice when this grand jury came back with a decision not to prosecute,” said the Rev. Charles Williams II, president of the National Action Network’s Detroit chapter. “This is the reason why we are calling on another layer of justice — which is the United States Department of Justice — to step in and send this thing to trial so that folks will have the opportunity to see and hear transparently what the issues are when it comes to Michael Brown.
“We are reaching a boiling point in this country.”
Monday night in Ferguson protests ignited to violence. There were 61 arrests overnight, many for burglary and trespassing, and another 21 arrests in St. Louis. At least 18 people were injured.
Businesses were set afire and store display windows were smashed.
“I understand your pain. I understand what you’re going through, but I do not condone it,” Maurice L. Hardwick said of those involved in the Ferguson violence.
Hardwick’s “Live in Peace” movement joined the National Action Network demonstration Tuesday in Detroit.
“We are just sick and tired of injustice,” he said. “We must stand up as a people of calm and intelligence and not savages.”
In East Lansing, about 100 people gathered peacefully early Friday around the Michigan State University rock. Members of the Black Student Alliance painted painted “#BLACKLIVES MATTER” and “WE STAND WITH FERGUSON” on the surface of the rock.
The message included drawings of an American flag and a clenched fist.
MSU police Sgt. Florene McGlothian-Taylor said there were no additional events on campus following the announcement Wilson will not be charged in Brown’s shooting.
“It was peaceful,” she said. “I think the students just wanted to show their support of the family and this was their way of showing that support.”
At Grand Valley State University in western Michigan, close to 150 students and faculty members also protested Tuesday afternoon.
“Don’t let today be the last day that we are head over heels for intolerance of racism and then turn a deaf ear tomorrow,” Grand Valley State’s Black Student Union President Brianna Pannell said in a release. “This isn’t just an ethnic/racial issue but a human race issue.”