August 14, 2014

The Saint Louis suburb of Ferguson, Missouri, was buffeted last night by a fifth night of protests amid growing anger over the shooting of an unarmed African-American teenager by a local police officer. Michael Brown was fatally shot on August 9 while walking home with a friend from a convenience store. According to the Ferguson chief of police, the officer who shot Michael Brown was assaulted by Brown, who had tried to grab the officer’s gun. The friend walking with Brown disputes that account, insisting that Brown’s hands were raised when he was shot multiple times.

Last night, scores of police officers in riot gear fired tear gas on the demonstrators after they ignored an order to disperse. The order came after four previous nights of sometimes violent protests and looting that resulted in dozens of arrests and the burning of a shop. Several people were arrested again last night, including two journalists covering the situation. They were arrested while writing on laptops seated inside a McDonald’s.

The journalists noted that Brown’s death laid bare long simmering tensions between the local African-American community and the police–tension rooted in the way the police treat blacks compared with how they treat Ferguson’s white residents. The town’s population of 21,000 is two-thirds African American, while only 3 of the 53-member police force are black.