ferguson, mo. Governor declares state of emergency

Associated Press

FERGUSON, Mo.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency and imposed a curfew Saturday in a St. Louis suburb where police and protesters have clashed in the week since a black teenager was shot to death by a white police officer.

Despite heavy rainfall and lightning, hundreds of protesters gathered Saturday night at a busy thoroughfare that has been the site of previous clashes with police. Dozens of officers, a much more visible presence than the night before, stood watch — including some with shields.

Members of various black community groups were urging people to abide by the curfew, which was to run from midnight to 5 a.m. today. A woman from the New Black Panther Party walked the street with a bullhorn, telling the crowd: “Please, please be out of the area by 12 o’clock.”

Some responded to her pleas by cursing at police, while others acknowledged they planned to leave before midnight.

But Keyon Watkins, a 26-year-old computer-science worker from St. Louis, said that if many others stayed in the street, he would join them.

“All of this is just building up — pent-up aggression by being mistreated on a daily basis,” Watkins said.

In announcing the curfew, Nixon said that though many protesters were making themselves heard peacefully, the state would not allow looters to endanger the community where 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot in a street. The curfew was to run from midnight to 5 a.m. today.

“I am committed to making sure the forces of peace and justice prevail,” Nixon during at a press conference at a church that was interrupted repeatedly by people objecting to the curfew and demanding that the officer who shot Brown be charged with murder.

“We must first have and maintain peace. This is a test. The eyes of the world are watching,” Nixon said. “We cannot allow the ill will of the few to undermine the good will of the many.”

State statute gives the governor broad powers when he declares a state of emergency, but he hasn’t indicated that he plans to do anything other than imposing the curfew and empowering the state highway patrol to enforce it.

Darrell Alexander, 57, a registered nurse from nearby Florissant, Mo., worried Saturday night that the curfew might spur anger and more violence.

“I think it’s an antagonistic decision to not allow people to express their freedom of speech. It’s an overreaction,” he said.

Nixon’s curfew announcement came after tensions again flared in Ferguson late Friday. Earlier that day, local police identified the officer who shot Brown as Darren Wilson and released documents and video footage alleging that Brown had robbed a convenience store just before he was shot. Police said Wilson was unaware Brown was a suspect when he encountered him walking in the street with a friend.