1 year after rage, Ferguson shows signs of progress

Associated Press

FERGUSON, Mo.

A year has passed since parts of Ferguson burned in the rage that followed a grand jury’s decision not to prosecute the police officer who fatally shot Michael Brown. In that time, signs of hope have emerged.

Some of the nearly two dozen businesses destroyed in the Nov. 24, 2014, riots have reopened. Concrete barricades that protected the police station are gone. The majority-black St. Louis suburb once led almost exclusively by whites now has a black city manager, municipal judge and two new African-American council members.

It’s not exactly a return to normal, but for many of those who endured last year’s unrest, it’s an improvement.

“We’ve got a ways to go,” said Ron Johnson, the black Missouri State Highway Patrol captain who led the law-enforcement effort in Ferguson. “We didn’t get in this place in America overnight, so it’s going to take time. So we have to keep trying.”

Brown, who was black, was 18 and unarmed when he was shot to death in August 2014 by white Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson during a confrontation in a street. Brown’s death helped spawn the national “Black Lives Matter” movement rebuking police treatment of minorities.

The Justice Department later cleared Wilson, concluding that evidence backed his claim that he shot Brown in self-defense after Brown first tried to grab the officer’s gun during a struggle through the window of Wilson’s police vehicle, then came toward him threateningly after briefly running away.

On that cold November night, after months of sporadic unrest, St. Louis County prosecutor Bob McCulloch called an evening news conference to announce the grand jury’s ruling: no indictment.

At that moment, Michael Brown’s mother, Lesley McSpadden, and his stepfather, Louis Head, were sitting atop a car in a sea of people in the middle of the street outside Ferguson police headquarters. As the car speakers blared the announcement, she began to wail and sob.

Head consoled her, then yelled, “Burn this b---- down!” to angry protesters gathered around them.

Chaos followed. Windows were smashed at city hall. A police car was set on fire. Police responded in armored vehicles, shooting tear gas.

Over several hours, 80 businesses in and around Ferguson were damaged, and at least 20 were destroyed, many burned to the ground.

Slowly, they’re coming back – a Little Caesars pizza restaurant, the Hidden Treasures antique shop and a bakery that is partnering with Starbucks.

Meanwhile, the city government has undertaken several changes, including placing caps on revenue from municipal court fines and costs.