Ferguson protesters seeking change

Hundreds of demonstrators tracked through pouring rain and blistering heat on Saturday, calling for accountability for the officer who gunned down an unarmed 18-year-old here three weeks ago and for broader policing reforms.

The death of Michael Brown and the aggressive police response to the demonstrations that followed have sparked a national conversation about race and law enforcement. Now that much of the national media has moved on — a point that was repeatedly made by speaker after speaker at a rally in a nearby park on Saturday — activists are working on channeling the anger exposed in the wake of Brown’s death into concrete changes to policing tactics in the St. Louis region.

Some of the most recognizable faces from the past three weeks of protests were out on the scene on Saturday, including Brown’s family members, Missouri state Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal, St. Louis Alderman Antonio French, Ferguson Democratic committeewoman Patricia Bynes and Edward Crawford, the 25-year-old captured in a now-iconic photo hurling a flaming tear gas canister back at police officers while wearing an American flag T-shirt.

Brown’s mother, Lesley McSpadden, wore a T-shirt bearing an image of her son that read, “A Bond Never Broken.” She was protected by suited-up members of the Nation of Islam as she and Brown’s father, Michael Brown Sr., made their way across town. Spread out across the route were tables stacked with shirts with slogans like “I survived the Ferguson riots” and “I am Mike Brown.” There were also booths where protesters could register to vote and petitions calling for the indictment of Darren Wilson, the Ferguson police officer who shot Brown dead on Aug. 9.

The crowd, which numbered over 1,000 people, made its way from the Canfield Green apartment complex, where Brown died, to West Florissant Avenue, the epicenter of the protests and the home of businesses that were looted. Then the protesters marched up Ferguson Avenue, in the direction of the police station. As rain poured down, they headed to Forestwood Park, where a massive tent and a stage on loan from the St. Louis County Parks Department were set up.

The crowd was mostly black, but it included plenty of white demonstrators as well. One of them was Michael Maresco, 50, a Ron Paul supporter from Richmond Heights, Missouri, who was carrying a massive rainbow Tea Party flag and said he was there to call for police accountability. Another was Janet Cuenca, a 76-year old retired teacher, who rode a motorized scooter and wore a shirt that read, “I can’t believe I’m still protesting this crap.”

Police officers kept a light touch as the demonstrators blocked streets, wearing only normal uniforms and driving regular police cars. Heavily-armored, military-style vehicles were nowhere to be seen, nor were officers in riot gear or canisters of tear gas.

“Should be a nice anti-me rally,” Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson told The Huffington Post. Indeed, speakers on the stage called on both Jackson and Ferguson Mayor James Knowles III to resign their positions.

A few hours later, the crowd had thinned out, but some of the more aggressive demonstrators remained. One man yelled an anti-gay slur at officers, and said that one of the cops “looked like a child molester.”

Black police officers came under particular scrutiny from that small number of demonstrators, and attempts by others — including French — to calm them down were unsuccessful.