St. Louis Post-Dispatch Ferguson coverage - Aug. 20

T H E N O . 1 S T. L O U I S W E B S I T E A N D N E W S P A P E R

Wednesday • 08.20.2014 • $1.50

night violence eases • quiktrip fenced off • services for brown on monday

A day of recovery ST. LOUIS

Grand Jury

Ferguson

officers Fatally shoot knife-wielding man

Nixon won’t remove McCulloch from case

U.S. attorney general will be here today

Robert Cohen • rcohen@post-dispatch.com

Stevon Statom walks in a protest march Tuesday along West Florissant Avenue in Ferguson. Statom moved into the Canfield Green complex a week before Michael Brown was killed.

St. Louis Chief tries to preserve calm

testimony begins today

Christian Gooden • cgooden@post-dispatch.com

St. Louis police control the scene after a shooting by officers at Riverview Boulevard and McLaran Avenue on Tuesday.

By Joe Holleman AND LISA BROWN Post-Dispatch

ST. LOUIS • An agitated crowd of nearly 200 people gathered at the shooting scene, chanting, “Hands up, don’t shoot.”

Police Chief Sam Dotson walked from a sidewalk press briefing toward the crowd at midday Tuesday. As he was describing the scene, someone scolded the others, “Listen up.” Another added, “Keep quiet.” Dotson said a city alderman had witnessed the shooting.

protests turn tense late again

Cristina Fletes-Boutte • P-D

Huy Mach • hmach@post-dispatch.com

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon speaks at a news conference on Saturday.

Demonstrators form a barrier to restore calm after a heated situation developed early Wednesday on West Florissant Avenue.

Afterward, Dotson said, “I want this message to be out as quickly and truthfully as possible.” The tension on the street seemed diminished.

Dotson spoke on the 8700 block of Riverview Boulevard, at McLaran Avenue, north of Calvary Cemetery. About 12:30 p.m., he said, two of his officers had shot and killed a man who, they said, attacked them with a knife.

The victim was later identified as Kajieme Powell, 25. Officials said he wasn’t from St. Louis but was staying with his

By Kevin McDermott kmcdermott@post-dispatch.com 314-340-8268

FROM STAFF REPORTS

See Dotson • Page A9

See Nixon • Page A8

Even as a St. Louis County grand jury prepares to open its examination of Michael Brown’s death, a rising chorus is demanding that the county’s elected prosecutor step aside and let a special prosecutor handle the case.

But Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon isn’t ready to join that chorus.

Nixon said Tuesday he doesn’t intend to ask County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch to step aside from the case amid

FERGUSON • Another day of peaceful protests turned tense late Tuesday as protesters again clashed with police on West Florissant Avenue.

As midnight approached, the street scene grew chaotic when someone threw a plastic water bottle at police officers. Police moved in quickly to make arrests. An officer on a loudspeaker told people to disperse immediately. One protester smashed a television crew’s camera, ordering the cameraman to turn it off.

As police moved in to arrest

one protester, other people threw water bottles at the assembling police officers.

A long line of police officers formed in the middle of the street, and a line of peacekeeping protesters joined arms in front of them to try to block troublemakers from police.

Just minutes before that clash, Pastor Herbert Thompson Jr. had led a prayer circle on the parking lot of Sam’s Meat Market & More. A huge circle of protesters and media gathered around him.

See Brown • Page A8

Who is causing trouble? • McClellan: A battle of words • the white house checks in • Messenger: finding order from chaos • A7-12, A17-19

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08.20.2014 • Wednesday • M 1 ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH • A7

Ferguson police shooting

unrest taking its toll on education

By Elisa Crouch and Jessica Bock Post-Dispatch

FERGUSON • With continued school

cancellations in three districts, teachers spent Tuesday trying to overcome the heartache they’ve felt since chaos erupted over Michael Brown’s shooting death.

Many of them did it by reaching out to their students. Others cleaned up the mess in Ferguson.

Dozens of teachers organized learning activities at public libraries and in a church hall, attracting children from throughout the Ferguson-Florissant School District, where the start of the school year has been delayed by more than a week so far. Two hundred more cleaned up debris on West Florissant Avenue, where protesters and police had clashed the night before.

And inside school cafeterias, some worked to provide free lunches to children, most of whom rely on school for something to eat.

“As teachers, we want to build up our community, not tear it down,” said Remy Bryant, a Jennings High School biology teacher wearing gloves and filling a trash bag. She was cleaning up with about 200 teachers, principals and staff — nearly everyone who works for the Jennings district.

The unrest resulting from late-night clashes between protesters and police is taking a toll on the education of more than 20,000 students in north St. Louis County. As of Tuesday, children in the Jennings and Riverview Gardens school districts have missed three days of school.

In Ferguson-Florissant, they’ve missed four and will be out the rest of the week.

Several other schools have missed days, including North Tech High School and Ackerman Elementary School — both in Florissant.

For many children, the cancellations haven’t brought the joy that comes from snow days. Roderick Eldred has faced disappointment every morning when his mother has awakened him. For nearly a week she’s had to tell him he can’t go to kindergarten.

For Michael Hubbard, it’s been a similar story. “I put my clothes on, and my sister told me I didn’t have school until Monday,” the fifth-grader said. “The first day of school is always awesome.”

District officials say the cancellations mostly are out of concern for the safety of children and transportation issues, even though most of the schools aren’t near where the rioting and clashes have taken place since a police officer shot and killed

Cristina Fletes-BouttÉ • cfletes-boutte@post-dispatch.com

Cielo Kriz (far left), a volunteer, laughs with Shaila Evans, 8, and Janeatha Evans in the Ferguson Public Library on Tuesday. Carrie Pace, a teacher in the Ferguson-Florissant School District, organized learning activities in the library for children whose schools are closed.

Brown.

The situation has put a strain on some working parents, who have had to arrange child care on the fly. It’s left students disappointed they can’t see friends and meet teachers. It’s left teachers anxious, concerned about the impact all of these lost days might have on learning. The Missouri education department has not determined if the days will need to be made up later in the year.

“Our kids need to be back in school.

They need to be learning,” said Carrie Pace, an elementary school teacher who turned a large meeting room in the Ferguson Library into a place where students were working on long division, reading skills, and various crafts.

Pace said she’s concerned about the emotional toll the past 11 days has had on children in her school, Walnut Grove Elementary. When asked how she’s holding up, Pace began to cry.

At a table nearby, Allisha Luster made jewelry with beads and plastic thread. Allisha is about to start fourth grade in Ferguson-Florissant. She said she’s eager to meet her teacher.

OUTSIDE OF THE CHAOS, ‘NORMAL’ FINDS A COMFORTABLE PLACE

By Tim Barker AND LEAH THORSEN Post-Dispatch

On a warm Tuesday afternoon, Bernard Thomas stood on the banks of a small lake in Forest Park and sent a fishing line darting into the water.

Around him, runners and bikers filled the jogging trails as work crews tended to the park.

“It’s a good place to practice casting,” said Thomas, 59, a visitor from New Mexico who was passing time while his daughter was at work. “I just love it here.

So quiet and peaceful.”

Like everyone else, the retired Marine has been following the chaos unfolding each night in Ferguson. But it didn’t stop him from making the trip to see his daughter.

“We saw worse than this in the ’60s,” said Thomas, who is black and grew up in Florida and Georgia.

Thomas and his afternoon quest to land a bass provide a reminder that not everything in the St. Louis area is revolving around a beleaguered north St. Louis County community.

Many of us need more than a world full of protesters, looting, tear gas and endless commentary — well-informed or not — on what it all means.

A quick glance around the region shows that there is, indeed, more going on. You might even be tempted to call it normal.

Consider what’s happening just outside of Ferguson, at Hendel’s Market Cafe.

The 20-year-old restaurant in historic Florissant was abuzz with activity Tuesday, as workers prepared for a small block party honoring their skilled pastry chef.

Lia Weber, whose specialties include lemon tarts, is half of a two-person team that was in the finals of this season’s “Next Great Baker” on TLC. Her teammate was Al Watson, a baker for Wedding Wonderland, another Florissant company.

Hendel’s manager, Christina Bennett, was bringing in a large-screen television, along with beer from the Ferguson Brewing Co., so patrons could watch the baking duo take their shot at $100,000 in prize money.

The troubles in Ferguson have not gone unnoticed. But Bennett sees no reason to dwell on the negative. It’s more important, she said, for everyone to pull together and support North County.

“It creates business. It creates jobs. It creates a sense of community,” Bennett said.

The days after the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown have witnessed

historic unrest for the region. Yet events large and small have continued, as folks balance the stresses of social activism against the need to simply live their lives.

Singer Katy Perry took to the stage at Scottrade Center for two hours Sunday night, while the Cardinals are in the midst of a seven-game homestand, with attendance topping 40,000 for every game.

We even had a first pitch tossed out by St. Louis native Jon Hamm.

“Attendance has been consistent with where we have been year over year,” said Ron Watermon, the team’s spokesman.

And last weekend, the Little Hills Winery in St. Charles took part in the annual Festival of the Little Hills.

Debbie Goble, who manages the winery’s wine shop, said business at the festival was down a little, but she doesn’t think the Ferguson upheaval was a factor in the largely outdoor event.

“I think the rain affected us this year,” Goble said.

Still, there’s little doubt that Ferguson has become a common thread in conversations across the land.

And rightly so, said Jonesey Johnson, the reading group coordinator at Left Bank Books on North Euclid Avenue in St. Louis.

Johnson was getting ready for a small William Shakespeare readers group to arrive Tuesday evening for a lively discussion on “King Lear.” She expected the members to spend most of their time on the Bard.

But she figured Ferguson would creep into the discussion at some point.

“I can’t see it not being part of the conversation,” Johnson said. “It would seem disrespectful if it wasn’t.”

And to be sure, there are those who are making changes in their lives because of current events.

Such is the case with Phil Haverstick, 68, who was on a trek Tuesday to photograph those cakes scattered across the region as part of the 250th birthday of St. Louis.

Haverstick, who was photographing a cake near the St. Louis Zoo’s south entrance, lives near Washington, D.C., but grew up in St. Louis and spent his senior year in Ferguson.

He’s photographed 40 of the cakes so far.

But there’s at least one cake he won’t be visiting. It’s the one that sits off Florissant Road in downtown Ferguson.

He doesn’t feel comfortable making his usual trek to North County.

“You never know what will happen when something like that is going on,” Haverstick said.

“It brings home the emotional impact of what’s going on in our community,” said Rashonda Luster, her mother, as she watched her daughter. “Now it’s affecting our kids’ education. They need to be back in their routines … . We are ready for peace.”

KIRKWOOD MAY PITCH IN The school closures in Riverview Gardens prompted several Kirkwood parents and church leaders to meet Tuesday to form a plan. Whenever Riverview Gardens is closed, buses do not transport about 250 transfer students to Mehlville or Kirkwood, where they attend school. If unrest leads to more lost days in Riverview Gardens, the group discussed driving their own vans to pick up the children to prevent them from missing more school.

“We consider these families our families,” said Becky Edwards, a parent at the meeting at Kirkwood Baptist Church. She knows many Kirkwood parents eager to help, she said.

The unexpected free time has left many children with little to do. At Wellspring Church in Ferguson, volunteers said find-

ing activities for older kids was difficult.

They were looking for help and ideas as they opened their hall each day this week for activities, counseling and lunch.

“I just feel sad. These kids need to be in school,” said Julie Hoener, a fifth-grade teacher at Central Elementary.

Ferguson parent Yolanda Harris said she’s struggling to keep her children from spending hours in front of the television.

Summer programs are over. And she’s not comfortable with them playing outside so close to where the violence has taken place.

“It’s hard to say why you can’t go outside and ride your bike,” Harris said.

With school out, many educators also are concerned that low-income students will go hungry, particularly at schools with high-poverty populations.

Today through Friday, Ferguson-Florissant will provide sack lunches at five elementary schools for any student in the district. The schools are Airport, Duchesne, Griffith, Holman and Wedgwood.

On Tuesday, Riverview Gardens provided lunch to 300 children. Jennings also opened up its school cafeterias.

hospitals cite privacy rules, won’t say more on injured

By Samantha Liss sliss@post-dispatch.com > 314-340-8017

About 1 a.m. Aug. 13, Esrail Britton was shot multiple times by a St. Louis County police officer after allegedly pointing a handgun at the officer.

Britton, 19, has since been charged with multiple felonies and, according to the most recent information, remains hospitalized.

The shooting happened at West Florissant Avenue and Chambers Road, in unincorporated St. Louis County, not far from the site of demonstrations that have convulsed the Ferguson area for more than a week.

But the public won’t hear about Britton’s condition from hospital officials.

And the public may not be hearing about other gunshot victims or the full scope of injured individuals because of the hospitals’ concerns about privacy issues.

St. Louis-area hospital officials say once someone has been identified as a “victim of violence,” they cannot share any information about that individual.

Gunshot victims are routinely identified as “victims of violence,” hospital spokesmen say.

According to HIPAA guidelines released by the American Hospital Association, only patient information contained in the hospital directory can be released to the media. If a patient is a victim of violence they are typically not listed, for their safety.

Most local hospitals share information about minor injuries, but some don’t.

Officials with Barnes-Jewish Hospital, the area’s largest hospital and a Level I trauma center, said it has no way to track patients who come in with injuries from the Ferguson area protests.

As for Britton, St. Louis hospital officials won’t even confirm whether Britton is being treated at their facility. They said Britton would be considered a “victim of violence,” and disclosure about his condition would violate the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA. That’s the federal law that protects patient information.

Unless Britton’s family shares news of his condition, the public will have to rely on St. Louis County police to provide status updates.

Last Wednesday, county police reported Britton was in critical condition.

Two days later, county police officials told the Post-Dispatch he was improving. The Post-Dispatch has been unable to confirm his condition since last Friday.

Legal experts say the decision to withhold status updates on Britton reflects the hospitals’ interpretation of HIPAA. “The bottom line is that the hospital

is not prevented by HIPAA or Missouri law from providing you with a condition status and verification if you are asking about the patient name,” said Kelly Dineen, assistant professor of health law and ethics at St. Louis University’s School of Law. Dineen said there is no special provision for “victims of violence” or “gunshot victims” under HIPAA. Clinton Mikel, chairman of the American Bar Association’s eHealth, Privacy & Security Interest Group, said hospitals could share Britton’s status but are not required.

“Folks can be more protective of patient information than HIPAA specifically requires,” Mikel said.

Hospital administrators may have put the policy in place, Mikel said, because they might fear whoever dealt the gunshot wound may come back.

Yet, as demonstrations have continued throughout the week, it’s unclear how many gunshot victims are currently being treated by area hospitals.

Helen Sandkuhl, administrative director for emergency services at St. Louis University Hospital, said, ideally, gunshot victims are taken to Level I trauma centers. The area’s Level I trauma centers include St. Louis University Hospital, Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Mercy, Sandkuhl said. Depending on the location of the incident, it’s common for victims to be treated and stabilized, then transferred to a Level I trauma center.

SSM hospital officials will share only how many gunshot victims they treated after the patient is released. BJC HealthCare will not share any information about gunshot victims even after they have been released.

“We don’t have any discussion or conversation regarding gunshot victims,” said Bret Berigan, spokesman for BJC’s Christian Hospital.

Mikel said, under HIPAA, the hospitals are allowed to share general information that cannot be used to identify someone.

But once hospitals start releasing identifying characteristics such as age, gender and injury type, Mikel said, “then you’re trending pretty close to having information be identifiable.”

On Sunday night, DePaul Health Center reported it had treated and released two gunshot victims.

During Monday night protests, Capt.

Ronald S. Johnson confirmed two protesters had been shot. It’s unclear how those individuals are faring.

The Post-Dispatch is part of a consortium of news organizations working with Kaiser Health News to cover the Affordable Care Act. KHN is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

A8 • ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

M 2 • Wednesday • 08.20.2014

Ferguson police shooting

‘we’ve got to do something’

Christian Gooden • cgooden@post-dispatch.com

Sharone Whitehead of Hazelwood prays at a vigil for peace, unity and healing at the Believers Temple Word Fellowship church in Ferguson on Tuesday.

Brown

•

from A1

Thompson, of the Ramoth City of Refuge Church of God in Christ in the Spanish Lake area, gave thanks for the peace that had lasted through the day even as several hundred people remained on the street to protest the death of teenager Michael Brown, who was fatally shot Aug. 9 by a city police officer.

Brown’s death has spurred daily protests near the shooting site.

“God, bring us together as one,” Thompson prayed Tuesday night. “God, we need you right now. Bring us together, Lord.”

At one point in the night, a blue mini train, nicknamed the “love train,” wound its way down the street with some protesters aboard. Some officers smiled as it drove by.

The street scene also included someone handing out roses, and several members of the clergy mingling with the crowd.

Police had stayed on the edges of the protest area.

Earlier in the day, Brown family attorney Anthony Gray said the funeral and public memorial for Brown will take place Monday morning.

Robert Cohen • rcohen@post-dispatch.com

Protesters rally in front of the Ferguson Police Department on Tuesday. Officers met the marchers as they walked through the business district of the city, calling for justice in the police shooting of Michael Brown.

The location and time for the event have not been set, but Gray said services likely will begin between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m.

“It’s going to be public, and it’s going to be supported by national leaders,” Gray said. “We don’t have details on who those national leaders will be at this time.”

He said organizers were working to find a venue large enough for the memorial.

A crowdfunding site set up for Brown’s family had raised more than $99,000 by Tuesday night.

The goal was $80,000.

The site, gofundme.com/justiceformikebrown, was set up by Gray and another lawyer for the

family, Benjamin Crump.

Attorney General Eric Holder said a third autopsy of Brown’s body was performed Monday for the Justice Department by one of the military’s most experienced medical examiners.

Holder is scheduled to travel to Ferguson today to meet with FBI and other officials carrying out

an independent federal investigation into Brown’s death.

“At a time when so much may seem uncertain, the people of Ferguson can have confidence that the Justice Department intends to learn — in a fair and thorough manner — exactly what happened,” a statement released

by Holder said.

On Tuesday morning, with schools closed because of the protests, nearly the entire staff of the Jennings School District paraded down West Florissant Avenue armed with brooms and trash bags.

Many of those doing the cleanup were clad in orange safety vests as they picked up empty bottles left over from a night of unrest.

“We’re here to be part of the community,” said high school math teacher David Fox. “We’ve got to do something.”

While students stayed home, the staff at Jennings schools came to work on professional development. Late in the morning, the superintendent gave staff the option of taking a break or helping clean the area of protests in neighboring Ferguson.

Jesse Bogan, Lilly Fowler, Valerie Schremp Hahn, Elisa Crouch, Lisa Brown and Joe Holleman, all of the Post-Dispatch, contributed to this report.

Protesters help put focus on issues, nixon says Nixon

•

from A1

criticism that McCulloch will be biased in favor of the police officer who shot Brown.

“You have a democratically elected prosecutor,” Nixon said in an interview Tuesday with the Post-Dispatch. “At times of stress to democracy, you need to look at the process that has served our state and country well.

“If he thinks that he wants to do that, certainly. That’s his call.”

Nixon later released a statement defending that decision on grounds that switching prosecutors now could endanger any future prosecution in the case.

“There is a well-established process by which a prosecutor can recuse themselves from a pending investigation, and a special prosecutor be appointed,” Nixon said in the statement.

“Departing from this established process could unnecessarily inject legal uncertainty into this matter and potentially jeopardize the prosecution.”

McCulloch is from a family with deep roots in police culture, including his father, a police officer who was killed in the line of duty by an African-American suspect.

In both his prosecutorial decisions and public comments, crit-

ics say, he has shown a clear bias toward police in cases where officers’ actions are in question.

Among McCulloch’s recent controversial statements was searing criticism of Nixon himself, for his decision last week to put the Missouri Highway Patrol in charge of security in Ferguson, after local and county police were accused of being overly aggressive with protesters.

“It’s shameful what he did today, he had no legal authority to do that,” McCulloch said of Nixon at the time. “To denigrate the men and women of the county police department is shameful.”

Among McCulloch’s critics is Missouri state Sen. Jamilah Nasheed, D-St. Louis, who has led an online petition drive that has gathered 26,000 signatures demanding McCulloch’s removal.

“He doesn’t have the fortitude to do the right thing when it comes to prosecuting police officers,” Nasheed told CNN in an interview that aired Tuesday.

“His cousin is a police officer.

His mother works for the police department. His uncle is a police officer, and, again, we think that his judgment will be clogged as a result of all of those occurrences.”

A m o n g o t h e r A f r i ca n American leaders taking that stance are U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-St. Louis, and St. Louis County Executive Charlie

Dooley, who on Tuesday accused McCulloch of “a history of insensitivity to the African-American community.”

“He’s the wrong person to be prosecuting this,” Dooley said in an interview with the Post-Dispatch. “He’s the wrong person at the wrong time. The AfricanAmerican community has no confidence in him getting justice for the African-American community or for the Brown family.”

Dooley acknowledged that “Mr. McCulloch and I do not get along.” The animosity was stirred, in part, by the prosecuting attorney’s endorsement of Councilman Steve Stenger in the Aug. 5 Democratic primary that signaled the end of Dooley’s 11-year tenure as county executive. McCulloch, who had backed Dooley in three previous bids for re-election, broke with the incumbent over what he termed “corruption” in televised commercials on behalf of Stenger’s candidacy.

McCulloch couldn’t be reached for comment Tuesday evening. But he acknowledged in an interview with KMOX Radio that Nixon could remove him from the case.

“I certainly have no intention of walking away from the responsibilities that the people have entrusted me with, but I also understand if the governor were to do that, he has that right.”

Brown, 18, was shot and killed Aug. 9 by Ferguson police Officer Darren Wilson, after a confrontation. A private autopsy concluded he was shot at least six times.

There has been no dispute about the fact that Brown was unarmed, nor that it was Wilson who shot and killed him. But witnesses have given conflicting accounts of whether Brown at the time was struggling with Wilson, or trying to surrender.

That’s a question that’s currently under scrutiny by twin local and federal investigations.

McCulloch’s office will present evidence to the standing St. Louis County grand jury beginning today. Grand jury proceedings are not open to the public.

“We are going to attempt to start giving evidence to the grand jury (Wednesday), depending upon the ability to get the witnesses in and the witnesses showing up,” said Ed Magee, spokesman for McCulloch.

Magee said the case “will be handled by the attorney regularly assigned to the grand jury” rather than McCulloch himself. However, McCulloch, as the county prosecuting attorney, is ultimately in charge of it — unless he were to recuse himself.

Among other points in Nixon’s interview with the Post-Dispatch on Tuesday: • Nixon said he talked with President Barack Obama on Monday,

and that Obama pressed him about his decision to bring in the Missouri National Guard, though he didn’t actively discourage it.

• He credited the protesters with “forcing all policymakers” in America to focus on issues such as race, poverty and police relationships with communities. He stressed that he believes most of the violence in Ferguson has been instigated by “violent criminals” coming in from outside the community. He said he defines them completely differently from the local protesters.

• He acknowledged he is worried that the violence could intensify depending on what happens in the shooting investigation. “I think all of us see a tinderbox of emotion and energy out there.”

• He brushed aside criticism that his handling of issue has been inconsistent and ineffective. “If you’re catching a lot of flak, it means you’re over the target.”

• He expressed pride in the fact that there have been no additional fatalities “since the horrific death of an 18-year-old shot in the street,” and he credited police restraint and the nonviolent elements within the protesters for avoiding further fatalities.

Steve Giegerich, Margaret Gillerman and Tim O’Neil of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.

08.20.2014 • WEDNESDAY • M 1

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH • A9

FERGUSON POLICE SHOOTING

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Post-Dispatch

CHRISTIAN GOODEN • cgooden@post-dispatch.com

Someone in a crowd near the scene of a police-involved shooting Tuesday raises hands, chanting, “Hands up, don’t shoot,” during an impromptu demonstration at the corner of Riverview Boulevard and McLaran Avenue in St. Louis. Police say a man brandishing a knife refused to drop it and was shot as he approached officers.

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The intersection is only two miles from West Florissant Avenue and Canfield Drive in the suburb of Ferguson, the scene of repeated protests and nighttime disturbances since the shooting death of Michael Brown, 18, by a Ferguson police officer on Aug. 9.

City police officers and Dotson have been participating in some of the police actions on West Florissant. The “hands up” chant is a common refrain at the Ferguson protests.

Dotson gave this account of the shooting on Riverview: Powell walked out of the Six Stars Market, at 8701 Riverview, without paying for two energy drinks, and the store owner told him to stop. A few minutes later, Powell came back and took a package of muffins or pastries, Dotson said, adding that the store owner walked out with him and asked him to pay for the items.

Powell started throwing the items on the street and side-

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walk. St. Louis Alderman Dionne Flowers, who works at a nearby beauty shop, witnessed the encounter and told officers the man was acting erratically and was grabbing at his waistband.

Dotson said the store owner and the alderman said the suspect was “armed with a knife, acting erratically, pacing back and forth in the street, talking to himself.”

Employees at the market and

the beauty shop called 911. Two arriving officers ordered Powell to get down, but he became more agitated and walked toward them, reaching for his waistband.

Witnesses told police the man was yelling, “Shoot me, kill me now,” during the encounter, Dotson said.

The officers drew their weapons and ordered Powell to stop.

He did stop, but then pulled out a knife and came at the officers,

gripping and holding it high, Dotson said. They ordered him to stop and drop the knife. When he got within 2 or 3 feet of the officers, they fired, killing Powell.

“This is a lethal range for a knife,” Dotson said.

The officers were not hurt, police said. They were put on administrative duty pending an investigation.

When people gathered on Riverview began getting angrier, several older residents in the area got between those shouting and the police line and tried to calm the crowd. The shouts subsided but escalated again when Dotson appeared to be walking away.

That’s when he went into the midst of the crowd and reiterated all the details. Among the older residents who asked the others to let Dotson speak was Chris Carter Sr., father of Alderman Chris Carter.

Asked why the officers didn’t use Tasers, Dotson said police have the right to defend themselves from a deadly weapon.

“Officers have a reasonable expectation to go home at the end of their shift,” he said.

A crowd of about 100 people and a large police contingent lin-

gered at the scene Tuesday night.

An employee answering the phone at the Six Stars Market declined to comment. Flowers later issued a statement that said: “What SLMPD Chief Dotson has summarized as facts is accurate to what I saw and what I reported to police.”

St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay said in an interview on Tuesday that he will demand an open investigation.

“We want to make sure this is handled in a transparent way,” Slay said.

Slay said officials have already been in contact with the U.S. attorney’s office, in addition to clergy leaders.

Slay said the city is “fully prepared” to handle any protests that could come as a result of the shooting, especially in light of the events in Ferguson.

“We are very aware of the high emotion,” Slay said.

A crowd remained at the shooting scene through the afternoon. A worker at Golden Shears Barber & Beauty Shop said she was removing valuables in case someone tried to break in.

Joel Currier, Michele Munz and Nicholas J.C. Pistor of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.

NOTES FROM FERGUSON NEW PROTEST ZONE ESTABLISHED

mainder of the week from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Dellwood Recreation Center, 10266 West Florissant Avenue. It will be closed Saturday, but open Sunday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Residents can get respite, hot meals, food staples and access to resources from other area agencies. Children’s activities will also be available. A free shuttle will be available from some locations.

People should bring a photo ID and a current utility bill to access the services.

Dial 211 or call 1-800-427-4626 for more information or to get access to immediate resources such as counseling.

The Missouri Highway Patrol again closed West Florissant Avenue on Tuesday evening and declared a new “approved assembly zone” for protesters at 9026 West Florissant, on the lot of a former Ford dealership. That site is south of Ferguson Avenue but north of the Westfall (formerly Northwoods) shopping center, site of the police command post.

A new staging area for reporters and photographers is at the Public Storage buildings, across West Florissant from Canfield Drive, the scene of much of the street turmoil during the last several nights.

West Florissant and Lucas & Hunt Road were closed except to those who could prove they live in the area.

— Michele Munz

WILL OBAMA VISIT FERGUSON?

— Tim O’Neil

THREE PEOPLE SENT TO HOSPITAL Area hospitals report treating a total of three people after Monday night’s protest in Ferguson.

Christian Hospital treated and released two adults for breathing difficulty Monday, according to spokesman Bret Berigan.

DePaul Health Center treated and released one adult for minor injuries, according to spokeswoman Jamie Sherman.

The four people who remained at DePaul on Monday morning after a highspeed chase with police Sunday night have since been released, Sherman said.

— Samantha Liss

COUNTY TO FUND RESIDENT AID St. Louis County will spend up to $1 million to provide support to residents needing help because of the unrest, looting and vandalism in Ferguson and neighboring communities.

The money will be used to help fund and staff a drop-in center for residents in Ferguson, Dellwood and Jennings at the

ROBERT COHEN • rcohen@post-dispatch.com

Missouri Highway Patrol Capt. Ronald S. Johnson is caught in a sea of reporters from around the world as he tries to walk down West Florissant Avenue in Ferguson on Tuesday.

Dellwood Recreation Center. The county will work with the United Way, the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis and other agencies to provide staffing as well as transportation for residents to the center, advice on how to get utility assistance, legal assistance, counseling and other services.

Other aid will include help removing debris left by protesters.

County Executive Charlie Dooley said he had visited Ferguson every day since the crisis began and had seen the negative effects on Canfield Green and neighboring apartment complexes.

“The residents there need a break, and any support we can provide to help the community heal and get back on its feet should be provided,” he said. “It’s the humane thing to do.”

The County Council, at Dooley’s request, approved transferring the money from an emergency fund for the center.

The date of the center’s opening has not

been announced.

The administration also wants to transfer $2 million to the police budget to cover the costs of overtime pay for county police.

Meanwhile, State Budget Director Linda Luebbering said the current state budget included $3.455 million to pay expenses of any state agency during an emergency declared by the governor. It also includes $4 million for emergency duties of the National Guard when ordered by the governor. She said none of the money had been used for Ferguson expenses yet.

— Margaret Gillerman, Virginia Young

UNITED WAY OPENS RESOURCE CENTER A community resource drop-in center will open today for individuals and families affected by the unrest in Ferguson and living in the 63135 and 63136 ZIP codes.

The center will be open daily for the re-

The Washington political website The Hill was reporting Tuesday that the White House “hasn’t ruled out” sending President Barack Obama to Ferguson — though at least one of Missouri’s U.S. senators thinks it’s “a bad idea.”

“A presidential visit requires a lot of security from local officials,” Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” in response to the speculation about a visit by Obama. “Right now our local officials have their hands full. It is a very bad time for a presidential visit for the practical reasons — many of these people are not getting enough sleep. We are really taxing all of the jurisdictions on the police forces.”

The Hill reported that “White House has weighed sending President Obama to Ferguson, Mo., and has not ruled out a visit in upcoming weeks.” It cites unnamed “sources familiar with the internal decision-making.”

Obama didn’t directly answer the question when asked by a reporter Monday whether he considered going to Ferguson.

— Kevin McDermott

A10 • ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

M 1 • Wednesday • 08.20.2014

Ferguson police shooting speaking out to quiet things down

Mayor pledges to recruit black officers Knowles

By Nicholas J.C. Pistor npistor@post-dispatch.com 314-436-2239

FERGUSON • City leaders have

not had a significant presence at the nightly demonstrations that often turn into police standoffs, but on Tuesday the city announced steps it hopes will improve race relations and bring “nighttime quiet and reconciliation.”

The police shooting of unarmed teenager Michael Brown has transformed a section of Ferguson along West Florissant Avenue into a demonstration zone at times filled with tear gas.

“It is our hope that as we continue to work for the well-being of Ferguson, residents will stay home at night, allow peace to settle in, and allow for the justice process to take its course,” the city said in a statement. “We owe

Larson

Kallstrom

it to our children to be able to return to school and work together peacefully for Ferguson’s future.”

The city has pledged to work to help increase black applicants to the county’s police academy, raise funds to secure dash and vest cameras for all officers, develop programs and incentives to encourage residency of police officers in Ferguson, work with schools to engage young people and provide resources for growth, and rebuild the West Florissant business district.

In an interview, Ferguson Mayor James Knowles said he is working to bolster minority hiring in a police department that has just three black officers on a force of 53. But he cautioned that it will take time.

“We don’t hire a new cop every year,” Knowles said. “Every time we do, we are rushing out there to find an African-Amer-

James

ican officer. It’s a problem that we’re committed to working with others to fix.”

Knowles said a problem is that the pool of black officer candidates is low and that other larger departments are better at recruitment because they can pay more and offer more opportunities for advancement.

But Knowles fought back against criticism that he and five of the six City Council members are white in a city that is twothirds black.

“They (city residents) hate me so much that I’m running unopposed,” Knowles said of his reelection efforts.

Knowles was elected mayor in 2011 at age 31. He had served on the City Council before that.

The City Council members have been quiet during the unrest. They have referred all questions to a public relations firm

Byrne

in Chesterfield hired by the city.

They are: • Tim Larson, a research and development manager at Hunter Engineering. In 2011, he was appointed to fill a vacant position on the council and was later elected to a full term in 2012.

• Keith Kallstrom, a retired military veteran whose city biography says he “strongly believes that a safe and prepared city is an asset to any family raising children in Ferguson.”

• Dwayne James, a senior sales coordinator for Jacobs Engineering. First elected in 2006, James is the city’s only black council member.

• Mark Byrne, a managing partner for the law firm Fischer & Byrne. Byrne’s online biography says his focus is to build stronger neighborhood associations, “making sure that Ferguson remains fiscally responsible.”

Tihen

• Kim Tihen, a former administration assistant who later served as a Ferguson police officer for four years. The city’s website says her focus is on “crime prevention, fiscal responsibility, and increased communication between city officials and residents.”

The city’s website doesn’t list biographical information for council member David Conway.

Knowles, who has spent almost his entire life in Ferguson, said the council members are working to improve relations and will be announcing future initiatives.

Knowles said he has been out in the city every day but has stayed away from the nighttime gatherings that turn violent.

But he pledged to remain active in the community as it seeks to heal.

“We should be looking out for your neighbors every day of the year,” Knowles said.

who’s igniting the violence?

small groups stir ‘dangerous dynamic’

David Carson • dcarson@post-dispatch.com

Members of the St. Louis County Police tactical team take 12 people into custody early Tuesday after the group stopped its truck on West Florissant Avenue near Canfield Drive in Ferguson. Police found two loaded guns on the people who were in the truck and removed an unused Molotov cocktail from the truck.

By Steve Giegerich, Joel CuRRIER and Joe Holleman Post-Dispatch

FERGUSON • The perpetrators

of violence who have instigated a response that has filled the air with tear gas the past 10 days are generally not a presence among the demonstrators protesting the death of Michael Brown.

Rather, police and peaceful demonstrators say, the rocks, Molotov cocktails and gunfire directed at police are the product of a small group of young men who gather furtively as darkness falls near Red’s Barbeque and the adjoining warren of avenues off Canfield Drive — the street where Brown was killed Aug. 9.

St. Louis County Jail records say at least 85 people have been booked for “refusal to disperse” since Aug. 13, the day before the Missouri Highway Patrol took command of the situation.

At least 52 protesters were arrested Monday night into Tuesday morning for refusing to disperse, unlawful use of a weapon and interfering with a police officer, St. Louis County records say.

All had been released, according to jail officials.

Highway Patrol Capt. Ronald S. Johnson calls some of the protesters a “dangerous dynamic in the night.” Some of those, he has said, have come to Ferguson from

outside the St. Louis area, but most are local.

“There are some outsiders,” Johnson told CNN Tuesday.

“There’s a lot of people who live here ... we can’t just blame it on outside instigators.”

Jail records available for those arrested Monday night show that 38 of those arrested were from the St. Louis region, including 15 from St. Louis city.

Fourteen have addresses outside the region including Chicago; Des Moines, Iowa; New York City; Huntsville, Ala.; Washington, D.C.; and San Diego.

“We continue to worry about folks who are coming in from outside who are using this,” Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon told the Post-Dispatch on Tuesday.

The governor said the state is working with intelligence experts on the matter and is in contact with the FBI. “What started as a peaceful protest has been attracting bad guys across the country,” he said.

Brian Houston, co-director of the Terrorism and Disaster Center at the University of MissouriColumbia, predicted Ferguson has not seen the last of what officials characterize as “outside agitators.”

“The longer trouble goes on in Ferguson the more time people have to come to St. Louis to cause

the trouble,” Houston said.

Among those arrested were New York City residents Carl Dix, a member of the Revolutionary Communist Party, and Travis Morales, who identifies himself as a party supporter.

Reached by phone Tuesday, Morales confirmed the arrests.

The special section dedicated to the events in north St. Louis County on the organization’s website carries the subheadline: “People are standing up in Ferguson! It’s Right to Rebel!”

“It may be about Communism,” Ferguson Township Democratic Committeewoman Patricia Bynes said of a group she has encountered tangentially in her nightly effort to quell the Ferguson unrest. “But that doesn’t mean it should be about anarchy.”

St. Louis Alderman Antonio French has been another constant presence in Ferguson since Brown’s death.

French says the numbers may show that the majority of those provoking the situation are local, but out-of-town antagonists are exacerbating the tension.

“We had two guys last night from Chicago, one of them who calls himself Joey, who was set on getting people worked up,” said French, who has worked incessantly as a mediator between police and demonstrators.

French at the same time concedes that some of the agitation is coming from “those Canfield boys,” referring to the apartment complex where Brown lived.

But he maintains that the violence over the past several days attracts nonresidents.

“Some people think that the revolution is starting now, and they want to be here,” the alderman said.

Police are additionally coming face-to-face with another enemy: hopelessness.

“There are two kinds of demonstrators out here,” Lyfe Yusen, 40, of Jennings, said as he stood on the sidewalk watching the West Florissant protest Monday night. “There are the ones that are here to make a stand over injustice. And the ones who don’t give a (expletive) and think they have nothing to live for.”

Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Washington-based Police Executive Research Forum said differentiating between the two groups is the greatest challenge facing officers on Ferguson streets.

“Most people are there to protest,” Wexler said. “But you can’t make the mistake of treating everyone the same way. The police need to appeal to community leaders. They are critical to establishing calm.”

Houston said the role social

media has played in bringing outsiders to Ferguson cannot be discounted.

Twitter in particular, he said is “intimately” connecting people around the world to the situation in the no longer obscure St. Louis suburb.

From advocates joining the peaceful protest over Brown’s death, to provocateurs intent on wreaking havoc, to those drawn by the presence of international news crews, “social media is sustaining the events in Ferguson in lots of different ways,” said Houston. “And when it goes on day after day without seeming to abate, it draws in more people who say, ‘I want to be a part of it.’”

As the unrest moved toward its 11th night, French credited police for adapting to the environment along West Florissant Avenue by dispatching small units to remove agitators from the larger groups of peaceful protesters.

“They come in and get those guys out of there,” he said.

He further noted that not everyone who has arrived in Ferguson is bent on disruption and confrontation.

“There’s a group of Tibetan monks here. I’d hardly call them agitators,” the alderman said.

Greg Jonsson and Matthew Franck of the PostDispatch contributed to this report.

08.20.2014 • Wednesday • M 1 ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH • A11

Ferguson police shooting

Holder draws on his story in civil rights push investigation of the fatal shooting of a black 18-year-old by a white police officer.

Holder tells how his father, an immigrant from Barbados proudly wearing his World War II uniform, was ejected from a whites-only train car. How his future sister-in-law, escorted by U.S. marshals, integrated the University of Alabama in spite of a governor who stood in the schoolhouse door to block her. How as a college student, he was twice pulled over, his car searched, even though he wasn’t speeding.

And Holder recalls that the slaying of black teen Trayvon Martin in 2012 prompted him to sit down with his

By CONNIE CASS and JESSE J. HOLLAND Associated Press

WASHINGTON • Eric Holder talks about the nation’s

civil rights struggles in a way no previous U.S. attorney general could — by telling his own family story.

As he increasingly pushes his Justice Department to protect voting rights and end unfair prison sentences and police brutality, Holder has drawn on personal history to make the case that the nation has much work to do to achieve justice for all. It’s a legacy he’s likely to draw on when he travels today to Ferguson to supervise the federal

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own 15-year-old son for a talk about the way a young black male must act and speak if confronted by police — the same talk his father had given him decades earlier.

Today, President Barack Obama is sending Holder to Ferguson to bring the full weight of the federal government into the investigation of the death of another young black man, Michael Brown, who was unarmed when a white police officer shot him multiple times Aug. 9.

“It’s a powerful message,” said William Yeomans, a law school fellow at American University who worked in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division for more than two decades. “He’s the embodiment of law enforcement, and the positive contribution he can make here is to assure the community that the federal government is taking very seriously the quest for justice in this incident.”

Holder’s department has been strong in going after police misconduct, both through criminal civil rights cases and lawsuits against police departments, Yeomans said.

For much of Holder’s early tenure, his public profile was shaped by battles over how to prosecute terrorism cases, the use of armed drones to kill terrorism suspects overseas and his handling of various Obama administration controversies. A 2012 vote in the Republican-controlled House made Holder the first sitting Cabinet member ever held in contempt of Congress over his refusal to hand over without preconditions documents involving Fast and Furious, a gun investigation. More than a dozen Republican lawmakers have called for his impeachment for not prosecuting anyone in the Internal Revenue Service for targeting conservative groups and for his department’s probes of journalists linked to news leaks.

But over the last three years, civil rights has moved to the forefront, starting with Holder’s opposition to state voter ID laws that make it harder for the poor to cast ballots. He compared Texas’ voter ID law to a poll tax, the now-illegal fees imposed across the South for decades to block African-Americans from voting. The Justice Department is now suing Texas and North Carolina over their voting restrictions.

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08.20.2014 • Wednesday • M 1 ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH • A17

Stl Wednesday Inside this section A17 • Heads Up‌ A18 • Opinion‌ A19 • Other views‌ A20 • Funeral notices‌ A22 • Weather‌

Bill McClellan • bmcclellan@post-dispatch.com > 314-340-8143

Police chief takes on battle of words

‌COLUMNIST SCHEDULE Sunday • Bill McClellan‌ Monday • Bill McClellan‌ Wednesday • Bill McClellan‌ Friday • Bill McClellan‌ Saturday • Joe Holleman’s “Joe’s St. Louis”‌

‌

“Haven’t you heard, it’s a battle of words, the poster bearer cried.”

— Pink Floyd

What’s up • From events.stltoday.com

08.22

08.23

08.23

Festival and camping • The Tapestry of Community Offerings Family Festival will be from 3 p.m. Friday to 3 p.m. Saturday at Jellystone Park Resort at 5300 Fox Creek Road in Eureka. The event offers music and camping, food and beverage vendors, plus a multitude of child- and family-focused entertainment, such as a campsite-decorating contest, costume exhibitions, parades, collective arts project, face painting, performances and workshops by St. Louis music and science teachers and St. Louis Hoop Club, playground, miniature golf and a game room.

The cost of camping and festival admission starts at $15. Details at tocofestival.org or 618-257-8626.

Make your own movie • A research team at Washington University is helping people create their own animated movie. With the help of the Academy of Science of St. Louis, they are looking for young people ages 10-15 to try out the software. During the study, participants will make their own short animated movie. The study takes about 90 minutes and will occur on the Washington University campus. Several sessions are planned, the first on Saturday, but registration is limited. For more information on how to participate, email Michelle Ichinco at ichincom@ seas.wustl.edu.

Movie screening • “North By Northwest” will be shown at 7 p.m.

Saturday on the grounds of the Gateway Arch. Free. Food trucks will be onsite during the screening. gatewayarch.com To list a community event or meeting, submit it online at events.stltoday.com

Heads up Girl Scouts • Girls and adults looking to join Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri are invited to attend these upcoming recruitment events: • 7 to 8 p.m. Monday in the cafeteria at elementary schools Buder, Iveland, Kratz, Marion, Marvin and Wyland, plus Hoech Middle, Ritenour Middle and Ritenour High schools.

• 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at Ritenour and Hoech middle schools at Mort Jacobs Park in Overland.

The Girl Scout Leadership Experience focuses on turning girls into leaders at all ages, from the kindergarten Daisy Girl Scout who learns how to take turns to high school Girl Scouts who are given the opportunity to serve on a Council-level committee or be one of the girl members of the organization’s Board of Directors.

Girl Scouts aims to build girls of courage, confidence and character who make the world a better place. Girls are constantly engaged with their community by gathering toiletries for the needy, organizing a food drive or becoming advocates for the causes they feel most passionate about.

To find recruitment events and information about joining Girl Scouts, visit girlscoutsem.org or call Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri at 314-592-2300.

To submit items, email them to headsup@post-dispatch.com or fax them to 314-340-3050.

Illinois reports the year’s first human case of West Nile virus Woman is from Chicago; weather keeps disease in check.

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

The first person to be diagnosed with West Nile virus in Illinois this year has been identified as a woman in her 70s in Chicago, health officials announced Tuesday.

The woman’s condition was not disclosed. Illinois Department of Public Health spokeswoman Melaney Arnold said. Thanks to the weather, the number of cases is way down from last year, when there were 117 West Nile cases reported, 11 of them fatal.

In Missouri, a 75-yearold Laclede County man died of West Nile virus in June, marking the first case of the disease in the state this year.

The “house mosquito,” or Culex pipiens, that spreads West Nile thrives in hot, dry weather, but

this summer has generally been cooler and wetter than usual. Other species of mosquitoes have thrived, but not the one carrying West Nile.

Illinois was ground zero of the West Nile epidemic when it first hit in 2002, with 884 cases, the highest in the nation, officials said.

Since then, the numbers have fluctuated greatly with the weather from year to year, but Illinois has never approached its 2002 level. The year with the second-highest number of cases was 2012, with 290 cases.

Most people with West Nile virus have no symptoms. To reduce chances of exposure to West Nile, officials suggest limiting time outdoors at dusk, wearing light-colored clothing to prevent bites, wearing repellent and

eliminating any outdoor stagnant water.

Broad brushstrokes are the order of the day in Ferguson. Michael Brown stole some cigars and shoved a clerk so he’s a thug. The man who released the information about the cigars is Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson. He uses videotape the way Bull Connor used police dogs and fire hoses.

But Brown graduated from high school and was planning to attend Vatterott College.

And Jackson is hardly a right-wing zealot. He appeared in ads for the Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures during the campaign for the Missouri Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative in 2006. He did so as an official of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

I visited him Tuesday morning at the Ferguson police station. I asked if he was watching much of the national coverage of the unrest in Ferguson. He said he wasn’t, but he said he knew he was being pilloried. I told him he was the new Bull Connor.

“I am the exact opposite of that,” he said.

Don’t tell that to Rachel Maddow, I said.

“I like her,” he said. “I think she’s smart. I remember when she used to be a guest on Keith Olbermann’s show.”

Maybe a police officer watches MSNBC just to see what the other side thinks.

Jackson sometimes takes doughnuts to the protesters across the street from the police station. “They’re good people,” he said. Maybe he’s trying to curry favor and save his job.

On the other hand, people I like speak highly of him.

He grew up in an unincorporated area of north St. Louis County. His dad owned a paint store in Ferguson. Jackson was in the first graduating class at McCluer North High School. That was in 1974. He worked as a paramedic supervisor at Christian Hospital and then joined the St. Louis County Police in 1979. He retired from the county in 2010 and came to Ferguson as chief.

He was returning home to finish his career. Then Officer Darren Wilson shot Michael Brown, 18. Jackson said he called County Police Chief Jon Belmar as soon as he heard that a Ferguson police officer had shot and killed a man. When Jackson got to the scene, a large crowd was gathering. People were filming with their cellphones. Jackson said he heard

shots.

“One reason I thought this might light up is social media. It’s like poison,” he said.

In this instance, though, the police let social media get out in front of them. I heard last Monday morning about the cigars. A guy in the Sports section told me. He said his son had seen mention of it on Twitter.

“I kept that in my desk. I didn’t say anything,” Jackson said.

Somebody did. You can’t keep things quiet these days. Information is everywhere. Much of it might be false, but that’s another reason to get facts out quickly. The strong-arm robbery, the number of shots, the toxicology report, the extent of any injuries to the police officer. All of that could have been released immediately. Is Brown’s DNA on the officer’s gun? Why do we have to keep waiting for the next shoe to drop?

Jackson was criticized by state authorities for releasing the videotape when he did and without telling them.

Jackson said the press was filing Freedom of Information requests and he had no choice but to release the tape. He said he coordinated with Belmar, whose department was running the local investigation.

By the way, the second investigation, the one being conducted by the feds, could be bad news for Jackson. If the federal investigation finds a “pattern” of misconduct in the Ferguson police department, the feds could file a civil rights lawsuit against the city. In all likelihood, that would lead to a consent decree in which the city and the department would agree to certain reforms. A change in leadership might be one.

At a meeting last week, Jackson said he wanted to be “part of the solution.”

Does he think he’ll get that chance?

“I think so,” he said. “I’m still in close with a lot of leaders and ministers. I have good relationships with our neighborhood associations.”

He said he didn’t expect to be included in any meetings with Attorney General Eric Holder. I asked if it felt strange to be relegated to the sidelines while Ferguson is in the international spotlight.

“We’re still policing Ferguson. We’re moving forward,” he said.

He told me he had a meeting with ministers later in the day. They’re working on getting food to the children who live in the apartments in the southeast part of town. Many of those children get much of their nutrition at school. It is outside one of those apartments where Michael Brown was killed.

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WEDNESDAY • 08.20.2014 • A18

Old-school in Ferguson Our view • Would it help move the needle by simply lying down?

One Monday morning in July 15 years ago, hundreds of protesters staged a sit-in blocking Interstate 70 in and out of downtown St. Louis. The protest, which was entirely peaceful, lasted several hours, bollixed up traffic on both sides of the Mississippi River and ended after more than 100 people were arrested for blocking traffic. Just as they had hoped.

The idea was to call attention to the lack of minority participation on state highway construction projects. Eventually the state issued some new guidelines and a training center for minority apprentices was built.

The Rev. Al Sharpton took part, as did James Buford, the long-time head of the Urban League of St. Louis and nobody’s idea of a radical.

This was “direct action” in the tradition of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s non-violent protests of the 1950s and 1960s. Now Eric Vickers, an organizer of the I-70 shutdown, and his boss, state Sen. Jamilah Nasheed, D-St. Louis, is proposing something very similar to change the tone of the ongoing protests in Ferguson.

In an emailed letter to Martin Luther King III, the elder son of the late civil rights leader, Mr. Vickers suggests that people lie down en masse to block every point of access into Ferguson. His letter was widely copied to local media and activists.

The protest would last four hours, the same amount of time that the body of Michael Brown lay on Canfield Drive in Ferguson after the 18-year-old was shot to death by Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson on Aug. 9. The date and time of the protest was not set, but Mr. Vickers said that out of respect for Mr. Brown’s family, it should wait until after his funeral service, now set for Monday.

Mr Vickers wrote, “The I-70 protest was disruptive as hell, though we did it peaceably. So we must do in Ferguson.” He predicted “thousands of arrests.”

Mr. King, 56, who is scheduled to be in St. Louis Sunday, has not yet accepted Mr. Vickers’ invitation. In a letter Saturday to Sen. Nasheed, he said he was “committed to launching a nationwide instructive campaign on the more tactical and effective use of civil disobedience, beginning in

DAN MARTIN • dmartin@post-dispatch.com

Ferguson.”

How the city of Ferguson might react to this “lay in,” as Mr. Vickers calls it, is not known. Nor have the Missouri Guard, the state Highway Patrol and various police agencies been heard from. They’ve spent 11 nights since Mr. Brown’s death face-toface with protesters. Most of the encounters have been non-violent. A few of them haven’t been. They’ve all been chaotic.

So a peaceful, direct-action, old-school act of mass civil disobedience might seem like a nice change, however disruptive it is to the 21,000 people of Ferguson and

thousands of others, black and white alike, who need the roads to get to school, church and work.

Still, as the protests entered their 11th night, Ms. Nasheed and Mr. Vickers deserve some credit for trying to move things forward by slowing things down.

There remains a great deal of uncertainty about who’s in charge in Ferguson. This is not an accident.

Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson clarified the chain of command on the law enforcement side after Gov. Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency last Thursday

and put the Highway Patrol in charge.

However, the uncertainty on the other side appears to be deliberate. St. Louis pastors and activists have played a generally positive role in trying to keep the protests peaceful. However, early Tuesday morning Capt. Johnson identified a “certain element, that criminal element that got out here with masks on, that wanted to agitate and build up the crowd” as having no interest in peaceful protest. He blamed some reporters for “glamorizing” these individuals.

When that “certain element” gets the crowd whipped up and rocks and gunshots begin to fly, the police respond with nonlethal weapons and overwhelming force.

Those are textbook tactics, however jarring they may be to local sensitivities.

Local activists have helped identify some of this hard-core element, and police have arrested some protest tourists. We hope the local cooperation and restraint will continue, but anarchical individuals should be identified, arrested and charged.

The problems that led to Mr. Brown’s death are not unique to Ferguson or St. Louis, but right now this is a St. Louis problem. It needs a local solution, both to end the post-protest riots before someone else gets killed, and a serious, longterm top-level effort address the underlying problems.

No one will wave a magic wand and fix every police department, improve every school, or rid every neighborhood of deep poverty. No one will find jobs overnight for untrained, uneducated and unskilled young people, particularly in an economy where the middle class deliberately has been gutted and the minimum wage should be doubled.

But we can’t begin the long journey forward unless people can live without fear.

We can’t talk respectfully when no one can hear over the noise.

Dr. King gave his life so those conversations could happen and those deals could be made, even when it took non-violent confrontation. Short of all-out revolution, it’s the only way that real change has ever happened.

YOUR VIEWS • LETTERS FROM OUR READERS Success in education begins with the parents I found your editorial “What do we want?

Good schools! When do we want them?

Now!” (Aug. 17) to be informative. However, you miss the point when you state the two simple fixes that can make a difference: Quality early childhood education and better teachers.

The No. 1 criteria are parents who are actively involved in their child’s education. They know what is expected at that grade level, get to know the teacher, oversee homework and attend parent/teacher conferences. Another means to improve schools is work to eliminate teacher tenure that allows bad teachers to keep their jobs. Let the good teachers know you appreciate them.

In the underperforming schools, how many parents contribute to the problem by their indifference?

It is admirable that Capt. Ron Johnson of the Missouri State Highway Patrol visited Riverview Gardens High School. However, Capt. Johnson, by his own admission, is not experienced in urban law enforcement situations. We propose both a black and a white police officer work together as school liaisons, entering classrooms so the students can see how they depend on each other to do their jobs. We don’t believe a white police officer alone could have the same effect.

Why? Because bias and prejudice work both ways. Too many black parents teach their children that the white police officer is the bad guy. Good citizenship starts at home.

Lastly, to all those who live in predominately white, middle- and upper-class areas, get out of your ZIP code. Become a Big Brother or Big Sister. Volunteer to read to young children in these troubled schools.

Set up a partner church in North County or north city so your churches can work and socialize together. This is the best example you can give to your children.

Tom and Marilyn Lane • St. Louis County

Ferguson tragedy shows need for one areawide police department I spent about nine years as a St. Louis alderman, then 25 years as director of America’s Center, where we hired many police officers.

I also studied political science in college, and

read in various books about how St. Louis County was a prime example of too much government with the county divided into over 90 cities.

One important lesson from the Ferguson tragedy is that we would be much better served if there was one metropolitan police department for all 90-plus cities in St. Louis County and the city of St. Louis. This tragedy has made it clear that having officers with no or very little experience (such as Ferguson), protecting large and sometimes unruly crowds, can increase public fear and violence instead of protecting the public and helping establish calm. The St. Louis Police Department has a lot of experience with these types of events, and I feel certain had this occurred in the city, the outcome would have been much better.

Now, while the Ferguson event is present in everyone’s mind, citizens in all the other county municipalities should think about what might happen in their cities, or one very close to them, if a similar event occurred. We have a partial solution in front of us with the establishment of one metropolitan police department. In addition to a better-experienced force, think of the money to be saved, which could used for better training, more officers in areas that need them, etc.

Bruce Sommer • Glendale

Encourage more young people from minority communities to be police officers I think that there is general agreement that one thing we have learned from the recent difficulties in Ferguson and the key role played by someone like Missouri Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson is the great need for having more members of our police forces come from our minority communities.

That is not something that is likely to just happen. In fact, it seems that few young people from minority communities are going to decide on their own that they want to dedicate themselves to becoming police officers.

Why can’t the state governments and the federal government establish and fund a program to recruit and train young people, especially those from minority

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communities, to serve the community in this way? Such a program might even need to provide special financial support for salaries so that the less-than-affluent communities, which especially need such individuals, can afford to hire them.

Ronald J. Glossop • Jennings

nity services. It really is about the haves and the have-nots.

We can do a lot of talking, but unless we actually make an effort to really change things, I’m afraid when it all calms down, it will be business as usual.

Gwyn Thorpe • Pasadena Hills

Media coverage is biased against police

Pray for a peaceful and fruitful resolution

The local and national media coverage of the Ferguson situation has become extremely one-sided with a bias against police officers.

One rarely hears criticism of the looters and protesters. Each story blames the police presence for the ongoing challenges.

I would like to see this news feed for a change: “In order to protect their own lives, police officers are forced to respond with tear gas to violent protesters.”

Lisa Grommet • Kirkwood

On Monday evening, a number of us met at our church and prayed for a peaceful and fruitful resolution to the turmoil in Ferguson. To all who believe in the power of prayer, I ask you to pray seriously and frequently for a peaceful and positive resolution to this challenge. If every parish, denomination, synagogue and mosque prayed with this intention, much good could and would come to our community. Our task lies before us!

Mary Vieth • Crestwood

Not seeing the whole picture of Ferguson On Page 1 of the Post-Dispatch for Monday are pictures of the results of the continuing violence in Ferguson.

On Page 2 of the Post-Dispatch for Monday is a picture of two sisters waiting their turn to perform at the Hispanic Festival of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Ferguson.

How many readers saw Page 1 and missed Page 2?

Maeve Horton • Ferguson

School cancellations add to the inequities I find it sad and disturbing that the children in Ferguson, Jennings and Riverview Gardens school districts were not able to start classes like the other schools in the St. Louis area because of the unsafe conditions in Ferguson. It is the children that are our future, and now based on their ZIP code they will be starting the school year already behind. This is just one example of the inequities that are festering in this community and others throughout our country.

Of course, the situation in Ferguson demonstrates racial unfairness, but it is not just that. It runs deep into everything we say we are about: housing, jobs, schools, commu-

GILBERT BAILON EDITOR

difference in its cardinal principles, that it will always fight for progress and reform, never tolerate injustice or corruption, always fight demagogues of all parties, never belong to any party, always oppose privileged classes and public plunderers, never lack sympathy with the poor, always remain devoted to the public welfare, never be satisfied with merely printing news, always be drastically independent, never be afraid to attack wrong, whether by predatory plutocracy or predatory poverty • JOSEPH PULITZER • APRIL 10, 1907

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St. Louis, MO 63101

Michael Brown could have prevented his own death. If he and his 22-year-old friend would have not walked in the middle of the street, or would have followed orders of Officer Darren Wilson to move out of the street and walk on the sidewalk, all what happened next could have been prevented.

Michael Brown and his companion showed a lack of discipline, respect and civil behavior.

Bernd Faust • Dardenne Prairie

McCulloch should exercise restraint Given the volatility of the Ferguson situation, county prosecutor Robert McCulloch needs to exercise restraint of pen and tongue as of yesterday. Already his intemperate remarks mean the likelihood that he will have to recuse himself from any future prosecutions in the matter.

His remarks add to the string of decisions demonstrating irresponsible leadership in this regrettable affair. The citizens of Ferguson and St. Louis County deserve better.

Frank K. Flinn • University City

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K.S. Cahill of University City says, “Cities across the nation confront a game-changing crossroads: Will the cry of the disaffected and hopeless remain unheard and unheeded? Or will people of good will speak up, speak out and map a strategy for meaningful action to enhance the lives of their people?”

Read and talk about this letter and more letters online at STLtoday.com/letters

The Killing of Michael Brown Tony Messenger • tmessenger@post-dispatch.com

Finding order in Ferguson’s chaos Protests • Connecting with personal stories offers real opportunity for change.

Lusajo Kasyupa Jr. is a patriot.

The 6-year-old Florissant boy let the world know that on Monday evening as he walked with his dad and brother, carrying a sign saying “I am an American” during a protest march in Ferguson.

The family was not out of place on a road that sees chanting and marching when the sun is out and tear gas and shouting after dark.

“I brought them down here because I want to teach them what it means to be an American,” said Lusago Kasyupa Sr., who also brought his wife, Shay, 19-year-old daughter Jerricah and 4-year-old son Lusako. “We are all supposed to be treated equally under the law.”

At the heart of the Michael Brown case is whether that is true in practice, specifically in Ferguson, where police officer Darren Wilson shot the 18-yearold Brown two Saturdays ago and has not yet been charged with any wrongdoing. The investigation is ongoing.

So are the protests. And they’re getting louder.

The night scenes of mayhem dominate the news coverage, as they should, but there are stories in the daily walks along West Florissant Avenue that can’t be ignored.

There are preachers and politicians. Celebrities and children.

Mostly, there are thousands of young African-Americans, many of them young men like Michael Brown, who don’t feel that police, or life in general, has given them much of a chance.

As day turns to night, the anger and frustration build, and the scene becomes a rolling battle for power, with control of the street serving as the proxy. For a generation that feels slighted, the street is as close to power as it comes right now.

The difficulty with getting a handle on the nighttime pandemonium is that the protest is so organic, involving so many leaderless factions, that restoring order is difficult for a law enforcement contingent also made up of forces from multiple jurisdictions, and various levels of training.

On Monday night there were

ministers, and young men and women who derided their black clerical suits and asked if they were here for money. There were New Black Panthers raising the crescendo of the march, and then, when it got out of control, pleading for calm. There were fathers teaching sons and mothers who already have lost sons. There were angry black men covering their faces in scarves and masks. There were angry white men covering their faces in scarves and masks.

And when the tear gas came out, there was a horde of reporters, some of them angry, too, covering their faces with scarves and masks.

Each faction, it seems, took care of its own, and didn’t much trust those around them.

And that’s the challenge with finding a way out of this mess.

At some point, charges will be filed, or they won’t be, and people with entrenched views won’t trust the results, whatever they are.

A Pew Research Center poll out this week tells the tale, finding that 80 percent of blacks polled believe the Michael Brown case brings

attention to important issues related to racial disparities in the U.S. Meanwhile, 47 percent of whites believe the case has nothing to do with race.

Personal experience feeds one’s narrative.

In Mr. Kasyupa’s case, he saw a black man cut down in his prime by a government exercising too much power.

“I’m 38 years old,” Mr. Kasyupa told me. “I want my boys to make it to my age.”

He brought those boys to Ferguson to learn firsthand about their First Amendment rights. That’s a parenting philosophy that can resonate with people who didn’t grow up like Mr. Kasyupa, be they white, black or brown, urban or suburban.

The opportunity of Ferguson is for us to internalize our own biases and find shared connection with our fellow man. Just a month ago, I got into a heated social media debate about race with Antonio French, the alderman from the city of St. Louis’s 21st ward. He has emerged as one of the key leaders

in trying to bring focus to Ferguson protesters.

Monday night, I shook his hand and told him he was a good man.

I know what my eyes saw and my heart felt. We can disagree on one day, and still find a measure of respect.

I’ll never be able to use the hashtag #IamMichaelBrown because I am not. But that doesn’t mean I can’t find a kinship to those who are. Like Michael’s mother, Leslie McSpadden, I struggled to get one of my children across the high school graduation finish line.

Like some of the residents in the Canfield Greens Apartments, I have been caught up in the treacherous payday loan cycle.

I know the torment of watching my repossessed car towed away, and not knowing what to say when my children ask, “How will we get to the grocery store?” That’s my narrative.

Ferguson’s mayhem is fed by real people with complicated stories to tell.

We must listen to find order in chaos.

Eric Vickers

Black leaders must call for civil disobedience

Associated Press

Attorney General Eric Holder speaking at the American Bar Association meeting in San Francisco on Aug. 12.

A message to the people of Ferguson Attorney general’s pledge • ‘Our investigation into this matter will be full, it will be fair, and it will be independent.’

by Eric H. Holder Jr. Since the Aug. 9 shooting death of Michael Brown, the nation and the world have witnessed the unrest that has gripped Ferguson, Mo. At the core of these demonstrations is a demand for answers about the circumstances of this young man’s death and a broader concern about the state of our criminal justice system.

At a time when so much may seem uncertain, the people of Ferguson can have confidence that the Justice Department intends to learn — in a fair and thorough manner — exactly what happened.

Today, I will be in Ferguson to be briefed on the federal civil rights investigation that I have closely monitored since I launched it more than one week ago. I will meet personally with community leaders, FBI investigators and federal prosecutors from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office to receive detailed briefings on the status of this case.

The full resources of the Department of Justice have been committed to the investigation into Michael Brown’s death. This inquiry will take time to complete, but we have already taken significant steps. Approximately 40 FBI agents and some of the Civil Rights Division’s most experienced prosecutors have been deployed to lead this process, with the assistance of the United States Attorney in St. Louis. Hundreds of people have already been interviewed in connection with this matter. On Monday, at my direction, a team of federal medical examiners conducted an independent autopsy.

We understand the need for an independent investigation, and we hope that the independence and thoroughness of our investigation will

bring some measure of calm to the tensions in Ferguson. In order to begin the healing process, however, we must first see an end to the acts of violence in the streets of Ferguson. Although these acts have been committed by a very small minority — and, in many cases, by individuals from outside Ferguson — they seriously undermine, rather than advance, the cause of justice. And they interrupt the deeper conversation that the

The Justice Department intends to learn — in a fair and thorough manner — exactly what happened.

legitimate demonstrators are trying to advance.

The Justice Department will defend the right of protesters to peacefully demonstrate and for the media to cover a story that must be told. But violence cannot be condoned. I urge the citizens of Ferguson who have been peacefully exercising their First Amendment rights to join with law enforcement in condemning the actions of looters, vandals and others seeking to inflame tensions and sow discord.

Law enforcement has a role to play in reducing tensions, as well. As the brother of a retired law enforcement officer, I know firsthand that our men and women in uniform perform their duties in the face of tremendous threats and significant personal risk.

They put their lives on the line every day, and they often have to make

split-second decisions.

At the same time, good law enforcement requires forging bonds of trust between the police and the public. This trust is all-important, but it is also fragile. It requires that force be used in appropriate ways.

Enforcement priorities and arrest patterns must not lead to disparate treatment under the law, even if such treatment is unintended. And police forces should reflect the diversity of the communities they serve.

Over the years, we have made significant progress in ensuring that this is the case. But progress is not an endpoint; it is a measure of effort and of commitment. Constructive dialogue should continue — but it must also be converted into concrete action. And it is painfully clear, in cities and circumstances across our great nation, that more progress, more dialogue, and more action is needed.

This is my pledge to the people of Ferguson: Our investigation into this matter will be full, it will be fair, and it will be independent. And beyond the investigation itself, we will work with the police, civil rights leaders, and members of the public to ensure that this tragedy can give rise to new understanding — and robust action — aimed at bridging persistent gaps between law enforcement officials and the communities we serve. Long after the events of Aug. 9 have receded from the headlines, the Justice Department will continue to stand with this community.

As we move forward together, I ask for the public’s cooperation and patience. And I urge anyone with information related to the shooting to contact the FBI by dialing 800-CALL-FBI, option 4.

Eric H. Holder Jr. is attorney general of the United States.

Ferguson response • Killing demands not just soaring eloquence, but also direct action.

After attending Sunday the church “rally,” featuring the Rev. Al Sharpton, Martin Luther King III, Jesse Jackson and other notable and accomplished black leaders, I was inclined to think that they did not have an opportunity while here to read a column in this week’s St. Louis American by Mike Jones titled, “The Political Negligence of Black Leadership.” Because I am quite certain if they had, then they would have realized that black leadership which does not propose direct action to obtain justice is leadership of yesteryear. I truly love and deeply admire all these black leaders, and at one time or another have been on the front line in the fight with all of them. (On the July 1999 Monday morning after our group brought Rev. Sharpton to town for a church rally, we shut down Interstate 70 as a protest.)

However, I cannot express enough my frustration, and my hurt, with these potent leaders coming into town — which is really like every other city in America as far as black folks are concerned — and with a packed megachurch and black people teeming out into the streets and onto the highway, not propose or even suggest any plan of direct action. Can you imagine the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. eulogizing the four black girls murdered in church and not also taking direct action against the city of Birmingham? Justice and action are inseparable. So it felt like and amounted to soaring eloquence about the problem and the articulation of well-known solutions, with no plan of action to bring it about.

It also felt eerily like that moment in history when the black power movement broke off from the civil rights movement. Martin Luther King Jr. and his organization, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, were rebuffed by the younger generation of black leaders such as like Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture), H. Rap Brown (Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin) and others who formed the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. King’s generation of leaders couldn’t handle the defiant attitude and swag of the young black leaders, as King adamantly opposed the term and philosophy of that generation: “Black Power.”

The young blacks taking it to the streets in Ferguson in complete defiance of SWAT teams, armored vehicles and machine guns pointed at them have that same in-your-face defiant attitude. The present black leadership seems uneasy with trying to take what can only be described as a force, equip it with activist tools, and direct it to peaceably confront the injustice. Why none of the black leaders on Sunday put on the table today the most powerful peaceable activist tool ever known — civil disobedience — as an alternative to uncontrolled justified anger and venting, and as a means to effectuate all the things that need to be demanded in this movement — such as a different prosecutor and more black cops and jobs — bewilders me.

If this community, and indeed the black nation, cannot demonstrate that we can have in Ferguson a peaceable and organized and effective way to employ the energy, smarts, anger and indignation of black youth to confront the injustice that has caused them to riot, then the legacy of Michael Brown will be this city and our people having a lasting national image of leaderless chaos. Under King, our youth looked like a righteous army, while now our youth in Ferguson look to the world like all the negative stereotypes of young blacks.

I call on the leadership, nationally and locally, to change this picture by demonstrating that direct action — civil disobedience — will provide our youth the change they seek and that we need.

Eric Vickers is a lawyer in St. Louis.