Protests Rock Missouri Town After Police Kill Unarmed Black Teen
Eighteen-year old Michael Brown and a friend were walking in the street in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, Missouri when a policeman drove up and ordered them to get on the sidewalk. A verbal confrontation ensued, and then, according to witnesses, the police officer got out of the car and started firing: Missouri Town Erupts in Protest After Police Shoot Unarmed Black Teenager.
Residents of the predominantly African-American suburb took to the streets to protest the killing on Saturday, with members of the crowd reportedly yelling “Kill the police” and firing warning shots, which prompted the police to call in more than 60 additional officers, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Whether residents were indeed chanting “Kill the police,” however, has been called into question; video from a demonstration outside the Ferguson Police Department shows residents chanting “Killer cops have got to go.” Video from a Saturday night demonstration shows residents with their arms raised, chanting “Don’t shoot me!” and “We are Michael Brown” in front of officers holding back barking dogs. Outlets like the Post-Dispatch tempered headlines describing a “mob reaction” after backlash on social media.
According to the Associated Press, the source for the claim that the crowd was yelling “kill the police” was… the St. Louis County police department: Ferguson, Missouri Teen Shot Dead by Police Prompts Community Backlash.
A spokesman with the St. Louis County Police Department, which is investigating the shooting at the request of the local department, confirmed a Ferguson police officer shot the man. The spokesman didn’t give the reason for the shooting. St. Louis County police said a large crowd confronted officers following the shooting, yelling such things as “kill the police.”
The official Associated Press story on the killing actually uses this claim as the headline: Missouri Crowd After Shooting: ‘Kill the Police’.
St. Louis County police said a large crowd confronted officers following the shooting, yelling such things as “kill the police.”
