Michael Brown: Second day of protests over police shootings takes shape

WATCH ABOVE: Protesters marched in downtown St. Louis over Michael Brown’s death and other fatal police shootings in Missouri and elsewhere.

ST. LOUIS – More than 1,000 people gathered Saturday for a second day of organized rallies to protest Michael Brown’s death and other fatal police shootings in the St. Louis area and elsewhere that activists say are racially motivated.

Marchers started assembling in the morning hours in downtown St. Louis, where later in the day the Cardinals baseball team was set to host the San Francisco Giants in the first game of the National League Championship Series.

The crowd was larger than the ones seen at Friday’s protests. The main focus of the march, scheduled to wind through downtown streets for several hours, was on the recent police shootings but participants also embraced such causes as gay rights and the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Police officers were stationed around the area.

The four-day event called Ferguson October began Friday afternoon with a march outside the St. Louis County prosecutor’s office in Clayton and renewed calls for prosecutor Bob McCulloch to charge Darren Wilson, a white Ferguson officer, in the Aug. 9 death of 18-year-old Brown, who was black and unarmed. Wilson remains free and on administrative leave while a St. Louis County grand jury weighs whether Wilson should face criminal charges. The U.S. Department of Justice is also investigating the shooting which has led to a nationwide dialogue about interactions between minorities and police.

“I have two sons and a daughter. I want a world for them where the people who are supposed to be community helpers are actually helping, where they can trust those people to protect and serve rather than control and repress,” said Ashlee Wiest-Laird, 48, a church pastor from Boston who attended Saturday’s march in St. Louis.

The situation in Missouri especially resonated with Wiest-Laird. She’s white and her adopted sons, ages 14 and 11, are black.

“What I see happening here is a moment in time. There’s something bigger here,” she said.

Tensions have simmered since Brown’s death. Residents were upset about the way Brown’s body lay in the street for more than four hours while police investigated the shooting. Many insist Brown was trying to surrender, with his hands up. Residents also complained about the military-style police response to the several days of riots and protests that erupted immediately after Brown’s shooting in the predominantly black St. Louis suburb where just three blacks serve on a 53-officer force.

Organizers said beforehand that they expected 6,000 to 10,000 participants for the weekend’s events. Police were not able to provide a crowd estimate Saturday, but organizers and participants suggested the march’s size may have approached as many as 2,000.

Planned – but unannounced – acts of civil disobedience are expected Monday throughout the region.

After the initial march in Clayton, the demonstrations moved to Ferguson on Friday night as protesters stood inches from officers in riot gear before dispersing. Many then went to the neighbourhood on St. Louis’ south side where a police shooting of another black 18-year-old occurred Wednesday night.

The white St. Louis officer, whose name hasn’t been released, shot Vonderrit D. Myers after police say Myers opened fire. Myers’ parents say he was unarmed.

The officer was in uniform but working off-duty for a private neighbourhood security patrol. Police said he fired 17 rounds, and preliminary autopsy results show a shot to the head killed Myers.

Tensions increased early Saturday in Ferguson after the protest in the St. Louis neighbourhood, with hundreds of protesters gathering outside the Ferguson Police Department. Some chanted, “Killer cops, KKK, how many kids did you kill today?” as a wall of about 100 officers in riot gear stood impassively.

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Associated Press journalists Jim Salter and Jeff Roberson in St. Louis contributed to this report.