US police come under gunfire, arrest 31 in Missouri racial unrest

Wednesday, 20 August 2014 00:38 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Reuters: US police said early on Tuesday they came under heavy gunfire and arrested 31 people during another night of racially charged protests in Ferguson, Missouri, sparked by the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white policeman 10 days ago. Demonstrations, mostly peaceful but with spasms of violence by smaller groups, have flared since Michael Brown, 18, was shot dead while walking down a residential street on Aug. 9. State Highway Patrol Captain Ron Johnson, briefing reporters on Monday’s night’s violence, said “our officers came under heavy gunfire” in one area.

“Not a single bullet was fired by officers despite coming under heavy attack,” he told a news conference. Riot police had confiscated two guns from protesters and what looked like a petrol bomb. Four officers had been injured. Johnson separately told CNN that two people were shot within the crowd, but not by police, and were taken to hospital. There was no immediate word on their condition. The violence has captured headlines around the world, raising questions about the state of U.S. race relations nearly six years after Americans elected their first black president. “This has to stop. I don’t want anybody to get hurt. We have to find a way to stop this,” said Johnson, an African-American who grew up in the area and who took over security efforts after the mostly white local force was accused of using excessive force against blacks. An overnight curfew has been imposed and the National Guard, the U.S. state militia, has been deployed in the St. Louis suburb of 21,000 people to stop looting and burning that have punctuated the protests. President Barack Obama and civil rights leaders have appealed for calm while a federal investigation into the shooting proceeds. “While I understand the passions and the anger that arise over the death of Michael Brown, giving in to that anger by looting or carrying guns, and even attacking the police, only serves to raise tensions and stir chaos,” Obama told a news conference on Monday. “It undermines, rather than advancing, justice.”