St. Louis: Attorneys for Michael Brown’s family say the process that led to a white officer not being indicted in the fatal shooting of the unarmed, black 18-year-old was unfair and broken.
Attorney Benjamin Crump said Tuesday that the family’s attorneys objected to St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCullough’s decision to call a grand jury in the case and not appoint a special prosecutor.
Crump said: “We could see what the outcome was going to be, and that is what occurred last night.”
Attorney Anthony Gray said the decision was a “direct reflection of the presentation of the evidence,” and criticised what he called “cynicism” in the questions found in the grand jury documents, which were released Monday night.
Brown’s father, Michael Brown Sr., and the Rev. Al Sharpton were on hand.
Crump denounced Tuesday the "unfair" process that resulted in no indictment for the police officer who shot and killed the unarmed black youth.
Broken process
"This process is broken. This process should be indicted," Benjamin Crump told reporters, a day after a grand jury opted not to send police officer Darren Wilson to trial.
The decision prompted a night of violent unrest in the St Louis, Missouri suburb of Ferguson, as well as protests in cities around the United States.
Crump said he and his team had gone through much of the "data dump" of testimony from the prolonged, closed-door grand jury hearing into the August 2 shooting.
"We went through it as much as we could and saw how completely unfair this process was," he said.
He criticised the way Wilson had not been cross-examined when he appeared before the grand jury in September, saying "a first-year law student would have done a better job."
"When was his credibility ever challenged?" he asked. Crump also denounced a "symbiotic relationship" between St Louis County prosecutor Robert McCulloch, who is the son of a slain police officer, and local law enforcement.
Civil rights firebrand Reverend Al Sharpton said the Brown case renewed a nationwide fight for greater police accountability.
Sharpton said the prosecutor's decision to announce the grand jury decision at night was "irresponsible and unnecessarily provocative".
He decried the "misuse of the grand jury system", saying the grand jury tried Officer Darren Wilson rather than investigate him.
"I've never seen a prosecutor hold a press conference to discredit the victim ... This is not a Ferguson problem... This is a problem all over the country," he said.
He added: "We may have lost one round but the fight is not over."
Meanwhile, Brown attorneys had called for a 'Michael Brown Law', in which every police officer in every US city would have a body camera.
"We condemn violence and looting from last night, but we also condemn the violent acts that killed Michael Brown," said Crump. "Instead of making a lot of noise, we strive to make a difference."
Dispersal
Officers in armoured vehicles lobbed canisters of irritants that made people’s eyes and lungs burn, dispersing crowds in Ferguson after a police car was vandalised, business windows shattered and gunshots rang in the streets.
Some protesters erupted in anger after the announcement that Officer Darren Wilson won’t be indicted in the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown. Protesters overran a barricade and taunted police.
Some chanted “murderer” and others threw rocks and other items.
Fire and looting have overtaken several businesses after Ferguson protests turned violent.
Ferguson's Assistant Fire Chief said the fire department has been to at least 25 fires overnight on Monday. As soon as the grand jury decision was annjounced, officers started taking on rock and batteries, according to St. Louis County Police Chief Bon Belmar.
Violent protests have also erupted in several parts of the country. In Los Angeles, where protesters have shut down both sides of the 110 Freeway, police opened fire with non-lethal rounds.
In Seattle, police have arrested some of the protesters gathered outside the federal courthouse. Rapper Macklemore was seen joining the Seattle protest over the grand jury decision.
The case has driven a wider wedge among Americans along ethnic lines, and opened old wounds. The lawyer for Michael Brown's family said: "the system needs to be indicted, this system is completely unfair to citizens, especially African-Americans and minority citizens."
Flights diverted
The Federal Aviation Administration has also diverted some St. Louis-bound flights to other airports because of reports of gunshots fired into the sky in Ferguson.
Multiple fires burned early on Tuesday at local businesses, including at storage facility, a pizza house, auto parts stores and a beauty supply shop.
St Loius Mayor Francis Slay said: "The people that were committing violence, looting, smashing windows, that is not protest."
An AP photographer saw firefighters arrive at one scene only to be turned back by gunfire.
The windows of a police car were smashed and protesters tried to topple it before it was set on fire. Officers responded by firing what authorities said was smoke and pepper spray into the crowd.
Protesters insisted it was tear gas.
Some in the crowd reportedly tried to stop others from taking part in the violence. More pictures in the gallery.
A grand jury declined on Monday to indict Wilson in the death of Brown, the unarmed, black teenager whose fatal shooting by a white officer sparked weeks of sometimes-violent protests and exposed deep racial tension between many African-Americans and police.
Within minutes of the announcement by St. Louis County’s top prosecutor, crowds began pouring into Ferguson streets to protest the decision.
Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch said the jury of nine whites and three blacks met on 25 separate days and heard more than 70 hours of testimony from about 60 witnesses, including three medical examiners and other experts on blood, toxicology and firearms.
He stressed that jurors were “the only people who heard every witness ... and every piece of evidence.”
He said many witnesses presented conflicting statements that were inconsistent with the physical evidence.
“These grand jurors poured their hearts and soul into this process,” he said.
As McCulloch was reading his statement, Michael Brown’s mother, Lesley McSpadden, was sitting atop a vehicle listening to a broadcast of the announcement.
When she heard the decision, she burst into tears and began screaming before being whisked away by supporters.
The crowd with her erupted in anger, converging on the barricade where police in riot gear were standing. They pushed down the barricade and began pelting police with objects, including a bullhorn. Officers stood their ground.
At least nine votes would have been required to indict Wilson. The grand jury met in secret, a standard practice for such proceedings.
Defensive
Speaking for nearly 45 minutes, a defensive McCulloch repeatedly cited what he said were inconsistencies and erroneous accounts from witnesses.
When asked by a reporter whether any of the accounts amount to perjury, he said, “I think they truly believe that’s what they saw, but they didn’t.”
The prosecutor also was critical of the media, saying “the most significant challenge” for his office was a “24-hour news cycle and an insatiable appetite for something – for anything – to talk about.”
Brown’s family released a statement saying they were “profoundly disappointed” in the decision but asked that the public “channel your frustration in ways that will make a positive change. We need to work together to fix the system that allowed this to happen.”
Obama appeals for calm
President Barack Obama appealed for calm and understanding, pleading with both residents and police to show restraint.
“We are a nation built on the rule of law, so we need to accept that this decision was the grand jury’s to make,” Obama said. He said it was understandable that some Americans would be “deeply disappointed - even angered,” but echoed Brown’s parents in calling for any protests to be peaceful.
The Justice Department is conducting a separate investigation into possible civil rights violations that could result in federal charges. The department also has launched a broad probe into the Ferguson Police Department, looking for patterns of discrimination.
Police officer shot
A policeman was shot and wounded on Monday evening in University City, a St. Louis suburb near Ferguson, Missouri, though it was unclear if the shooting was related to street protests over the grand jury's decision in the Michael Brown case, police said.
The officer was shot in the arm, and he is expected to recover, but the circumstances of the shooting were not immediately available, and a search for the suspect was under way, the St. Louis County Police Department said in a message on Twitter.
St. Louis-bound flights rerouted amid protests
The Federal Aviation Administration is diverting some St. Louis-bound flights to other airports because of reports of gunshots fired into the sky in Ferguson following a grand jury's decision not to indict the white police officer who fatally shot a black 18-year-old.
The FAA says about 10 flights had been rerouted from Lambert-St. Louis International Airport as of 11:30pm on Monday. The reason cited was "to provide a safe environment for law enforcement activities."
The airport posted on Twitter that only inbound planes, not departures, are affected. The facility remains open.
For two weeks after the August shooting, the FAA restricted flights' airspace, including for news helicopters. The FAA says media aircraft are flying just above the flight restriction zone over Ferguson.
Inflamed tensions
The August 9 shooting inflamed tensions in the predominantly black St. Louis suburb that is patrolled by an overwhelmingly white police force. As Brown’s body lay for hours in the centre of a residential street, an angry crowd of onlookers gathered. Rioting and looting occurred the following night, and police responded with armoured vehicles and tear gas.
Protests continued for weeks - often peacefully, but sometimes turning violent, with demonstrators throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails and police firing smoke canisters, tear gas and rubber bullets. Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon to briefly summon the National Guard.
Outside the Ferguson Police Department on Monday night, St. Louis County police used a bullhorn to order a crowd to disperse, saying it had become an unlawful assembly. Protesters defied the orders and some chanted “murderer.” Minutes later, four gunshots were heard down the street.
Hours before the decision was made public, Nixon urged people to remain peaceful as he appeared at a news conference with the state’s public safety director and the leaders of St. Louis city and county.
“Our shared hope and expectation is that regardless of the decision, people on all sides show tolerance, mutual respect and restraint,” Nixon said.
Some black leaders and Brown’s parents questioned McCulloch’s ability to be impartial. The prosecutor’s father, mother, brother, uncle and cousin all worked for the St. Louis Police Department, and his father was killed while responding to a call involving a black suspect in 1964.
McCulloch was 12 at the time, and the killing became a hallmark of his initial campaign for elected prosecutor.
Nixon declined to seek the removal of McCulloch in the Brown case, but he also called for McCulloch to vigorously prosecute Wilson, who had been on the Ferguson force for less than three years. Prior to that job, Wilson was an officer for nearly two years in Jennings, another St. Louis suburb.
McCulloch, a Democrat, has been in office since 1991 and was re-elected to another term earlier this month.
Among the cases that McCulloch’s opponents cited as examples of pro-police bias was the 2000 shooting death of two men in a fast-food parking lot by two undercover drug officers in the town of Berkeley, which like Ferguson is a predominantly black suburb in what locals call North County.
A federal investigation determined that Earl Murray and Ronald Beasley were unarmed and that their car had not moved forward when the officers fired 21 shots. But that inquiry also determined that the shootings were justified since the officers feared for their lives.
McCulloch opted to not prosecute the two officers and characterized the victims as “bums” who “spread destruction in the community” by selling drugs.
