US Police Arrest 47 in Latest Missouri Protest

Local Editor

Police said Wednesday that they had arrested 47 people during a night of protests in Ferguson, the Missouri town rocked by violence over the police shooting of an unarmed black teenager.

Captain Ron Johnson of the Missouri Highway Patrol said protesters threw bottles of water and urine at police toward the end of Tuesday night's protest, prompting officers to intervene after an otherwise peaceful night.

"As of 1:00 am we have 47 arrests," he told a press conference, adding that police had also seized three guns from demonstrators.

Johnson stressed that unlike a protest Monday night, protesters did not fire guns at police and police refrained from using tear gas to break up the rally.
"Tonight we saw a different dynamic," he said.

Meanwhile, protesters hit the streets of the US town roiled by days of unrest over the killing of the black teen, hours after police shot dead a knife-wielding man just a few miles away.

Demonstrators waved signs and chanted slogans as they strolled up and down West Florissant Boulevard in Ferguson, Missouri. The town, a suburb of St. Louis, has been shaken by racial unrest since a white police officer shot dead Michael Brown, 18, on August 9.

Police have hurled tear gas canisters and fired rubber bullets at crowds as protests get violent after sundown. But in this early evening march, everything was peaceful.

"I want the good people to have the ability to voice their opinions," said Missouri State Highway Patrol Captain Ron Johnson, the African-American officer tasked with restoring order in the restive town.

Johnson, who mingled with citizens in the march - all to keen to give him an ear-load about the right to protest - denounced what he called "criminal elements" who, after dark on Sunday and Monday, ignored police orders to disperse.
"Cowards hide in the dark, and it's time for that to stop," he told reporters.
Ferguson civic leaders had called for "night-time quiet and reconciliation" after another night of protests and violence in the majority black town.

The evening marchers were mainly black, with a good number of whites also demonstrating. Some people brought along young children, who nibbled pizza slices distributed by volunteers.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team