Ferguson returns to relative calm after violence
Ferguson, the riot-strewn town in the US state of Missouri, returned to relative calm last night, as police officers were able to disperse the crown without using tear gas for the first time in four days.
Violence in the town had escalated after Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old guy, was shot dead on 9 August by a police officer, an event which sparked days of violent protest between members of the local community and the police.
The return to calm, police officials said, marked a turning point in the demonstrations, as the protesters seemed to have responded positively to the community leaders' calls for nonviolence. Handguns were seized from protesters and 47 arrests were made, but most protesters left without engaging in fighting with the police.
"Tonight we saw a different dynamic," Captain Ron Johnson of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, was quoted as saying by Bloomberg on Wednesday.
"We had to respond to fewer incidents than the night before. There were no Molotov cocktails tonight, there were no shootings."
Eric Holder, the US Attorney General is set to visit Ferguson today amid calls for Darren Wilson, the 28-year-old who shot Brown, to be prosecuted.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon urged a "vigorous prosecution" and asked Holder to investigate Brown's death "thoroughly, promptly and correctly" and the grand jury must now decide whether Wilson breached the law, which means he could be facing charges ranging between manslaughter to murder.
DC