In Ferguson, after a week of strife, some signs of healing
Adrees Latif/REUTERS Veteran civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton walks to greet Michael Brown Sr., the father of 18-year-old Michael Brown, after speaking under a makeshift tent next to the Flood Christian Church during Sunday service in Ferguson, Missouri November 30, 2014.
FERGUSON, Mo. On the seventh day they could not exactly rest, but there were signs that residents, protesters, police and business owners were beginning to turn an important corner amid the strife of the past week and the bitter divisions of the past months.
That is not to say the passions and tensions are evaporating on Fergusons streets, where plywood covers shattered windows and the National Guard stands vigil after dark over a dozen burned-out shells of small businesses. The looting and destruction came last Monday night, after it was announced that a grand jury would not indict Officer Darren Wilson for fatally shooting Michael Brown, 18, on Aug. 9.
The Rev. Al Sharpton electrified a congregation of several hundred in a St. Louis church with a 50-minute address that was part protest speech, part theological call to action. Browns father, Michael Brown Sr., and mother, Lesley McSpadden, sat in the front row.
You won the first round, Mr. Prosecutor, but dont cut your gloves off, because the fight is not over, said the activist preacher and television commentator. Justice will come to Ferguson!
Sharpton said the looters and arsonists do not represent the young folk who are standing up and marching, and he urged more people, young and old, to join the spreading movement. They are the true patriots in this country, because they are asking for the system to correct itself.
God is going to use Michael to lead this nation to deal with police accountability, he said.
Amid Sharptons customary fire was the implicit message that the protests are pivoting justice for Brown is at the core, but now it is framed in national and historic terms.
Ferguson is to this battle what ... Selma was to the voting battle, Sharpton said. Local organizers have vowed that protests will continue indefinitely.
As Sharpton was concluding, at a news conference in Ferguson, Mayor James Knowles was proposing his vision of moving forward, outlining plans for what he said will be one of the first civilian review boards in the region to review complaints and suggestions about police procedures.
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In Ferguson, after a week of strife, some signs of healing