Tuesday • 08.19.2014 • $1.50

Vol. 136, No. 231 ©2014POST-DISPATCH WEATHERBIRD ®

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91°/72°CHANCE OF STORMS

94°/73°CHANCE OF STORMS

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tODaY

tOMOrrOW

Perry packs a punchSinger brings out all the bells, whistles.

ReVIeW • a13

tear gas flies, pastors lock arms to break up crowdsstreets flare up

nixon lifts curfew in ferguson, cAlls in nAtionAl guArd • privAte Autopsy finds 6 shots

Poll finds racial, political divide . A7

Other police shootings PAge A6

Image embodies conflict for viewers around world

PAge A8

More than a dozen hurt in protests Sunday

PAge A9

Family unites to protect store from looters

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Live updates • STLtoday.com

DaviD Carson • dcarson@post-dispatch.comPolice fire tear gas in the direction of where bottles were thrown from crowds gathered near the QuikTrip on West Florissant Avenue in Ferguson late Monday.

By Mitchell ProtheroMcClatchy Foreign Staff

IRBIL, IRaq • Iraqi and Kurdish troops, backed by heavy U.S. air support, re-captured Iraq’s largest dam Monday, the most significant victory over the Islamic State since the militants overran almost half of Iraq in mid-June.

It remained to be seen whether the Iraqi military, which all but collapsed as

the Islamic State staged its lightning ad-vance to the doorstep of Baghdad, can capitalize on the first serious setback dealt to the extremists. The Iraqi army remains burdened by serious deficien-cies, the country’s sectarian politicians have yet to form a new government and President Barack Obama made it clear again Monday that there are limits to

By elisa crouch ecrouch@post-dispatch.com > 314-340-8119

WeLLsTON • The group of mothers stood guard over the dozen or so ele-mentary school children as they awaited their bus Monday morning about six miles from the unrest in Ferguson.

Unlike children in three neighboring north St. Louis County school systems, the 3,700 or so students in the Nor-

mandy Schools Collaborative entered classrooms Monday. The volatility is be-yond the borders of this district. Yet, Mi-chael Brown graduated high school here. That fact alone was on the forefront of the mothers’ minds.

“I have been praying, praying, praying for all of us because it could spread,” said Shamiyer McKinney, who stood with her

U.S. backs Iraq in retaking Mosul Dam An emotional first day at Normandy

Gaza cease fire extended 24 hours • A4

Ameren will bank on natural gas • A11

Rams look to Quick for big plays • B1

cards beat reds in 10th inning, 6-5 • B1

By Kevin McDerMottkmcdermott@post-dispatch.com > 314-340-8268

FeRGusON • With armed Missouri National Guard troops posted to area streets for the first time in mod-ern history, violence erupted anew Monday night as protesters hurled bottles at police and fired shots, and officers responded with sound cannons.

“Back off now!” one officer ordered protesters as the conflict escalated shortly before 10 p.m.

Later, police fired tear gas at protesters who de-fied orders to disperse. Police fired at least three tear gas volleys near the QuikTrip as emergency vehicles sped to the scene. Police also used tear gas to break

By Joel currier jcurrier@post-dispatch.com > 314-340-8256anD KiM Bellkbell@post-dispatch.com > 314-340-8115

FeRGusON • A police officer’s bullet that killed Mi-chael Brown here 10 days ago, igniting protests around the country, entered the top of the teen’s head as he was bent over or falling down, a private autopsy per-formed for Michael Brown’s family says.

The autopsy couldn’t say, however, whether the un-armed teenager was retreating, charging or if he had his hands up when he was killed, a claim that has be-come a central rallying cry of protesters demanding justice in cities across the United States.

Brown, 18, of Ferguson, was shot at least six times,

schools closed for the week

autopsy offers detaIls but not answers on kIllIng of brown

see norManDy • Page a5

Autopsy diagram

PAge A7

see iraQ • Page a5

see autoPsy • Page a7see FerGuson • Page a6

A6 • ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH M 2 • TUeSDAy • 08.19.2014

by Joe Holleman • jholleman@post-dispatch.com > 314-340-8254

The death of Michael Brown has resurrected recollection of other cases in which a fatal police shooting sparked federal investigations, generated protests or raised questions about whether an officer was in imminent danger.

TRAFFIC STOP

One similar case involved the shooting of a different Michael Brown, 23, of Troy, Mo., who was shot and killed along with a friend in October 2005.

Authorities said that Lincoln County sheriff’s Deputy Nic Forler fired through the back window of a pickup, killing Brown and the driver, Tyler Teasley, 22. No one in the truck was armed.

Police said Forler tried to stop Tea-sley’s truck for speeding but was led on a short chase. When the truck fi-nally stopped, Forler pulled behind it, got out of his patrol car and stood between the vehicles.

Witnesses said Teasley was “freak-ing out” because he had been drink-ing, there was alcohol in the car and several passengers were under 21. In his panic, they said, Teasley left the truck in neutral. As the truck rolled backward, Forler fired the fatal shots that struck both victims in the head.

Family and friends demonstrated regularly outside the sheriff’s office. Forler was dismissed from the force and charged with involuntary manslaughter.

In a trial in 2007, moved to Boone County because of the controversy caused in Lincoln County, Forler testi-fied that he believed Teasley was trying to run him over, and he feared for his life. The jury took only three hours to find Forler not guilty.

After the verdict in 2007, Teasley’s mother, Mary, wept as she spoke to reporters outside the courthouse. “How can I tell my family that the law is for everyone when I can go to the police academy for six months and go out and murder someone?”

DRUG BUST

Similar in public exposure was a 2000 incident in which undercover officers killed two men on the parking lot of a Jack in the Box on North Hanley Road in Berkeley. A threatened highway blockade and other civil disobedi-ence by protesters garnered extensive media coverage.

On June 12, 2000, Dellwood officers Robert Pieku-towski and Keith Kierzkowski said they feared be-ing run over by a car containing Earl Murray of Kinloch and Ronald Beasley of St. Louis. The officers were as-signed to a federal task force making its third drug buy from Murray.

When they approached Murray’s car, the officers said, he put it into reverse and backed into a Ford Ex-plorer driven by a Drug Enforcement Agency agent. As the car turned toward the officers, they opened fire. The officers said the suspects did not fire any shots and had no weapons in their hands.

That July, protest organizers, including a director of the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, planned to block Highway 40 (Interstate 64). The St. Louis Clergy Coalition and other activists opposed the blockade, which eventually was canceled.

A federal investigation concluded that even though the suspects’ car did not actually move toward the officers, and its occupants had been unarmed, the officers’ belief that they were in danger justified the shooting. In 2005, a federal court dismissed the last civil suit, ruling that Kier-zkowski had taken reasonable actions to protect himself. Piekutowski had earlier settled with survivors.

CRASH, CHASE

More recently, federal investigators concluded in June that St. Louis police were justified in the shooting of Cary Ball Jr.

Ball, 25, a felon, was shot 21 times by police on April 24, 2013, after Ball crashed a car at the end of a police pursuit. The incident happened after Ball got off work in Creve Coeur and was giving a co-worker a ride.

Police tried to make a traffic stop of Ball’s car at 18th Street and Del-mar Boulevard. They said he hit sev-eral parked cars near Ninth and Cole streets, stopped and then ran.

Officers Jason Chambers and Tim-othy Boyce said they saw Ball clutch his waistband as he ran. One said he saw Ball pull a weapon and point it at them, the other said he saw the gun in Ball’s right hand when he turned toward them. Both officers said Ball pointed the gun at them but did not fire.

Police recovered a gun that had been reported stolen in 2012.

Witness accounts varied substantially — from each other and from the officers’ versions. Some said Ball did not have a gun, others said he did, and still others said he tossed it aside when he stopped running.

A police internal investigation concluded in Novem-ber 2013 that the officers were justified. But because of the numerous conflicting reports, St. Louis police requested that the FBI perform the review, which was finished in June.

A wrongful-death suit filed by Ball’s family is pend-ing, seeking unspecified damages from the officers, de-partment and others.

ferguson police shooting

Video: Witness captures moments immediately after shooting.

STLtoday.com/michaelbrown

Michael Brown Earl Murray Ronald Beasley Cary Ball

other provocative shootings

up protesters near West Florissant Avenue and North-woods Estates.

“They’re gassing our kids,” one protester shouted.In front of McDonald’s, a tactical unit removed a

driver from his car at gunpoint. Some protesters tipped over portable toilets and dragged them into the streets.

An armored vehicle moved down the street trying to clear the crowd, and some pastors stood with their arms locked trying to restore peace. They helped to move protesters away from the police line.

The confrontation followed a day of dizzying new developments in the Aug. 9 police shooting death of unarmed Michael Brown, 18, and the week of protests, looting and violence that has followed:• A private autopsy report released Monday morning showed Brown was struck by at least six bullets, includ-ing the fatal shot to the top of the head.• Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon brought in the National Guard early Monday to keep order and protect a police command center. It marks the first time the Guard has been deployed in the St. Louis area to address civil un-rest since at least World War II.• In a national address, President Barack Obama con-demned violence by protesters, cautioned against use of “excessive force” by police and urged Americans to “heal rather than wound each other.” Strikingly, his comments on Ferguson were paired with a discussion of the violence in war-torn Iraq.• Obama said he will dispatch U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to Ferguson on Wednesday to meet with FBI agents and Justice Department personnel conduct-ing the federal criminal investigation into the shooting.• Scattered arrests continued in the region during the day. They included a photojournalist whose arrest was captured on video and posted online, and Hedy Epstein, 90, a Holocaust survivor and political activist, who was among scores of protesters who converged on Nixon’s downtown St. Louis satellite office at the Wainwright Building.• In what might be the most fundamental measure of the lack of normalcy, the Ferguson-Florissant School District announced Monday night that schools — their opening already postponed — would stay closed for the rest of the week “to allow needed time for peace and stability to be restored to our community.”

Monday in Ferguson began, as most mornings have for the past week, with local business owners cleaning up debris and assessing damage from the vandalism and looting of the night before.

“At least in Iraq you know who the enemy is,” said Air Force veteran Virgil Smith, 48, of Florissant. He was driving through the area, saw the broken storefront window at Rehoboth Pharmacy on West Florissant and stopped to help sweep up. “Here you never know. They are all blended in with the community.”

The owner, Idowu Ajibola, was doing an inventory. Looters took some pain medication and Xanax, he said. They also stole hair products. Replacing the glass will probably cost $6,000, Ajibola said, “and what they took is probably just 10 percent of that.” He figures they didn’t get more because he had turned off all the secu-rity lights inside the store when the rioting began and the looters couldn’t see what was inside.

Sunday night’s violence had been, by most accounts, the worst yet, frustrating officials who have used a se-ries of rotating responses to end looting and violence.

Missouri Highway Patrol Capt. Ronald S. Johnson, who was put in control of security on Ferguson’s streets last week, blamed a small group of agitators for Sunday night violence that included shootings, Molotov cock-tails and looting. He said he believed those who insti-gated the violence came to what had been a peaceful protest determined to “provoke a response.”

Other law enforcement authorities said three people had been injured in shootings during the night. None of the shootings involved officers, authorities said. Police said seven or eight people were arrested on charges of failing to disperse.

“Based on these conditions, I had no alternative but to elevate our response,” Johnson said, referring to offi-cers’ push to clear the streets hours before the midnight curfew with measures that included the use of tear gas.

As cleanup continued in Ferguson, Michael Brown’s mother, Lesley McSpadden, appeared on ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Monday, where she was asked how peace can be restored in Ferguson. “With justice,” she told the show’s Robin Roberts. Her definition of justice, she said, is arresting Darren Wilson, the officer who shot Brown, “and making him accountable for his actions.”

Nixon announced early Monday that he was elimi-nating the previous night’s curfew but calling in the Missouri National Guard. It was the latest shift in strat-egy as officials struggled to maintain security without further inciting protesters.

Last week, Nixon called in the Missouri Highway Patrol to take over security from the St. Louis County Police, on the premise that it would provide a less-mil-itarized police presence, and it appeared to calm ten-sion Thursday night. But the situation deteriorated over the weekend after local authorities identified Brown’s shooter as Wilson and a video was released implicating

Brown in a robbery shortly before the shooting.Nixon said the Guard’s role will be limited to pro-

tecting the command center in the Westfall shopping center, formerly Northland, on West Florissant Avenue. Police officials said the center was the destination of protesters who were met with tear gas Sunday evening.

“The Guard will concentrate its resources on carrying out this limited mission,” Nixon said in a statement.

“I join the people of Ferguson, and all Missourians, in strongly condemning the violent acts we saw (Sunday) night, including the firing upon law enforcement offi-cers, the shooting of a civilian, the throwing of Molotov cocktails, looting and a coordinated attempt to overrun the unified command center,” he said in the statement.

“We are all frustrated and looking for justice to be achieved regarding the shooting death of Michael Brown,” he said. “As the dual investigations continue into what happened nine days ago at Canfield Green, we must defend Ferguson from these violent interlopers so that the peaceful protests can operate in peace and the search for answers and justice can continue.”

Peace and the search for answers were themes Obama employed later in the day. He addressed the Ferguson situation in a national speech on the “pair of violent crises” facing the nation, as USA Today put it Monday — the other being continuing violence in Iraq.

“We have all seen images of protesters and law en-forcement in the streets. It’s clear that the vast majority of people are peacefully protesting. What’s also clear is that a small minority of individuals are not,” Obama said. “While I understand the passions and the anger that arise over the death of Michael Brown, giving into that anger by looting or carrying guns, and even at-tacking the police only serves to raise tensions and stir chaos. It undermines rather than advancing justice.”

Obama reiterated the right to peacefully protest without undo restrictions and said that constitutional rights must be vigilantly protected.

Holder, the attorney general, will travel Wednesday to Ferguson to meet with those in the Justice Depart-ment who are conducting a separate, independent civil rights investigation into Michael Brown’s death.

Jesse Bogan, Joe Holleman, Margaret Gillerman, Denise Hollinshed, Michael D. Sorkin, Joel Currier, Kim Bell, Lilly Fowler, Ken Leiser, Tim O’Neil, Valerie Schremp Hahn and Chuck Raasch all of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.

FERGUSON • from a1

Christian Gooden • cgooden@post-dispatch.comThe Missouri National Guard arrives Monday at the staging area outside a Target in Ferguson. The Guard was called in to help contain the looting on the second day of a state of emergency declared by Gov. Jay Nixon.

obama condemns rioting

Cristina Fletes-Boutte • P-DJo Holbrook (right) comforts Faye Jackson on West Florissant Avenue in Ferguson on Monday as she cries over the shooting death of Michael Brown. “That’s not just Mike Brown on the ground; that’s every black man on the ground,” Holbrook said.

08.19.2014 • Tuesday • M 2 sT. LOuIs POsT-dIsPaTCH • A7

rAciAl, ideologicAl divisions over shooting, poll findsA just-released Pew Research Center poll shows sharp divides between blacks and whites over the police shooting death of Michael Brown and what it means for race relations in America.

The poll of 1,000 adults was taken Thursday through Sunday. It showed that blacks (80 percent) are more than twice as likely as whites (37 percent) to believe the case raises important issues about race.

It also said that while 65 percent of blacks believe police response has gone “too far,” only 33 percent of whites say so. Some 32 percent of whites say it has been about right, and 35 percent say they don’t know. About 20 percent of blacks say the police response has been about right, with 15 percent saying they didn’t know.

There are also ideological divisions. While 68 percent of Democrats say the 18-year-old Brown’s killing and the after-math raises important issues about race, 22 percent of Republicans and 40 percent of independents do.

The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.

— Chuck Raasch

county website is bAck onlineThe main St. Louis County website, stlou-isco.com, which was attacked from exter-nal sources and shut down last week, is back up for public access.

Most service had been restored Monday.The server went down at 4:48 p.m.

Wednesday due to what officials called a “denial of service attack.” The attack closed down both incoming and outgoing Internet access to county government, in-cluding the website and email.

An international hacker-activist group that calls itself Anonymous took credit for taking down the county website and for shutting down St. Ann and Ferguson web-sites. The company that manages web-sites for several local cities told customers it had to temporarily take down the two websites because the attack was causing outages across its entire network. Those municipal websites were back online by Saturday evening.

— Margaret Gillerman

Jon hAmm Addresses ferguson while At buschActor Jon Hamm came back to hometown St. Louis to be honored before Monday’s baseball game at Busch Stadium.

Before the festivities, Hamm addressed the recent unrest in Ferguson since police

Officer Darren Wilson shot and killed Mi-chael Brown on Aug. 9.

“There is no positive spin to this,” Hamm said. “And no one is blameless.

“I hope when all the facts come out and the light has been shone on all of it, then justice will be served,” he said.

Hamm spent a substantial part of his youth in north St. Louis County. “I grew up in Normandy; I used to ride my bike through Ferguson,” said Hamm, who graduated from John Burroughs School.

“I know there’s a lot of good people there, more than there are bad. But the bad ones make all the noise,” he said.

— Joe Holleman

Attorneys sue for police records of shootingAn attorneys’ group is suing to try to get police records about the fatal shooting of Michael Brown.

The lawsuit filed Monday by the Na-tional Bar Association says Ferguson po-lice are in violation of the state open-re-cords law for not releasing reports, videos and photos about the Aug. 9 shooting. It also seeks records related to Darren Wil-son, the officer who shot Brown.

The National Bar Association calls it-self “the nation’s oldest and largest asso-

ciation of African-American lawyers and judges.” Benjamin Crump, the attorney who has emerged as spokesman for the Brown family since the shooting, is the as-sociation’s vice president for finance.

Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson has said everything pertaining to the in-vestigation of Brown’s shooting is being handled by the St. Louis County Police.

But Jackson released the officer’s name last week, plus police reports and surveil-lance video from a convenience store rob-bery in which Brown was a suspect.

— AP

speciAl mAss for fergusonArchbishop Robert Carlson on Monday announced a special Mass dedicated to the people of Ferguson.

On Wednesday at 5 p.m., Roman Cath-olic faithful will celebrate a Mass for peace and justice at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis.

“I have personally visited Ferguson and Michael Brown’s memorial to offer my prayers for everyone affected by this trag-edy,” a letter from Carlson said.

Carlson said that a special collection will be taken at the Mass to assist food pantries and parishes in the Ferguson area that offer assistance to those affected by

looting and destruction of property.— Lilly Fowler

humAn rights group sends teAm to fergusonAmnesty International USA has sent a delegation to Ferguson to observe police and protester activity, the group says.

“The team will gather testimony, seek meetings with officials and offer support to the community. The 12-person delega-tion also includes organizers who will train local activists on methods of nonviolent protest,” Amnesty said in a press release.

The release said its U.S. executive direc-tor, Steven W. Hawkins, had written to the Ferguson Police Department last week “to express his deep concern over the shoot-ing of Michael Brown and the use of tear gas and rubber bullets at a demonstration against his death.”

— From staff reports

press club condemns treAtment of mediAThe Press Club of Metropolitan St. Louis issued a statement Monday condemning the treatment of journalists covering the Ferguson crisis.

“We strongly condemn the manhan-dling and disrespect shown to our col-leagues by authorities during the unfold-ing crisis in Ferguson, Mo.,” the statement said. “We believe these actions should cease, and that those responsible for maintaining order in Ferguson establish and enforce rules to assure the safety of our journalistic colleagues. We further be-lieve journalists should be able to freely cover these important events without un-due restrictions.”

— Margaret Gillerman

closures Affect prActicesAthletics directors from the Suburban XII Conference will discuss how best to han-dle the volatility in Ferguson when they meet today.

There is concern that McCluer, Mc-Cluer North and McCluer South-Berkeley high schools may not meet the National Federation of State High School Associa-tion’s mandated 14 days of practice before their first regular season game. Also, the unrest could force cancelation of sched-uled athletics events.

The Ferguson-Florissant School Dis-trict canceled its first day of school last Thursday and will not hold class this week. Its high school athletics programs are not allowed to practice.

— Dave Kvidahl

ferguson police shooting

including twice in the head, according to the autopsy performed by Dr. Michael Baden, a former New York City medical examiner who has investigated numerous high-profile cases. Baden said one bullet, which was likely the fatal shot, entered in the top of Brown’s skull. Another hit just above his right eye, exited near the eye, re-entered his face, exited near his jaw and then ended up in Brown’s upper chest or shoulder. Brown suffered four other gun-shot wounds to his right arm and palm.

The family’s autopsy, performed Sunday at Austin A. Layne Mortuary in Jennings, leaves unanswered questions and differs slightly from what few details have been released about the autopsy conducted by St. Louis County’s medical examiner, Dr. Mary Case. Her office, so far, has said only that Brown died of gunshots to the head and chest, and would not comment fur-ther on Baden’s preliminary findings of his belief that only the shot to the top of the head would have been fatal.

It’s not clear how far Brown was from Ferguson Officer Darren Wilson when the officer opened fire. Baden found no gun-shot residue, which would indicate an extremely close-range shot, on Brown’s body. But Baden didn’t have access to Brown’s clothing, which is still being held by St. Louis County police.

Baden said given what he knows, the shots could have been fired from at least 1 or 2 feet away or much farther.

“It could be 30 feet away,” he told re-porters Monday.

Baden said he found no injuries that would indicate a struggle with Wilson, 28, of Crestwood, who police say fatally shot Brown about noon Aug. 9 in the Can-field Green apartment complex. Obtaining Wilson’s hospital records will be crucial in concluding whether they fought before the shooting.

Baden said Monday that Brown had some abrasions on the right side of his face, which Baden believes were caused by Brown falling to the pavement.

Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson has said Wilson suffered facial injuries in a struggle, but police haven’t provided a clear picture of how Brown was shot.

Dorian Johnson, 22, may be the closest witness to the shooting. He has told me-dia that he and Brown were walking in the street when the officer pulled up and or-dered them to “get the F on the sidewalk” and grabbed Brown by the throat. Johnson disputed a description of the encounter by St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar that Brown had reached into the car and tried to grab Wilson’s gun.

Shawn L. Parcells, who operates a fo-rensics company based in Kansas, assisted Baden during the more-than-three-hour autopsy Sunday. Parcells, who joined

Baden Monday to discuss their findings, said the autopsy showed Brown could have had his back the shooter or he could have been facing the shooter with his hands above his head or in a defensive position.

“While the shot could have come from the back,” Parcells said. “The arm is a very mobile part of the body, so it also could have occurred when he was putting his hands up ... We don’t know.”

Two of the six bullets may have left and then re-entered Brown’s body, Baden said. Three bullets lodged inside Brown’s body and were removed during Case’s autopsy. Baden said X-rays done during Case’s au-topsy will be important in determining exactly where the bullets were lodged in-side Brown’s body. He said those X-rays are still with Case but are expected to be shared with Brown’s family later.

Parcells said the forensics could not ex-plain the order of the six gunshots but he speculated that the two shots to the head were the last because Brown was “bending over as he was coming down.”

The Brown family’s lawyer, Benjamin Crump, said the private autopsy “verifies that the witness accounts were true” and that the family “could not trust what was going to be put in those reports” by St. Louis County.

Case’s autopsy was the first. Baden and Parcells’ autopsy is the second. U.S. At-torney Eric Holder last weekend cited “ex-traordinary circumstances” in ordering a third autopsy by the U.S. Justice Depart-ment.

Baden said he consulted with the St. Louis County medical examiner before doing his autopsy, and he believes his findings will be consistent with Case’s re-sults. He said Case is “a very excellent fo-rensic pathologist, and I’m sure her work will turn out to be very excellent when it’s released. But it hasn’t been released yet, and the family wants to know.”

Baden has often been labeled a celebrity medical examiner for hosting TV docu-mentaries and the HBO series “Autopsy.” He is a nationally noted pathologist who testified in the high-profile triple murder trial of Christopher Coleman, convicted of strangling his wife and two children in their Columbia, Ill., home in 2009. Baden spent 25 years in the medical examiner’s office in New York City.

Parcells was featured in a 2013 Post-Dispatch story in which some coroners and medical examiners in Missouri said Parcells had embellished his qualifications and performed autopsies without a li-cense. Case was among several outspoken critics of Parcells, suggesting his work-ing without a license was “a huge atrocity, an invitation to disaster” that could have jeopardized criminal cases.

Parcells denied any improper behavior to the Post-Dispatch.

A spokesman for St. Louis County Pros-ecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch, said a grand jury could hear evidence in the case of Brown’s death as early as Wednesday.

Autopsy •

from A1

An autopsy diagram shows where six bullets hit Michael Brown when he was fatally shot Aug. 9 by police Officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson.

Cristina Fletes-Boutte • cfletes-boutte@post-dispatch.comShawn Parcells, a forensic pathologist, discusses the results of the private autopsy of Michael Brown at a press conference Monday in Ferguson.

distance of shots not clear

Notes from fergusoN

laurie skrivan • lskrivan@post-dispatch.comPolice tackle a man Monday in Ferguson. Police had told a group that had assembled nearby to keep walking when the man turned and exchanged words with the officers.

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Ferguson police shooting

By Doug Mooredmoore@post-dispatch.com314-340-8125

NORTH ST. LOUIS COUNTY • Business was brisk Monday at Hollywood Beauty, as parents shopped for school uniforms of white polos and navy or khaki trousers. Women scanned the aisles of hair extensions, in nu-merous lengths and colors.

Near the entrance, manager Frank Alwir was filling a case with gold and silver hoop ear-rings in the brightly lit store, which sits at the northern end of West Florissant Avenue, at New

Halls Ferry Road, about three miles from a QuikTrip looted and burned on Aug. 10.

That was the day after Michael Brown, 18, was fatally shot by a Ferguson police officer. The un-rest following the killing has in-cluded break-ins and thefts from other businesses along West Flo-rissant Avenue.

Alwir’s family-run store has not been hit by looters, but he and his relatives are taking no chances.

Each night, when the store closes, usually about 9 p.m., the men of this Palestinian fam-ily block the two parking lot en-

trances with their cars. In some of the waistbands of the dozen cousins and brothers are hand-guns.

Just in case.“That first or second night,

after the QuikTrip burned, they were driving by here, shooting in the air, shouting, ‘You are next,’” Alwir said.

Not all of the relatives work here. Those who do stay after the doors are locked. The others drive in from their various jobs and help guard the nearly-three-year-old business.

They take turns getting a few hours of sleep.

Mike Kouk, one of Alwir’s cousins and another manager, said that once the protesters scatter from around the charred QuikTrip, the epicenter of the ongoing nightly tension, they start looking for easy targets in quiet areas.

“I thought we had escaped from the violence imposed on us,” Alwir said of his family’s past in Palestine. “It’s a shame to find it here, too. We’ve not been harmed yet. Hopefully, we will not be harmed.”

The details of what happened between Brown and Ferguson police Officer Darren Wilson

continue to be pieced together. But if anyone is truly innocent in this, it’s the businesses that are being damaged in the aftermath, Alwir said.

“Two wrongs don’t make a right,” he said.

The men don’t blame police.“They’ve got more than they

can handle,” Alwir said.So night after night, until

things settle down in Ferguson, the men of Hollywood Beauty will be here, just outside of town, protecting the family business.

J.B. Forbes of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.

Family keeps nightly vigil at store

J.B. ForBes • jforbes@post-dispatch.com Ahmad Lihmeidi (center) stands guard with his cousins Sunday night outside the Hollywood Beauty store at the corner of West Florissant Avenue and New Halls Ferry Road, to keep the shop from being looted. Lihmeidi said he doesn’t mind if people know he is armed. “I’m legal,” he said. “I have a conceal carry permit.” The store is a family operation.

By SAMAnthA LiSSsliss@post-dispatch.com > 314-340-8017

DePaul Health Center treated 12 individuals following the Fer-guson demonstrations Sunday, the most injuries any hospital has reported during one night since the protests began.

Two gunshot victims were treated and released Sunday night at DePaul, spokeswoman Jamie Sherman said. Another 10 were treated for injuries sustained after a high-speed chase with police. Sherman said it’s unclear if all 10 individuals were in the same vehicle.

Four remained at the hospital and were in stable condition as of Monday morning.

A spokeswoman for St. Louis Children’s Hospital said at least two children were treated and released for tear gas exposure Sunday after protests in Ferguson turned violent.

Dr. Doug Carlson, who works in the emergency room at Chil-dren’s, said he has never treated tear gas exposure before but has treated children for pepper spray, which can cause similar symptoms. “It’s debilitatingly, extraordinarily painful,” Carlson said.

At Christian Hospital, an adult was treated for shortness of breath Sunday evening, but hospital officials could not confirm if it was caused by tear gas used by police.

Getting to those injured has become difficult for first re-sponders and has caused a shift in strategy, said Chris Cebol-lero, chief of EMS for Christian Hospital.

His crews now park in “staging areas” where they wait for the injured to be brought to them.

“Early on we had some challenges with folks attacking the ambulance, and we needed to make sure that our folks stayed safe,” Cebollero said.

Now the ambulance crews have become part of incident command alongside officers. At least one ambulance is on-site continuously after about 6 p.m., Cebollero said.

As the protests have continued, Cebollero said, they have added about five ambulances to the evening rounds. Typically, eight ambulances are in operation during the day and are re-sponsible for a specific geographic region, Cebollero said.

The additional trucks ensure that “we’re not taking away from the rest of the system’s responsibility,” Cebollero said. “If a call goes out in Black Jack, they’re going to get their ambulance and the crew that they’re used to.”

At the moment, Cebollero said, he’s not worried about the cost of bringing on extra crews. He said responding to the needs of the community is what the hospital is focused on first.

“I’m sure when it’s all said and done, we’ll sit down and say, ‘What did this cost us?’” Cebollero said.

The majority of injuries being treated by Cebollero’s crews are not life-threatening, he said. There was a man beaten un-conscious early on, but since then Cebollero said most indi-viduals are being treated at the scene and then released.

It seems that those with more serious injuries are getting to hospitals on their own, he said.

Surprisingly, Cebollero said, call volume has been down by about 20 percent in the last week.

“I think maybe there is a heightened sense of awareness within the community and people are not calling us as much as they did,” Cebollero said.

Aisha Sultan of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.

more than a dozen treated at hospitals From sunday’s riots

By LiSA Brownlbrown@post-dispatch.com314-340-8127

The McDonald’s on West Flo-rissant Avenue was doing brisk business during the lunch hour Monday, but other nearby mer-chants said customers were staying away because of the con-tinuing unrest in the Ferguson area.

Dellena Jones, the owner of the 911 Hair Salon on West Flo-rissant Avenue, said she has more than five walk-in haircuts on a typical day. After the shop was open several hours Monday, no customers had yet come in by noon.

“Normally I’m so busy, I can’t do walk-ins,” she said.

“It’s been very dead for all of us on this block,” she said, point-ing to a nearby barbershop and nail salon that both were open,

but had no customers. “It’s dev-astating,” she said.

Jones has worked at the salon for 13 years and bought the busi-ness two years ago.

“A lot of my customers fear coming in, and I understand that,” she said. She was hopeful that the presence of the National Guard would calm things down.

“I pray that it will change things and make (customers) feel better about coming back over here,” she said.

Jones was in her shop Sunday night with her young daughter when two bricks were thrown through her glass entry door, shattering it. They escaped out of the store’s back door, while some men kept others from en-tering the store. Not much was taken.

“We’re like family here,” she said of nearby business owners. “We all check on each other.”

Down the road at Sam’s Meat Market, which was looted on two separate nights over the past week, the two entry doors were opened wide for customers Monday. Several rows of shelves were bare. The back counter, however, was full of meat cuts for sale, and a row of refrigerated units was stocked with sodas and other beverages.

Owner Mohamad Yaacoub said he is keeping his store open to show the resilience of the community.

“We’re going to try to prove a point, even if we didn’t have anything to sell,” he said.

The store’s employees, includ-ing Mustafa Alshalabi, 24, have volunteered to come in to work, even on their days off.

“My job needs me, I’m here,” Alshalabi said Monday while working behind the counter on a day he was scheduled to have off.

turmoil has customers along west Florissant lying low

Laurie skrivan • lskrivan@post-dispatch.comSamantha Tracy, manager of Papa John’s Pizza on West Florissant Avenue, talks with St. Louis County police officers Monday. “I don’t know the extent of the damages,” she said. “They busted the front windows.”

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TUESDAY • 08.19.2014 • A14

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In the highly charged moments after her son was gunned down walking to his grandmother’s apartment, 18-year-old Michael Brown’s mother let loose with a cry that should continue to frame the ongoing unrest in Ferguson:

“Do you know how hard it was for me to get him to stay in school and graduate?” Leslie McSpadden screamed to anybody who would listen, her comments recorded by KMOV-TV as she was held back by family members. “You know how many black men graduate? Not many.”

Last year, against all odds, Mr. Brown graduated from Normandy High School.

His mother is right. It was quite the accomplishment.

The 2013-14 school year was, to put it bluntly, an ugly time in the Normandy School District, and not because of anything the students did. Kids were moved around a political chess board like unvalued pawns. First the district lost accreditation, mostly due to horrendous test scores. Then the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that a long-existing law that allows students from unaccredited schools to transfer to better ones in adjoining districts or counties was constitutional. About 2,000 students from Normandy and Riverview Gardens districts, both in north St. Louis County, applied to go to other school districts.

Then the school boards tried to limit their choice. Some suburban school districts failed to fully open their arms to students and parents seeking educational opportunity.

The Missouri Legislature failed to fix an inequity in the law that would cause Normandy, a poor, underfunded district, to pay financially sound school districts in the white suburbs nearly twice the amount in tuition that they

were paying to educate children like Michael Brown in the first place.

Normandy was on the verge of bankruptcy, and the state took over. It tried to limit the ability of some students to transfer. Some suburban school districts — Fran-cis Howell in St. Charles County, Ritenour and Pattonville in St. Louis County — shut the door on others.

Now, the courts say, those doors must reopen.

Oh yes, there is a lot of righteous anger among African-American parents who simply want to get their children through school and keep getting met with pleas of “there’s no room at the inn.”

On Monday, the renamed and now state-run Normandy Schools Collaborative opened its doors on the new school year. (The neigh-boring Ferguson-Florissant School District, which is accredited, has delayed its opening because of

ongoing unrest.)The first day of school is like

spring training in baseball: Hope abounds. Every student has a chance to succeed. But in light of last week’s court ruling on the most recent lawsuit concerning Normandy transfer students, administrators and community leaders are scared to death about what happens next.

True chaos is possible unless every school district that receives transfer students agrees to drop its tuition rate to about $7,000, as recommended by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. The state also must find a little bit more money to help pay for transportation costs and prop up Normandy’s finances.

There is a very real possibility, school leaders tell us, that unless that happens, the money will dry up and the state will shut down the Normandy schools.

Last year, suburban school

districts serving predominantly white middle-class children soaked Normandy for $15,000 to $20,000 per student to educate their children. That leaves less money for those kids who are left behind. Why did they do that? State law says they can.

If that happens again, the anger in Normandy will be palpable. The state must find a way to educate these children. Too many gen-erations already have been lost to inequities in state funding.

Beyond the police shooting an unarmed boy, beyond the racial disparities, beyond the anger over economic inequity, this is a key underlying cause of righteous indignation in the African-Amer-ican community in St. Louis. Most black parents living in poverty spend a considerable amount of their energy and resources just trying to get their children to the finish line of a high school educa-tion.

The system is making it harder for them, not easier.

It is absolutely imperative that St. Louis leaders, and the state, respond quickly and decisively to the most recent court ruling regarding transfers.

Here’s what must happen, lest failure contribute to more chaos in north St. Louis County:

• Every suburban school district must accept any student seeking to transfer from Normandy and Riverview Gardens and the same $7,000 tuition suggested by the state.

• The state should not appeal the court’s most recent ruling. The Supreme Court has ruled over and over again in favor of the transfer law. Choice for parents isn’t a panacea to fixing public schools, but they should have the ability to opt out of failing schools.

• Gov. Jay Nixon and the Mis-souri Legislature, pulling from the Rainy Day Fund or some other source, must find the money to pay for both the transportation of transfer students and to prop up Normandy students. The Normandy district’s leaders must be able to assure parents of educa-tional stability, at least for a year.

In the moments after her son died, Ms. McSpadden finished her comments on why it is so difficult for black men to graduate from high school with these words:

“Because you bring them down to this type of level, where they feel like they don’t got nothing to live for anyway. They’re going to try to take me out anyway.”

Right or wrong, that anger and frustration is playing out in the streets of Ferguson for the world to see.

The path to peace is paved with diplomas.

The path to peaceOur view • Normandy opens school doors amid unrest. Leaders must keep them open.

Media, elected offi cials throw police under the bus

The way in which not only the media but elected officials are convicting Officer Darren Wilson of wrongdoing is intoler-able. Examples include: Fox2 News Shirley Washington referring to Mike Brown’s “murder,” Missouri State Sen. Jamilah Nasheed accusing the officer of “shoot-ing down a man in the middle of a street, execution-style” and Missouri Congress-man William Lacy Clay stating “you are not going to get a fair trial in St. Louis County.”

Even when not stated overtly, there is inference of guilt. On Saturday, Gov. Jay Nixon spoke of justice for the family of Michael Brown, and later called Michael Brown a victim, implying the guilt of the o� cer. All of these statements are without merit and further infl ame the situation. This rush to judgment is unacceptable and is damaging to the o� cer’s reputation and threaten his and his family’s well-being. Why is this o� cer not a� orded the same presumption of innocence that we all ex-pect? If the court fi nds the o� cer not cul-pable, these types of statements will have built expectations of guilt and will make a violent reaction more probable and more severe. Words have consequences.

Sen. Claire McCaskill and Gov. Nixon subsequently go on to besmirch local police efforts to contain the violence, a difficult task at best. Mr. Nixon goes so far as to state that he saw police pointing guns at kids. Really? I would expect that kind of state-ment from the likes of an Al Sharpton, but not from a Missouri governor. Missouri deserves better.Rich Stanze • Manchester

Civil rights are not a reality for all AmericansThe last time we remember pictures like those taken by Post-Dispatch photogra-phers of last week’s events in Ferguson was during the conflict over apartheid in South Africa. The police/military in both situa-tions were mostly white and the protesters mostly not. South African authorities used the police and military to oppress black South Africans under apartheid, separating

them from the rest of their society. Actions in Ferguson of militarized police responding to mostly peaceful protests were frighten-ingly similar.

The police in America have always been agents of social control employed by the government we choose. The rights of citi-zens in a democracy have come into confl ict with these agents way too often. Actions of police during the civil rights movement, and the courage and sacrifi ce of protesters expressing their rights, give us historical insight into the exercise of social control. We no longer have lynching, but police responses ending in the death of African-American men throughout this country indicate civil rights are not a reality for all Americans.

When we look at the social contract in the United States, implied is the right to a decent education, good health care, ad-equate housing and a family-supporting job. Instead, we have two systems, one for people who are poor, particularly African-Americans, and another for white people. The social contract expressed in our docu-ments of freedom is in default for African-Americans. Failing public schools, higher incidence of chronic disease, limited hous-ing opportunity and high unemployment are what African-Americans may expect. Add to this institutional racism the daily prejudice of their white neighbors and the result is oppression.

South Africa has moved from apartheid to democracy. We seem to be moving in the other direction.John and Joyce Pachak • St. Louis

Ferguson police chief must step down or be removedI have watched with deep concern the events that have transpired since the execu-tion of Michael Brown. I have gone to the Ferguson area on two of the nights follow-ing this horrible event to support the push for true peace and justice. I have seen Fer-guson Police Chief Tom Jackson repeatedly make vague, disingenuous and misleading remarks on too many occasions, e.g., that he had not seen, talked to, or had specific knowledge of what transpired between the officer and Michael Brown. Wasn’t there

then a sergeant, lieutenant of other higher-ranking officer who took command of the scene? It does not appear so, or perhaps this has remained secret also.

He appears far more interested in pro-tecting the specifi cs of stories to come than he does in protecting and serving the com-munity. If he expects people to believe that he had no contact and hadn’t seen or talked to the o� cer in question since the incident, and he indicated that only the St. Louis County Police Department would be writ-ing all the reports regarding the incident, then I would say hogwash. He has failed his responsibilities in signifi cant ways that have exacerbated the situation dramatically.

He should be placed on leave immedi-ately, or be given the opportunity to resign, or be terminated.Michael Magrath • St. Louis

Scenes of ill-intentioned punks compromise any criticism of policeThe criticism of the police for not allow-ing peaceful demonstrations is seriously compromised when we have all heard about and seen the countless hours of peaceful marches and then the ugly turn of events when videos captured the scene when things were thrown at the police. Another picture revealed three young men trying to set a Molotov cocktail on fire! Who, in their right mind, believes that people who bring the makings of a Molotov cocktail any-where are intent on being peaceful? Why was there no criticism of that activity? Why didn’t we hear the outcry from the black community about these ill-intentioned punks making a mockery of their heartfelt peaceful demonstrations?

As far as reporters go, and even the one alderman: Why would any reputable pub-lication suggest that that particular group has a right to stay when the police tell peo-ple to clear an area that is under threat? If they are so stupid as to think orders such as this don’t apply to them, then they deserve to be arrested. Some media outlets in this country make a sham of common sense and the truth, and no one is served when the public is deceived.L. Maguire • Rock Hill

KSDK’s apology is meaninglessRegarding your Aug. 17 article, “Station apologizes for video showing officer’s home”:

With all of the tragic events in Ferguson last week, it was totally senseless and irresponsible for television station KSDK (Channel 5) to show a video of the home of the Ferguson police officer. In their rush to be first, they hit a new low in TV journalism. This was careless journalism at its worst. Their after-the-fact apology is meaningless.John Davis • St. Charles

McClellan avoids the infl ammatory rhetoricCongratulations to Bill McClellan for his Friday column, “Hey, world: We’re fine here — for now.” In just two half-page columns, McClellan gave a simple, concise summary of events surrounding the tragic death of Michael Brown.

And he did it without the use of the infl ammatory rhetoric that has been so widely used by national and local media, including the Post-Dispatch. Example:

McClellan says Michael Brown “was shot to death by a police o� cer Saturday.” In the editorial, “We have issues” (Aug. 14), the Post-Dispatch says, “Michael Brown’s life was cut short Saturday afternoon by a hail of bullets from a police o� cer’s gun.”

Also, regarding the “We have issues” editorial, I have little interest in, or give little credence to, the observations of professional racist Al Sharpton regarding problems in St. Louis.Clair K. Bellows • St. Louis

Why wasn’t looting of liquor store stopped?On Saturday morning, State Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson said, “Last night was a good night; nobody was hurt.” I do believe the owner of Ferguson Market and Liquor was hurt by the theft and vandalism that occurred at his store. Did that action con-stitute a felony? My question is, why did law enforcement watch it happen and not arrest the perpetrators?Bob Pape • Manchester

YOUR VIEWS • LETTERS FROM OUR READERS

DAN MARTIN • dmartin@post-dispatch.com

08.19.2014 • Tuesday • M 1 sT. LOuIs POsT-dIsPaTCH • A15

For decades, structures have existed that created and sustained Ferguson’s damaged relationship with its police. They have quietly worked their magic, and brought about the shooting of Michael Brown. They are the structures that create unequal and over-whelmingly disparate outcomes between black and white. They are screaming for attention now, not just in St. Louis County but around the United States. Anger and frustration has its place, but this moment cannot be underes-timated for its power to transform. How do we implement long-term change?

Structural racism exists even when individual racism does not. Well-meaning people often put policies and practices into play that have unintended outcomes. We can judge that in anger, or we can reform those policies and practices.

First agreement: We all have

bias. It’s always present, and when it negatively impacts our interac-tions with people, we are utterly unconscious about it. Second agreement: We want to brag about our good police colleagues and departments. We want to feel safe where we live. When we need protection, it is the police who will be there for us. Third agreement: This is a two-way conversation. We have individual and collective responsibility to help our police do the best job they can.

I call on our regional police chiefs to consider their general orders, departmental policies, and personal interactions that maintain uneven outcomes. Some of these areas have been men-tioned this week. What are your policies around arrest? How do your officers exercise discretion? How can you influence bonds for varied offenses and prevent residents from being caught up in the debtor’s prison of the justice

system? How can you think out of the box when penalties are not always about fines or jail, espe-cially for youth? How do you train your officers to truly recognize when their bias becomes unlawful discrimination? How often are you meeting with minority com-munity leaders to talk about their concerns? How often are your officers in schools or at commu-nity-building events?

I ask all minority community leaders to call your police chiefs, sit down, talk, debate, and learn. It’s about partnership. Community-oriented policing succeeds when police and residents are allies who share a common goal — enhanc-ing the quality and safety of our neighborhoods. What does your department really need to know about your community’s rhythm, its temperature? How can you support officers in your schools? How will you help your local department understand the shifts

and concerns that affect your community?

Before the events of this week, regional departments faced accu-sations of not only bias but charges of civil rights violations. Kirkwood and St. Ann Chiefs Jack Plummer and Aaron Jimenez have force-fully addressed the structures that maintained unequal and unlawful outcomes. They talked with com-munity leadership. They increased anti-bias education for their offi-cers. They changed departmental policies that resulted in disparate outcomes for their black and His-panic residents, respectively. It’s not a short-term fix for Kirkwood and St. Ann; it’s the work of every-day policing. The same is neces-sary for Ferguson.

The structure of racism exists within policies and laws, in institutional practices, and in our own unintended biases. There is currently a statute in Missouri that addresses racial profiling in

policing. It is flawed. For ADL’s part, we pledge to amend that statute in the coming year, and while legislating away bias is a fantasy, we can adopt those mea-sures that will improve policing in this state for minority communi-ties. We will look to our partners in policing, in education, and in community development to define and publicly identify the institu-tional practices that will improve community relations and rebuild trust.

Finally, we ask that all our brothers and sisters join together as allies to challenge the biases we share, unconscious or open. St. Louisans are impressive beyond the surface of color, gender, ethnic background or attire. We have something to learn, and now something to offer the world.

Karen J. Aroesty is regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, Missouri/Southern Illinois.

The fire this time is about invisibility. Our society expects the po-lice to keep unemployed, poorly educated African-American men out of sight and out of mind. When they suddenly take center stage, illuminated by the flash and flicker of Molotov cocktails, we feign surprise.

The proximate cause of the rioting in Ferguson, Mo., is the kill-ing of 18-year-old Michael Brown, who was stopped, a witness has said, by a white policeman for walking in the street rather than on the sidewalk. Officer Darren Wilson shot Brown at least six times, according to a private autopsy and, reportedly, one conducted by the county medical examiner. Two of those bullets struck him in the head.

There we have the familiar narrative: another unarmed black man unjustly killed. Brown thus joins a long, sad list — Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, etc. — that seems to have no end.

This storyline is unassailable. Anyone who thinks race is not a factor in these fatal encounters should have to cite examples of unarmed young white men being killed by trigger-happy police or self-appointed vigilantes. Names and dates, please.

But the violence in Ferguson tells of a deeper, more fundamen-tal narrative about what African-Americans have done, and what has been done to them, in the decades since the urban riots of the 1960s — the fire last time.

Tempted to conclude that nothing has changed? Please note that the Missouri highway patrol commander, brought in to bring proportion and discipline to what had been a provocative local police response, is black. The attorney general who interrupted his Martha’s Vineyard vacation to order a Justice Department investigation and a third autopsy is black. And, of course, the president and commander in chief — who also took time from a Vineyard holiday to address the crisis in Ferguson — is black.

Also note that this undeniable evidence of progress on the issue of race — which would have been unimaginable when Harlem exploded in 1964 over the police shooting of a 15-year-old boy — makes no apparent difference to the young men who have been rampaging through the streets of Ferguson.

Why not? Because the tremendous gains achieved by some African-Americans have not just left some others behind but made their situation more desperate and hopeless than it was 50 years ago.

When the unrest in Ferguson is over, I predict that there will be a flood of ambitious journalism seeking to assess the status of black America. Most of this analysis will be ignored because it will so contradict what many Americans see every day with their own eyes.

Millions of African-Americans took advantage of the oppor-tunities created by the civil rights movement to climb into the middle class — and in some cases far beyond, as exemplified by President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder.

Yet millions of other black Americans did not reach the middle class. This group, mired in poverty and dysfunction, finds the paths others took are blocked. They live in neighborhoods with failing schools that cannot prepare them for today’s economy. Secure, high-paying blue-collar jobs are a thing of the past. Racial bias in policing means they are much more likely to be arrested and jailed for minor nonviolent offenses, such as drug possession, than whites who commit the same crimes.

Increasingly, these African-Americans who were left behind are invisible. Their neighborhoods either get gentrified — which means they can no longer afford to stay there — or simply bypassed by development. What happens in poor black neighbor-hoods has less and less to do with the everyday lives of middle-class Americans, white or black.

Yet in Ferguson and other such pockets across the nation, mil-lions of young black men and women grow up knowing that the deck is stacked against them. Did Michael Brown have a chip on his shoulder? Not according to his friends and family, although the convenience store video suggests otherwise. Would it be understandable if he did? Might he have wondered if white kids, living in more affluent parts of town, routinely got hassled by the police for jaywalking?

Brown had no police record. He had graduated from high school. He was about to enter a technical college. Given where he came from, it’s hard to do a whole lot better — and easy to do a whole lot worse.

Now that the streets are filled with incoherent rage — and the rioting must be strongly condemned — we can see Brown’s struggle. Momentarily, at least. After the smoke clears, we will be blind once again.

Copyright the Washington Post

Nancy K. Wenger of Ferguson says, “I speak for many, many citizens of Ferguson, including the diverse neighborhood in which I live. What you see related to the shooting death of Michael Brown bears no resemblance to the real Ferguson.”

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KAren J. Aroesty

EugEnE Robinson • eugenerobinson@washpost.com

Our responsibility • We must work to improve policing in Missouri for minority communities.

Black America • despite tremendous gains achieved by some african-americans, others are more desperate and hopeless.

Getting rid of structural racism

The ones left behind

We have the attention of America. The Mike Brown Issue is as segre-gated as our neighborhoods. Some people think that it is just about an officer killing an unarmed kid. Some people think that it is just about Officer Darren Wilson defending his own life. Other peo-ple like myself realize that there is a deeper issue that has been smol-dering for years and it has now blown up in our faces. Here’s what the world doesn’t know about St. Louis:

We have not made educating some of our children a priority. Yet somehow, we thought they would just disappear. We bus children into our suburbs, and although we do not want them there, we gladly accept the tax dollars that they bring with them.

In St. Louis, we are so generous! Especially around the holidays. We adopt families, we give poor people food, toys, clothes, shoes, etc. You name it. If it is something that will sustain them temporarily, you bet they can have it. Not being shy, we even brag to our friends about what we did for those kids. Now don’t get us wrong; we are not overly generous! We don’t care much when it comes to education and the skills needed to survive in this world long term. Now that’s for our kids! Their parents need to take care of that! Although we’re not quite sure how because they too were likely raised without an education. So when the parents come to us for jobs, even though they are a hard worker, we can’t give them jobs because we might not have any left for us.

So, in essence, we created a monster here in our city. We thought it was OK because it did not affect us. We were free to peacefully go down to Ballpark Village, spend more money at Starbucks than some people spend

on gas, and quietly pretend that the images of the Arch represent our great city.

Another unspoken truth is that we are primarily separated by ZIP code. Long ago, real estate agents red-lined and steered people in the right direction based on what they looked like. We are fine knowing that we do not have to live near them. Our MetroLink transporta-tion has helped us by ensuring that it does not come too far.

Our media helps to keep the ball rolling by nightly displaying images of the criminals we fear. Each night we hear “a shooting on the near North Side.” Yep, we take pride in saying “told ya so!” However, some of the people in St. Louis notice something different. They too are saddened and tired of the crime rate, but find it interest-ing that the local news does not travel very far out. It’s confusing to because it can be seen from A&E that Missouri is the “Meth Capital of the World.” We see some differ-ent images. Yet, we did not see that on the local news. Then A&E does it again and Bill Kurtis tells us that heroin is running rampant in West County! Wow, did not see that on our news either. I mean I saw a quick announcement on a town hall meeting, but nowhere did we see all the cases of overdosing. So we quickly learn the lesson that it is not that kids all over don’t have problems, instead some problems are covered up and addressed because of the resources available.

So now our beautiful city of parks, AAA schools, Imo’s, and Ted Drewes is under siege. The problems that we have swept under the rug for years has now come back to haunt us with a ven-geance. To undo the damage done, we have to come together and do things differently and collectively for our city.

What is the solution? As a city, we have to own it. We have to stop dismissing and discounting children that we don’t understand or have no use for. As employers, we have to stop the practice of not hiring people based on what they look like. Yes, we know its illegal but only if its proved. In HR, we need to stop skipping over resumes because of an ethnic name. As employees, we need to inquire about diversity. If you as an individual know a person’s character and work ethic, but you see he/she can’t find work, instead of feeling sorry for them, you need to call one of your many business contacts. It’s not that hard to do, if you really care.

Look around you. In my build-ing at work, there are three floors. Each day I see a total of four people that look like me. A female accountant, a female cleaning lady and a male cook down in the cafeteria. Sorry folks, I am not that special that there are no other qualified people of color to work in this building. I’m grateful to be able to earn a comfortable living to support my children. However, I am not satisfied with this knowing that there are people that struggle with providing daily basic neces-sities for their children. Contrary to the popular policy instituted by President Bush, children are being left behind! And if no one values their life, they will not value yours. It’s just that simple. We broke this as a city, and now we need to stop pointing fingers and fix this as a city.

Charletta Taylor of Chesterfield is the founder and director of Quality of Life, a faith-based organization established to provide services to children from single-parent households while training and mentoring women in the areas of parenting skills, education and obtaining financial stability.

ChArlettA tAylor

Racism • We created a monster here in our city. Now it’s time to fix that.

The unspoken truth about St. Louis

the Killing of Michael Brown

J.b. FoRbEs • jforbes@post-dispatch.com A protester tries to throw a tear gas canister back at the police Sunday night.