Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Claire Phipps

Ferguson: clashes and arrests during state of emergency – as it happened

Officers and protesters face off along West Florissant Avenue in Ferguson.
Officers and protesters face off along West Florissant Avenue in Ferguson. Photograph: Jeff Roberson/AP

Closing summary

I’m winding down this live blog now. Here are the key developments from the last few hours:

  • Police and protesters have clashed in Ferguson for a second night, as demonstrators sought to mark the anniversary of the killing by police of 18-year-old Michael Brown last August.
  • Earlier on Monday – dubbed “Moral Monday” by protesters who took part in acts of peaceful civil disobedience – more than 120 people were arrested, including around 60 for blocking interstate highway 70.
  • As night fell, protests centred on West Florissant Avenue, where more arrests took place after police insisted demonstrators moved off the roads. Officers used pepper spray; some bottles and rocks were thrown by protesters, but the protest was largely non-violent.
  • Towards the end of the protest, around five so-called oath keepers – militia members who assert it is their duty to disobey official orders that they say contravene the US constitution – arrived on West Florissant, heavily armed. Their presence drew the ire of many protesters who accused them of antagonising an already tense standoff.
Members of the oath keepers walk with their personal weapons on the street during protests in Ferguson.
Members of the oath keepers walk with their personal weapons on the street during protests in Ferguson. Photograph: Lucas Jackson/Reuters

They’re not going to take the street tonight. That’s not going to happen.

St Louis county police officers arrest a demonstrator in Ferguson.
St Louis county police officers arrest a demonstrator in Ferguson. Photograph: Lucas Jackson/Reuters
  • Three prominent protesters – Cornel West, DeRay McKesson and Johnetta “Netta” Elzie – who were arrested during an earlier demonstration outside the federal courthouse were released from custody.
  • Two journalists were charged in relation to arrests made nearly a year ago, during initial protests in the wake of Brown’s death. Huffington Post reporter Ryan Reilly and Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowery, are accused of trespassing and interfering with a police officer.

Thanks for reading and for your comments. You can read our latest dispatch from Ferguson here:

Updated

It looks as if the protests are now drawing to a close – it’s after 2am in Ferguson now.

My colleagues Jon Swaine and Oliver Laughland have filed this dispatch from Ferguson:

Police clashed with hundreds of demonstrators in Ferguson, Missouri, for a second night on Monday after a day of intense protests in which more than 120 people were arrested.

But further gun violence appeared to have been avoided following the ordering of a state of emergency by county authorities and the announcement of criminal charges against a black 18-year-old who was shot by police after allegedly opening fire on their vehicle during chaotic scenes late on Sunday.

Officers in riot gear from St Louis county police and the Missouri highway patrol snatched several demonstrators from the crowds and made more than a dozen arrests through a hot August evening on Monday. Projectiles such as stones and plastic bottles filled with ice were repeatedly thrown at police lines during a standoff on a main street.

“Safety, our top priority, is now compromised,” a St Louis county police spokesman said on Twitter soon after 10pm. “This is no longer a peaceful protest. Participants are now unlawfully assembled.”

At least three men were pinned down and arrested in one abrupt mass swoop on the front of a row of shops by police, which took a large group of protesters by surprise. “They had weapons on them,” one county police officer said to the Guardian about the men arrested, declining to elaborate.

In other confrontations, officers liberally sprayed pepper spray or mace in the eyes of protesters while driving them from the road on to the pavement. But by 2am, as the final protesters dispersed, no teargas or smoke canisters had been used as on several previous nights.

Demonstrators had gathered through the evening on West Florissant Avenue, the site of repeated protests following the fatal shooting last August by a white police officer of Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old. Brown’s death and several others have led to months of unrest around the US and brought a debate over race and policing to the forefront of American public life.

Hundreds of people had descended on Ferguson, a suburb of St Louis, for the first anniversary of Brown’s death on Sunday. Commemoration events over the weekend were followed by a so-called “Moral Monday” comprising acts of peaceful civil disobedience.

The state of emergency order was announced by St Louis county executive Steve Stenger, who said in a statement he was acting “in light of last night’s violence and unrest in the city of Ferguson, and the potential for harm to persons and property”.

A tense standoff continued throughout the night on Monday with protesters grouped on one side of the street and police wearing riot helmets and holding shields on the other.

Police lines were sporadically pelted with bottles and rocks. At one point, as officers broke their lines and chased down a protester who appeared to have thrown a bottle, they pinned the man down and pepper sprayed him in the face.

St Louis County police officers and demonstrators during protests in Ferguson.
St Louis County police officers and demonstrators during protests in Ferguson. Photograph: Lucas Jackson/Reuters

It is now close to 2am in Ferguson and the situation is fairly calm, although some protesters remain on West Florissant Avenue, as do police officers and the armed oath keepers:

Several protesters on West Florissant are using social media to ask what the police response would be if black demonstrators had turned up heavily armed, as the (white) oath keepers have done:

I haven’t yet seen a police comment or tweet on the presence of the militia members.

To add to the tension on West Florissant, five or so men have arrived with assault rifles. They are so-called oath keepers, militia members who assert it is their duty to disobey official orders that they say contravene the US constitution.

Many protesters are not happy to see them:

The oath keepers are reportedly refusing to answer questions from protesters and reporters on the scene about who they are, why they are there and who is paying them.

The St Louis Post-Dispatch has more background on the oath keepers and why they have decided to adopt the Ferguson protests.

More than a dozen people have now been arrested in the evening protests on West Florissant.

These are in addition to nearly 120 arrests during Monday, including close to 60 who were detained after blocking interstate highway 70.

Several of those arrested have been released – including Cornel West, DeRay McKesson and Johnetta “Netta” Elzie – but a number are believed to still be in custody.

Huffington Post reporter Ryan Reilly was one of two journalists charged on Monday in relation to arrests made nearly a year ago, during the initial Ferguson protests in the wake of Brown’s death. Tonight a police officer was seen pushing Reilly and taking his press badge:

Reilly, along with Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowery, is accused of trespassing and interfering with a police officer. He was arrested while working from a McDonalds restaurant as police swept people out of the centre of the city last August.

Associated Press has this on the current situation at the protest site:

Around midnight, a group of more than 50 protesters began marching down the middle of West Florissant Avenue in Ferguson, defying orders from police to clear the roadway.

Police formed a line across the width of the street to meet them, wearing riot shields, helmets and bullet-proof vests. As protesters approached the officers, some threw water bottles at them.

Officers detained some protesters.

Some people gathered on a curb urged those in the street to stop throwing things at police. Another person grabbed a barricade and tossed it into the middle of the street.

For some context to this evening’s protests, the anniversary of Michael Brown’s death and police killings in the US, take a look at this Guardian US interactive:

Police announcements are telling protesters to “back up” and move out of the street. Cars can be seen moving along West Florissant Avenue, so the street is evidently not blocked.

We seem to have returned to the situation earlier in the evening, with protesters on one side of the road, and police on the other.

St Louis county police department have been making liberal use of social media this evening too: this latest tweet confirms it is demanding that protesters “disperse”.

It is just after midnight in Ferguson now and the tensions do not seem to be dying down, although it would be an exaggeration to say that things have moved out of control.

Water bottles, and reportedly rocks, are being thrown at police lines, and further arrests are being made.

Oliver Laughland says officers have moved to split the group of protesters on West Florissant:

The police on West Florissant Avenue have made a move against a group of protesters, my colleagues report from the scene:

Oliver Laughland reports that pepper spray has again been used by officers. At least two fresh arrests were made, he says.

A car has now been surrounded by police officers and is being searched.

Summary

Reuters has filed this latest round-up of tonight’s events:

Police in riot gear contained roughly 200 protesters who had gathered in the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, on Monday to mark the anniversary of the police shooting of an unarmed black teen whose death ignited a national firestorm on race relations.

The demonstrators, some waving flags, beating drums, and shouting anti-police slogans, marched along a street that was a flashpoint of last year’s riots, which erupted after white police officer Darren Wilson shot dead 18-year-old black teen Michael Brown.

Nine people were arrested late on Monday after a group of protesters briefly blocked the roadway, though demonstrations late into the evening were largely peaceful.

Authorities had declared a state of emergency on Monday for the St. Louis suburb and surrounding areas after police officers shot and critically wounded a man in an exchange of gunfire Sunday night, marring what had been a day of peaceful demonstrations.

Police detain a protester in Ferguson, Missouri.
Police detain a protester in Ferguson, Missouri. Photograph: Rick Wilking/Reuters

Among the demonstrators on Monday evening was 51-year-old Ferguson resident Roberta Lynch, who said relations between the police and community had improved little over the past year.

“They are doing the same old stuff, taking our rights,” Lynch said. “They need to give us our space.”

Monday’s demonstrations capped a day of civil disobedience called by activists to protest the shooting of Brown and other unarmed black men across the United States by police.

Tensions grew as darkness fell on Monday, with several confrontations between police wearing riot gear and demonstrators. Small unmanned aerial drones circled above the crowd.

St Louis county police chief Jon Belmar, standing across the street from the demonstrators, told reporters that police officers were going to give protesters leeway to march, but said the authorities also had to maintain public safety.

“We are going to let them vent and we are going to manage it the best we possibly can,” Belmar said. “Last night was pretty out of control at times. Unfortunately, all the good work that’s happening on both sides of the street has been marred by violence.”

Valeri Felix, 13, was with her father taking part in a peaceful protest. My colleague Oliver Laughland spoke to her:

Valeri Felix, 13, was with her father taking part in a peaceful protest in Ferguson.

About 60 protesters were arrested by police earlier after blocking interstate highway 70 in both directions near Ferguson, bringing the day’s total arrests to almost 120 before this evening’s additions.

Traffic was held up as police forcefully confronted demonstrators. Two reporters covering the protest action were briefly detained before being released, they said.

Demonstrators are arrested during a civil disobedience action on US interstate 70 in Earth City, Missouri.
Demonstrators are arrested during a civil disobedience action on US interstate 70 in Earth City, Missouri. Photograph: Michael B. Thomas/AFP/Getty Images

St Louis county police department says “at least nine” people have been arrested this evening so far.

They were arrested for resisting or interfering with arrest, the PD says.

It also says the young woman arrested earlier is 18, not 12 as had been suggested:

West Florissant Avenue runs roughly north to south from Ferguson to St Louis.

Guardian reporter Jon Swaine says typically protests have tended to see police and demonstrators face off along the avenue; tonight has mostly seen officers on one side of the street and protesters on the other.

Those on the scene say there are still several hundred people assembled there.

Map showing West Florissant Avenue, Ferguson.
Map showing West Florissant Avenue, Ferguson. Photograph: Google Maps

The focus for tonight’s protests and police presence is West Florissant Avenue.

The police presence appears pretty heavy, and reinforcements are arriving:

Despite police insistence that they retreat to the sidewalk, protesters appear to have succeeded at least in part in closing the street:

Three prominent protesters who were arrested during an earlier demonstration were released from custody earlier on Monday.

Philosopher Cornel West, DeRay McKesson and Johnetta “Netta” Elzie were among demonstrators detained in plastic handcuffs and arrested by officers from the Department of Homeland Security and St Louis Metropolitan Police at the federal courthouse in the city’s downtown district.

McKesson said he had been charged with “unusually obstructing the usual use of entrances” at the St Louis department of justice building.

You can read McKesson’s comment piece on Ferguson for Guardian US here:

Associated Press has this take – including some bullish words from police chief Jon Belmar:

Police have made several arrests in Ferguson after protesters blocked a traffic lane on West Florissant Avenue.

Officers with bullhorns directed protesters to clear the roadway, and others in riot gear forced people out of the street. Some demonstrators threw water bottles and other debris at officers.

St Louis county police chief Jon Belmar told the Associated Press: “They’re not going to take the street tonight. That’s not going to happen.”

Several people were handcuffed and put into two vans.

“What did I do?” one woman asked repeatedly.

Monday marks the fourth consecutive night of protests marking the anniversary of the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown.

Earlier on Monday, Michael Brown Senior, the father of Michael Brown, thanked supporters for their peaceful protests:

Thank you Ferguson/St Louis and the country for showing up and making the events on Friday, Saturday and Sunday meaningful, inspiring and successful. With your support, we properly honored your friend and my son’s memory.

My family and I are truly humbled by the level of support that we received over this weekend. Our marches were all done very peacefully. So please be careful, mindful and protect yourselves from those who would like to see this be unsuccessful.

There are reports of several arrests being made, though obviously numbers are hard to ascertain at this point.

Concerns have been raised after a 12-year-old girl was reportedly detained by police, although conflicting reports say she could be older:

There are also reports of a few water bottles being thrown in the direction of police – but reports, too, that protesters are calling for this to stop.

My colleagues Jon Swaine and Oliver Laughland send this report from Ferguson:

Police and a few dozen protesters just clashed in West Florissant Avenue outside the branch of McDonalds that became notorious during the Ferguson protests after reporters were arrested.

Officers in riot gear from St Louis County and the Missouri state highway patrol surged into the road when protesters marched past and refused to get on the sidewalk. Several officers squirted mace or pepper spray into the faces of protesters.

I saw three arrests but there appeared to be more. One man was pounced on by officers and detained despite already making it to the sidewalk and a grassy patch outside the restaurant. Several protesters were indignant about being maced as they moved off the road.

St Louis county police chief Jon Belmar, not typically seen on the streets alongside the rank and file, is on the front line tonight. One officer is repeating: “This is the St Louis county police. Get off the roadway. You’re going to back up.”

The atmosphere is edgy and the weather still hot. Today has been a tense day following last night’s shooting and late clashes between police and protesters. A lot of people seem in no mood to go home yet.

Opening summary

Tensions are running high in the city of Ferguson, Missouri, on Monday evening as a heavy police presence faces protesters who have come out to mark the anniversary of the shooting of teenager Michael Brown last year.

Earlier a state of emergency was declared, and within the last half an hour, St Louis county police department has said it no longer considers the protests to be peaceful:

Jon Swaine, my colleague who is reporting from the scene, says police have already charged at groups of protesters:

You can follow Jon’s updates from Ferguson @jonswaine. Guardian US reporter Oliver Laughland is also in the city and tweeting @oliverlaughland.

I will have live coverage of the latest developments here on the live blog, and will tweet key events @Claire_Phipps.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
‘Honestly a PSA’: Woman forgets to pack underwear for a trip. Her ‘trick’ has people vowing to never drink hotel coffee again
A St. Louis woman posted a disgusting and unsanitary life hack that has people questioning every cup of coffee they have ever had in a hotel room. 
The Mary Sue
The Mary Sue
Kelly Osbourne describes grief as a 'quiet weight' - seven months after dad Ozzy Osbourne's death
Kelly Osbourne has described grief as the "quiet weight you learn to carry" - seven months after her dad, Ozzy Osbourne, died.
BANG Premier
BANG Premier
If Bond 26 Is An Origin Story, I Have A Wild Idea For The Movie
There’s an oft-overlooked bit of Bond history that could work here.
Cinemablend
Cinemablend
Who is Adonis? American travel streamer detained after assault clash with Romanian local during viral Bucharest livestream
American streamer Adonis was detained in Bucharest after a livestream fight with a Romanian local who allegedly spat on him. The viral video shows a heated argument before punches were thrown. Police arrived at the scene, and the local was treated by medics. Adonis later posted a cryptic message on…
The Times of India
The Times of India
Turns Out Liza Minnelli And Lady Gaga's Viral Oscars Moment Allegedly Has An Upsetting Backstory
I'm ready to hear more on this.
Cinemablend
Cinemablend
Paris Hilton says she has ‘rejection sensitivity dysphoria’ – here’s what it is and how it’s linked to ADHD
American media personality Paris Hilton recently shared on a podcast that she suffers from rejection sensitivity dysphoria, or RSD. Hilton, who has been diagnosed with ADHD, says the condition is common in people with the disorder. She also spoke of the impact RSD has had on her mental health over…
The Conversation
The Conversation
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.
Download on the AppStore Get it on Google Play