It was freezing, snowing and a busy travel day before a holiday, but authorities were still expecting protesters to show up outside police headquarters in Ferguson on Wednesday night.
A line of National Guard members stood outside the police department’s offices but by early evening the mood was much calmer than the two nights since a grand jury decided not to indict Ferguson police Officer Darren Wilson.
A one-mile stretch of West Florissant Avenue, the site of previous protests, was closed to cars and pedestrians, with authorities saying the burned out buildings on the route are crime scenes.
As Ferguson residents looked around on Wednesday morning, they didn’t see the kind of damage inflicted on the city a day earlier.
There were fewer arrests and fewer instances of vandalism Tuesday night than the night before. And while there was plenty of anger among residents, it was channeled in chants and not chaos.
“We were perhaps not optimistic, but we were at least hopeful we would have a better night,” said St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar.
There were ugly incidents, though.
Some rowdy protesters flipped over a police cruiser briefly, broke out its windows and set it on fire. Police moved in quickly to snuff it out.
The acrid smell of pepper spray filled the air. Eyes were burning. Throats were scratchy.
Elsewhere, vandals broke windows and trashed businesses. St. Louis County police said protesters hurled bottles of “what appears to be urine” at them.
A car was set ablaze at a parking lot near Michael Brown’s memorial — which still stands where the unarmed teen was killed on August 9 — but sporadic gunfire in the area stopped officers from responding, Belmar said.
Officers said they seized a Molotov cocktail and made 44 arrests — far fewer than Monday night, when anger and dismay over a grand jury’s decision not to indict a white police officer in Brown’s killing led to violence authorities say surpassed the tumult that erupted after the shooting itself.
“A day before, we were kind of on different pages,” Missouri State Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson said. “But what I’m hearing from this community is that we are all on the same page to make our community whole and make sure it stays whole.”
Nationwide protests
As in Ferguson, outrage over the grand jury’s decision escalated from coast to coast, with protests in at least 130 cities nationwide.
From New York to Los Angeles and dozens of cities in between, protesters flooded the streets to denounce the grand jury’s decision. Some demonstrations blocked bridges, tunnels and major highways, but the protests were largely peaceful.
“They have given us no justice! We will give them no peace,” protesters chanted as they massed in front of the Underground Atlanta shopping mall.
In the New York area, demonstrators briefly blocked one of the entrances to the Lincoln Tunnel.
“We are on the side of Michael Brown to fight for what is right,” the Rev. Al Sharpton said. “We may have lost round one, but the fight is not over.”
Darren Wilson speaks out
Meanwhile, in his first interview since the fatal shooting, Wilson maintained that he killed Brown, 18, out of fear for his life during their encounter.
In the interview with ABC News, he said his response had nothing to do with race.
“I know I did my job right,” he said.
Repeating what he told the grand jury, Wilson said Brown reached into his police vehicle and grabbed for his gun.
“I just felt the immense power that he had. And then the way I’ve described it is, it was like a 5-year-old holding onto Hulk Hogan. That’s just how big this man was,” Wilson said. “He was very large, very powerful man.”
Avoiding a repeat
Back in Ferguson, authorities were determined Tuesday to prevent a repeat of Monday night’s violence.
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon ordered additional National Guard troops to the area, boosting their numbers from 700 to 2,200.
“We are not your enemy,” protesters chanted at officers who stood in full riot gear. “We just want justice.”
Cleaning up
Earlier Tuesday, volunteers helped clean up vandalized stores and eateries and boarded up broken windows and doors.
Some residents carried guns and said volunteers were protecting houses on the streets off South Florissant Road.
Armed men carrying assault rifles paced the roof of Beauty World, a store that was badly damaged in Monday’s protests.
Also Tuesday, St. Louis police identified a man who was found shot to death and set on fire.
Belmar told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper that he isn’t discounting the possibility that the death was linked to Monday night’s violence.
Deandre Joshua, 20, was found behind the wheel of a Pontiac in a parking lot, just down the street from Canfield Green Apartments, near where Brown was killed.
Joshua had been shot in the head, police said. An accelerant was used to set him on fire, but the fire went out on its own, police said. He had burns to his arm, fingers and both legs.
