Six Days in Ferguson: Voices From the Protests
Here is a day-by-day chronology of what happened in Ferguson, drawn from the best reporting by journalists and witnesses on the ground.By Lois Beckett, ProPublica
On Saturday afternoon, a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri shot and killed an unarmed black teenager, 18-year-old Michael Brown. The killing sparked immediate protests in Ferguson which was followed by a heavily militarized police response that drew national condemnation.
Here is a day-by-day chronology of what happened in Ferguson, drawn from the best reporting by journalists and witnesses on the ground.
Saturday, August 9
“I know they killed my son. This was wrong and it was cold-hearted… [He] doesn’t kill, steal or rob. He doesn’t do any of that.”
“Ferguson police just executed my unarmed son!!!”
“Police have brought out the large gear in #Ferguson.”
—Tweet from St. Louis alderman Antonio French, Saturday, 4:35 pm.
“Don’t shoot me!”
Sunday, August 10
“We want this to come to a conclusion quickly.”
“How can we protect our children?”
—A mother screams at County Executive Charlie Dooley as he visits the protesters.
“Ferguson killed my son. Ferguson flat-out murdered my son in the street.”
—Brown’s stepfather, Louis Head, sitting by a memorial for Brown on Sunday.
“It’s bad… I don’t blame the police, but they can’t keep up.”
Monday, August 11
“Michael Brown didn’t get due process. The still unnamed police officer who shot the 18-year-old black teenager dead in Ferguson will get plenty of it.”
“After that was done and people were leaving, I remember seeing him off to the side. He kind of just came up to me and said, ‘We made it.'”
—Raquan Smith, one of Brown’s friends, describing what Brown told him the day he graduated.
“This is exactly what is supposed to be happening when an injustice is happening in your community. You have kids getting killed for nothing.”
—DeAndre Smith talks to a Post-Dispatch reporter about the looting on Sunday night.
“Look out here right now. The lack of black police officers either on the street or at the administrative level… This whole area, this city is a racial powder keg.”
“Fuck the police.”
—Julie Bosman of The New York Times describes what protesters are singing in Ferguson, 6:46 pm .
“Insurance is high, gas is high, but that’s not why I get mad. At the end of the day, when I’m driving home, they ask me to pull over and get out of the car. No ‘license and registration, please.‘ Get out of the car. Lay on the ground. Put your hands on your head.”
—Ricky Jones, 34, at a protest in Ferguson on Monday night .
“These are the next kids to get shot, right here.”
—St. Louis resident Troy Woods describing the young demonstrators massed on a hill on Monday night.
“These m———— came out of the cut and sprayed me in the face like this is a f—– video game or something.”
“You have a son, I have a daughter. Let’s go home now.” “No, I’m tired of putting up with this.”
Tuesday, August 12
“He’d accomplished it. In the last two months, man, Mike was there every doggone day and he was giving it his full effort.”
“‘Get the f—k on the sidewalk.’ His exact words were get the f—k on the sidewalk.”
“This is how the boy died! With his hands up in the air!”
“See this dent? I got smacked in the head with a flashlight because I didn’t say, ‘Yes, sir.’ I was 14 years old.”
“We’ve sold a variety of handguns, shotguns and AR-15s. All of the sales are having to do with home defense.”
“Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot!”
Wednesday, August 13
“Very shaken.”
“The clock is ticking and the time is late. This situation has been thirty years in the making.”
—Malik Ahmed, the C.E.O. of Better Family Life in Ferguson, to New Yorker writer Jelani Cobb.
“This story’s going to get out there. It’s going to be on the front page of The Washington Post tomorrow.” “Yeah, well, you’re going to be in my jail cell tonight.”
“Oh, God.”
Thursday, August 14
“We have a right to protest 24 hours a day. Our constitutional rights don’t expire at 9 p.m.”
“We are appalled.”
—Washington Post Executive Editor Martin D. Baron, in a statement on Lowery’s arrest.
“We must demilitarize the police.”
—Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) decries the use of military-style force against protesters in Ferguson.
“The police response needs to be demilitarized.”
“There is never an excuse for violence against police or for those who would use this tragedy as a cover for vandalism or looting. There’s also no excuse for police to use excessive force against peaceful protests or to throw protesters in jail for lawfully exercising their First Amendment rights… we’re all part of one American family.”
“I don’t want to see tanks on American streets, period.”
—Iraq war veteran Tyson Manker, 33, to Los Angeles Times journalist Matt Pearce, in Ferguson.
“This is a place where people work, go to school, raise their families, and go to church… But lately it’s looked a little bit more like a war zone and that’s unacceptable.”
“I’m not afraid to be in this crowd.”
“Tell her Capt. Johnson is sorry and he apologizes.”
—Johnson responds to a man who asks what he would say to his niece, who had been tear-gassed.
“Yes, that is Thomas the Train.”
—FOX2 reports on changed tone of the protests on Thursday night.
“Weird party/protest vibe hard to explain, it’s a Partest.”
—Post-Dispatch photographer David Carson, describing mood on Thursday night.
“I’m excited… relieved.”
“It is a celebration. Now, we can focus on Mike.”
Friday, August 15
“The officer who was involved in the shooting of Michael Brown was Darren Wilson.”
—After nearly a week of protests, Ferguson police chief Thomas Jackson names the officer who shot Michael Brown. Wilson is a six year veteran of the force with no disciplinary record. He was responding to a “strong-arm” robbery at a convenience store. Wilson encountered Brown at 12:01. By 12:04, when another officer arrived, Brown had been fatally shot.
“Where’s the footage?”
“Stills from the convenience store.”
—Reporters, including Los Angeles Times reporter Matt Pearce, immediately share the two pages of images the police provided to journalists.
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