SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – US police have arrested seventeen protesters in a Saint Louis neighborhood where demonstrations erupted once again over the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown by a white policeman in Ferguson in summer.
Police officers used pepper spray to subdue the protesters on Sunday as the rallies continued for a third day in the city.
Brown’s death sparked weeks of violent protests in Saint Louis.
Almost 200 protesters gathered early Sunday morning in Shaw, a south St. Louis neighborhood, where another black teenager was killed last week by a white police officer, St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson said.
Riot police were trying to disperse the crowd, but some 50 protesters linked their arms to create a human chain, he added.
Since Brown’s death, three other fatal police shootings of black males have occurred in the area.
The most recent death took place when an off-duty St. Louis officer, who was working for a private neighborhood security patrol, shot and killed 18-year-old Vonderrit D. Myers on Wednesday. The death of Myers Jr. sparked weekend rallies.
The organizers of the demonstrations planned to stage several acts of civil disobedience at undisclosed places on what they called “Moral Monday.”
Meanwhile, police planned to place extra officers at St. Louis’ football and baseball stadiums in an effort to preempt any protests that may happen there.
US police shoot and kill an average of 1,000 people a year, 1 in 4 of whom unarmed, according to a report by the Police Policy Studies Council.
Source: PressTV