A white Ferguson police offer was captured on video aggressively taunting the black protestors who decry the shooting death of unarmed black teen Michael Brown.
“Bring it, all you f–king animals! Bring it!” the officer said during the tense volleying of threats and insults.
Brown, 18, who had graduated from high school and was set to begin college in just a few days, was shot by a police officer in Ferguson, Mo., a suburb of St. Louis. The Ferguson Police Department says Brown assaulted the officer, whose name has not yet been released. Eyewitnesses, however, have disputed that claim and said Brown was shot in cold blood while trying to surrender or flee — not attack an officer as stated in the police report.
The aftermath has been controversial and messy, as peaceful yet spirited demonstrations have been offset by hooligans looking and burning local stores.
“Right now, the small group of people are creating a huge mess,” Ferguson Mayor James Knowles (R) told KTVI-TV in St. Louis. “Contributing to the unrest that is going on is not going to help … We’re only hurting ourselves, only hurting our community, hurting our neighbors. There’s nothing productive from this.”
Protesters have been raising their hands and chanting, “Hands up, don’t shoot” and “We are Michael Brown” as well as “No justice, no peace” and “Killer cops have got to go” have also been frequent refrains at the marches.
The racial animus has been brewing for years, emanating from a mostly African-American suburb but hardly any African-American public officials. According to the Los Angeles Times, “Ferguson’s police chief and mayor white. Of the six City Council members, one is black.
Other disturbing numbers reveal part of the source of the racial tensions:
- The local school board has six white members and one Latino.
- Of the 53 commissioned officers on the police force, three are black, said Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson.”
- Blacks are also disproportionately pulled over by police in Ferguson.
- Whites make up about a third of Ferguson’s population but accounted for 12 percent of the stops by Ferguson police.
- Last year, African-Americans made up 93 percent of the arrests following car stops, even though whites were more likely to have contraband.
With these facts laid before you, particularly that last one, there is no wonder the ethnic hatred, which been brewing beneath the national surface for years, finally had a volcanic eruption when Brown was reportedly shot dead while his hands were up.