FERGUSON, MO, AUGUST 20 (RIA Novosti) – Demonstrations over the killing of an unarmed black teenager by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri are connected to high unemployment level in the city, protester Charnicholas Walker told RIA Novosti.
“They are building highways all around here, and who gets the jobs but Caucasian males? They are building highways in our back yard and not going to give us work? We have got young guys here. They may be gang members, but they are strong and could do the job,” Walker said.
“All we want is justice. We want equality and we want opportunity. Like anybody else, I want the freedom to walk around normally and not get pulled over by police on the side of the street, just because of the color of my skin,” the protester added.
Ferguson, a mostly-black suburb of St Louis with some 21,000 residents, has been rocked by protests since the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed teen, while walking with a friend down a residential street on the afternoon of August 9.
Missouri National Guard troops have been deployed to tackle the violence, which grew fiercer on Monday night as peaceful protesters were infiltrated by violent looters from as far afield as New York and California, police said.
On Tuesday, protesters threw rocks and Molotov cocktails at police officers, who responded by firing stun grenades and using tear gas to disperse the angry crowd.
According to St. Louis County police, more than 100 people have been arrested since the beginning of the protests.
