NEW YORK, October 14 (RIA Novosti) — Protests will continue in the US city of Ferguson until racism is eliminated from the police force, Jamala Rogers of St. Louis Organization for Black Struggle told RIA Novosti on Monday.
"We have taken to the streets this weekend to say 'no more'. No more violence, no more shootings, no more profiling. This is about basic human dignity for the people of our community," said Rogers, a member of the Don't Shoot Coalition, which organized a four-day protest called Ferguson October.
"As the recent shooting and too many others demonstrate, our streets still are not safe from police targeting for many members of our community," Rogers told RIA Novosti.
Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Missouri over the weekend in the latest in a series of mass protests over the killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown. The unarmed African-American teenager was shot to death by white police officer Darren Wilson on August 9 in Ferguson, a suburb of St. Louis.
Police were criticized for using military-grade gear and heavy-handed tactics to quell the protesters after Brown's killing.
A grand jury is set to decide whether to charge Wilson by mid-October. The inquiry hinges on whether the 28-year-old policeman fired in self-defense.
Tensions rose further in St. Louis after another African-American teenager, Vonderrit Myers, was shot dead by a 32-year-old white off-duty police officer last week. Police claimed it was 18-year-old Myers, who first opened fire on the policeman, while his parents stated that their son was a victim of racial profiling.
