WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Protests are scheduled to take place at the memorial of African-American teen Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri at 6 pm on Wednesday, Lou Downey, a spokesperson from the organization leading the protests told Sputnik.
“In Ferguson, tonight we call for a protest at the memorial of Mike Brown to protest this Department of Justice decision to not prosecute Darren Wilson,” Stop Mass Incarceration Network spokesperson Lou Downey told Sputnik on Wednesday ahead of the protests.
The protest is organized in response to the US Department of Justice (DOJ) decision earlier on Wednesday to clear Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, who fatally shot Brown on August 9, 2014, of US federal criminal civil rights charges.
“This [DOJ] decision is a slap in the face to Mike Brown’s family and all those people who have stood up to justice,” Downey said. “It acts to white wash and justify the brutal murder of Mike Brown.”
“As long as the Department of Justice gives the green light to not just Darren Wilson’s murder of Mike Brown… it gives the green light to killer cops around the country, Downey warned. “Nothing fundamental is going to change, nothing is going to stop.”
Downey said that Wednesday’s protest would be followed by a “Shut Down Business as Usual” protest on April 14 to keep the momentum going to end US-racially motivated police killings and brutality.
Downey explained that there will be “no work, no school, walk outs on campuses” on April 14 in order to end the “business as usual’ of police killings of African Americans and Latinos.
The DOJ’s investigation into the Brown killing sought to determine whether the evidence leading up to teen’s death was sufficient to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Wilson’s actions violated federal civil rights laws.
The report marks the conclusion of a lengthy investigation of the Ferguson shooting, which sparked outrage and waves of often-violent demonstrations in the city as well as across the United States.
