Reuters, BBC Online :The St. Louis area braced for another day of protests on Tuesday after a grand jury cleared a white police officer in the fatal August shooting of an unarmed black teenager, sparking a night of violent and racially charged rioting.Many in the African-American community had called for Wilson to be charged with murder, but following lengthy deliberations a Missouri grand jury – of nine white and three black members – made no recommendation of charges.About a dozen buildings in suburban Ferguson, Missouri, burned overnight and police fired tear gas and flash-bang canisters at protesters, said St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar. Sixty-one people were arrested, police said.Although no serious injuries were reported, Belmar said the rioting on Monday night and early Tuesday morning was “much worse” than the disturbances that erupted in the immediate aftermath of the shooting of Michael Brown, 18, by police officer Darren Wilson on Aug. 9.Protests also were staged on Monday night in New York, Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles, Oakland, California, and Washington, D.C., over a case that has highlighted long-standing racial tensions not just in predominantly black Ferguson but across the United States.In the city of St. Louis, where windows were broken and traffic was briefly stopped on a major highway overnight, Police Chief Sam Dotson vowed to have a larger police response on Tuesday night.The rioting came despite calls for calm from officials ranging from Missouri Governor Jay Nixon to President Barack Obama. Officials disclosed that ruling well after sunset and hours after saying it was coming, a set of circumstances that led to protesters taking to the streets well after dark.”I didn’t see a lot of peaceful protests out there,” Belmar said, adding that the rioting was “probably much worse than the worst night” of demonstrations in August following Brown’s death.”Unfortunately, this spun out of control,” he said.St. Louis police reported heavy gunfire late on Monday in the area near where Brown was slain, but Belmar said officers did not fire a shot, even after they were pelted with rocks, bottles, batteries and other debris.Wilson could have faced charges ranging from involuntary manslaughter to first-degree murder and Brown’s family said through their lawyers that they were “profoundly disappointed” by the grand jury’s finding.”They want the police to be held accountable, to treat us like Americans, too, so we can get equal justice,” Brown family attorney Benjamin Crump said on CNN. “This system always allows police to hurt and kill our children. We’ve got to change that dynamic.”
