ST.
LOUIS — At worship services around this region, clergy on Sunday
called for recovery and healing after a week that began with an
announcement that a grand jury would not indict a white police officer
who shot an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson and that then careened
through looting, fires, and tense standoffs with the police and National
Guard soldiers.
Yet
in many of the messages, there were also calls to continue a movement
raising questions about race and police behavior that followed the
shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown. That momentum and those concerns,
some clergy members said, should not be allowed to fade away or be
forgotten.
“I’m
tired of living a certain way in our city,” the Rev. Shaun Ellison
Jones, the assistant pastor of Mount Zion Baptist Church-Christian
Complex here, told the mostly black congregation in a simple room with
tile floors. “I’m tired of some unjust laws.”
“As
Christians, our church encourages us to be engaged in the life of the
city, the life of our community,” Mr. Jones said. He urged congregants
to ride a chartered bus to Jefferson City, the state capital, on the
first day of the legislative session in January to make their views
known.
The
problems exposed by Mr. Brown’s death, he added, stretch across the St.
Louis region, with its patchwork of towns and police departments.
“Ferguson,” Mr. Jones said, “is not just in one ZIP code.”
The
White House disclosed Sunday that President Obama was planning a day of
meetings at the White House on Monday to respond to the unrest in
Ferguson and racially tinged anger across the country. And in Ferguson,
city leaders announced Sunday that the police officer who shot Mr. Brown
on Aug. 9, Darren Wilson, was no longer a city employee. Having
submitted his resignation letter after only three years of service,
before he was fully vested, he will receive no pension, severance
package or other benefits, they said.
Officer
Wilson, 28, who had been on paid administrative leave and largely out
of sight since the shooting, resigned after discussions with city
leaders over a period of weeks. He has been a focus of protests in
Ferguson, and he cited the safety of other police officers and the
community among his reasons for stepping down.
In
announcing Officer Wilson’s departure, Mayor James Knowles III said he
saw an opportunity to chart the next steps for Ferguson, which was
battered last week by the looting and fires that followed the grand
jury’s decision, and where daily protests have continued.
“Now
is the time for the city of Ferguson to begin its healing process, with
the citizens of Ferguson and the Police Department,” Mr. Knowles said.
“We truly understand that the past few months have been very difficult
for everyone involved.”
While
some political leaders have pressed privately for broader changes,
including the departure of the police chief and perhaps even the
dissolution of the city police force, Ferguson’s leaders gave no sense
on Sunday that such steps were being seriously considered. Chief Thomas
Jackson said he had no intention of resigning, and city officials cited
plans to recruit more black police officers and give larger stipends to
officers who live in the city.
Chief
Jackson said he had spoken with Officer Wilson recently for the first
time since the shooting. At the time, the chief said, he had not heard
any specific outside threats concerning Officer Wilson’s return to the
force. But, Chief Jackson said, “it’s been a threatening environment all
along.”
“Everybody knows that,” he added.
At
Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church here, where Mr. Brown’s
funeral was held in August, the Rev. Al Sharpton spoke on Sunday to urge
continued support of the cause inspired by Mr. Brown’s death, invoking
the struggles of the civil rights era.
“Ferguson
is to this battle what there was in Selma to the voting battle,” Mr.
Sharpton said. “Every generation must face its battle, and none of it is
easy.”
Mr. Brown’s mother, Lesley McSpadden, and father, Michael Brown Sr., alternately hung their heads and clapped in approval.
“Somehow,
God’s going to use Michael to make this nation deal with police
accountability,” Mr. Sharpton said. “Somehow, God’s going to use this
situation to heal the land.”
Before
the St. Louis Rams’ football game here on Sunday, five Rams players
appeared on the Edward Jones Dome field with arms raised in the hands-up
motion that has become the symbol of this case. Outside the stadium, a
group of protesters gathered, yelling chants like “No justice, no
football” as the police stood watch.
Even
as some school districts in the area were preparing to reopen schools
on Monday for the first time since the grand jury’s decision was
announced last Monday, more protests were planned. They included a
walkout at schools and offices at 12:01 p.m., the time of day when Mr.
Brown was shot.
At
the Episcopal cathedral in downtown St. Louis on Sunday morning, the
Rev. Michael D. Kinman did not immediately begin a sermon, but instead
led his congregation in a song from South Africa’s anti-apartheid
movement. “Oh, yes, I know, freedom is coming,” the mostly white
parishioners sang along with him.
“This
past Monday night, for the second time this year, we watched parts of
our beloved city burn on live television,” Mr. Kinman said. “For nearly
four months, we have heard powerful, young, nonviolent demonstrators cry
out that black lives matter. We have heard terrible stories of the
treatment of people of color at the hands of the police, which many of
us have had to hold in painful tension with the relationships we have
with beloved friends and family who are those police.”
Like
many members of the clergy, Mr. Kinman has been active in the protests.
He participated in a march that prompted an upscale suburban shopping
mall to close temporarily over the weekend, and he stood outside the
Ferguson Police Department for two nights after the grand jury
announcement.
At
least for this Sunday, services of the Flood Christian Church in nearby
Country Club Hills were held beneath a white tent in a parking lot of a
TitleMax office. A few paces away, the faint smell of smoke still
drifted from the church, which was declared a total loss after a fire on
Monday night during the unrest.
“We
pray now for the ones who did this to the Flood Christian Church,”
Carlton Lee, the church’s pastor, said. “We pray first off, God, that
you would forgive them. Secondarily, God, we pray that you will save
them. Thirdly, we pray that you will deliver them, and, fourthly, God,
we pray that you teach us how to love the hell out of them.”
The authorities are investigating the fire, and police cars idled nearby during the service on an overcast afternoon.
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