30 November,2014 02:44 AM IST | | Agencies
Demonstrators temporarily shut down three malls, march to the Ferguson police department to protest decision
Ferguson: Disrupting commerce, transit and traffic became focal points for demonstrators across the country days after the announcement that a grand jury in Ferguson, Missouri declined to indict the 28-year-old police officer Darren Wilson who fatally shot 18-year-old Michael Brown.
Police stand guard as protesters gather in front of Ferguson Police Department on November 28, 2014. Pic/AP
Demonstrators temporarily shut down three large malls in suburban St Louis on Black Friday, one of the busiest shopping days of the year, and then marched in front of the Ferguson police department to protest the grand jury's decision. Several stores lowered their security doors or locked entrances as at least 200 protesters sprawled onto the floor while chanting, "Stop shopping and join the movement," at the Galleria Mall in Richmond Heights a few miles south of Ferguson, Missouri, where the officer fatally shot Brown, who was unarmed and a suspect in a robbery, in August this year. The action prompted authorities to close the mall for an hour on Friday afternoon, while a similar protest of about 50 people had the same effect at West County Mall in nearby Des Peres. And several dozen demonstrators led to a temporary closure of the Chesterfield Mall.
Fifteen people were arrested, according to Missouri Department of Public Safety spokesman Mike O'Connell. He said charges would include peace disturbance and impeding the flow of traffic, and two people would be charged with resisting arrest and one with assault.
