Ferguson, the Missouri town that has been rocked by periodic unrest since the killing of an unarmed Black teen by a White police officer last August, is on the boil yet again with two police officers shot at and injured in the early hours of Thursday in the wake of a new wave of protests overnight.
The authorities said the two officers are in serious condition, but expected them to survive. One officer has a bullet lodged in his head. The other was struck in the shoulder. The two, standing alongside 20-odd officers outside the Ferguson police headquarters to keep the protesters at bay, were shot from about 125 yards away. No arrests have been made yet.
The new round of protests follows last week’s release of a damning report by the Obama administration’s Justice Department that found widespread racial discrimination against African-Americans among the police and municipal court establishments of Ferguson. It spoke of disproportionate targeting of blacks for offences and jail sentences.
Although several heads have rolled since the report came out, with Ferguson’s Police Chief Thomas Jackson being the latest to step down, the protesters are not entirely satisfied. They want the entire “racist” police establishment of Ferguson to be disbanded.
The post-midnight shooting of the two police officers came towards the end of the protest rally. St. louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar called it an “ambush”, commenting: “This is beginning at times to be very difficult for any law enforcement agency anywhere to really wrap their arms around.”