The United States of America was rocked last year by protests followed by riots, triggered by the killing of an unarmed black teenager Micheal Brown by Darren Wilson, a white police officer.
Things worsened after the policeman was let off by the court. The turmoil that gripped the US just a year ago, seems to have returned to Ferguson on Brown’s death anniversary.
A state of emergency has been declared in Ferguson after protests on Sunday turned violent towards the evening. A day of protests took an ugly turn when shots were fired while police tried to disperse the protesters shouting anti-police slogans.
An 18 year old black individual was critically injured. The governor of Misissipi condemned the violence as unfortunate and appealed for peaceful protests the following day.
The police said that those firing shots were not protesters, but were instead criminal elements. Around 57 people, including a Princeton university professor Cornel West, were arrested for breaking through barricades.
The emergency allows for the state to provide with security material and financial assistance. It also allows the police to take “necessary action,” needed to maintain order. A woman whose shop was damaged in the rioting, put up a message which read “we should stop killing each other.”