Calm restored in Ferguson after days of protests

New York, Nov 28 (IANS/EFE) Ferguson town in the US state of Missouri celebrated the Thanksgiving Day after calm was restored as violence followed the decision by a grand jury not to indict a white police officer for shooting an unarmed black teenager to death.

Ferguson, a suburb of St. Louis, has been trying to regain normalcy after the violent protests Monday and Tuesday that resulted in more than 120 arrests and substantial material damage.

A number of residents Thursday interrupted their Thanksgiving celebrations to come to Canfield Drive, where an improvised monument of flowers and stuffed animals has been set up to memorialise 18-year-old Michael Brown.

Protests against the grand jury decision not to indict policeman Darren Wilson in Brown's killing continued Wednesday night in Los Angeles with cases of violence and arrests of several dozen people.

The protests spread to 170 cities across the US.

Wilson, a 28-year-old police officer, shot Brown Aug 9 claiming that the youth was belligerent and attacked him, saying he felt his life was in danger.

In an interview this week, Wilson said he shot Brown in self-defence and that he had a clear conscience, whereas several eyewitness accounts describe the incident as the cold-blooded murder.

--IANS/EFE

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