page_title: Ferguson unrest
section_title: Third parties
hierarchical_section_title: Ferguson unrest / Reactions / In the United States / Third parties
caption_attribution_description: English: Protestors gather at the Ferguson, MO police department
context_page_description: The Ferguson unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, involved protests and riots beginning on August 10, 2014, the day after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by police officer Darren Wilson. The unrest sparked a vigorous debate in the United States about the relationship between law enforcement officers and African Americans, the militarization of police, and the use-of-force law in Missouri and nationwide. Continued activism expanded the issues to include modern-day debtors prisons, for-profit policing, and school segregation.
  As the details of the original shooting emerged, police established curfews and deployed riot squads to maintain order. Along with peaceful protests, there was significant looting and violent unrest in the vicinity of the original shooting, as well as across the city. There was also significant media criticism of the militarization of the police when dealing with violent protests in Ferguson. The unrest continued on November 24, 2014, after a grand jury did not indict Officer Wilson. It briefly continued again on the one-year anniversary of Brown's shooting. The Department of Justice concluded Wilson shot Brown in self-defense.
context_section_description: As of December 28, 2014, at least 253 demonstrations had been held worldwide for Michael Brown or in solidarity with Ferguson.
  Local pastors held a vigil on the morning of Sunday, August 10. Another vigil was planned on the same day, at 8:00 p.m. in the area where Brown was killed.
  National vigils and marches occurred on the evening of Thursday, August 14, in over 100 cities around the U.S. with thousands in attendance. They were organized by FeministaJones, using Twitter and the #NMOS14 hashtag.
  Hacktivists claiming an association with Anonymous and operating under the codename "Operation Ferguson" organized cyberprotests by setting up a website and a Twitter account. The group promised that if any protesters were harassed or harmed, they would attack the city's servers and computers, taking them offline. City officials said that e-mail systems were targeted and phones died, while the Internet crashed at the City Hall. Prior to August 15, members of Anonymous corresponding with Mother Jones said that they were working on confirming the identity of the undisclosed police officer who shot Brown and would release his name as soon as they did. On August 14, Anonymous posted on its Twitter feed what it claimed was the name of the officer involved in the shooting. However, police said the identity released by Anonymous was incorrect. Twitter subsequently suspended the Anonymous account from its service.
  A group of Tibetan monks joined the protesters in Ferguson on Sunday, August 17.
  On August 17, about 150 people protested in downtown St. Louis in support of Darren Wilson. The protesters argued that Wilson had been victimized and that any punishment for him would cause law enforcement officers to be "frightened to do their jobs."
  CNN, along with ABC News and others, described the incident as having triggered a national debate on race relations, as well as the use of force and the militarization of the police in the United States.
  The Green Shadow Cabinet, a group led by 2012 Green Party presidential nominee Dr. Jill Stein, stated on August 14 that "[a] healthy response by the local police and government agencies in Ferguson and St. Louis County would have been to immediately announce a full investigation of the shooting and a review of police policies and practices."
  Some veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces criticized the tactics and procedures used by the police during the unrest, including the use of assault rifles in a protest situation. They also criticized the choice to use canine units, which played into racial imagery exacerbating the issue and encouraged engaging the civilian population in dialogue and social media.
  On September 22, protesters received support from a California-based group called We Copwatch to improve the way they record their interactions with the police.
  St. Louis Rams wide receiver Kenny Britt led his teammates Tavon Austin, Jared Cook, Stedman Bailey, and Chris Givens in giving the "Hands up, Don't shoot." gesture when walking on to the field prior to the November 30 contest against the Oakland Raiders. The five came under fire from several media outlets, including Mike Ditka, who called the display "embarrassing."
caption: Protestors gather at the Ferguson police department
exif: {"Image Make": "PENTAX", "Image Model": "PENTAX K-01", "Image XResolution": "240", "Image YResolution": "240", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.6 (Macintosh)", "Image DateTime": "2014:08:15 18:06:45", "Image Artist": "Jamelle Bouie", "Image Copyright": "Jamelle Bouie", "Image ExifOffset": "260", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "868", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "19838", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/200", "EXIF FNumber": "4", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2014:08:14 14:48:09", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2014:08:14 14:48:09", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "477741/62500", "EXIF ApertureValue": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "15", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "34064841/16384", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "34064841/16384", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "3", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "22", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "1", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[15, 15, 4, 4]", "EXIF LensModel": "smc PENTAX-DA 15mm F4 ED AL Limited"}