Riot police face heavy gunfire

2 demonstrators shot as Obama appeals for calm on the streets

US police said early on Tuesday they came under heavy gunfire and arrested 31 people during another night of racially charged protests in Ferguson, Missouri, sparked by the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white policeman 10 days ago.

Demonstrations, mostly peaceful but with spasms of violence by smaller groups, have flared since Michael Brown, 18, was shot dead while walking down a residential street on Aug 9.

State Highway Patrol Captain Ron Johnson, who is in charge of security in Ferguson, briefed reporters on Monday's night's violence, saying "our officers came under heavy gunfire" in one area.

Demonstrators no longer faced the neighborhood's midnight-to-5 am curfew, but police told protesters that they could not assemble in a single spot and had to keep moving. After the streets had been mostly cleared, authorities ordered reporters to leave as well, citing the risk from gunfire that had been reported.

"Not a single bullet was fired by officers despite coming under heavy attack," he told a news conference. Riot police had confiscated two guns from protesters and what looked like a gasoline bomb.

Four police were injured by thrown objects, and some of the protesters in the crowd of about 200 came from as far away as New York and California, Johnson said.

Johnson separately told CNN that two people were shot within the crowd, but not by police, and were hospitalized. There was no immediate word on their conditions.

The violence has captured headlines around the world, raising questions about the state of US race relations nearly six years after Americans elected their first black president.

"This has to stop. I don't want anybody to get hurt. We have to find a way to stop this," said Johnson, an African-American who grew up in the area and who took over security efforts after the mostly white local force was accused of using excessive force against blacks.

An overnight curfew was imposed, and the National Guard, the US state militia, has been deployed in the St. Louis suburb of 21,000 people to stop looting and burning that have punctuated the protests.

US President Barack Obama and civil rights leaders have appealed for calm while a federal investigation into the shooting proceeds.

"While I understand the passions and the anger that arise over the death of Michael Brown, giving in to that anger by looting or carrying guns, and even attacking the police, only serves to raise tensions and stir chaos," Obama told a news conference on Monday.

"It undermines, rather than advancing, justice."

Monday night's clashes between riot police and protesters followed hours of mostly peaceful demonstrations, Reuters witnesses said.

Police had closed a roadway to traffic to provide a path for marches, but said a smaller group within the larger crowd hurled bottles, rocks and gasoline bombs at officers standing near armored vehicles. Police responded by firing gas-filled canisters and using a noise cannon to try to disperse the throng.

Some demonstrators, including a church minister using a megaphone, urged crowds to calm down.

There have been largely peaceful protests over Brown's killing elsewhere in the US, including St. Louis, New York City, Seattle and Oakland.

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency in Ferguson on Saturday and a curfew from midnight to 5 am. He also mobilized the National Guard to back up state police.

Reuters - AP - AFP

(China Daily 08/20/2014 page11)