Police in riot gear clashed with protesters who had gathered in the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, to mark the anniversary of the police shooting of an unarmed black teen whose death sparked a national outcry over race relations.
About 200 demonstrators, some waving flags, beating drums, and shouting anti-police slogans, marched along a street that was a flashpoint of riots that erupted last year after white police officer Darren Wilson shot dead 18-year-old black teen Michael Brown.
Police made several arrests, including nine people on Monday evening after a group of protesters briefly blocked the roadway.
Police carrying shields rushed into a crowd of protesters around midnight, many of whom started screaming and running from the area. Some protesters threw water bottles and rocks at officers, who used bullhorns to order people out of the street or face arrest.
Authorities declared a state of emergency on Monday for the St Louis suburb and surrounding areas after police officers shot and critically wounded a man in an exchange of gunfire Sunday night, marring what had been a day of peaceful demonstrations.
Ferguson resident Roberta Lynch, 51, was among the demonstrators on Monday evening. She said relations between police and the community had improved little over the past year.
“They are doing the same old stuff, taking our rights,” Lynch said. “They need to give us our space.”
Monday’s demonstrations capped a day of civil disobedience called by activists to protest against the shooting of Brown and other unarmed black men by police across the United States.
Clergy and civil rights groups led a series of protests, staging a demonstration at a courthouse in St Louis where 60 people were arrested, including Princeton University professor and activist Cornel West, according to a protest organiser.
Police arrested dozens of protesters who blocked rush-hour traffic on Interstate 70 a few miles from Ferguson hours later, according to a Reuters witness.
The death of Brown and a grand jury’s decision to spare the white officer from criminal charges led to a wave of demonstrations that boiled over into rioting and arson at times and spawned sympathy rallies across the country.
Brown’s death also prompted greater scrutiny of racial bias within the US criminal justice system, giving rise to the “Black Lives Matter” movement that gained momentum from similar incidents in cities such as New York, Baltimore, Los Angeles, Cincinnati and, most recently, Arlington, Texas..