Ferguson decision: Michael Brown's family calls the grand jury process 'unfair and broken'
The Brown's lawyer said the teenager is crying out for justice from the grave
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Your support makes all the difference.The family of Michael Brown, the black unarmed teenager who was shot dead by a white police officer, has called the process that led to Darren Wilson not being indicted in the fatal shooting of their son as “unfair and broken”.
The family’s lawyer, Benjamin Crump, spoke on behalf of the Browns at a news conference today, and said they were facing a “terrible, unforgiving hour”.
He told reporters that the family’s lawyers asked for a special prosecutor from the start of the process, and objected to a grand jury hearing. It later emerged that it was "different from any normal grand jury", he claimed.
Brown is now crying out from the grave "you all have to change this system," he said.
“We went through as much evidence as we could and saw how completely unfair this process was, we object as publicly and loudly as we can on behalf of the family that this process is broken.”
Crump went on to questions the methods of the prosecutors who interviewed Wilson, and pointed out that the officer told the jury he hit Brown twice, but previously told police he'd shot him ten times.
“You had to scratch your head to say when is the prosecutor going to cross-examine the killer of an unarmed person? A first-year law student would have done a better job,” he said, the Guardian reported.
Appearing to refer to the unrest caused by the shooting of Brown, Crump continued: “For the sake of the public trust, which is so critical to Ferguson... if that means appointing a special prosecutor who has no relationship with the officers, that you do so.”
Last night's reignited racially-charged protests in the city, and police have arrested 61 people, many for burglary and trespassing, St. Louis County Police spokesman Brian Schellman said.
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There were 21 arrests in St Louis alone, where protesters broke shop windows along South Grand Avenue, St Louis Mayor Francis Slay said.
This morning, firefighters doused the charred remains of some businesses which had been set alight in protests, which had now calmed down.
In the wake of violence over the verdict, Missouri governor Jay Nixon has ordered additional members of the National Guard to be deployed in Ferguson.
Mr Nixon's office announced that the additional guardsmen will provide security at the Ferguson Police Department, which was at the centre of protests.
The violence comes despite pleas for calm from President Barack Obama and the family of the victim Michael Brown.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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