FERGUSON, Mo. — The pepper spray and rubber bullets have disappeared from the nightly protests on the streets of Ferguson, but signs of a city in crisis are everywhere.
Nearly two months later, this town remains wired with tension as it waits for a grand jury’s decision of whether Ferguson police Officer Darren Wilson, who is white, will face any charges in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old.
There are mountains of difficulties here, and they have come to underscore the vast differences between those residents who want to get Ferguson back to some semblance of normal and the resolve of those who want anything but.
Businesses remain boarded up. “We love Ferguson” signs are viewed by some as racist rather than expressions of civic pride. And even protesters themselves — who confront police nightly and face arrests — symbolize what life can look like when the social fabric of a place has been torn.
“How we were living before wasn’t normal,” said Dasha Jones, who looks even younger than her 19 years and who is a member of the activist group Lost Voices. “Now we’re learning our rights. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
For weeks, Lost Voices had set up encampments on West Florissant Avenue, blocks from the shooting.
Acting on a business owner’s complaint, police have dismantled the encampment and seized everything Jones and her fellow activists could not pick up in five minutes.
It was the third prominent symbol of this suburb’s struggle that was removed or threatened in a single week. The day before, another business owner near Ferguson’s police department told protesters that they could no longer gather in his parking lot after a nighttime tussle between demonstrators and authorities. And two days before that, a makeshift memorial on the street where Brown lay for hours had partially, inexplicably burned.
The area has become hallowed ground. Residents have replenished the burned memorial with pictures, candles and poems.
Sometimes, a driver will stop to tidy up the community’s tribute.
“We just need to make sure this place stays all right and respectful,” said Lakresha Moore, 34, as she kneeled to make sure teddy bears stood upright.
Concern over the grand jury intensified last week when the St. Louis County prosecutor’s office announced it was investigating allegations of a juror’s misconduct. The process is already tainted with skepticism and suspicion.
Hanging over everything is the question of whether this city will erupt again.
“People are angrier now than ever before,” said Patricia Bynes, the Democratic committeewoman for Ferguson Township. “The police chief has not stepped down. The grand jury has been delayed. The police are taking people’s stuff. And we have to learn the law because the police are becoming more technical about why they are removing us. It’s a legal clinic on these streets.”
