Unarmed teenager killed by police in St. Louis, USA

This video from the USA is called Unarmed Ferguson, Mo Teen Michael Brown Shot Multiple Times, Killed By Cop. Community Outraged.

By Eric London in the USA:

Anger erupts after police killing of unarmed teen in St. Louis, Missouri

11 August 2014

The police killing of an unarmed 18-year-old youth in Ferguson, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, has sparked mass outrage throughout the city and across the country. It is the latest in an epidemic of police murders in the US, including at least 18 people killed so far in the month of August.

The victim, Michael Brown, was on foot and en route to his grandmother’s house when he was accosted and shot by police. Witnesses say he was first shot while trying to avoid an altercation. When Brown then placed his hands above his head and dropped to his knees, police fired into his head and chest multiple times.

Dorion Johnson, a friend of Brown’s, says that the two were walking when a police officer confronted them, telling them to get off the street. After they continued walking, the police officer fired one shot. When they began to run away, “He shot again, and once my friend felt that shot, he turned around and put his hands in the air. He started to get down and the officer still approached with his weapon drawn and fired several more shots.” (See video).

Brown’s grandmother, Desuirea Harris, was waiting for her grandson at her home shortly after 2:00 p.m. After hearing noises from the street, she walked to the scene, where she found a stream of blood trailing away from her grandson’s lifeless body, which was left on the street for four hours.

Hundreds of Ferguson residents—two-thirds of whom are African American, like the victim—gathered at the scene of the shooting Saturday as news of the killing spread. …

Over the past three decades, there has been a dramatic increase in poverty in Ferguson and in the nearby towns of suburban St. Louis. In some of the areas surrounding Ferguson, poverty is as high as 40 percent. Unemployment and low-wage work predominate. The median household income in the district that borders the scene of the crime is only $14,390.

A report from the Missourians to End Poverty coalition released earlier this year shows that poverty in St. Louis itself increased from 27.2 percent in 2011 to 29.3 percent in 2014, amidst an intensifying assault on the working class throughout the country. Roughly one million Missourians are impoverished, out of a total population of just over 6 million.

In anticipation of social explosions, local police throughout the country are stockpiling weapons and armored vehicles used by US invasion forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. They are also mobilizing paramilitary SWAT teams for standard arrests. …

Since the start of 2014, at least 130 people have been killed by police in the United States. Amongst the victims are:

* Eric Garner, choked to death by police in New York City on July 17

* Misty Holt-Singh, a hostage in a bank robbery, shot and killed along with Gilbert Renteria and Alex Gregory Martinez in Stockton, California on July 16

* Carlos Mejia, shot holding a pair of gardening shears in Salinas, California on May 20

* Steven C. Cordery, shot while surrendering outside of his home in Spokane, Washington on March 26

* James Boyd, a homeless man camping outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico on March 11

* Luis Rodriguez, shot in Moore, Oklahoma after police responded to a fight between his wife and daughter on February 14

* Manuel Orosco Longoria, shot with his hands in the air in Phoenix, Arizona on January 14

Michael Brown is the latest victim to be added to this list. Along with the vast growth in the prison system, domestic spying and the militarization of American society, police violence is part of the repressive response of the ruling class to the growing social anger and opposition that is building up within the United States.

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