" Burnt Oasis " The Ferguson Effect "
Days doesn't get better for Us all
Racial shadows shines among the streets
Equality and Justice Falls deeply
Its hits Home front
Society emotions
Hurt, pains endure Us all
Buildings that once stood tall
Burnt entirely away
There No corner store
Business torn in shreds
All we see now is rumbish at each corner
Drive slowly.....
Only to be reminded of the beauty that once stood there
Hopes and dreams washed away
Burnt oasis has melt our community down
Anger and looting floods the streets
Corruption has challenge Us in living in a society of equality
Police siren embedded in our nightly sleep
A city of disbelief
Please calm the mind
There is lot of unrest in the community
We have a choice to rebuild, dream to envole
Express our views without the anger, challenge unequality
We have to work together
To lift this blacken cloud that darkens our city
Equity and Justice Falls......
Hear our feet marching through the streets
Victims of culture blinds one eyes
No more racial shadows
Follows in our steps
Just treat Us as human beings
Treat Us fairly and respect Us
That's all we ask .....
Only clear meadows lies aheads
The choice is yours
For the world to see
Political offices and authorities will one day have to reconstructured their theory of equality
Justice will one day prevail.....
There is an ever changing progress still ahead for the community to come together
Young and old voices are now heard above the fiery stinging burning clouds
That's placed among us
Burnt oasis go away......
We want to live free in the land of freedom
Home of the brave
Stars and strips that waves across our skyes
To shield our dreams and hopes
To protect Us from harms way
Oh God please it be for all
No more Burnt oasis,but.....
A strong wall of liberty to hold Us all together
Just peace....Just peace!
When will there be justice for all...Poetic Activist Barbara Robinson
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Ferguson Unrest: Protesters, Police Face Off in 4th Night of Demonstrations
By ABC NEWS
Aug 11, 2015, 3:55 AM ET
PlayJeff Roberson/AP Photo
WATCH Ferguson Residents Face Life Under State of Emergency
Protests resumed overnight in Ferguson, Missouri, with at least 23 people arrested – the fourth night of demonstrations in the St. Louis suburb amid the anniversary of the fatal shooting of unarmed teen Michael Brown.
No shootings, burglaries, lootings or property damage were reported, and no one was injured, police said.
Police made arrests after protesters blocked a traffic lane on West Florissant Avenue. Officers with bullhorns directed protesters to clear the roadway, and others in riot gear forced people out of the street. Some demonstrators threw rocks and frozen water bottles at officers, and one St. Louis County police officer was hit in the chest with a small chunk of concrete but was not injured because of his protective vest, police said.
At one point, an officer fired pepper spray into a crowd of people. It was unclear how many people were hit or why the pepper spray was used.
St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar spoke with protest leaders several times throughout the night, hoping to deescalate the tension, police said.
What We Know About the Police-Involved Shooting and Other Violence Overnight in Ferguson
Powerful Scenes From Ferguson, Missouri
Earlier in the evening a crowd of hundreds gathered, holding signs and chanting as part of a demonstration.
Jeff Roberson/AP Photo
St. Louis County Police make an arrest along West Florissant Avenue, Aug. 10, 2015, in Ferguson, Mo.more +
St. Louis County remains under a state of emergency, which was declared Monday. The state of emergency follows an outbreak of violence in Ferguson, including a police-involved shooting Sunday night that left a man in critical condition.
Two teenagers were also shot early Monday as they walked on a sidewalk near a memorial for Brown. The teens were both hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
Sunday night's violence fell on the anniversary of the death of the 18-year-old Brown, who was shot and killed by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson Aug. 9, 2014. A grand jury did not indict Wilson, who resigned in November.
The death of Brown sparked protests and touched off the national "Black Lives Matter "
State of Emergency Declared in St. Louis County Due to Ferguson Unrest
By EMILY SHAPIRO
Aug 10, 2015, 4:04 PM ET
PlayScott Olson/Getty Images
WATCH State of Emergency in Ferguson After Violent Night of Protests
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A state of emergency was declared in St. Louis County today, effective immediately, in light of the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, authorities said.
"The recent acts of violence will not be tolerated in a community that has worked so tirelessly over the last year to rebuild and become stronger," St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger said in a statement. "The time and investment in Ferguson and Dellwood will not be destroyed by a few that wish to violate the rights of others."
"We are deeply disappointed with the violence that took place last night," Ferguson Mayor James Knowles III said in a statement today. "This kind of behavior from those who want to cause disruption and destroy the progress from this past year will not be tolerated. We are asking for our citizens and businesses to be diligent and to be watchful for those who want to cause harm to our community."
Knowles added, "We are asking for peace as we strive to once again become a community of choice for everyone."
What We Know About the Police-Involved Shooting and Other Violence Overnight in Ferguson
Powerful Scenes From Ferguson, Missouri
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Michael Brown's father: 'I think of him every single day'
By Moni Basu, CNN
Updated 10:12 AM ET, Sat August 8, 2015
A year of outrage: From Ferguson to Cincinnati 03:19
Ferguson, Missouri (CNN)Michael Brown Sr. steps out of a white Yukon at the Top Notch Barber and Beauty salon on Chambers Road. He's here for his weekly trim.
Everyone knows him, including the customers, and even if they didn't, they'd recognize him instantly. He cuts an imposing figure, tall like the 6-foot-4 son whose death propelled him unwittingly into the headlines.
Through the necessary niceties and greetings, Brown, 38, rarely lets a smile slip. When he does, the florescent glare of the overhead lights glints off his grill.
Michael Brown Sr. has not cut his beard since the day his son died in Ferguson, August 9, 2014. This is a photograph from late April. Recently, he said he would cut it when he sees signs of justice.
"Hey, hey," he says, shaking the hand of barbershop owner Gregg Davis. Another friend asks if Brown wants a drink.
"Snapple," he says.
Barber Anthony Mallory has been cutting Brown's hair for years, since Brown was 13. These days, Mallory makes sure his client's clean-shaven head stays shiny; the trickier task is trimming around Brown's beard, long and thick enough to pass muster in the most conservative mosque.
Last month, Michael Brown Sr. visited his barber -- but not to have his beard cut.
"My strength is in my beard," Brown says. "It's almost 1 year old."
He stopped cutting it on August 9, 2014 -- the day his son died.
"Every strand of hair means something," he says, settling into the barber's chair.
Mallory drapes a black and white printed cape over Brown, covering up his red T-shirt with his son's face emblazoned across the front. The back reads "Chosen For Change," the nonprofit he launched in his son's memory to empower black youth.
A movement, not a moment
The barber gets into a groove, electric clippers gliding back and forth over Brown's head, before I ask about the upcoming anniversary.
The question takes Brown back to that August day when it was hot and sticky as it is this evening, the haze so thick that the air-conditioning vents are blowing puffy clouds.
He had stood waiting, numb, about half a mile from here on Canfield Drive, with his wife of three weeks, Calvina. He rushed there after the police called him and his son's mother, Lesley McSpadden. They all stood before a body covered by a sheet, surrounded by police cars, flashing lights, yellow crime scene tape and a crowd that grew larger by the minute.
He was there for four hours and 32 minutes before the sheet was lifted and he saw his son, and what he did not want to believe was confirmed. His 18-year-old boy, named after him, had been shot dead by Darren Wilson, a white police officer in Ferguson.
One year later, Brown utters the same words he uttered then: "I should have been there to protect him."
Michael Brown was just 18 when he was killed.
From the afternoon of August 9 to the funeral of "Mike Mike" 16 days later, Brown felt as though he were in a trance. On the funeral program, he wrote:
"I think of you day and night and just wish I was there to save you from harm. I always told you I would never let anything happen to you. And that's why it hurts sooooo much. I will never let you die in my heart."
When the casket was finally lowered into the ground at St. Peter's Cemetery, Brown let out a pitched scream of anguish.
No more jokes. No more smiles. No more tussling with his big, burly son. No more talk of the future.
That's how every day has been since. Empty.
The death that 'opened our eyes'
Empty through the months of anguish and protest and violence in Ferguson, through a grand jury decision not to indict Wilson, a scathing Department of Justice investigation report and the deaths of other black men across America. Empty as he led marchers on the streets and watched a movement blossom around the memory of his son.
Michael Brown Sr.: Keep your family tight 06:53
He is thankful his son's death was not in vain, that Mike Mike launched a discussion for the ages that perhaps will lead to the change he thinks is needed in America. Perhaps one day, black parents won't have to have difficult talks with their sons -- like he did -- about how to behave in front of police.
This is a topic burning in the forefront of Brown's mind but especially so now, a few days after returning from protests in Chicago and a meeting of the Black Lives Matter movement in Cleveland. He has traveled to other cities as well, including a pilgrimage to Selma, Alabama, earlier this year on the 50th anniversary of "Bloody Sunday."
Selma gave him chills. "You can feel all that in your soul," he says.
He stood and listened to Barack Obama give what many believe was the President's most powerful speech to date. In it, the President acknowledged the nation had a long way to go to defeat racism but also noted the many gains that had been hard won.
"What happened in Ferguson may not be unique," Obama said, "but it's no longer endemic. It's no longer sanctioned by law or custom, and before the civil rights movement, it most surely was."
That may be true but in Brown's view, the law failed him and his family. And other black families. That's why he keeps going from city to city, from protest to protest.
Brown's dad: Like they killed him again 01:00
He's kept busy but the loss is acute.
"I think of him every single day."
The foundation he established has been at the forefront of organizing events to commemorate Mike Mike's death, including 4.5 minutes of silence that will be observed August 9, symbolizing the hours his body lay in the road. Others who have lost sons are planning to join. They include the parents of Jordan Davis, a 17-year-old black teenager shot to death at a gas station in Jacksonville, Florida, by a white man who was later sentenced to life in prison.
"It's a parade of lost souls," Brown says. "We are in a fraternity, for real. You can't understand it if you haven't lost a son."
Traffic tickets land pastor, student, single mom behind bars in St. Louis County
He knows many people will come to Ferguson to mark the anniversary and that, once again, his son's face will be all over the news. He appreciates the support and says his son's death, like so many others, could easily have gone unnoticed by the larger public.
"Everything is rewinding in my head," he says. "I'm trying to look at the good but this is going to be hard."
He tells me about the jolt he got in Chicago a few weeks ago when he learned of an art exhibit on the South Side. Artist Ti-Rock Moore had constructed a life-size replica of his son, lying face down on the floor, just as he had been on Canfield Drive after Wilson shot him. Moore called her art "Confronting Truths: Wake Up!"
Michael Brown art exhibit on display in Chicago 03:07
Brown didn't step inside the gallery; he just saw it from the street and was upset. He couldn't understand why the artist had not consulted him. He thought it was disrespectful to the memory of his son. On that Chicago street, August 9 came rushing back.
"Hey, you picked it out yet?" Brown asks Mallory, the barber, about his beard. Mallory takes the cue and grabs a metal Afro comb.
Then he hands Brown a mirror and awaits approval.
"You keep bringing it down, Fat Daddy," Brown says about Mallory's trim job on his 'stache. "You messing up my mo."
The two men study Brown's moustache and beard in the mirror.
That beard glistened in the water at his baptism last November. He had planned for his whole family to renew their faith together at Calvary West Missionary Baptist Church. But his son wasn't there with him as he emerged from the water in shorts and a white undershirt.
Mallory flicks the hair from Brown's neck and shoulders and takes the cape off. I spot a small medallion hanging from a silver chain around his neck. On one side is the face of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. On the other is an inscription of King's words: "Free at last, free at last. Thank God almighty, we are free at last."
Brown reaches for a pack of Kools and heads out of the barber shop.
As vocal as he has been in the year since his son was killed, he tells me there are lots of things he can't say. Things that stem from the anger and sorrow.
"Everything I can't say is here," he says, grabbing his beard with his right hand.
He'll cut it, he says, when he sees signs of justice. His prediction: That his beard will grow longer.
Cameras on cops still in demand a year after Ferguson
Tonight at 8: we air "Ferguson and Beyond" on 89.5 and 93.3. NPR’s Michel Martin moderates a much needed and serious conversation with community leaders on race, law enforcement and more in the wake of the shooting death of Michael Brown.
Panelists include:
--Daniel Isom, retired St. Louis police chief and current professor of policing and the community at UMSL.
--Rita Days, former Missouri state senator and current Democratic director of the St. Louis County Election Board.
--The Rev. Willis Johnson, pastor of Wellspring Church, Ferguson.
James Knowles, mayor of Ferguson.
--Kimberly McKinney, CEO of Habitat for Humanity Saint Louis.
Posted By: Barbara Robinson
Thursday, January 7th 2016 at 1:47PM
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