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 More than four months after a white police officer killed an
unarmed black teenager and sparked nationwide demonstrations over
the way police in the United States interact with the black
community, anger still simmers in the city of 21,000 mostly black
residents.
Officials in Ferguson, Missouri, and the larger St. Louis area want
to move from protests to peace, promising programs to build
alliances between blacks and whites, and between police and those
they are sworn to protect.
"Ferguson is really trying to move forward," Ferguson Mayor James
Knowles said in an interview. "We're very open. We're listening and
making proactive changes."
 Still, hundreds of people who participated in the protests face
criminal charges or fines. Protest leaders and a team of lawyers
want charges dismissed for many of the roughly 500 people arrested
in the St. Louis area since Michael Brown's Aug. 9 shooting by
police officer Darren Wilson. A grand jury declined to indict Wilson
in November in the teenager's death.
"They should wipe the slate clean. All of these charges are a tactic
to intimidate... to complicate our lives," said Derek Laney, an
activist with Hands Up United, which has organized demonstrations.
A group called Jail Support has raised more than $120,000 to post
bonds and pay defense attorneys to represent the protesters in
court. And a non-profit group called Plea for Justice was
incorporated this month in St. Louis to pursue litigation for
protesters and others in the area.
Further adding to tensions, the Missouri arm of the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People sued the
Ferguson-Florissant School District on Thursday, alleging the school
board election process put black voters at a disadvantage. While
blacks make up more than 77 percent of the student population, there
is only one black person on the seven-member school board.
Another tension point is that the city recently learned that the
Department of Justice is extending its probe into the practices of
the Ferguson police department, according to Knowles.
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The mayor acknowledged the continuing tensions but said city leaders
were pushing forward. The city belatedly held a holiday lights
festival on Dec. 14 after canceling the event in November due to
protests.
And on Friday, city leaders hosted a resource fair with 57 state and
local agencies and charitable organizations to offer aid to business
owners and residents impacted by the months of demonstrations.
In the spring, city officials will launch a program to recruit black
college students willing to work as Ferguson police officers after
they graduate in exchange for paid tuition at a police academy.
"This whole situation has been very difficult," Knowles said. "The
people who live here just want to get to a point of healing."
Rasheen Aldridge, a 20-year-old student and activist from St. Louis
who serves on a newly created Ferguson Commission task force, said
more change is needed.
"The politicians just want to move on," said Aldridge, who is one of
the protesters facing criminal charges. "They say they are going to
do this and that. But there is no healing yet."
(Reporting by Carey Gillam; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
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