Protests to remember the tenth anniversary of Michael Brown’s death took a violent turn Friday night – leading to a Ferguson police officer suffering from a severe brain injury.
Ferguson Police Officer Travis Brown is in critical but stable condition after being knocked to the ground while officers attempted to arrest protesters for destroying police department property.
Brown started with the Ferguson Police Department earlier this year. He is not related to Michael Brown, Junior, the unarmed black teenager who was killed in 2014 by a white Ferguson police officer.
Ferguson Police Chief Troy Doyle told KMOX Radio in St. Louis that a 28-year-old Illinois man has been charged with allegedly injuring the officer.
“Just like in 2014, we had a lot of individuals that came from the outside that, for whatever reason, wanted to use the uprising for their own benefits. When I go out in the community in Ferguson, the majority of the people in Ferguson is so united with the Ferguson Police Department,” said Doyle.
Doyle has a message for activists.
“If everything that came out of the 2014 uprising, all the things that you have advocated for, and if the Ferguson Police Department has, for the most part, doing everything that you ask them to do, why not at this point, come out join us and tell the rest of the world this is what a police department should look like and advocate for us,” asked Doyle.
The chief explains what he needs from the community.
“I need our local politicians to start speaking up, and I need the community as a whole to start speaking up. I’ll be the first one to tell you, I mean, law enforcement is not perfect. I mean, law enforcement is just like any other Fortune 500 company, where you’ve got good employees and you’ve got bad employees. We do our best to weed the ones that are causing us the most harm out,” Doyle told KMOX.
Two other officers have minor injuries and four other protesters have been charged.
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