Tag Archives: Protests

Students protest U.S. Attorney General speech at Georgetown

FILE PHOTO: U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions speaks at a news conference to address the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program at the Justice Department in Washington, U.S., September 5, 2017. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas/File Photo

By Sarah N. Lynch

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Students and faculty at Georgetown Law School gathered on Tuesday to protest that U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions was delivering an address about the right of free speech on college campuses to an invitation-only audience without giving critics of the Trump administration an opportunity to ask questions.

Several dozen protesters stood on the front steps of the school, some with duct tape over their mouths to symbolize that they felt their views were censored from the event. Some held signs denouncing racism, censorship and U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to rescind “DACA,” the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy that shields immigrants who were brought to the United State as children.

Taking turns with a bullhorn, students and some faculty members accused the school of shutting them out from attending the speech and asking questions.

In his address, Sessions focused on concerns about whether the rights of speakers on college campuses were being trampled by student protesters who find their views offensive.

Sessions complained that protesters were silencing speakers. He also said the department plans to file a brief in a college free speech case this week.

Protesters “are now routinely shutting down speeches and debates across the country in an effort to silence voices that insufficiently conform with their views,” he said.

One protester, third-year law student Charlotte Berschback, complained on the sidelines of the protest that invitations to the Sessions speech had been withdrawn from students who had RSVPed and had initially been told they would have a seat.

“We pay a ton of tuition,” she said. “We should have a role in deciding who comes to our school.” She added that liberal students had been excluded from attending the Sessions event and that the school should have used a lottery process to let students attend.

Sessions cited concerns about multiple incidents at college campuses around the country, including the University of California at Berkeley and Middlebury College in Vermont.

Sessions mentioned recent violent protests at Berkeley. He said the school “was reportedly forced to spend more than $600,000 and have an overwhelming police presence simply to prove that the mob was not in control of the campus.”

The Justice Department later said it was also filing a brief on behalf of students at Georgia Gwinnett College who are challenging a school policy that requires them to use “free speech zones” to express their views.

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by David Gregorio)

Mexico in three-day countdown to search for earthquake survivors

Rescue teams remove rubble of a collapsed building after an earthquake in Mexico City, Mexico September 26, 2017. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril

By Daniel Trotta

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Rescuers are unlikely to find any more survivors of Mexico’s earthquake still buried in the ruins and will cease operations to find them at the end of Thursday, the emergency services chief said.

Tuesday marks one week since the 7.1 magnitude quake struck around lunchtime, killing 331 people, damaging 11,000 homes and leading to a outpouring of civilian volunteers to aid and comfort the victims.

Luis Felipe Puente, coordinator of Mexico’s Civil Protection agency, told Reuters that rescuers would continue hand-picking through the debris at four sites until Thursday.

“I can say that at this time it would be unlikely to find someone alive,” Puente said, considering that specially trained dogs have yet to pick up the scent of survivors.

Forty-three people were still missing, including 40 who may have been trapped beneath a collapsed office building in the Roma district of Mexico City, Puente said. One person was believed missing at each of three other sites in the capital.

At the office building, relatives protested overnight, increasingly angry with the slow progress recovering their loved ones and an alleged lack of information.

Asked how much longer search and rescue operations would continue, the official responded, “As of today (Monday), we have agreed to another 72 hours.”

The week began with signs that Mexico was resuming its routine as the streets filled with traffic and more than 44,000 schools in six states reopened.

But in the capital city, only 676 of the more than 8,000 public and private schools resumed classes.

The quake, coming exactly 32 years after a 1985 earthquake killed some 10,000 people, delivered a massive psychological blow that specialists say will take time to overcome.

“The children are in crisis and don’t want to talk. Some kids didn’t even remember their own names,” said Enriqueta Ortuno, 57, a psychotherapist who has been working with victims in the hard-hit Xochimilco district.

Much of the nation’s attention was focused on a fallen school in Mexico City where 19 children and seven adults died. Later on Tuesday, the top official in the municipality where the school was located was due to reveal documents related to the its construction.

That school was one of many buildings that prosecutors will investigate, Puente said. Roughly 10 percent of damaged buildings were constructed after strict building codes were enacted in the wake of the 1985 earthquake.

“The Mexico City mayor and the national government have already ordered judicial investigations to determine who was responsible for new construction that did not meet the requirements,” Puente said from Civil Protection headquarters, where a roomful of technicians monitored seismic activity and tropical storms on an array of screens.

In Mexico City, 187 people died in 38 buildings that collapsed. Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said thousands of families who lost their homes in uninhabitable buildings would be offered 3,000 ($170) pesos monthly in temporary rent assistance.

Rescuers pulled 69 people from quake-damaged properties, of whom 37 were still in the hospital as of Monday, 11 of them in grave condition, Puente said.

Demolitions of buildings that are beyond repair could begin as soon as Tuesday, he said.

Responders from 18 countries came to Mexico to help, but with the search for survivors down to four sites most of them had gone home, with Americans and Israelis among the few to remain, Puente said. The Japanese contingent left on Monday.

International aid was now focused on humanitarian needs, Puente said, with China providing large numbers of beds, tents and kitchen and bathroom fixtures for temporary shelters for the homeless.

But the biggest contributions came from Mexicans themselves, who responded with so much food, supplies and volunteer work that officials had difficulty moving largesse from wealthy and accessible neighborhoods to the most needy.

Puente recognized some “deficiencies” in coordinating relief efforts, but overall, he said, “The government today is an international benchmark.”

(Additional reporting by Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Bill Trott)

Obamacare repeal on the ropes as pivotal Republican rebuffs Trump

U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) (C) departs after the weekly Republican caucus policy luncheon at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S. September 19, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

By Susan Cornwell and Yasmeen Abutaleb

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Senator Susan Collins rebuffed intense lobbying from fellow Republicans and the promise of money for her state in deciding on Monday to oppose – and likely doom – her party’s last-ditch effort to repeal Obamacare.

The most moderate of Republican senators joined John McCain and Rand Paul in rejecting the bill to end Obamacare. It was a major blow for President Donald Trump who has made undoing Democratic former President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law a top priority since the 2016 campaign and who pressured Collins in a call on Monday.

The bill’s sweeping cut in funding to Medicaid, a program for low income citizens and disabled children, was her top reason for opposing the bill, said Collins, from the state of Maine where 20 percent of the population depend on the program.

“To take a program that has been law for more than 50 years, and make those kinds of fundamental structural changes … and to do so without having in depth hearings to evaluate the impact on our most vulnerable citizens was unacceptable,” Collins said outside the Senate chambers.

She also opposed the bill for weakening protections for people with pre-existing conditions, such as asthma, cancer and diabetes.

Collins’ decision came even after the sponsors of the bill, Senators Lindsey Graham and Bill Cassidy, offered a boost in federal health care funds of 43 percent for Maine and benefits for states with other undecided senators.

Republicans have vowed to get rid of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, since it was passed in 2010. While it extended health insurance to some 20 million Americans, they believe it is an unwarranted and costly government intrusion into healthcare, while also opposing taxes it imposed on the wealthy.

Republicans hold a slim 52-48 majority in the Senate and are up against a tight September 30 deadline to pass a bill with a simple majority, instead of the 60-vote threshold needed for most measures. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wanted to hold a vote this week, but it is not clear he will do so now that three senators have said they will cast “no” votes.

Graham dismissed notions that the bill was the last chance for Republicans to get rid of Obamacare and pledged to keep working on the legislation.

$1 TRILLION CUT TO MEDICAID

Democrats kept up their pressure for killing the bill. In an evening speech on the Senate floor, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said, “The Trumpcare bill would gut Medicaid, would cause millions to lose coverage, cause chaos in the marketplace.”

Schumer said once repeal of Obamacare is off the table, Democrats want to work with Republicans “to find a compromise that stabilizes markets, that lowers premiums.”

Collins and McCain, who voted against the last major repeal effort in July, have both advocated for a bipartisan solution to fixing the parts of Obamacare that do not function well.

U.S. hospital stocks were down across the board as the bill struggled. Shares of HCA Healthcare Inc and Tenet Healthcare Corp were hit particularly hard, falling 2.5 percent and 5.7 percent, respectively, on Monday.

“The Graham-Cassidy bill is looking to reduce funding for Medicaid in the longer term,” said Jefferies analyst Brian Tanquilut. “That is a benefit that we have seen improve the earnings outlooks for these hospitals.”

Collins announced her opposition shortly after the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said that the number of people with health insurance covering high-cost medical events would be slashed by millions if it were to become law.

CBO also found that federal spending on Medicaid would be cut by about $1 trillion from 2017 to 2026 under the Graham-Cassidy proposal, and that millions of people would lose their coverage in the program, mainly from a repeal of federal funding for Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion.

The Trump administration, including Health Secretary Tom Price had lobbied her hard in recent days, Collins said.

“The president called me today, the vice president called me in Maine over the weekend, Secretary Price has called me, it would probably be a shorter list of who hasn’t called me about this bill,” she said.

Trump had not called Collins before the vote in July.

PROTESTERS IN WHEELCHAIRS

The Senate held its first hearing all year on the proposed Obamacare repeal on Monday, but it was immediately disrupted by protesters who forced Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch to postpone its start by about 15 minutes.

Police arrested 181 demonstrators, including 15 in the hearing room. The protesters, mainly from a disability rights group and many of whom were in wheelchairs, were forcibly removed one-by-one from the hearing room as they yelled, “No cuts to Medicaid, save our liberty.” The hearing eventually proceeded for about five hours, but protests could be heard outside for more than an hour.

Television talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, who had become part of the debate on U.S. healthcare legislation in May after discussing his newborn son’s heart surgery, had taken aim at the bill in recent days. On Monday he tweeted: “Thank you @SenatorCollins for putting people ahead of party. We are all in your debt.”

A new CBS poll released on Monday said that a majority of Americans, or 52 percent, disapprove of the Graham-Cassidy bill, while 20 percent approve. The poll was taken between Sept. 21 and 24.

(Reporting by Susan Cornwell and Richard Cowan; Additional reporting by Timothy Gardner, Philip Stewart, Makini Brice, Amanda Becker and Alistair Bell in Washington and Caroline Humer in New York; writing by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Bill Trott and Mary Milliken)

Thousands rally in Philippines, warn of Duterte ‘dictatorship’

Protesters burn a cube effigy with a face of President Rodrigo Duterte during a National Day of Protest outside the presidential palace in metro Manila, Philippines September 21, 2017. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco

By Manuel Mogato and Roli Ng

MANILA (Reuters) – Thousands of Filipinos rallied on Thursday to denounce Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte and warn of what they called an emerging dictatorship, in a major show of dissent against the controversial but hugely popular leader.

Politicians, indigenous people, priests, businessmen, and left-wing activists held marches and church masses accusing Duterte of authoritarianism and protesting at policies including a ferocious war on drugs that has killed thousands.

Signs saying “Stop The Killings” and “No To Martial Rule” reflected fears that Duterte would one day deliver on his threat to declare nationwide military rule like that imposed by late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

The rallies marked the 45th anniversary of the start of that era, remembered by many Filipinos as brutal and oppressive.

Effigies of Duterte were burned, including one which bore both his face and that of late Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

A protester with a toy gun played dead on the ground in a reenactment of one of a spree of drug-related killings that activists say are executions staged by police. Police reject those allegations.

Anti-Duterte Senator Risa Hontiveros said democracy was under threat by a “Dutertatorship” with a “policy of killing”.

Vice President Leni Robredo, who was not Duterte’s running mate, said Filipinos should recognize signs of “rising tyranny”.

“It’s sad that we seemed to have not learned our lessons,” Robredro said. “There’s a culture of violence around us.”

Marcos declared martial law in 1972 and held power for 14 years until his removal in a bloodless, army-backed “people’s power” uprising. He abolished democratic institutions and was accused of killing, torturing and “disappearing” thousands of opponents.

‘JUST GRIPING’

Duterte has expressed admiration for Marcos. His critics are alarmed by his autocratic rhetoric and a vicious disdain for his detractors.

But he won last year’s election by a big margin and has maintained one of the highest public approval ratings of a Philippines president.

Several thousand turned out on Thursday to show their support for Duterte at a rival rally that entertained crowds with live music, dancing and food.

“This is to tell the people that ‘here we are, we are the majority who are happy with the government and not those few who are just griping’,” said rally organizer Benny Antiporda, a former journalist.

Millions of Filipinos admire Duterte’s down-to-earth style, his decisiveness and even his imperfections.

His supporters at home and among the diaspora see him as a champion of ordinary people and the best hope for change that presidents from the political elite failed to bring.

The anti-Duterte demonstrators criticized his pro-China stance and the destruction in southern Marawi City by military air strikes targeting Islamist militants.

Others decried what they see as his cozy relationship with the still-powerful Marcos family.

“It seems that what we fought for in 1972, is again back. The total disrespect for human life, dignity, human rights. And that was how we started,” said Rene Saguisag, a former senator and human rights lawyer.

“In some ways, it may be worse.”

(Additional reporting by Dondi Tawatao, Romeo Ranoco, Enrique de Castro and Ronn Bautista; Writing by Manuel Mogato and Martin Petty; Editing by Catherine Evans)

After protests, St. Louis mayor says address racism

Demonstrators continue to protest for a fourth day after the not guilty verdict in the murder trial of Jason Stockley, a former St. Louis police officer, charged with the 2011 shooting of Anthony Lamar Smith, who was black, in St. Louis, Missouri, U.S., September 18, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Lott

By Brendan O’Brien

ST. LOUIS (Reuters) – The legacies of racism, not only the violent protests that gripped St. Louis after a white former police officer was acquitted of murdering a black man, must be addressed, the city’s mayor said on Tuesday.

Mayor Lyda Krewson said she had listened and read the reaction of residents since the controversial verdict on Friday and was ready to find ways to move the city forward.

“What we are seeing and feeling is not only about this case,” Krewson told reporters.

“What we have is a legacy of policies that have disproportionately impacted people along racial and economic lines,” she added. “This is institutional racism.”

The city has been working to expedite existing plans to increase equity as well as develop new approaches, including changing how police shootings are investigated and granting subpoena powers to a police civilian oversight board, and expanding jobs programs, Krewson said.

“We, here in St. Louis, are once again ground zero for the frustration and anger at our shared legacy of these disproportional outcomes,” she said. “The only option is to move forward.”

Krewson said town halls scheduled for Tuesday night and later were canceled. As she spoke, dozens of protesters chanted outside her office.

Some activists had planned to voice complaints about police tactics used during protests after a judge found former officer Jason Stockley, 36, not guilty of first-degree murder in the killing of Anthony Lamar Smith, 24.

Largely peaceful protests during the day have turned violent at night with some demonstrators carrying guns, bats and hammers, smashing windows and clashing with police. Police arrested 123 people on Sunday, when officers in riot gear used pepper spray on activists.

The clashes have evoked memories of riots following the 2014 shooting of a black teenager by a white officer in nearby Ferguson.

Protesters have cited anger over a police tactic known as “kettling,” in which officers form a square surrounding protesters to make arrests. Some caught inside police lines Sunday said officers used excessive force, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

St. Louis police are also investigating whether some of its officers chanted “Whose streets? Our streets,” appropriating a refrain used by the protesters that one civilian oversight official said could inflame tensions.

“I wish that wouldn’t have been said,” Krewson said.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri asked the city in a Tuesday letter to preserve video evidence ahead of what it said was a likely lawsuit challenging police tactics.

Complaints of police misconduct were being reviewed, but intimidation tactics would not be tolerated, Krewson said. Police had generally shown “great restraint,” she said.

(Reporting by Chris Kenning in Chicago; Editing by Robin Pomeroy and Steve Orlofsky)

Black cops in St. Louis stuck between public, fellow officers

FILE PHOTO: Bill Monroe poses for a portrait as he protests the not guilty verdict in the murder trial of Jason Stockley, a former St. Louis police officer charged with the 2011 shooting of Anthony Lamar Smith, in St. Louis, Missouri, U.S., September 17, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Lott/File Photo

By Valerie Volcovici

ST. LOUIS (Reuters) – During a peaceful protest moments before St. Louis would erupt into three nights of racially charged riots, five people confronted a black police officer alone in his Jeep.

“How do you sleep at night?” Lisa Vega, who is Hispanic, asked the officer through an open window. Next to Vega, two black men and two black women nodded.

Such questions are typical of what African-American police officers face every time a white colleague kills a black man in the United States.

Black cops are sometimes accused by their fellow African-Americans of betraying their race by joining the police, while at the same time they face pressure from their colleagues to stand by another officer.

A number of police departments across the United States have been accused of excessive force and racially discriminatory conduct in recent years, fueling a public debate and the Black Lives Matter movement.

The black cop in the Jeep calmly responded that he slept well and that he had bills to pay. He declined to be interviewed by the reporter who witnessed the encounter.

Peaceful daytime protests in St. Louis turned into three nights of vandalism and unrest that resulted in at least 123 arrests. With rain falling, Monday night’s demonstrations remained peaceful.

The disturbances were provoked by the acquittal last Friday of white former officer Jason Stockley, 36, who was charged with first-degree murder in the 2011 shooting death of African-American Anthony Lamar Smith, 24, following a police chase.

Prosecutors accused Stockley of planting a gun in Smith’s car, but Judge Timothy Wilson found the officer not guilty in a non-jury trial.

CONSEQUENCES

St. Louis Detective Sergeant Heather Taylor took a stand against Stockley, publicly declaring in a video message posted on YouTube and a police association website three days before the verdict that he should be convicted.

“Someone needed to say it,” said Taylor, 44, president of the Ethical Society of Police, an association formed by black officers in 1972 to combat racism within the St. Louis police department and improve community relations.

She sees her role as calling out fellow officers for unjustified killings, which she hopes police of all races will eventually embrace.

But doing so has consequences.

After she appeared in the video with Redditt Hudson, co-founder of the National Coalition of Law Enforcement Officers for Justice, verbal abuse poured in, largely on social media and from retired officers because, she said, no officer would dare confront her on the job.

“I was called everything. You name it,” Taylor said, citing the most offensive of racial and misogynistic slurs.

Taylor said she was unbowed by the attacks from the law enforcement family, but rejection from her fellow African-Americans cuts deep.

“Things like that, they hurt me,” she said. “But just imagine if law enforcement didn’t have minorities.”

The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department did not respond to requests by Reuters for comment.

CODE OF SILENCE

Demonstrator Bill Monroe said Taylor’s video came too late to be effective and expressed little confidence that reformers like her can improve the system from within.

Monroe, 71, is a black former St. Louis police detective with gray dreadlocks who is writing a screenplay about his experiences on the force in the 1960s and 1970s. He marched with a T-shirt reading “Anthony Lamar Smith” and a U.S. flag hanging upside down on its staff, a U.S. sign of distress.

“My community is in distress, and that’s why I walk amongst those brothers and sisters trying to get justice,” Monroe said.

While all police officers still encounter an internal code of silence that prevents them from speaking out more forcefully against abusers, this is especially true for black cops, Monroe said.

“Nobody wants to be known as a troublemaker,” he said.

Taylor, the president of the largely black police association, expressed confidence that police culture could change with steps such as hiring more officers of color. In a city that is 44 percent white and 49 percent black, according to U.S. Census data, only 29 percent of St. Louis police are black, Taylor said.

In the meantime, she faces resistance within and outside the force. Taylor grew up in what she called the ghetto of St. Louis and said her fellow African-Americans were shortsighted in their criticism of black cops.

“I wish that people who felt that way would walk in our shoes,” Taylor said. “Walk in our shoes and you would see how difficult it is to be a minority or a double minority in this police culture.”

(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici in St. Louis and Daniel Trotta in New York; Writing by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

Kenyan police fire teargas at Supreme Court protesters

Kenyan police fire teargas at Supreme Court protesters

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Kenyan police fired teargas on Tuesday at supporters of President Uhuru Kenyatta who were protesting outside the Supreme Court against the invalidation of his Aug. 8 re-election, Reuters witnesses said.

The Supreme Court nullified the presidential election on Sept. 1 and ordered the electoral body to hold a repeat vote within 60 days. The court, which issued a majority judgment, said there were irregularities in tallying results of the poll.

David Maraga, the chief justice and president of the Supreme Court, said threats against judicial staff had risen since the ruling.

“Since the Supreme Court delivered judgment … these threats have become more aggressive,” Maraga told a news conference at the Supreme Court, as hundreds of protesters wearing the bright red of Kenyatta’s Jubilee party gathered outside.

He cited the demonstrations outside the court as an example of the rising threats, and threatening messages sent on social media to individual judges and their staff.

“Senior political leaders have also threatened the Judiciary, promising ‘to cut it down to size’ and ‘teach us a lesson’,” Maraga said, vowing that the judiciary would not be intimidated by anyone.

They protesters waved placards and shouted slogans against the judiciary and Maraga himself.

“I have attended this protest to air my grievances after the Supreme Court annulled my candidate’s victory,” one of the protesters told Reuters.

There was a commotion after the teargas was fired, before the protesters regrouped and continued with their protest outside the court building.

The Supreme Court, which gave a summary of its findings when it invalidated Kenyatta’s election victory, said it would read its detailed ruling on Wednesday at 0700 GMT.

(Reporting by Humphrey Malalo and George Obulutsa; Writing by Duncan Miriri; Editing by Catherine Evans)

St. Louis mayor to meet with protesters after nights of violence

St. Louis mayor to meet with protesters after nights of violence

By Greg Bailey

ST. LOUIS (Reuters) – Activists in St. Louis plan to voice their concerns directly to the mayor on Tuesday over the acquittal of a white policeman who shot a black man to death, a verdict that sparked four nights of violent protest.

Mayor Lyda Krewson will speak with residents at a town hall meeting at a local high school, hoping to defuse tensions in a city where demonstrators have clashed with police and destroyed property.

“Let’s show up and hold Mayor Lyda Krewson accountable,” Resist – STL, an activist group, said on Facebook.

The town hall meeting comes four days after a judge found former police officer Jason Stockley, 36, not guilty of first-degree murder in the 2011 killing of Anthony Lamar Smith, 24.

Largely peaceful protests during the day have turned violent at night with some demonstrators carrying guns, bats and hammers, smashing windows, clashing with police and blocking traffic.

Police arrested 123 people on Sunday, when officers in riot gear used pepper spray on activists who defied orders to disperse following larger, peaceful protests. Several hundred people marched again on Monday night in a peaceful demonstration as on-and-off rain appeared to keep some at home.

St. Louis police are investigating whether some of its officers chanted “Whose streets? Our streets,” appropriating a refrain used by the protesters themselves in what one official said could inflame tensions.

A grainy video posted online showed a group of officers and the chant can be heard. A St. Louis Post-Dispatch photographer, David Carson, tweeted that he and others heard officers chant the phrase.

Nicolle Barton, executive director of the St. Louis police civilian oversight board, said: “Certainly we do not want that to be taking place.”

The clashes have evoked memories of riots following the 2014 shooting of a black teenager by a white officer in nearby Ferguson.

(Additional reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Milwawukee; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

Police, protesters clash in St. Louis after ex-cop acquitted of murdering black man

Police, protesters clash in St. Louis after ex-cop acquitted of murdering black man

By Valerie Volcovici and Kenny Bahr

ST. LOUIS (Reuters) – Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets during clashes with protesters in St Louis early on Saturday after a white former policeman was acquitted of murdering a black suspect.

A peaceful rally over Friday’s not guilty verdict turned violent after police confronted a small group of demonstrators – three years after the shooting of another black suspect in the nearby suburb of Ferguson stirred nationwide anger and debate.

Officers fired tear gas as people broke windows at a library and two restaurants and threw bricks and water bottles at officers. Protesters also threw rocks and paint at the home of St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson, said Acting Police Commissioner Lawrence O’Toole.

Nine city officers and a state trooper were injured and at least 23 people were taken into custody, he said.

Former city policeman Jason Stockley, 36, was found not guilty of the first-degree murder of Anthony Lamar Smith, 24, shot to death on Dec. 20, 2011.

After the ruling, around 600 protesters marched from the courthouse through downtown St. Louis, chanting “No justice, no peace” and “Hey hey! Ho ho! These killer cops have got to go!” Some held “Black Lives Matter” signs.

“I’m sad, I’m hurt, I’m mad,” Reverend Clinton Stancil of the Wayman AME Church in St. Louis said by telephone. “We haven’t made any progress since Ferguson, that’s clear. Cops can still kill us with impunity.”

Men protest outside the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department after the not guilty verdict in the murder trial of Jason Stockley, a former St. Louis police officer, charged with the 2011 shooting of Anthony Lamar Smith, who was black, in St. Louis, Missouri, U.S., September 15, 2017. REUTERS/Whitney Curtis

Men protest outside the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department after the not guilty verdict in the murder trial of Jason Stockley, a former St. Louis police officer, charged with the 2011 shooting of Anthony Lamar Smith, who was black, in St. Louis, Missouri, U.S., September 15, 2017. REUTERS/Whitney Curtis

“NO PROGRESS SINCE FERGUSON”

Ferguson became the focal point of a national debate on race relations after white officer Darren Wilson shot dead black teenager Michael Brown on Aug. 9, 2014. Protests and clashes broke out after a grand jury cleared the officer, giving rise to the Black Lives Matter movement.

After Friday’s verdict, one group of demonstrators tried to climb onto Interstate 40 but was blocked by police. Another group blocked an intersection by sitting down in the street for six minutes of silence.

After most protesters drifted away, a smaller group of people police described as “agitators” lingered on the streets in an upscale neighborhood near the mayor’s house. The group taunted officers who arrived in riot gear by the busload.

“Reports of bricks thrown at police. That’s not protest. That’s a crime. We stand behind our officers. This violence won’t be tolerated,” Missouri Governor Eric Greitens said on Twitter.

Smith was shot five times in his car after trying to flee Stockley and his partner, following an alleged drug deal, authorities said.

Prosecutors said that during the pursuit, Stockley could be heard saying on an internal police car video he was going to kill Smith.

At Stockley’s direction, his partner, who was driving, slammed the police cruiser into Smith’s vehicle and they came to a stop. Stockley then approached Smith’s car and opened fire with his service weapon, court documents said.

The former policeman believed Smith was armed, defense attorneys said, and a gun was found in the car. But prosecutors argued Stockley planted the weapon and that the gun had only Stockley’s DNA on it.

Stockley’s attorney, Neil Bruntrager, said his client was relieved at the verdict. “It’s been a long road for him,” Bruntrager said.

St. Louis prosecutor Kimberly Gardner called on protesters to avoid violence.

“I understand the verdict has created anger and frustration for many in our community,” she told reporters at the courthouse.

Stockley waived his right to a jury trial, allowing the judge to decide. He left the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department in 2013 and was arrested last year.

Smith’s family settled a wrongful death lawsuit against the city for $900,000 in 2013, according to Al Watkins, an attorney for Smith’s fiancée, Christina Wilson.

(Additional reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee, Suzannah Gonzales in Chicago, Chris Kenning in Louisville, Kentucky and Gina Cherelus in New York; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Andrew Heavens)

London fire inquiry starts amid anger, despair of survivors

Demonstrators gather outside the Grenfell Tower public Inquiry in central London, Britain, September 14, 2017. REUTERS/Mary Turner

By Estelle Shirbon

LONDON (Reuters) – A public inquiry into a fire that killed at least 80 people at London’s Grenfell Tower will get to the truth about the tragedy, its chairman pledged on Thursday, but critics said survivors of the blaze were still being failed.

The 24-storey social housing block, home to a poor, multi-ethnic community, was gutted on June 14 in an inferno that started in a fourth-floor apartment in the middle of the night and quickly engulfed the building.

Grenfell Tower was part of a deprived housing estate in Kensington and Chelsea, one of the richest boroughs in London, and the disaster has prompted a national debate about social inequality and government neglect of poor communities.

The inquiry started with a minute’s silence to honor the victims, whose exact number remains unknown because of the devastation inside the tower.

“(The inquiry) can and will provide answers to the pressing questions of how a disaster of this kind could occur in 21st century London,” its chairman, retired judge Martin Moore-Bick, said in his opening statement.

He said the inquiry was not there to punish anyone or to award compensation, but to get to the truth. A separate police investigation is underway, which could result in manslaughter charges. There have been no arrests.

The inquiry will examine the cause and spread of the fire, the design, construction and refurbishment of the tower, whether fire regulations relating to high-rise buildings are adequate and whether they were complied with. It will also look at the actions of the authorities before and after the tragedy.

But critics warned of a disconnect between the technical, legalistic inquiry process and the ongoing ordeal of traumatized former Grenfell Tower residents still awaiting new homes.

Prime Minister Theresa May pledged that all families whose homes were destroyed in the fire would be rehoused within three weeks, but three months later most still live in hotels.

Just three out of 197 households that needed rehousing have moved into permanent homes, while 29 have moved into temporary accommodation.

“We lost everything. It’s difficult for the other people to be in our shoes,” Miguel Alves, who escaped his 13th-floor apartment in Grenfell Tower with his family, told the BBC.

“Now I’m without anything, I’m in the hotel, I have to cope with my family. My daughter, she just started school. They need some stability and that I cannot give to my family,” he said.

FILE PHOTO: The spire of the Notting Hill Methodist Church stands in front of Grenfell Tower, destroyed in a catastrophic fire, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, in London, Britain July 2, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls/File Photo

FILE PHOTO: The spire of the Notting Hill Methodist Church stands in front of Grenfell Tower, destroyed in a catastrophic fire, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, in London, Britain July 2, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls/File Photo

“BALLROOM DRIPPING WITH CHANDELIERS”

Emma Dent Coad, a member of parliament from the opposition Labour Party who represents the area, said the inquiry’s remit was too narrow and would fail to address the blaze’s deeper causes such as failings in social housing policies.

She also criticized the choice of venue for Moore-Bick’s opening statement, a lavishly decorated room in central London.

“We were sitting in a ballroom dripping with chandeliers. I think it was the most incredibly inappropriate place to have something like that, and actually says it all about the us-and-them divide that people see,” she told the BBC.

Many of those affected have also expressed disquiet about the fact that Moore-Bick and the other lawyers appointed to run the inquiry are all white and part of a perceived “establishment” far removed from their own circumstances.

“The experience of many residents of that tower is that they were ignored because of their immigration status,” lawyer Jolyon Maugham, who is advising some residents, told the BBC.

“We need someone on the inquiry team that can speak to that experience and at the moment on the panel we have a bunch of white privileged barristers,” he said.

One of the difficulties facing the inquiry is that it needs former residents to give evidence but some fear possible deportation.

The government has said it would grant a 12-month amnesty to anyone affected by the fire who was in Britain illegally. Supporters say only permanent residency rights will persuade people to come forward.

(Reporting by Estelle Shirbon and Elisabeth O’Leary; editing by Stephen Addison and Matthew Mpoke Bigg)