Eric Holder Assures Ferguson Residents: 'Change Is Coming'
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder visited the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, Missouri on Wednesday, promising residents that "change is coming" as they seek answers in the fatal shooting of unarmed teen Michael Brown.
Holder arrived in Ferguson on Wednesday, visiting several local establishments, including Drake's Place Restaurant and the St. Louis Community College to spread the message of hope and peace to weary residents, many of whom have been peacefully protesting Brown's death since it occurred on August 9.
"We can make it better," Holder reportedly told diners at Drake's Place Restaurant, while the attorney general added to students and faculty at the St. Louis Community College that "change is coming."
The attorney general also published a letter on the St. Louis Post-Dispatch website, saying federal investigators will do everything they can to find justice for the Brown family. Holder added that the relationship between local authorities and civilians is "all-important" as well as "fragile."
Holder added that protester arrests "must not lead to disparate treatment under the law, even if such treatment is unintended. And police forces should reflect the diversity of the communities they serve."
The small minority of violent protesters that have looted and thrown Molotov cocktails at police have reportedly subsided this week, after the local Ferguson police department was forced to call in the National Guard and set a nightly curfew of midnight to curb violent protests.
Brown, a black, unarmed teen who was fatally shot by a white police officer who was responding to a robbery at a convenience store, is reportedly receiving an autopsy from federal investigators after an independent autopsy, commissioned by Brown's family, found the teen was shot six times in his front and allegedly did not put up a struggle against the policeman before he was shot.
