Ferguson Protests Move to Retailers

Protesters on Friday went to major retailers to demonstrate against a Missouri grand jury's failure to indict a white police officer for killing an unarmed black teenager.

The protesters briefly shut down stores in at least two malls near Ferguson, a suburb of St. Louis where Officer Darren Wilson shot and killed Michael Brown, 18, in August.

Elsewhere, as many as 200 people demonstrated near Chicago's famed Water Tower, urging shoppers not to spend money as a show of solidarity with people in Ferguson, and protesters in New York descended upon the city's flagship Macy's store and temporarily blocked traffic.

Demonstrators had interrupted shopping overnight at some stores in the Ferguson area. Dozens of people, beginning Thursday on the Thanksgiving holiday and continuing into the night, had gone to Walmart and Target stores, chanting as police officers watched.

Protesters hold signs aloft outside Macy's before the kick off of Black Friday sales in New York on Nov. 27, 2014. /Reuters

The Friday after Thanksgiving is the first day of the Christmas shopping season in the U.S., during which huge crowds of consumers are drawn to special offers by retailers.

Residents of Ferguson and others who wanted to help came out on Thanksgiving to clean up the debris left from the violence and looting that followed Monday's announcement that Wilson would not be indicted. The unrest left dozens of buildings damaged or burned.

Brown's death inflamed tensions in Ferguson and raised concerns about police violence and racial discrimination in the mostly black city.

Wilson, who said he feared for his life during the confrontation with Brown, told reporters Tuesday that he had a clean conscience "because I know I did my job right."

Brown's family said Wilson acted with malice and should stand trial.

Protesters across the country have used the case to highlight similar instances in which they say laws are not applied fairly toward African-Americans.

The U.S. Justice Department is probing possible civil rights abuses in the Ferguson shooting. President Barack Obama has called for reflection on the difficulties minorities face in the country.

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