T H E N O . 1 S T. L O U I S W E B S I T E A N D N E W S P A P E R

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Vol. 136, No. 223 ©2014POST-DISPATCH WEATHERBIRD ®

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TODAY

TOMORROW

Sleep deprived CARDINALS REBOUND

After two losses to the O’s, Cards win 8-3.

SPORTS • B1

BY KORAN ADDOkaddo@post-dispatch.com > 314-340-8305

As hard luck stories go, Andrew Wag-ner’s fortunes turned around pretty quickly.

About 10 months ago, he was a broke Webster University freshman estranged from his family back home in South Car-olina. They’d cut him o� fi nancially the year before after he’d come out as gay.

After moving to the St. Louis area, Wagner found himself enrolled in school paying his way through freshman year with loans, grants and scholarships.

But when those dollars began to dry up, putting him in danger of missing his sophomore year, Wagner, 20, stayed true to his generation. He turned to so-cial media. He put his education in the

Needy students tap online crowd Social media funding drives grow as tuition resource.

BY JESSICA BOCKjbock@post-dispatch.com> 314-340-8228

To survive the 6:30 a.m. start time at Edwardsville High, Alicia Terry started drinking co� ee her freshmen year. Matt Ney’s beverage of choice to stay awake at Parkway North was a daily Monster energy drink.

“That was worst thing I could have done, but it was absolutely neces-

sary,” said Ney, who had to arrive an hour before the 7:25 a.m. bell to be involved in water polo and sing-ing groups. “It was either that or fall asleep in class.”

When high schoolers head back to school this week, they’ll also return to a daily schedule set up to steal hundreds of hours of their sleep during the year, and

High schoolers can’t hit ‘snooze’ Early start times are counter to teens’ biological needs.

BY STEVE GIEGERICHsgiegerich@post-dispatch.comAND JESSE BOGANjbogan@post-dispatch.com

FERGUSON • A day of protests and vigils Sunday for an unarmed black teenager who was shot to death by a Ferguson police o� cer erupted Sunday night with con-frontations, looting and gunshots.

Authorities said that a police officer shot an unarmed black teenager Saturday after the teen attacked the Ferguson o� cer. But pressure for a deeper explana-tion grew locally and nationally throughout the day Sunday.

Hundreds of people gathered at the shooting site Sunday night for a vigil for Michael Brown, 18, who was to begin technical school classes today.

While some people prayed, others spilled onto West Flo-rissant Avenue, choking off

PROTEST, PUBLIC MEETING PLANNED TODAY

IN WARY CITY

BY ELISA CROUCH ecrouch@post-dispatch.com 314-340-8119

Michael Brown posted a haunt-ing message on Facebook last week as he prepared to enter a new phase in his life: college.

“if i leave this earth today,” he wrote to a friend, “atleast youll know i care about others more then i cared about my damn self.”

Brown, 18, died Saturday af-ter a Ferguson police o� cer shot him multiple times outside an apartment complex. Brown was

‘GENTLE GIANT’ WAS READY

FOR NEW LIFE, FRIENDS SAY

THE DISPARITY OF DUE PROCESSMichael Brown didn’t get any. The police o� cer who shot him will get plenty.

That’s the root of righteous anger. EDITORIAL • A10

See SLEEP • Page A3 See CROWDFUNDING • Page A3

RACING TRAGEDYQuestions surround death of driver hit by Tony Stewart.

SPORTS • B1

See FERGUSON • Page A5 See BROWN • Page A4

DAY OF PROTESTS

DAVID CARSON • dcarson@post-dispatch.comA man jumps through a broken window with bottles of wine in his hands as the QuikTrip is looted Sunday . The situation in Ferguson grew more tense as some who had gathered to protest the death of Michael Brown began looting and taunting police o� cers.

NIGHT OF FRENZYHUNDREDS GATHER TO MOURN UNARMED TEEN WHO WAS KILLED BY POLICE.

AS THE HOURS WEAR ON, SOME IN FERGUSON TURN TO LOOTING, VIOLENCE.

ROBERT COHEN • rcohen@post-dispatch.comA QuikTrip at 9420 West Florissant Avenue in Ferguson burns Sunday night as smoke rises from tear gas fi red from a St. Louis County Police truck.

A4 • ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH M 1 • MOnDAy • 08.11.2014

ferguson police shooting

two days from starting class at Vatterott College. Close friends had been pack-ing up and departing for schools such as Kansas State University and Arkansas Baptist University on sports scholarships.

“Everyone else wanted to be a foot-ball player, a basketball player,” said Ge-rard Fuller, who had known Brown since second grade at Pine Lawn Elementary School. “He wanted to own his own busi-ness. He’d say, ‘Let’s make something out of nothing.’”

Brown graduated from high school at the predominately African-American Normandy High School, a high-poverty school in a district that has been at the center of legislative battles and a string of politically charged decisions by the Mis-souri Board of Education.

Teachers described Brown as a “gentle giant,” a student who loomed large and didn’t cause trouble. Friends describe him as a quiet person with a wicked sense of humor, one who loved music and had begun to rap. He fought an uphill battle to graduate.

As a freshman, he was in Junior ROTC. His sophomore year he played foot-ball. During his junior year, he attended McCluer High School in the neighbor-ing Ferguson-Florissant district before returning his senior year to Normandy. There, he spent time in a credit recovery program so he could graduate in May.

“We were at graduation, me and him, and we were talking,” said Hershel John-son, a friend of Brown’s since middle school. “He said he wasn’t going to end up like some people on the streets. He was going to get an education. He was go-ing to make his life a whole a lot better.”

Friends of Brown’s learned about his death shortly after he was shot Saturday afternoon. They saw photos of him lying in the street on Canfield Drive where his body remained for hours. Some joined the crowds of mourners and protesters who had gathered there since the shooting in protest of how Brown had died: black, unarmed and from multiple gunshots.

At one point, members of the crowd held up their hands, saying, “Don’t shoot me!” as police officers with barking dogs tried to keep order. St. Louis County Po-

lice Chief Jon Belmar said the officer’s gun was fired once inside the car during a struggle with Brown, hitting no one, and that the officer then fired multiple times at the 18-year-old as he ran away. Police say Brown tried to take the officer’s gun.

“That doesn’t sound like Michael,” Johnson said. “I know he would never do anything like that. I just don’t believe he’d do anything that would cause this whole situation.”

On May 22, Brown walked across the stage inside Viking Hall, accepting a di-ploma with 114 other classmates. His gown was green. His sash was red.

In his graduation picture, Brown holds an expression of someone who’d just fin-ished an endurance race. He had voiced relief to a number of friends that day, in-cluding Raquan Smith.

“After that was done and people were leaving, I remember seeing him off to the side,” Smith said. “He kind of just came up to me and said, ‘We made it.’”

“‘Yeah man, we made it,’ I told him. It was a breath of fresh air to know someone else shared the struggle in school. And now we were starting a whole new life.”

On Facebook and on Twitter, friends and classmates shared their anger, sad-ness and disbelief. They had to process the fact that Brown was dead. And they also had to deal with how he died.

“This is a problem,” Smith said. “This is an unfortunate recurring problem. We as a race, we as a community, we as a youth need to step up and say, ‘Things need to change.’”

Smith was among the friends who attended a vigil Sunday at the scene of Brown’s death. Bryson Jenkins, a class-mate and member of Brown’s extended family, couldn’t be there. He just started as a freshman at Arkansas Baptist Uni-versity.

“It hurt so bad to get that phone call,” Jenkins said. “He was a sharer. He was a giver. When one of his friends needed something he would give. Mike used to sell candy in middle school. I’d come up to Mike and say, ‘Mike, let me get some Skittles or something.’ I’d offer him a dol-lar and he’d say, ‘It’s on me.’”

BROWN • from A1

Teen was excited to start new path in college, friends say

“Everyone else wanted to be a football player, a basketball player. He wanted to own his own business. He’d say, ‘Let’s make something out of nothing.’”Gerard Fuller, friend of Michael Brown

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traffic. The situation grew more tense as the night wore on. Looting was reported at a QuikTrip at 9420 West Florissant Av-enue about 9 p.m. Businesses along West Florissant were broken into. Around 11 p.m., looting was reported at a Walmart in the area. A large fire was burning at West Florissant and Northwinds Estates Drive.

A civilian was reported severely beaten near West Florissant and Chambers.

At Ferguson Avenue and West Floris-sant Avenue, hundreds of demonstrators blocked traffic. They were taunting po-lice officers, who were lined up in riot gear, carrying shields and batons.

“It could have been one of your kids,” yelled Charles Staton, 35, of Ferguson, at the officers. “Protect and serve. They aren’t protecting.”

At the same time, about 100 people remained in front of the Ferguson police station, where South Florissant Road was also blocked by demonstrators. There, the emphasis was on keeping the peace.

St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Bel-mar promised a thorough outside inves-tigation.

“It’s turning into something it’s not supposed to be,” Darryl Jones of Pine Lawn said as the looting began.

Late Sunday, County Executive Char-lie Dooley came to the line and tried to convince demonstrators to leave. His ef-forts were yelled down. Eventually, offi-cers moved their line forward. “It’s time to leave,” the officers said. Reporters on the scene said the area calmed down shortly after as action moved elsewhere.

Some people were caught in the crowds, though, and couldn’t leave. J.R. Grace, came for the vigil but never made it be-cause of the blockade. “The businesses didn’t kill that man. That’s not going to solve anything,” he said. “That’s only go-ing to make things worse.”

Gunshots were reported in the area late Sunday, and a SWAT team was seen in the area. Hundreds of police officers were re-ported on the scene.

Jimmy Mohammad, 32, was among people arming themselves to protect their own property. Mohammad, with a gun in his hand, said he was protecting his un-cle’s store, United Mart, 10393 West Flo-rissant Avenue. “It’s bad. I don’t blame the police, but they can’t keep up.” He said he believed some of the looters were armed.

NATIONAL ImpLIcATIONsBenjamin L. Crump, a civil rights law-yer known for representing the family of Florida shooting victim Trayvon Martin, announced Sunday night that he had been hired to represent Brown’s family. Crump is based in Tallahassee, Fla.

In Washington, a spokesperson said Attorney General Eric Holder asked civil rights lawyers in the Justice Department to monitor the case. In St. Louis, Special Agent Cheryl Mimura said, “I can confirm that the FBI is working closely with the St. Louis County PD to review the matter at this time.”

Protesters complained that the killing was emblematic of deep tensions between black residents of North County and a predominantly white Ferguson police force. Officials have not revealed the race of the officer who killed Brown.

“We have to stick together because we are targets,” said Robert Brefford, 26, an African-American musician from Berke-ley who spoke in front of the police station Sunday night. He said police in the area pull over, poke and prod black drivers.

“The bleeding began long before Mi-chael Brown,” said Pastor Traci Black-mon of Christ the King United Church of Christ, in nearby Florissant.

She passed a petition seeking a dialogue with officials. “We come in peace,” she said. “But we are angry and in need of ac-tion and answers.”

Shontell Walters, of Berkeley, com-

plained to stone-faced police outside their headquarters: “This child was ready to go to college and you killed his dream.” She added, “He is not coming back. He could have owned a business and made money for Ferguson someday, but you killed him.”

Dooley visited the protesters around noon Sunday to acknowledge their “justi-fiable anger” and implore them to “chan-nel this anger into justice.” But the group turned on him for expressing confidence in the ability of county police to do a fair investigation, buffeting him with heated rhetoric and questions.

“How can we protect our children?” one mother screamed at him.

The shaken Dooley responded, “This is not the way to console the family right now.”

The NAACP and State Sen. Jamilah Na-sheed, D-St. Louis, joined a chorus seek-ing a federal investigation.

State Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal, D-University City, said, “This demonstration has to happen to release all the negative energy people are feeling on the inside. And we are doing it peacefully.”

Activist Zaki Baruti said the presence of police dogs near demonstrations rein-forced the perception of bias against black people. “It sends a very negative message, and it is a very insensitive reaction to the outrage of the people,” he said.

Another protest was scheduled for 10 a.m. today outside the police station. And the St. Louis County NAACP is planning a mass public meeting at 6 p.m. today at Murchison Tabernacle Church, 7629 Nat-ural Bridge in St. Louis.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, a New York-based civil rights leader, called the shoot-ing “very disturbing” and said he planned to meet here with Brown’s family today or Tuesday.

The demonstrations Sunday drew na-tional news media attention to two sites: the police station, at 222 South Florissant Road, and the street where Brown fell, in the 2900 block of Canfield Drive.

‘FERGUsON KILLED mY sON’Brown’s stepfather, Louis Head, sat cross-legged, head in hands, sobbing Sunday morning before a memorial on Canfield that would grow exponentially though Sunday with teddy bears, flowers and tributes.

“Ferguson killed my son,” he said. “Fer-guson flat-out murdered my son in the street, a cold-blooded murder.”

In a news conference Sunday morning, Belmar, the county police chief, said the Ferguson officer had an encounter with two “individuals” about noon Saturday and that Brown pushed the officer back into his car and “assaulted” him in the ve-hicle.

Belmar said one shot was fired by the officer’s gun inside the car during the struggle, hitting no one, and that the offi-cer then fired multiple times as Brown ran away. Brown fell dead in the street. Belmar said the crime scene covered a distance of just 35 feet.

AUTOpsY Is pENDINGBelmar did not describe the reason for the initial contact, nor indicate whether police think the shooting was justified. He also did not provide any details about the per-son who had been with Brown.

He said the shots that hit Brown were “more than just a couple but I don’t think it was many more than that.” He said an autopsy was pending.

The chief said the investigation’s re-sults will be forwarded to St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch, whose office would decide whether crimi-nal charges were justified.

Belmar noted that as Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson arrived at the scene Saturday, he called Belmar to ask for a county investigation.

Jackson sat beside Belmar but did not speak in a short news conference at 10 a.m. at the community’s firehouse.

Belmar emphasized that the outside in-vestigation and consultation with the FBI — which has jurisdiction over allegations of civil rights violations by police — are “standard protocols.”

The officer who fired, whose name has not been disclosed, is now on adminis-trative leave. Belmar said that officer has been on the Ferguson force for six years and appears to have “no other issues” in his past. Belmar and Jackson abruptly left the news conference as reporters contin-ued to call out questions.

ferguson police shooting

FERGUsON • from A1

Civil rights lawyers in the Justice department are monitoring case, and the FBI says it is working with St. Louis County Police

J.B. ForBes • jforbes@post-dispatch.com Shontell Walters, of Berkeley, yells at St. Louis County police officers Sunday in front of the Ferguson police station.

J.B. ForBes • jforbes@post-dispatch.com A crowd gathers Sunday evening at the candlelight vigil in Ferguson, near the spot where Michael Brown, 18 and unarmed, was killed Saturday by a police officer.

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Farming amendment will hurt rural Missourians

Feeling badly for the rural Missourians who were duped into voting for the so-called right to farm amendment. They will suffer the brunt of the problems when this amendment is used to negate Missouri’s modest regulations on high concentration feedlots and over use of fertilizer as the water they drink and air they must breathe will be polluted by runoff and foul odors.

This amendment also failed to de-fi ne “farmer.” Is a foreign corporation a farmer? How about a puppy mill operator? Can any animal cruelty laws be enforced or would that violate the right to farm with no interference by the state?

Sadly, whenever the buzzwords “right,” “freedom” or “liberty” are attached to a proposal, no matter how ill conceived, there will be strong knee-jerk vote in fa-vor. The backers of the rejected sales tax amendment should have titled it, “The freedom to subsidize the big trucking in-dustry bill.” It would have passed easily.Jim Shepard • St. Louis

Is the livelihood of real farmers really under threat?I am deeply disappointed in the good people of Missouri. How could such a no-nonsense group of people, from a state with a “Show-Me” motto, no less, have fallen for the snake oil of Prop. 1?

To my knowledge, none of the farmers I know have ever had their right to farm threatened. This is a state that has always supported our real farmers, and we don’t need an amendment for that. The mystery is who spent the $1.5 million to change our constitution to presumably insure a right that we already have? Sue Jarrett • Webster Groves

Legislature ignores common sense solutions I wonder when Missourians will finally wake up to the stupidity of the Republi-can snake oil salesmen who control the Legislature. All we need to do is look to

neighboring Kansas and to Wisconsin to see where supply side (“trickle down”) economics does not work.

In fact, you cannot cite one instance where it does work! We recently voted down a sales tax increase to fund road in-frastructure — why don’t we just increase fuel taxes to pay for this? We have one of the lowest fuel taxes in the nation, and this could bring us in line with the na-tional average.

Another common sense solution would be to increase cigarette taxes. And also, why don’t we accept the free money that comes with Medicaid expansion? This would provide much needed access to medical care for many Missourians while creating jobs and bringing millions of our own tax dollars back to our state.

These common sense solutions would work to make our lives just a bit better.John Berkowitz • St. Charles

Veto-proof Legislature

This reader is much disheartened by news that Tuesday’s elections will continue to result in a veto-proof Republican-controlled state Legislature. Gov. Nixon has been the sane voice in Jefferson City

for the last few years.It’s not much less regrettable that some

of the constitutional amendments were not defeated at the polls. Being part of a minority is discouraging when there is little movement some of us can feel is positive. In November let’s vote “no” on incumbents who don’t serve their terms responsibly, with dignity and humility.George W. Morris • St. Charles

Walgreen cancels its ticket on the greed shipHooray for Sen. Dick Durbin. Bullying or otherwise, he stopped Walgreen Inc. from jumping onto the greed ship and moving to a foreign country so it could duck out of paying those horrible taxes that so unfairly does things like pay for street repairs so loyal American customers can get to stores and purchase goods and medications.

These same goods and medications are government inspected (paid by taxes) to protect consumers from unscrupulous overseas manufacturers, many of whom fl ed the U.S. during the Reagan years.

How long can the GOP march in lock-step down this ever narrowing road and not see that the American people don’t

want to be bullied and abandoned just for profi ts’ sake. Maybe they should look at Walgreen and see what it saw.Mike Brennell • St. Louis

Christians should have same right to host ballpark eventIn response to a Paul Summers’ letter Aug. 7 regarding Christian Day at the Ballpark:

Christian Day has been going on for 24 years. Like any other special group day, it helps sell tickets for many who wish to attend the postgame event. Christian Day began with the blessing of the late Cardi-nal vice president Marty Hendin, who was Jewish. He oversaw the event throughout the years. We would not have been able to do the event without Cardinals players getting involved. Players like Matt Hol-liday, Albert Pujols, Adam Wainwright, Lance Berkman, and this year Kolten Wong, Matt Carpenter, Trevor Rosenthal and manager Mike Matheny.

The Cardinals host many events for di-verse groups, and Christians should have the same right to host an event as any other group. Christian Day is open to all, and thousands of fans have stayed after the games to hear inspirational speakers such as Tony Dungy, Willie Robertson and former Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell from “Lone Survivor” fame, who was this year’s speaker.

No one is isolated or forced to partici-pate in the event. All are invited to attend no matter what their beliefs may be. This year, Marcus made few references to his “religious” views but shared his story as an American war hero.

I respect Mr. Summers’ viewpoint, and I thank him for allowing others to express theirs.Randy Mayfi eld • Ballwin

Artful guys doing good

It sure was refreshing to read about Jovan Simpson and Bob Hansman, telling how art brought them together (“Bob Hansman started City Faces to help youths; he ended up gaining a son,” July 28). It is so nice to hear two caring guys doing good. God bless them.Joan Wilhelm • Aff ton

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MONDAY • 08.11.2014 • A10

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Michael Brown didn’t get due process.The still unnamed police officer who

shot the 18-year-old black teenager dead in Ferguson will get plenty of it.

This is the root of the frustration that is driving the African-American community to the streets in north St. Louis County over yet another senseless killing of a young black man.

“What do we want? Justice!” chanted a crowd of family, friends and community members who gathered after the Saturday shooting. “When do we want it? Now!”

They may get justice — in the form of a prosecution of the police officer who shot and killed the recent Normandy High School graduate — but the odds aren’t stacked in their favor, and even if it hap-pens, it won’t happen anytime soon.

America’s history is riddled with offi-cer-involved-shootings in which juries give police who perform a dangerous job the benefit of the doubt. Trying to learn from those shootings to prevent further ones is difficult, says criminologist David Klinger, one of the nation’s foremost experts on police shootings.

Mr. Klinger, a former police officer, practices his craft just down the street from Ferguson, at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, where he is an associate professor in the criminal justice department.

One of the findings in a 2012 study he did of shootings by police in the city of St. Louis could offer some interesting guid-ance to whomever ultimately investigates the shooting of Michael Brown. Mr. Klinger recommended that the shooting investiga-tions be handled with more transparency, and that ultimately, findings be posted on the department’s website, with the names of officers clearly identified.

Few police departments nationwide operate with such transparency, Mr. Klinger’s research has found, and that means little public accountability when a police officer shoots an unarmed civilian.

It’s no wonder, then, that leaders in Fer-guson, including members of the NAACP, have called for the FBI to take over the lead in the investigation into how an unarmed 18-year-old was shot.

That’s a good suggestion, especially

considering that the NAACP already has an ongoing federal complaint against the county police department over alleged racial profiling.

While answers are likely not to come in this case as quickly as some would like, appointing a federal agency to oversee the investigation will instill the sort of trust that might calm some of the justified anger over the shooting.

It’s a good first step.Here’s a second one: Efforts to elevate

the importance of annual studies of racial profiling by police in the region and the state should be intensified.

Last year, for the 11th time in the 14 years that data has been collected, the dis-parity index that measures potential racial profiling by law enforcement in the state

got worse. Black Missourians were 66 percent more likely in 2013 to be stopped by police, and blacks and Hispanics were both more likely to be searched, even though the likelihood of finding contra-band was higher among whites.

Every year these numbers come out to little fanfare, in part because there isn’t enough political will to do the further study to break them down by precincts and indi-vidual officers to determine whether there is a cultural or training problem in entire departments or just a few rogue, racist cops who need to find another line of work.

Perhaps the tragic death of Michael Brown will spur a little political will.

While he wasn’t driving a car when he was pulled over and shot, the concept is the same: Nearly every black man in

America has a story of being pulled over, stopped or harassed as a young person for doing something that a white teenager would never imagine might end in being on the wrong end of a police officer’s gun. Driving While Black. Walking While Black. Wearing a Hoodie While Black.

In Ferguson, the city where Michael died, the police in 2013 pulled over blacks at a 37 percent higher rate than whites compared to their relative populations. Black drivers were twice as likely to be searched and twice as likely to be arrested compared to white drivers.

Those statistics don’t prove racial pro-filing.

But those numbers plus a dead young man in the street make a strong case for deserving a closer look.

DISPARITY OF DUE PROCESSOur view • Michael Brown didn’t get any. The police officer who shot him will get plenty.

YOUR VIEWS • LETTERS FROM OUR READERS

DAVID CARSON • dcarson@post-dispatch.comProtestors raise their hands in mock surrender while confronting police Saturday night in Ferguson after the shooting of Michael Brown.