Michael Brown, 18, unarmed, was shot dead by police on Saturday. Days from attending his first college class, his death is a mystery, because police in Ferguson, Missouri, aren't saying much about it. "The police story," writes Amy Davidson, "was insufficient."
One thing people did learn Sunday was more about Brown, who was described as gentle, committed to sports and to his friends, working hard to make up classes when he fell behind, and excited about starting college. All of this added to the anger; people marched, with their hands in the air, chanting "Don't shoot me." Brown's mother, throughout the day, came out on the street near where he was killed. "I know they killed my son," she said, according to the Post-Dispatch. "This was wrong and it was cold-hearted." There was a vigil for him that evening.
Sometime after it ended, there was a night of chaos and looting in Ferguson. People stole things wholesale and set a store on fire. There were reports of gunshots, and thirty-two people were arrested. By Monday morning, the shopping streets in Ferguson were a wreck. From a teen-ager's walk to the firing of a gun and the smashing of windshields: it will take hard questioning in Ferguson to put those pieces together. But it is clear that the community's trust was broken before any windows were.
