Ferguson shooting protesters lay on a shopping boycott for Black Friday
Demonstrators shut down a shopping mall near Ferguson, at the start of the holiday shopping season as protests over the killing of an unarmed black teen by a white police officer turned on some retailers around the United States.
Demonstrators shut down a shopping mall near Ferguson, Missouri, at the start of the holiday shopping season as protests over the killing of an unarmed black teen by a white police officer turned on some retailers around the United States.
After a quiet Thanksgiving Day, protesters were out in force again to vent their anger at Monday's grand jury decision not to indict officer Darren Wilson over the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown in the St Louis suburb.
Activists across the country said they were encouraging a boycott of Black Friday sales to highlight the purchasing power of black Americans, and to draw links between economic and racial inequality. "You have to disrupt business as usual for this to happen and that's the only thing that's ever made change," said Sergio Uzurin outside Macy's flagship store in New York.
The killing of Brown, which has renewed a debate over race relations in the United States and the treatment of blacks and other minorities by police, has triggered months of sometimes violent protests in Ferguson and sympathy protests elsewhere.
More than 200 people in New York sought to disrupt shopping on Friday with a protest in front of the Macy's store and marched into the ground floor as surprised staff and shoppers looked on.
Demonstrators later marched through the streets of New York, and a police spokesman said officers arrested seven protesters for disorderly conduct.
Similar protests were staged in other cities, including Chicago, Seattle and Oakland on Black Friday, when many retailers offer deep discounts and shoppers traditionally turn out in droves.
At the upmarket Galleria near St Louis, demonstrators chanted "No Black Friday" before singing carols and then briefly lying on the floor, leading officials to close the mall.
Late on Friday, about 100 protesters marched up and down the road outside the Ferguson police department. As National Guard troops looked on, the crowd chanted: "Soldiers, turn your guns around! Shoot this racist system down!"
Authorities ultimately arrested 15 protesters in Ferguson, after demonstrators failed to move from the streets, St Louis County police said.
One Walmart store near Ferguson decided to cancel Black Friday sales and merchandise was moved to other locations in the St Louis area, employees said.
In Oakland, about 16 people were arrested after chaining themselves to a train during a demonstration at a Bay Area Rapid Transit rail station in protest, a rail spokeswoman said.
Later in San Francisco, protesters marched through the city's downtown, with some smashing windows at retailers in Union Square, police said.
Austin shooting
A man died of a gunshot wound in Austin, Texas, after he fired over 100 shots at city buildings and tried to burn down the Mexican consulate, police said.
The gunman, identified as Larry McQuilliams, 49, had a criminal record and police were trying to determine his motives for shooting at the consulate, police headquarters, the US courthouse and other locations.
Some of the buildings are near the popular Sixth Street entertainment district, where bars close at 2am - about the time the shootings began on Friday. The court's guard house was shot several times, as was the police headquarters, which were "extensively damaged", Police Chief Art Acevedo said. No one was injured. Officers were seen removing about a dozen small tanks of propane - as used for camping, and the type police said were used in the bid to set fire to the consulate.
Acevedo said a sergeant who was holding the reins of two police horses shot the gunman just outside the main entrance to police headquarters. But he said it was not clear whether that shot was fatal or if the suspect took his own life. AP
