Governor Nixon Pleads for Tolerance in Ferguson

FERGUSON – The Grand Jury in Ferguson Missouri has voted against indicting the police officer who shot and killed Michael Brown.

A Missouri police officer has not been charged for the fatal August shooting of an unarmed black teenager, an incident that set off weeks of sometimes violent protests around the St. Louis area, a county prosecutor said on Monday.

The grand jury found there was no probable cause to charge Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson, who is white, with any crime for the shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown, an incident that highlighted longstanding racial tensions in the predominantly black city, which has a white-dominated power structure.

“They determined that no probable cause exists to file any charge against officer Wilson,” St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch told reporters in Clayton, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis where the grand jury met.
Missouri Governor Jay Nixon urged tolerance, respect and restraint on Monday, regardless of the grand jury decision on whether or not to indict the officer involved in the shooting death of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown this summer.

“Our shared hope and expectation is that regardless of the decision people on all sides show tolerance, mutual respect and restraint,” Governor Nixon said.

He went on to say that the National Guard will be deployed to provide support roles and provide “security at critical facilities.”

VIDEO by Reuters