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A Tense Mood In Ferguson As Community Awaits Indictment Decision

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

The governor of Missouri declared a state of emergency today as the city of Ferguson waits to hear whether a grand jury will file criminal charges against Darren Wilson. He is the white police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black teenager, Michael Brown, last summer. Tensions are running high in Ferguson, which already saw a wave of unrest after the killing and as St. Louis Public Radio's Tim Lloyd reports, many residents are frustrated by the wait.

TIM LLOYD, BYLINE: I'm standing in downtown Clayton, Missouri. It's an upscale part of St. Louis County and I'm looking up the Buzz Westfall Justice Center. Inside this nondescript brick and glass building, a grand jury has been meeting to decide whether Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson should be indicted for fatally shooting Michael Brown.

MELISSA NIEBERLE: For us it cannot come soon enough.

LLOYD: That's Melissa Nieberle, who co-owns a boutique called Lusso, one of a bunch of small shops located near the Justice Center. Demonstrations have already been held nearby, but protesters say after the grand jury's decision they'll take their demonstrations to another level by shutting this entire area down with acts of civil disobedience. That worries Melissa Nieberle, who doesn't want to go into the holiday shopping season with a freaked-out customer base.

NIEBERLE: The day-to-day rumors are really driving, you know, people not coming out. I mean, every day it's like oh it' today at 2, it's Friday at 5, oh, I heard it's going to be Sunday at 2 when the kids are out of school - I mean, there's so much rumor and speculation right now.

LLOYD: And that speculation is making lots of people here uneasy, but not Michael McPhearson. He's co-chair of the Don't Shoot Coalition, which is organizing demonstrations in Clayton where Nieberle's shop is located.

MICHAEL MCPHEARSON: An American tradition, in terms of creating change, is raising tensions in the community so by doing these disruptive actions, it makes people talk about it.

LLOYD: He says they've amassed a broad coalition of more than 40 groups, including the New Black Panther Party, the St. Louis Jewish Voice for Peace and Veterans for Peace. And the longer they wait, the more they train to keep any protest peaceful.

MCPHEARSON: We feel that if we're putting out enough people to take action, that we can turn any negative energy into positive energy.

LLOYD: Michael Brown's parents and attorneys continue to call for peaceful protest. Over the weekend one group temporarily shut down traffic on a trendy stretch of St. Louis's Delmar Loop. Protester Alisha Sonnier says they aren't waiting for the grand jury's decision.

ALISHA SONNIER: If he is indicted, it don't stop, then it goes to the trial. It he's not indicted, it don't stop - we're going to keep going.

LLOYD: Many activists say if police show up to demonstrations dressed in riot gear, that will increase odds for violent confrontations. When it comes to specific tactics for maintaining public safety, police aren't sharing many details and social media means things can change quickly.

St. Louis Metropolitan Police chief Sam Dotson says most of the local protesters have a long-term interest in improving relations between minorities and the police, but he says some groups are trying to hijack the protesters' platform.

SAM DOTSON: There are groups from all over the country that have come into town. The Revolutionary Communist Party, I don't know what their interest is in the shooting of Michael Brown.

LLOYD: Officials say hundreds of officers have received extra training and all of this has parents near where protests first broke out north of St. Louis County more than a bit anxious. Area superintendents say that travel routes for 20,000 students could be threatened by civil unrest. Melissa Fitzgerald's three children go to school in the Ferguson-Florissant school district, which had to delay the start of the school year because of protest.

While her kids are running around in the backyard, she's sitting in her living room nervous about what's to come.

MELISSA FITZGERALD: Trying to kind of just go on with your normal - but you don't know what's going to happen that day and again, where your kids are going to be, where you're going to be, what the reaction from the public is going to be.

LLOYD: Like many people in Ferguson and around St. Louis, she's awaiting the grand jury's decision and whatever comes next.

For NPR News, I'm Tim Lloyd in St. Louis. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Tim Lloyd grew up north of Kansas City and holds a masters degree in journalism from the University of Missouri, Columbia. Prior to joining St. Louis Public Radio, he launched digital reporting efforts for Harvest Public Media, a Corporation for Public Broadcasting funded collaboration between Midwestern NPR member stations that focuses on agriculture and food issues. His stories have aired on a variety of stations and shows including Morning Edition, Marketplace, KCUR, KPR, IPR, NET, WFIU. He won regional Edward R Murrow Awards in 2013 for Writing, Hard News and was part of the reporting team that won for Continuing Coverage. In 2010 he received the national Debakey Journalism Award and in 2009 he won a Missouri Press Association award for Best News Feature.

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