Two Baltimore Reverends Among 50 Arrested At Ferguson, Mo. Protests
FERGUSON, Mo. (WJZ) -- More tension in Missouri two months after unarmed teenager Michael Brown was killed by police. Officers clashing with protestors and a well-known Maryland pastor was among those arrested and charged.
Christie Ileto has the struggle over police behavior that's reaching from Missouri to Maryland.
What was supposed to be a peaceful demonstration landed Baltimore pastor Jamal Bryant in jail. He's the latest to be arrested in Ferguson, a town battling unrest following the August police shooting death of unarmed teen Michael Brown.
"We said, `We're here to see the police,'" said Bryant. "They never said, `Don't take another step forward.' We just said, `We're coming in peace."
Bryant says when he and other clergy attempted to enter the police station to pray with the chief, they were arrested.
Bryant is one of 19---including scholar and activist Cornel West---detained for assaulting officers.
"It was really just disbelief and shock," he said. "Because it really wasn't even a protest but a sacrament of prayer."
But St. Louis County police argue "Protestors started bumping officers' shields, forcing past the police line.
Demonstrations intensified last week when officers fatally shot another African-American teen. This time, police say Vonerrit Myers Jr. was armed and fired first.
"At some point, we have to have rational discussion," said a St. Louis official.
The call for change is catching ears of some officials.
"I think it's peeling off the Band-Aid to say we can no longer this wound, to say that all of America is bleeding and it has to be addressed," said Bryant.
Organizers of the four-day Ferguson October protests dubbed the day "Moral Monday" and committed acts of civil disobedience across the St. Louis region.
Pastor Bryant says he's going back to Ferguson next weekend for a town hall meeting.
More than 100 clergy members from around the country took part in Monday's protest.
For the latest on the developments in Ferguson, click over to CBS St. Louis.
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