Ferguson hopes for calm, cleans up after looting

FERGUSON, Missouri -- Business owners and residents boarded-up windows and cleared away debris Wednesday as Ferguson sought a tentative return to normal after two nights of unrest over a grand jury's decision not to indict a police officer in the shooting death of an unarmed black 18-year-old.

Protesters continued to hold scattered demonstrations, including a group that rushed into City Hall in St. Louis, the city neighboring Ferguson, screaming "Shame, shame." Police locked down the building and called in more than 100 extra officers. Three people were arrested.

About 200 demonstrators marched through downtown St. Louis and held a mock trial of Darren Wilson, the white police officer who shot and killed Michael Brown on Aug. 9.

But in the suburb of Ferguson, the relative calm of the daylight hours appeared to last into the night as Thursday's Thanksgiving holiday approached.

Only two arrests were reported, for misdemeanors, in Ferguson Wednesday night.

Hours after nightfall Wednesday, a few dozen protesters lingered outside the Ferguson Police Department, shouting at National Guard troops as light snow fell. But there were no serious confrontations and a much smaller police presence.

The racially charged case has stoked passions nationwide, triggering debates over the relationship between black communities and law enforcement. Since the grand jury's decision was announced Monday night, protesters in cities throughout the country have rallied behind the refrain "hands up, don't shoot," and drawn attention to other police killings.

Peaceful protesters gathered again Wednesday in several cities, including Los Angeles and Oakland, California.

But authorities said more than 30 protesters were arrested in Oakland as a third night of demonstrations deteriorated into unrest and vandalism. Police spokeswoman Johnna Watson said the 33 arrests came late Wednesday following a march by about 100 people through Oakland streets. She said that later small groups began moving through the streets with some vandalizing property, mainly breaking windows. Most of the protesters had dispersed but shortly before midnight Watson said that there was still a very small group that police were monitoring.

In New York City, Brown's parents joined the families of two other black men who were unarmed when they died at the hands of police. The families joined arms with civil rights leader Al Sharpton and prayed for justice at the Harlem headquarters of Sharpton's organization, the National Action Network.

As the tension in Ferguson eased somewhat, Wilson broke his long public silence, insisting on national television that he could not have done anything differently in the confrontation. The officer testified during the grand jury hearings that he felt threatened and that Brown tried to grab his gun, something the Brown family has said they don't believe.

"His conscience is clear? How could your conscience be clear after killing somebody, even if it was an accidental death?" Lesley McSpadden, Brown's mother, said Wednesday in an emotional interview on "CBS This Morning."

McSpadden said that the family has yet to receive personal condolences from Ferguson officials.

"Ferguson has never even come to me and even gave a condolence to me," she said. "No one, no one, and when I say come to me, like you and me are sitting here."

"We've just been disrespected all the way around," father Michael Brown Sr. said.

While their lawyer Benjamin Crump agreed the physical evidence is irrefutable, he still questions Wilson's story.

"You just gotta go look at his statements and see what the detectives said, seems like his stories get embellished every time he tells it," Crump said. "If it would have even done the normal way, he writes a report within 48 hours, that would have been good, but that's not what happened, and they didn't cross examine him."

An influx of guardsmen -- reserve troops that state governors can call up during emergencies -- helped make Tuesday night much calmer in Ferguson, although there still were 58 arrests, and demonstrators set fire to a squad car and broke windows at City Hall.

Earlier in the day, about a dozen people painted over boarded-up windows on businesses in the St. Louis suburb's historic downtown, where Guardsmen were stationed every few feet and some looked down from rooftops.

Also on Wednesday, authorities said a 20-year-old man whose body was found inside a car in Ferguson after Monday night's riots had been intentionally set on fire.

The death of Deandre Joshua is being investigated as a homicide, but police have not said whether it's connected to the violence that broke out after the grand jury announcement. An autopsy determined that Joshua was shot once in the head.