Michael Brown Sr. reveals plaque that will be placed in street for a permanent memorial. #Ferguson pic.twitter.com/CEjXx4ZlXz
— Stephen Deere (@stephencdeere) May 20, 2015A permanent memorial that will be erected in Ferguson, Missouri, in memory of the late Michael Brown is nothing more than a “monument to the lie,” according to one of several critics of the move just announced by city officials there...Ferguson city officials this week, on what would have been Brown’s 19th birthday, said they had reached an agreement to remove an informal shrine created at the scene of Brown’s death on Canfield Drive and replace it with a plaque.
Though Brown was killed after attacking Officer Darren Wilson on August 9, 2014, the plaque contains no acknowledgement of the circumstances of Brown’s death. Instead, the wording of the memorial pays tribute to Brown’s “afterglow of smiles” left behind when his “life was done.”
The confrontation between Brown and the officer sparked riots that pitted the city’s largely white police force and the African-American community.
An investigation by the Department of Justice found “no evidence” to disprove Wilson’s testimony that he feared for his life after being attacked by Brown.
Conflict between police and African-Americans have spread to other cities in the wake of Brown’s death, notably in Baltimore, where riots took place after the death of an African-American man, Freddie Gray, in police custody.
Fox 2 St. Louis reports the stuffed animals, flowers and other objects placed in the middle of the street will be stored by the Urban League. The city has long contended the sprawling memorial was a safety hazard, but the process of negotiating for the removal of the objects from the street took months.
[Michael Brown Plaque Called 'Monument to Lie,' WND, May 21, 2015]
