FERGUSON, August 21 (RIA Novosti) – A US policeman threatened to beat a fitness instructor Shawn Parks “like a monkey” in Ferguson, the suburb that has been riven by protests over the recent police killing of an unarmed African-American teenager.
“There’ve been times when I’ve just been walking home and I get pulled over by a cop who tells me I look like somebody, because I’m black with dreads. What about the color of my pants, or my shoes? Everybody in this neighborhood is black with dreads,” Parks, 22 told RIA Novosti.
“Another time I was just standing, talking, on the curb, arguing with a cop who wanted to move me along. He said: ‘I don’t like you, I don’t like your smart mouth. I can throw you in the back of a car, shave your head and beat you like a monkey’,” Parks added.
Ferguson, has been rocked by protests since the police shot dead Michael Brown, an unarmed African-American teenager, as he walked with a friend on a residential street on the afternoon of August 9.
Protests eased on Wednesday night thanks to the effects of rain and a visit by America’s top lawman, Attorney General Eric Holder, who promised a thorough federal probe to complement local investigations.
Missouri National Guard troops have been deployed to staunch the violence. Law enforcers have been criticized for bringing military tactics to civilian protests, toting assault rifles and using tear gas, rubber bullets and other heavy-handed measures.
