Tensions again boiled over in Ferguson, Mo., as a crowd of people smashed the windows of at least one store and three people were arrested in the suburb that has become the latest symbol of the continuing racial woes in the United States.

Tuesday’s demonstrations, which spilled into Wednesday, are part of a series that wracked the city, though violence had lessened in recent weeks. The protests come as the nation awaits grand jury action on the case that touched off the summer of discontent. On Aug. 9, Michael Brown, an unarmed young black man, was shot by a white policeman, leading to riots, protests and national attention to the problems of racial friction.

The issue took on a global dimension on Wednesday when President Obama took time in his speech at the United Nations to mention Ferguson and how the United States through democratic means is trying to heal its own wounds. After calling for new global cooperation to fight terrorism, Ebola and other woes, Obama urged the world to find common ground in shared principles to fight for a better world.

“I realize that America’s critics will be quick to point out that at times we too have failed to live up to our ideals; that America has plenty of problems within our own borders,” Obama said. “This is true.


“In a summer marked by instability in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, I know the world also took notice of the small American city of Ferguson, Mo. – where a young man was killed, and a community was divided. So yes, we have our own racial and ethnic tensions. And like every country, we continually wrestle with how to reconcile the vast changes wrought by globalization and greater diversity with the traditions that we hold dear,” the president said.

On Tuesday, a fire destroyed one of two memorials to Brown near the site where he was shot. People gathered and rebuilt it Tuesday morning, but many remained angry, according to social media and local media reports.

By Tuesday night, a crowd estimated at about 200 had gathered and rocks and bricks were thrown at police. Windows at Beauty Town, on West Florissant Avenue, were broken and a fire was reported at another store.

Police officials, including Missouri Highway Patrol Capt. Ronald S. Johnson, St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar and St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson, went to the scene to calm the crowd, which had dwindled to about 50 to 75 before midnight, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.


Juan Santos, manager of Beauty Town, told the newspaper that this was the third time the store has been broken into since the fatal shooting. Santos said the windows had been replaced just a week ago at a cost of $1,300. He got the boards from the basement and put them back on the newly smashed windows, saying he “will probably leave them up for a while now.”

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