On Saturday, for the first time since the unrest, West Florissant was left open to traffic and pedestrians in the evening, as National Guard soldiers and police officers stood watch. The decision to leave the street open after dusk was made with little fanfare.
During the march, police cruisers crept along with the crowd, and organizers exhorted the line to keep a tight formation. The marchers paused to speak with a woman standing along the side of the road whose antiques store had been destroyed in the looting and arsons. When the marchers raised their arms into the warm November afternoon and shouted, “Hands up, don’t shoot!” two little girls watching from their front yard did the same, before ducking into their garage.
The march was part of demonstrations here and across the nation touching on police tactics, race and poverty that are stretching toward a second week since the grand jury’s decision.
More than 100 protesters marched through a shopping plaza in the affluent St. Louis suburb of Brentwood, lying on the ground in a “die-in” to represent Mr. Brown’s shooting. As they marched along the sidewalk, they were shadowed by dozens of police officers.
At the memorial to Mr. Brown near the Canfield Green apartments in Ferguson, dozens of motorcyclists swirled through the streets in a show of solidarity. Outside the St. Louis County Courthouse in Clayton, where the grand jury had met, more than 100 protesters circled in silence.
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