Ferguson braces for grand jury ruling

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• GWEN IFILL:

  The Saint Louis suburb of Ferguson, Missouri, and the country is awaiting word from a grand jury on whether it will indict the police officer who shot teenager Michael Brown.

  In anticipation of the decision, and the potential for violence, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon yesterday declared a state of emergency and activated the National Guard. Today, declaring the — quote — "status quo unacceptable," in his words, the governor announced the creation of a 16-member Ferguson commission made up of local civic leaders and law enforcement officials, among them, education reform activist Rich McClure and the Reverend Starsky Wilson, a local pastor.

• REV. STARSKY WILSON, Co-Chair, Ferguson Commission:

  We have got heavy lifting to do as a region. And we have got to do it together. So I invite you to participate in the process, but most of all, I invite you to pray for it.

• RICH MCCLURE, Co-Chair, Ferguson Commission:

  Our region must and can begin to reconcile and to heal. You don't have to see eye to eye to walk arm in arm. And we have had too much of you and them, and not enough of we and us.

• GWEN IFILL:

  We look now at the legal and social questions raised in Ferguson with Danielle Belton, a freelance journalist and editor at large for "Clutch," an online magazine targeting young black women. She is a native of Saint Louis. And Susan McGraugh, a law professor at Saint Louis university, she's also a practicing defense attorney.

  There seems to be a tipping point, Danielle Belton, which we have reached where the discussion is either about police accountability or community accountability, and this Ferguson Commission sounded like it was trying to bridge that gap.

  Where is that tipping pointed landing today?

• DANIELLE BELTON, Clutch Magazine Online:

  Well, it's a nice step.

  It comes in conjunction with the whole state of emergency, though, which feels very reactionary and almost a step back in some regards. It feels like an indictment of the community, where we're concerned that the community of Ferguson and the people who are surrounding these protests somehow are going to create the same amount of emergency you would see around a flood or an earthquake or some form of natural disaster.

  And so that what is more concerning for me. So, it's like, the commission sounds nice. That sounds like a good step in the direction. I wish I would have heard more of that from the governor than something that could possibly cause more heightened tensions than are already there.

• GWEN IFILL:

  Susan McGraugh, let's talk about where that tipping point is and also whether this extended grand jury process has fed into it.

• SUSAN MCGRAUGH, Saint Louis University:

  Yes, I don't think there's any doubt that this extended jury process has made people more anxious about what's going on in Ferguson.

  It's taken several months. It was hot when this started. There's snow on the ground right now. And the fact that this is a different grand jury process than the one that prosecutor McCulloch normally uses has really added to the sense of frustration.

• GWEN IFILL:

  Well, explain it to those of us who pay attention intermittently to this story. This grand jury process is not like something we see in a procedural crime drama. It's not like "Law & Order," somebody gets accused, someone gets indicted, and there's a trial.

  This has been almost a trial in advance of the trial.

• SUSAN MCGRAUGH:

  Yes, it really almost has been, with a couple of notable exceptions.

  You know, this is the only time this specific grand jury procedure has been used by prosecutor McCulloch. And it's different than the one we would normally see here in Saint Louis. For example, officer Wilson wasn't arrested before his case went to grand jury.

  That is something that normally happens in the course of someone's involvement in the criminal justice system. And I think that's really heightened people's sense of frustration. Additionally, the jury's going to see all the evidence.

  Normally, in a grand jury, the prosecutor will only show one side or the state's side of the evidence. In this case, the grand jury is going to hear all of the evidence.

• GWEN IFILL:

  Danielle Belton, there was also, in addition to the state of emergency that the governor declared, an FBI warning that went out nationally about this.

  As — is there some legitimate concern that, as activists come from around the country and fly into Ferguson, to Saint Louis, and go to Ferguson preparing to protest or protest in cities around the country, that there is reason to be concerned?

• DANIELLE BELTON:

  I can see that there might be a few bad actors. There might be a few people who want to take advantage of the situation in order to get out of their own animus they have towards law enforcement and the — and power structures within our society.

  But the vast majority of protesters and activists who have come together around Ferguson have come around it peacefully, they have organized peacefully. They helped young people who this is their first introduction to organization in many cases here in Saint Louis, who have never been involved in any political activism or movement, and they have helped guide them and nurture them to get them to this positive place where they are right now.

• GWEN IFILL:

  But it takes just a couple knuckleheads to throw all of that into a shadow.

• DANIELLE BELTON:

  Well, I mean, it took a couple knuckleheads in Keene that caused college students to riot and messed up their town. So, it's one of those things where a bunch of…

• GWEN IFILL:

  Keene, New Hampshire, you're talking about.

• DANIELLE BELTON:

  Yes. Yes.

• GWEN IFILL:

  Yes.

• DANIELLE BELTON:

  But you don't necessarily declare a state of emergency over rioting college students. I feel like it's an overreaction.

• GWEN IFILL:

  Well, I wonder — and I will ask you this, Susan McGraugh, and then I will come back to you, Danielle — which is whether the promise of transparency after the fact, after the grand jury has been convened and reach its conclusion, they said they are going to make everything available for everyone to see, is that promise enough to perhaps head off some of the impatience?

• SUSAN MCGRAUGH:

  You know, I don't think it's going to be.

  I think that what people would have liked to have seen is that a different process like a preliminary hearing being used. That would have allowed an open courtroom, presentation of evidence. It would have allowed people to have seen the witnesses as they appeared in front of a judge.

  I think, unfortunately, that showing people what the evidence was after a decision's been made isn't going to be satisfying.

• GWEN IFILL:

  Danielle Belton, is this about the prospect of an indictment of Daniel Wilson, or is it about something larger that we're discussing in this country, and the Michael Brown situation has become a proxy for that?

• DANIELLE BELTON:

  I feel like it's about something larger.

  Michael Brown isn't the first young black man to get shot in Saint Louis in the back. He's not the first young black man in America to get shot by police in the back. So, this is really a larger referendum on how people have already been upset about these issues and already feel like there's a lack of transparency in the society when it comes to police accountability.

  And they have used this as a way to catapult that issue to the forefront.

• GWEN IFILL:

  But are there lessons that have been learned? As we pointed out, it's been 101 days since this has happened. This has played out in a lot of different directions. Have there any — been lessons that you have learned or you have seen people take from this process?

• DANIELLE BELTON:

  I feel what I have learned, that people aren't as cynical as I thought they were.

• GWEN IFILL:

  Really?

• DANIELLE BELTON:

  Like, I can be pretty cynical. I grew up in Saint Louis, Missouri.

  And, as I said, Michael Brown is not the first young black man to get shot by police in Saint Louis who was unarmed. And so I eventually became cynical about the process. Some of the feelings that I felt growing up in Saint Louis as a woman of color made me want to leave the city. It made me feel negative about it.

  And to see so many young people who, when I was their age, all I could think about was getting out of Saint Louis, and they are making the effort to actually change the city and the county for the better, that's been the biggest learning lesson for me.

• GWEN IFILL:

  How about you, Susan McGraugh? Are there lessons that have been learned that you have picked up on, either from in the community or also in the legal process, that informs what we will see happen next in the next few days?

• SUSAN MCGRAUGH:

  I think what's been most surprising to me is how little the general public knows about how our criminal justice works, ho little most of understand about the grand jury system and how charges are brought.

  But I have been really encouraged by the amount of young leaders that I have met in this movement, by people's passion for finding justice in the criminal justice system, by their willingness to learn and their willingness to become involved in what could be some really powerful systemic change.

• GWEN IFILL:

  Well, we will be watching, obviously, very closely in the next several days to see what kind of change we actually see.

  Susan McGraugh, Danielle Belton, thank you both very much.

• DANIELLE BELTON:

  Thank you.

• SUSAN MCGRAUGH:

  Thank you.