Beyond the hashtag

摘要

CRUMPLED paper roses, a broken vase and a brass plaque mark the spot in Ferguson, Missouri, where a policeman shot dead Michael Brown four years ago. Kesha Burnett, a resident of a nearby housing block, gives it a glance and hurries along Canfield Drive to her bus. Has anything changed for her since the black teenager was killed and mass protests erupted? "No improvement, there's a lot of gun violence all over," she says. "Police are trying," she adds, "but police still harass". "Police? They still act the same," complains a youngster in a grey T-shirt. He draws on an e-cigarette by a McDonald's restaurant nearby. "Nothing going to change, they'll still be killing. They just mess with you, for real," he says, declining to give his name.