WHITNEY CURTIS/GETTY IMAGES
The tension between protesters in Ferguson, Missouri, and local authorities is continuing to boil after peaceful protesters were arrested and taken into custody for nearly 18 hours.
A group of protesters who came together Friday for Michael Brown, the 18-year-old who was fatally shot multiple times in August by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, has finally been released on their own recognizance after spending what some consider an excessive amount of time behind bars.
More than a dozen protesters were arrested outside the Ferguson Police Department early Friday.
According to the Huffington Post, the protesters were not blocking traffic during the protest.
Despite the peaceful nature of the protest, certain leaders from the group were identified by officers, arrested and slapped with several charges and high bail.
Members of the clergy meet with the group Friday. One of the protesters tweeted pictures of them huddling together for the meeting.
After the meeting, all the protesters were escorted back to their jail cells.
“There were young people who were clearly identified and targeted based upon their leadership and pulled out of that line in order to be arrested,” the Rev. Starsky Wilson said during a press conference in St. Ann.
Officers from the St. Louis County Police and the Missouri State Highway Patrol were captured on camera arresting the protesters; many of them were still on the sidewalk.
Source: Twitter
They were charged with failure to comply with police, violating noise ordinances and resisting arrest.
Bail for some of the 13 demonstrators was set as high as $2,700 – an amount considered to be excessive by many citizens and witnesses.
Eventually, the amount was dropped to $1,000.
In the past, protesters in Ferguson only received bail that amounted up to a few hundred dollars.
Changes have been made since then.
The same day the protesters came together for the peaceful demonstration, the St. Louis County Police Department announced that it would be taking over security matters that involved protests in Ferguson.
