FERGUSON, Mo. -- Protesters in Ferguson pressed pause Thursday as the city welcomed Thanksgiving, decorating boarded-up storefronts and gathering for church services -- a stark contrast to previous days of anger over the grand jury decision in the Michael Brown case.
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There were no reports of major confrontations or property damage overnight in Ferguson, where about 100 people marched in a light snow. St. Louis County police said Thursday that there had been just two arrests, a sharp drop from earlier in the week when more than 100 people were arrested in the area over several days.
No police officers or Missouri National Guard members stood sentry Thursday outside the Ferguson Police Department headquarters. The site has been a nexus for protesters since Monday night's announcement that Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, who is white, wouldn't be indicted for fatally shooting the unarmed black 18-year-old in August.
Wednesday night, customers filled tables at Marley's Bar and Grill on South Florissant Road, less than a five-minute walk from the police headquarters. While business was slow compared to a normal Thanksgiving eve, the bar, which stayed open through the protests, had its busiest night in three weeks, owner Kelly Braun said.
"Right outside the door, there are, however, many police officers and National Guard, but in here right now, we feel like it's a normal night," said Braun, 48. "We need to feel happy about a holiday."
Outside the police headquarters Thursday, Houston resident Randy Doxley was one of only a few pedestrians and reporters standing in the cold. Doxley said he, his son and his nephew arrived in Ferguson that morning to visit family for Thanksgiving and felt compelled to visit the locations that have become synonymous with Brown's death.
"This is my first time being here; we got right off the freeway and came here," Doxley said. "It's part of history, man."
Doxley said many of his relatives were concerned that the unrest of previous days might pick back up after Thanksgiving dinner. "A lot of them are worried because at night, you don't know what's going to happen," he said.
After this week's unrest, Ferguson bore the scars. West Florissant Avenue, where a dozen buildings burned and gunfire broke out Monday, remained blocked off by police cruisers.
Most of the businesses along South Florissant Road, which on Tuesday night was the scene of the latest in a series of rolling battles between demonstrators and police, remained boarded up and closed.
On that downtown street, beneath a lighted "Season's Greetings" garland, three children used paintbrushes to decorate the plywood that was put up over many storefront windows to foil potential vandals. One quoted from The Lorax by Dr. Seuss: "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better, it's not."
"We thought we'd do what we could to make it a little more attractive and then try to bring the kids into it and get them involved in making the businesses appear a little less scary, depressing," said Leah Bailey, as her 7-year-old son Dennis climbed a ladder to finish an orange dragon.
Greater St. Mark Family Church sits blocks from where several stores were burned after the grand jury announcement. A handful of people listened to the Rev. Tommie Pierson preach Thursday that the destruction and chaos was by "a small group of out-of-control people."
"They don't represent the community; they don't represent the mood nor the feelings of the community," Pierson said. "I would imagine if you talked to them, they probably don't even live here. We don't want to be defined by what they did."
In downtown St. Louis, a group gathered near Busch Stadium for what organizer Paul Byrd called a "pro-community" car rally meant to be peaceful and counter the recent Ferguson violence, which he said has tarnished the region's image.
Byrd, a 45-year-old construction worker from Imperial, Mo., declined to say whether he supported Wilson but noted, "I totally support police officers." The car rally was escorted by a city police vehicle; no protesters showed up.
In addition to Missouri, protests over the Ferguson grand jury's decision have taken place across the country.
Most of the demonstrations have been peaceful, but at least 130 people who refused to disperse during a Los Angeles protest were arrested Wednesday night, while 35 people were detained in Oakland after a march that deteriorated into unrest and vandalism, officials said.
A total of 338 people were arrested over three days during protests in Los Angeles.
On Thursday, police Cmdr. Andrew Smith said demonstrators who couldn't make bail after being arrested during the Los Angeles protests would be released in time for Thanksgiving dinner.
About 90 people remained in jail after being arrested late Wednesday. Those who weren't able to pay the $500 bail were to be released on their own recognizance as long as they didn't have outstanding warrants and weren't arrested in a felony.
Information for this article was contributed by Tom Foreman Jr., Jim Suhr and staff members of The Associated Press; by Michael Muskal and Matt Pearce of the Los Angeles Times; and by Toluse Olorunnipa, Cordell Eddings, Elizabeth Campbell, Michelle Kaske, Laura J. Keller and Esme E. Deprez of Bloomberg News.
A Section on 11/28/2014