Existing comment:
2015 Breaking News
Protests in Ferguson
Furious protests erupted in the streets of Ferguso, Mo., after unarmed black teenager Michael Brown was shot to death by a white police officer on Aug. 9, 2014. Police in riot gear used tear gas and rubber bullets to break up the demonstrators, but still the protesters marched in anger and despair. On the fourth night of protests, St. Louis Post-Dispatch photographer Robert Cohen watched as police again fired tear gas into the crowd.
Suddenly, a young man wearing an American flag shirt grabbed a flaming tear gas canister and hurled it back toward police. Cohen shot the image and posted it on Twitter, where it instantly went viral. Published in newspapers around the world and copied on T-shirts, murals and tattoos, the image became a symbol of the protests. "I think protesters relate to that act of defiance, that act of fighting back," Cohen said.
One of 11 members of the Post-Dispatch photo staff who shared the Pulitzer Price for their Ferguson coverage, Cohen said, "I don't celebrate it, because it began with an 18-year-old dead in the street." |