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Ferguson marks 2 weeks of Brown death

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Protesters in the US state of Missouri have held a vigil to pray and mark two weeks since a white police officer shot dead an unarmed black teenager.

The demonstrators gathered in intense heat on Saturday in the city of Ferguson where 18-year-old Michael Brown was fatally shot by Darren Wilson on August 9.

Ferguson has been the scene of violent clashes between police and protesters since the shooting of Brown, who was shot six times and killed by police in the predominantly black town.

It was the third straight night of orderly protests, after previous marches descended into standoffs with police who fired teargas to disperse the crowds.

Little information has been released about the investigation of the fatal shooting that has divided the black and the white communities.

On Saturday, a group of people held a separate rally in support of the killer cop in Ferguson.

Meanwhile, authorities are bracing for a possible flare-up of violence ahead of Brown’s funeral on Monday.

Police have come under fire for arresting dozens of demonstrators and using heavy-handed tactics.

Brown’s death has reignited the national debate surrounding race and police brutality in the United States. Civil rights activists say the US has a strong degree of institutionalized racism against blacks and minorities.

“The police execution of Michael Brown and the autopsy report that came out that he had been shot to the head twice is a clear manifestation of what African-Americans and others already know, that there’s a strong degree of institutionalized racism along with militarization of police,” Dr. Randy Short told Press TV in a phone interview on Monday.

Dr. Short said blacks in the US live under similar conditions as Palestinians do under Israeli occupation and oppression. “The African-American community is very similar to the communities of Gaza and Hebron and others in the occupied territories. We’re an internally colonized group.”

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