Indy Joins In On National Moment Of Silence

In Indianapolis and many other cities across the country, people gathered Thursday night for a National Moment of Silence for Michael Brown, the unarmed black teenager shot to death by police last weekend in Ferguson, Mo.

The social media campaign to organize the nationwide vigils began in New York the night Michael Brown was killed, and word spread fast.

Tiffany Pettiford was among the 100 or so people at Monument Circle last night. She made a sandwich board sign for her 8-year-old son, Joseph, to wear. On the front, a target drawn in red, and in bold, black letters were the words: Please Don’t Shoot.

"It was very hard for me to make, actually. Just trying to draw the target was very emotional for me," Pettiford said.

For Pettiford, the words are deeply personal. Joseph has autism, and when he gets scared, she says, he sometimes darts away.

"That’s one of my biggest fears is something like that will happen when he grows up. He’ll fit the description of someone they’re looking for and they’ll say ‘Hey you, freeze,’ and he gets scared and runs and they gun him down and afterward they say, ‘We didn’t know. Sorry he’s dead. So it’s a very growing fear of mine the older he gets," Pettiford said.

The group Indy Feminists organized the vigil as a way to show solidarity with the people of Ferguson, a predominantly black city wracked by days of angry confrontations between residents –and its heavily-armed, mostly white police force. The city has become a crucible for the debate over policing in black communities.

"Particularly people of color have been affected by this kind of injustice disproportionately.  We are not against the police, we are against oppressive systems, and we want to stand in unity with one another to make this city, this country, this world a better place," said Indy Feminists spokeswoman El Roberts.

On Thursday, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon ordered the state highway patrol to take over from local law enforcement, and President Obama called for an end to the violence in Ferguson.