After the Ferguson protests, church volunteers pick up the pieces

c. 2014 St. Louis Post-Dispatch

FERGUSON, Missouri (RNS) On the fourth morning after police killed an unarmed black 18-year-old, residents from different parts of the region came together to pick up the pieces.

Some were young, some old. The majority arrived as part of the faithful. Others trickled in after spotting the volunteers carrying brooms and large garbage bags, collecting whatever they could find: rubber bullets, broken glass, liquor bottles, tear gas grenades.