While standing in the same spot her son Michael Brown was gunned down four years ago, Lezley McSpadden announced on Friday (Aug. 11) that she would be running for city council in Ferguson, MO.
According to CNN, McSpadden would focus on “community policing, economic equality and access to health care for all of Ferguson’s young children” if elected. She is also interested in repairing the relationship between police officers and the residents of the area. The site says that nearly two-thirds of the St. Louis population is African American.
“Almost four years ago to this day, I ran down this very street, and my son was covered in a sheet,” she said during a news conference. “It broke me, you know. It brought me down to my knees and made me feel crippled, as if I could do nothing else anymore.”
In 2014, McSpadden’s 18-year-old unarmed son Michael was shot and killed by a white police officer during his return home from a convenience store. Riots erupted throughout Ferguson and the country as a result of the unjust killing.
“I’ll tell you, if a mother had to watch her son lay in the street for four and a half hours and watch a community be completely disrespected by elected officials that we elected, what would you do?”said McSpadden. “You would stand up and you would fight, too.”
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