Antonio French

I am disappointed, though. The prosecutors felt they had a strong case, especially given video evidence, the audio evidence, the DNA evidence. And so we were hopeful that the system would work this time.

the system did not work. And, while it was careful to point out the faults of the young man who was killed, Anthony Smith, this officer also we need to agree was a bad cop.

People want to have faith in the system and know that if an officer takes a life that there is some level of accountability and people are not feeling that they -- that is happening.

I am in favor of community policing. I think what we have now is something that looks more like an occupying force.

You know, I think that we shouldn't be distracted for what folks are out here for. They are still trying to get systemic change out here in the region to right some of the wrongs that have been going on for a very long time especially…

I hope that there is a tone here to come together because we want the violence to end on both sides, and what happened last night did not help anybody.

I think that the attorney general went out of his way to present both the Department of Justice report, and he is right that there was not a prosecutable case under federal law which is a much higher threshold.

There's a broken trust between the government, local police, and the community.

I hope this really makes the broader community aware of what so many African-Americans have been protesting about, have been calling attention to in the last few months, and it leads to real action and change.

Those aren't protesters. Those are opportunistic criminals and they should not be included in the group.

I hope we do that peacefully and I hope we do that in a way that helps people move together.

They're tired with the way things have been and they're determined to make sure we change.

But I do worry that the state of emergency called for by the governor has escalated the situation and has invited folks from other places to come under the belief that this is where the revolution is going to happen or something like that.

The National Guard is called in when policing has failed. Military presence in my city will mark an historic failure on the part of government.

I worry that the military presence of National Guardsmen will actually escalate the situation as we saw occur several times back in the early summer.

It is hard to keep people calm when officials use phrases like state of emergency.

This started on August, 9 with government overreaction to black youth and it continues. This not a war, there is no military solution.

I think people are fatigued of the violence, fatigued of the heavy police presence.

People are looking at the next stage right now and try to turn this moment into a movement.

I think the next step here is to start healing somebody's wounds, start getting some of these folks especially in Ferguson involved politically and start getting representation in the government.

I still think that the attorney general's presence matters. I think that the president has talked about this personally matters. But on the local level, I think people are right and I'm one of them to still call for the governor to replace…

I think it's big. You know, folks have lost so much faith in the local prosecutor and the local police department. That folks really want to see the federal government take a role in this. And by the attorney general coming himself, it…

No, and it's not just about whether I have confidence. You know, the big problem and what we're doing is trying to restore faith in the justice system. And so what matters is the folks here have faith in the county prosecutor and they…

My message when I was out there at the crime scene tonight was that St. Louis City is not Ferguson, OK? We handle things better in St. Louis City.