Missouri is no more of a racial powder keg than other states. Ferguson, MO has been a lovely community through much of its history; unfortunately, its now located in a less popular area, with businesses moving out to start again on the other side of St Louis. With loss of jobs and lack of transportation to where the jobs are, any community would suffer. Yet Ferguson was seeing the development of more small businesses, whose owners believed in the area. Granted, the jobs market has been and continues to hurt there, but hope was held that the town would recover in time.
This matter surrounding the death of Mr Brown has been largely stimulated by out-of-town/out-of-state known trouble makers. They've been successful in rallying some - not all - people to the 'cause.' It's not just Missouri who is concerned about potential problems when the grand jury verdict is rendered. The surrounding states have concerns as well. Some of the trouble-makers originate from Chicago, and law enforcement agencies throughout Illinois, for example, have been alerted to potential trouble.
Many of the citizens of Ferguson are patiently awaiting the grand jury's verdict. Still, they worry about what will become of their community once the verdict is given. They've seen a great deal of wanton destruction and the chasing out of a few small businesses who didn't want to see their businesses looted for yet another time. They know that more jobs are being lost through this destruction, for Ferguson has now been tagged as a community in which a company will not select in which to start a new location.
