Ferguson calm as new US police shooting in spotlight

FERGUSON, Nov 28 (AFP): The streets of Ferguson were calm Thursday on the Thanksgiving holiday, but video showing Cleveland police shooting dead a young black boy could once again inflame simmering tensions over race and justice in America.

Ferguson, a suburb of St Louis, has seen three days of sometimes violent protests over Monday's explosive decision by a Missouri grand jury not to charge a white policeman who shot dead an unarmed black teen in August.

The decision revived long-standing questions about the treatment of young African Americans by police-questions again asked after the weekend shooting in Cleveland of 12-year-old Tamir Rice.

Surveillance video released Wednesday in the Ohio city showed Rice, who was carrying a replica gun, was killed within seconds of the patrol car arriving on the scene in a park.

The officer who fired the fatal shot was fairly new to the force, and is white.

Cleveland police also released audio from a 911 emergency call from a man who first saw the boy waving the gun, saying he thought it was "probably fake."

However, the dispatcher did not tell the officers that the gun was possibly a toy nor that the suspect was likely a youth, the tape showed.

Protesters later marched from the police department past city hall, briefly blocking traffic. They dispersed peacefully as police in riot gear turned up and rally organizers ordered demonstrators to move onto sidewalks to avoid a confrontation.