Michael Brown’s mother looking to run for office

Lezley McSpadden says she is considering a run for a City Council seat in Ferguson, Missouri, the city where her son Michael Brown was fatally shot by a police officer, reports the St. Louis Dispatch.  McSpadden was among four people who took part in a panel discussion about issues raised by Brown’s death on Monday night at Harvard University. She was prompted to mention her potential candidacy by Benjamin Crump, another panelist who is an attorney for the family. Crump urged McSpadden to discuss what she was considering. “What I’m contemplating is running for City Council of Ferguson,” she said, drawing applause and a call of “Run, Lezley, Run” from the audience of several dozen. “There are several people back home that are willing to help me get that going and make sure that I’m treated right,” McSpadden said. Crump chimed in with encouragement. “What a legacy that would be — elected to the City Council and supervising the same police department that killed Michael Brown,” he said. McSpadden said that since the death of her son in 2014, she went back to school and got the high school diploma she had given up on when she became pregnant with Brown at 16. She said his death and the protests it sparked have prompted her to step up try to change how Black Americans are treated by law enforcement. In addition to McSpadden and Crump, the panel had filmmaker Jason Pollock, who made a documentary about Brown’s death called “Stranger Fruit,” and Jasmine Rand, an attorney who also represents the Brown family as well as those of other well-known shooting victims such as Trayvon Martin.