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BEIJING. — Several US protest leaders said on Tuesday that nationwide demonstrations against a grand jury decision not to indict a white police officer who shot dead an unarmed black teenager will continue to grow, as they did not see “meaningful reform” in many areas.

“We’re going to continue to take to the streets, we’re going to continue to disrupt the daily order . . . until something really really happens for the people in our communities, until we see some meaningful reform,” Phillip Agnew, co-founder of the activist group Dream Defenders, told reporters.

Agnew was one of the protest leaders who met with president Barack Obama at the White House on Monday, when Obama held a series of meetings with cabinet members, civil rights leaders and law enforcement officials to address the distrust between police and minorities.

Protests in Ferguson, a northern suburb in St Louis, Missouri, flared up and spilled over to more than 170 US cities, after a county prosecutor announced the grand jury decision on November 24 that Darren Wilson, a former Ferguson police officer, would face no criminal charges for the August 9 fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown.

The protests have triggered a national debate over race relations and police power in the United States. But Obama has adopted a cautious stance on the issue and has not visited Ferguson since protests broke out. On Monday, Obama pledged a US$263 million fund for law enforcement agencies.

Out of the money, US$75 million will be used to purchase up to 50 000 body-worn cameras for police departments nationwide to record interactions with the public.

Obama said he would set up a task force to improve community policing and build trust between law enforcement officials and their communities. He also said he would consider tighter controls on the proliferation of military-style weapons and equipment provided to the police. Protest leaders said on Tuesday the meeting with Obama was a sign that their demonstrations were making progress but they still needed to see notable progress in many areas.

Meanwhile, some Ferguson residents arrested in the past week said they were unlawfully arrested by police and were just trying to get home when they were picked up and taken to jail, according to a Reuters report.

Their accusations came amid an investigation by Attorney General Eric Holder into potential civil rights abuses by police in Ferguson during protests that first erupted in summer following Brown’s death. — Xinhua.