Ferguson plans permanent memorial to Michael Brown

The mayor of Ferguson, Mo., announced on Wednesday that his city would construct a permanent memorial to Michael Brown, the unarmed teenager shot and killed by a police officer there last summer.

Mayor James Knowles III said that the tribute would honor Brown’s memory at Canfield Drive, according to the Associated Press.

Brown’s father, Michael Brown, Sr., joined Knowles during Wednesday’s announcement, saying the likeness of a dove will mark the location where his son was shot on Aug. 9.

“There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about my son,” Brown said on what would have been his child’s 19th birthday.

{mosads}Knowles unveiled plans for an enduring plaque over concerns that the temporary memorial marking the site presents a safety hazard.

The spontaneous tribute appeared hours after white police officer Darren Wilson shot Brown, a black teen.

Brown Sr. said on Wednesday he understood the city’s decision concerning the old memorial.

“We’re really just trying to move forward,” he said. “It needs to be moved.”

Ferguson city officials will make the swap during upcoming resurfacing efforts on Canfield Drive, Knowles added.

Brown’s death last year sparked massive demonstrations in Ferguson and other cities nationwide.

It also inspired the “Black Lives Matter” movement which monitors law enforcement agencies for abusive practices towards African-American communities they serve.

Wilson resigned over his role in the incident last November. Neither a St. Louis County grand jury nor the Department of Justice (DOJ) pursued criminal charges against the officer for his actions.

Then-Attorney General Eric Holder did launch a DOJ investigation of the Ferguson police department, which concluded that the city’s law enforcement had racially discriminated against minority communities there.

The release of the investigation’s findings in March prompted the resignations of several city officials, including Ferguson’s city manager, municipal court judge and police chief.

Brown’s death has also brought renewed scrutiny on similar problems elsewhere in the U.S.

Protests have since gripped New York, North Charleston, S.C., and Baltimore over incidents between police officers and black individuals there.

Baltimore most recently experienced civil unrest after Freddie Gray, a black man, died on April 19 following severe spinal injuries suffered while in police custody.

Anger over his death led to riots, a brief city-wide nightly curfew and an ongoing DOJ investigation into his arrest.