Ferguson police refuse to investigate destruction of Michael Brown memorial: It was just 'a pile of trash'

The public relations officer for the Ferguson Police Department told the Washington Post that the destruction of the Michael Brown memorial could not be considered a crime because it was "a pile of trash in the middle of the street."

The destruction of the memorial was first noticed early this morning, when images of its current state were placed on Twitter:

One of the people at the scene, who goes by the Twitter handle @jay_myles2, wrote that "[a] few people here are planning to restore the memorial right now." As the following tweet demonstrates, the efforts of those people were successful, as the memorial was rebuilt by 7:10 a.m. this morning:

When the Washington Post contacted the Ferguson Police Department to ask whether it would launch a criminal investigation into the memorial's destruction, public relations officer Timothy Zoll said, "I don't know that a crime has occurred. But a pile of trash in the middle of the street? The Washington Post is making a call over this?"