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imageFERGUSON: When Sean Jackson became a father, he says he knew he needed to teach his son how to interact with police so as to avoid arrest -- or worse.

Such is the life of a black man in Ferguson, Missouri.

Ferguson is at boiling point over a grand jury's decision not to indict a white officer for shooting dead an unarmed black teenager, and African Americans here are furious over police brutality, racism and what they say is daily profiling.

"Listen. This is what most white people don't understand," says the 45-year-old Jackson, standing outside the burnt-out ruins of a store after the worst night of violence the St Louis suburb has seen since Michael Brown, 18, was killed in August.

"Any black man driving through Ferguson is a nervous man because he's worried about the police pulling him over.

"You're nervous about getting killed or getting locked up, or a ticket -- you're hoping for a ticket. When every day you're living your life and you have to be nervous -- it's not fun."

Local residents have staged protests ever since Brown was shot dead. On Monday, they degenerated into looting and arson after a grand jury cleared officer Darren Wilson of any wrongdoing.

Jackson says he has been harassed by police multiple times. He taught his son, now 25, to keep put his hands up, and say "yes sir, no sir" if he is ever stopped.

"We do have to teach our sons how to deal with the police so they don't get killed," he said, describing St Louis as one of the most prejudiced cities in the United States.

"People here get so in tune with that we don't even notice it -- people from outside are hollering about it. Man, you know what? Time for change."

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2014

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