The United States of America was rocked last year by protests followed by riots, triggered by the killing of an unarmed black teenager Micheal Brown by Darren Wilson, a white police officer.

The police said that those firing shots were not protesters, but were instead criminal elements. Around 57 people, including a Princeton university professor Cornel West, were arrested for breaking through barricades.

The emergency allows for the state to provide with security material and financial assistance. It also allows the police to take "necessary action," needed to maintain order. A woman whose shop was damaged in the rioting, put up a message which read "we should stop killing each other."