The streets were eerily silent but two local stores, boarded up to deter looters, sported a thin collection of Christmas decorations and a sign: "We support the people of Ferguson. We're open."
The Family Dollar shop on New Halls Ferry was burnt out, however, and still smouldering, smoke billowing out the back.
Shocked residents stopped to mutter "Oh my God" and take pictures on their cell phones.
Early this morning NZ time, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon has ordered additional members of the National Guard to Ferguson.
Nixon's office announced that the additional guardsmen will provide security at the Ferguson Police Department, which was at the centre of protests last night and early today.
The governor says the presence of additional troops will free up the police to provide more protection.
More than 80 people were arrested following last night's unrest.
The jury's decision threatened to reignite unrest on a national scale, following the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in August, which sparked weeks of demonstrations and exposed deep racial tension between African-Americans and police.
Protesters shut down Interstate 580 in Oakland. Photo / AP
Brown family lawyer laments 'broken' grand jury process
The lawyer for the family of Michael Brown denounced Tuesday the "unfair" grand jury process.
"This process is broken. This process should be indicted," Benjamin Crump told reporters, a day after the grand jury's decision.
Crump said he and his team had gone through much of the "data dump" of testimony from the prolonged, closed-door grand jury hearing into the August 2 shooting.
"We went through it as much as we could and saw how completely unfair this process was," he said.
He criticised the way Wilson had not been cross-examined when he appeared before the grand jury in September, saying "a first-year law student would have done a better job".
"When was his credibility ever challenged?" he asked.
Brown family lawyer Benjamin Crump said the grand jury process was "broken". Photo / AP
Crump also denounced a "symbiotic relationship" between St Louis County prosecutor Robert McCulloch, who is the son of a slain police officer, and local law enforcement.
Civil rights firebrand Reverend Al Sharpton said the Brown case renewed a nationwide fight for greater police accountability.
"This is not a Ferguson problem ... This is a problem all over the country," he said.
He added: "We may have lost one round but the fight is not over."
Officer thanks supporters
Ferguson police Officer Darren Wilson has thanked those who have supported him since he shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown in the August confrontation.
Wilson's lawyers issued a statement today in which they say the 28-year-old officer and his family greatly appreciate the continued support of those who have stood by him.
Wilson's lawyers say they believe the jury's decision was right and note that officers often must make "split-second and difficult decisions."
Call for calm by president, family ignored
President Barack Obama and Brown's family asked for calm after St Louis County's top prosecutor announced the grand jury's decision Monday evening (US time). As Obama spoke live from the White House briefing room, television networks showed Obama on one side of the screen, and violent demonstrations in Ferguson on the other.
Within hours a storage facility, two auto parts stores, a beauty supply store and pizza shop were just some of the businesses that burned. The Ferguson Market - where surveillance video had recorded Brown stealing cigars minutes before he was killed - was ransacked.
Last night planes into Lambert-St Louis International Airport were advised not to fly over Ferguson.
Officer Darren Wilson's fatal shooting of Brown during an August 9 confrontation sparked a fierce debate over how police treat young African-American men. Police were criticised for responding to mostly peaceful protests with armoured vehicles and tear gas.
Cars burn at a dealership. Photo / AP
Russia responds with criticism of US human rights
Russia says the racial unrest in the US town of Ferguson highlighted "massive" domestic problems in America that stemmed from Washington's failure to respect human rights.
"The latest events in Ferguson are another and very worrying signal to the American authorities indicating that it is finally time for them to focus on massive domestic problems in the field of ensuring human rights," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
The comments were Moscow's first on rioting that hit the central US city after a grand jury's decision not to indict a white police officer who shot dead an unarmed black teen during an altercation in August.
Relations between Moscow and Washington are at a post-Cold War low over a series of disputes, the major one of which is the future of ex-Soviet Ukraine.
Moscow has fired almost daily diplomatic barbs at Washington and its European allies since a difficult summit in Australia saw Russian President Vladimir Putin effectively ostracised by other world leaders two weeks ago.
A police tactical team arrives to disperse a crowd as the Beauty Town store burns. Photo / AP
Russia's statement said the Ferguson violence showed that the United States should focus more on its own shortcomings instead of "getting involved in the fruitless mentoring of other nations, and teaching them morals with the help of propaganda".
Decision to prosecute left to grand jury
Authorities yesterday released more than 1000 pages of grand jury documents, including the testimony of Wilson, who said that during their struggle he warned Brown he would shoot if he didn't back away, and that Brown tried to grab his gun.
Obama said Americans need to accept the grand jury's decision.
He said it was understandable that some Americans would be "deeply disappointed - even angered," but echoed Brown's parents in calling for any protests to be peaceful.
St Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch stressed that the grand jurors, who had met weekly since August 20, were "the only people who heard every witness ... and every piece of evidence". He said many witnesses presented conflicting statements that ultimately were inconsistent with the physical evidence.
As McCulloch read his statement, Michael Brown's mother, Lesley McSpadden, burst into tears. The crowd with her erupted in anger, converging on the barricade where police in riot gear were standing. They pushed down the barricade and began pelting police with objects, including a bullhorn. Officers stood their ground.
Protests go nationwide
Protesters fill Times Square. Photo / AP
Thousands of people protested from Los Angeles to New York, leading marches, waving signs and shouting chants of "Hands Up! Don't Shoot," the slogan that has become a rallying cry in protests over police killings across the country. Dozens of people in Oakland, California, blocked traffic on a major highway in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The Ferguson protests recalled other racially charged cases, from the riots that rocked Los Angeles in 1992 after the acquittal of white police officers in the videotaped beating of black motorist Rodney King to peaceful protests after the 2013 not-guilty verdict in the Florida slaying of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman, who co-ordinated the local neighbourhood watch.
- AP, AFP
