FERGUSON, MO.

Elected leaders in the St. Louis suburb where an unarmed black 18-year-old was fatally shot by a white police officer hoped to use their first public meeting since Michael Brown’s death as a chance to promote community healing.

Instead, they were greeted Tuesday night with anger, outrage and warnings of voter retribution at the ballot box. Proposals to overhaul the municipal courts and create a citizen police review board were greeted warily, if not with outright skepticism.

The shooting last month exposed an undercurrent of racial unrest in Ferguson and other nearby suburbs in mostly black communities of north St. Louis County, and prompted days of sometimesviolent protests.

Ferguson officials have pledged to boost minority hiring in a 53-person police force with just three black officers, and to meet informally in city neighborhoods to promote a public dialogue.

But within minutes of the start of the City Council meeting, where the proposals were briefly discussed, several demonstrators stood up and shouted as the council tried to cover some routine business. Later, others stood and chanted, “Shut it down!” while raising their hands in the air. Protesters have used the gesture because several witnesses say Brown had raised his hands as officer Darren Wilson shot him.

Several speakers reiterated plans to block part of Interstate 70 in Ferguson today in an act of civil disobedience. Organizers say they want to bring rush-hour traffic to a standstill.

Ferguson, a city of 21,000, is about 70 percent black. The mayor and five of the six City Council members are white. A 2013 report by the Missouri attorney general’s office found that Ferguson police stopped and arrested black drivers nearly twice as often as white motorists, but were less likely to find contraband among the black drivers.

The investigation of the police department is separate from a federal inquiry into Brown’s death, which a local grand jury is also investigating.

Police have said the shooting of Brown followed a scuffle after Wilson told Brown and a friend to move out of the street and onto a sidewalk. Autopsies concluded Brown was shot at least six times.

Brown’s parents joined about 20 supporters and activists outside police headquarters earlier Tuesday to reiterate calls for Wilson’s immediate arrest.

Also Tuesday, a St. Louis County family court judge denied the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s request for any juvenile records Brown might have had. It’s not known if Brown had such a record, and a juvenile court system lawyer said at a hearing last week that Brown never was convicted of a serious felony such as murder or burglary.

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