From the Streets of Ferguson/St. Louis:
There's a Feeling Out Here...
by Li Onesto | October 13, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
Ferguson, Missouri, October 10, 2014. Photo: Li Onesto/revcom.us
October 10
It's not hype. There's a feeling out here. People are flexing their muscles. The situation and people are going through changes. And tonight the youth were the heart of things.
Today was the start of the Weekend of Resistance in St. Louis and Ferguson, Missouri. To kick it off, hundreds of people marched at the Buzz Westfall Justice Center in Clayton, Missouri—where prosecuting attorney Bob McCulloch's office is—to demand Justice for Mike Brown and to demand that McCulloch be removed from any investigation and legal proceedings around this murder. It has now been two months(!) since Michael Brown was killed, and the killer cop Darren Wilson is still walking around free working at a paid desk job. People want an indictment!
The steady downpour did not deter people's determination and spirits, and more than 200 people marched and then held a short rally by the courthouse. The crowd was a multinational mix of people from the St. Louis area as well as others who had come from many other U.S. cities. The crowd was mainly young—there seemed to be lots of students. But there were also many middle-aged and some retired people as well.
Significantly, Ann Wright was at the protest. She was standing with a big sign that said: "The Right to Stop Racial Profiling." She told revcom.us: "I'm a retired U.S. Army colonel and a former diplomat who resigned in 2003 in opposition to the war in Iraq, and I'm here in Ferguson in solidarity with the people of Ferguson who have been the subjects of great police brutality over decades. And we're here in solidarity to say no more oppression, no more police brutality, and respect and justice for the people of Ferguson and populations throughout the country that are targeted by our law enforcement for horrific treatment. So we're here in solidarity with the people of Ferguson and all over the country."
A group of artists from New York City brought and distributed 750 "Unarmed Civilian" T-shirts in memory of Mike Brown and in solidarity with the people of Ferguson.
Tory Russell is with Hands Up United—one of the initiating groups, along with the Organization for Black Struggle, behind the Weekend of Resistance. He tells me, "We're trying to show not only the city of St. Louis and Ferguson that we mean business but we're not going along with it. So we're going to be anywhere and everywhere to make everybody as uncomfortable as we are."
I ask what does all this mean to him and he says, "With all these people out here? It means love. I love it. I talked to people from Brazil, Hong Kong, a lady from Paris. I done talked to people probably from every continent. So I feel good. I feel powerful. I feel the solidarity. You have all groups out here. You got Indian people, Black, white, everybody. So I'm feeling good. This is just the beginning." What does he hope will come of the whole weekend? "Everybody will be empowered. When they go home, they can do the same thing. They can organize and go back at the system that is killing Black and brown people every 28 hours."
The crowd is very diverse. I talk to one older woman who says she is from St. Louis, now retired but "a peace and justice advocate since I was a teenager." She tells me she was just recently arrested at one of the demonstrations.
People have been coming from out of town and a lot are from Ferguson and St. Louis. One young Black man tells me he is originally from St. Louis but currently lives in Philadelphia and is in graduate school at Rutgers. He says his wife is studying to be a rabbi. He says they came here for the Weekend of Resistance "because it was important for us seeing this happening all at home and being able ... to identify the systems at play that are here and have been oppressing us, generations back—to come be a part of this and to show our support and our love for home, to be out here." Has he had any experience with the police? He says "of course," and then tells me a story of how he was stopped one time driving his father's car, harassed, taken in on a bogus charge and forced to pay a $300 fine for what ended up being a "clerical error."
*****
There are lots of things going on this weekend. In addition to protests, there are panels, teach-ins, Clergy Faith Day of Action, cultural events. This afternoon there was a panel by Code Pink addressing the intersection of wars being waged by the U.S. in the world and police murder and brutality here in the U.S. There will be a Palestinian Solidarity contingent at the Saturday march.
In the evening there is a Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead)-inspired event at the site where Michael Brown was killed. People carry a coffin and hold a candlelight vigil.
Meanwhile at the police station, hundreds of people are gathering. By 10 pm, the crowd is around 400 people. Protesters are being kept across the street from the police station. There is a line of police in front of the building. People are not being allowed to go into the street.
The crowd is really raucous—people are chanting, "Justice for Mike Brown," "Hands Up, Don't Shoot," "Killer cops, KKK, how many kids did you kill today?" Young people especially are at the front of the crowd—just itching to go beyond the bounds of the "keep on the sidewalk" orders.
Then at one point there is the sound of someone on a loudspeaker—a DJ and music. It's like a party beginning in a night club—but it's right out here in the street and it's for Justice for Mike Brown. The crowd surges over to where this is coming from, spilling into the street. The energy of the crowd just goes into a whole different level and people feeling not only their anger and determination but there is a real sense in the crowd of: WE AREN'T GOING TO STOP... AND YOU AREN'T GOING TO STOP US!
At some point in the evening, people take over the street. Cops are forced to stop traffic. A march of hundreds of people takes off and several blocks away hooks up with the people coming from the candlelight vigil, then comes back around to the police station. "Staying on the sidewalk" ain't even a question at this point. But going up to the police station? The crowd just marches right up the hill to the line of the police and there's a face-off with people chanting madly at the cops. The whole front of the police station has now been occupied by the people. During this standoff with police, when it looks like the police are about to attack the crowd, some men in the protest start saying "Men to the front." In response, a group of women run to the front.
There is a real feeling among people out here—that we aren't going to stop until we get JUSTICE for Mike Brown. At one point I just go into the crowd and ask people, a whole lot of people, one by one, to say very quickly where they are from and why they came. I find out that lots of people are from the St. Louis area and say this with real pride. There are also lots of people from cities close and far. One Black man tells me that he just got off a plane from Los Angeles. There are lots of groups that organized to come together—from Chicago, Minnesota, New York, and many others. Several people say one word when I ask them why they came, "Justice."
There is a mood among people, a feeling kind of like, "this was the last straw... time's up" AND "this is our time—we're not going to stop until we really get justice and SOMETHING has to change." A number of people stressed to me that we need justice for Mike Brown and that this is something that happens all the time that has to STOP. There are lots in the crowd who have their own experiences with police brutality and say that this is a big part of why they came.
The crowd is diverse and multinational. It includes people of all ages and from many different walks of life. And all through the night, the energy of the crowd was really being driven by the youth, who were the ones showing the most determination and defiance.
In the streets of Ferguson, October 10, 2014. Photo: Special to revcom.us
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