Protest at St. Louis Federal Building / Dept. Of Justice
December 5, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
December 5, 2014. A crowd of 75 people, young and old, students and activists marched in heavy rain from Keiner Plaza in downtown St. Louis to the St. Louis Federal Building where the office of the Department of Justice is located. The march was led by 6 pall-bears with a mock coffin, symbolizing the people killed by police in the St. Louis area. One sign at the protest—“White Silence Is Violence” reflected a theme I've seen repeatedly, white people need to start listening and see what's going on, not passively tolerate the white supremacist status quo. Other signs ridiculed the critique that protests were “inconveniencing” people. Letters to the Department of Justice were put in the symbolic coffin and a 4.5 minute die-in was held in which the names of the 10 people murdered by police in the St. Louis area in last year, including Mike Brown, were read aloud. As each name was read, a person with the name on a sign lay down. A Black woman with children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews broke down in tears. “I know that right now, while we’re protesting, some child is being taken from us.”
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