Pounding rain and tornado watches did not deter hundreds of protesters on Monday outside Ferguson police headquarters, where they stayed for almost four hours to mark how long 18-year-old Michael Brown’s body was left in the street after he was fatally shot by a white police officer in the St Louis suburb.
Organizers of the four-day Ferguson October protests dubbed the day “Moral Monday” and committed acts of civil disobedience across the St Louis region. In addition to the initial march on Ferguson police headquarters, protesters blocked the entrance to a major employer, held a loud rally inside St Louis City Hall, disrupted business at a Ferguson shopping center and three Wal-Mart stores, and tried to crash a private Democratic Party fundraiser for a St Louis County executive candidate.
At the Edward Jones Dome on Monday night, protesters briefly draped a banner over a Jumbotron video board that read “Rams fans know on and off the field black lives matter.”
Photo: AFP
The St Louis Rams were playing the San Francisco 49ers in a National Football League game.
All told, more than 50 people were arrested, including academic and civil rights activist Cornel West.
West was among 42 people arrested for disturbing the peace at Ferguson police station. Some protesters used a bullhorn to read the names of people killed by police nationwide.
Christian, Jewish and Muslim clergy members — some among the first arrested — led a prayer service, before marching to the station two blocks away.
“My faith compels me to be here,” Bishop Wayne Smith of the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri said outside Ferguson police headquarters. “I want to show solidarity and call attention to the structural racism of St Louis.”
Protesters were met by about 40 officers in riot gear. Several clergy members approached individual officers and asked them to “repent” for Brown’s killing and other acts of violence. Some officers engaged the protesters, while others ignored the efforts.
“My heart feels that this has been going on too long,” Ferguson officer Ray Nabzdyk told the clergy. “We all stand in fault because we didn’t address this.”
Tensions have simmered since the Aug. 9 shooting death of Brown by a white police officer, who has not been arrested or charged with any crime.
Residents were upset about the way Brown’s body lay in the street for more than four hours while police investigated the shooting. Many insist Brown was trying to surrender, with his hands up.
Residents also protested the military-style police response to the days of riots and protests that erupted immediately after Brown’s shooting in the predominantly black St Louis suburb of Ferguson, where just three black officers serve on a police force of 53 officers.
Since Brown’s death, three other fatal police shootings of black males have occurred in the St Louis area.
The most recent involved an off-duty St Louis police officer, who was working for a private neighborhood security patrol when he shot and killed 18-year-old Vonderrit Myers Jr on Wednesday last week.
Police said the white officer fired 17 rounds after Myers opened fire. Myers’ parents say he was unarmed.
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