“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them …”—Abolitionist Frederick Douglass
Thousands gathered for four days of organized rallies and marches protesting Michael Brown’s death and other fatal police shootings in the St. Louis area and nationwide.
As of press time, the four days of planned events which began on Friday and ended on Monday night remained peaceful. The protesters were a diverse group ranging from Vietnam-era peace activists and hundreds of fast-food workers bused in from other cities marched alongside local residents, spurred by a national campaign called Ferguson October.
Protesters began on Friday afternoon with a march outside the St. Louis County prosecutor’s office. They renewed calls for prosecutor Bob McCulloch to charge Darren Wilson, a White Ferguson officer, in the Aug. 9 death of Brown, a Black, unarmed 18-year-old. A grand jury is reviewing the case and the Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation.
A group of demonstrators joined Brown’s mother at a prayer vigil and protest on Saturday evening outside the Ferguson apartment complex where her son was shot and killed two months ago. The group then marched to the Ferguson police department.
“I have two sons and a daughter. I want a world for them where the people who are supposed to be community helpers are actually helping, where they can trust those people to protect and serve rather than control and repress,” said Ashlee Wiest-Laird, 48, a Baptist pastor from Boston.
The situation in Missouri resonated with Wiest-Laird. She’s White and her adopted sons, ages 14 and 11, are Black.
“What I see happening here is a moment in time. There’s something bigger here,” she said.
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 officer who was working for a private neighborhood security patrol when he shot and killed 18-year-old Vonderrit D. Myers on Oct 8.
The White officer, whose name hasn’t been released, fired 17 rounds after police said Myers opened fire. Myers’ parents said he was unarmed, and many speakers at a Saturday rally echoed those doubts.
The marchers said they want their protest to lead to a movement against police brutality not only in the St. Louis area but throughout the nation.
Douglas was right then, and he is right now. The prosecution of officers who engage in police brutality, more community policing and police body cameras to document whether police acted in self-defense or overreacted and other urgently needed reforms won’t happen without the persistent push from an ongoing organized movement.
(Reprinted from the Philadelphia Tribune)
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