There was no riot gear, no tear gas and no arrests when a crowd of more than 1,000 people surged through downtown St. Louis on Saturday, demanding justice for Michael Brown, the unarmed black 18-year-old shot and killed by a white police officer just over two months ago.
Instead, police kept their distance from the spirited morning march, which included participants from across the country.
The march was part of a four-day 'weekend of resistance' and came as a grand jury considers whether to charge Ferguson, Mo., police officer Darren Wilson in Brown's death.
'Ferguson October is our freedom summer' organizers said in a text message to supporters sent early Saturday morning.
Organizers' efforts are also evidence of the fast maturation of Ferguson protesters, who in the immediate days after the shooting flooded the small suburb's streets with raw emotion - and often little organization.
A coalition of local groups - clergy, labor unions, educators and youth - met several times a day in preparation for a weekend that organizers hope will help sustain a collective movement against police brutality, said John Chasnoff, program director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri.
Their success, planners said, depends on their ability to keep the demonstrations peaceful.
'They were scared to see this event happen' one organizer shouted through a bullhorn as the march began. 'But we are not going to replicate the damage or the violence that the police carry out upon our communities.'
Ferguson resident Sharon Golliday has watched the maturation process.
'No one was prepared for this,' the St. Louis Community College reading specialist said. 'But now we have structure and we are growing.'
Different groups took on responsibilities and were trained accordingly.
Golliday, of the Hands Up United group, volunteered to be a de-escalator. Her job, put simply, is to 'float through the crowd like little angels and make sure everyone is getting along.'
Others distributed food and water to attendees from a tent. Greeters struck a welcoming tone for the Ferguson October event, artists screen-printed T-shirts and children chalked a sidewalk in color. Socialist groups distributed their alternative news publications, and all around small groups passionately debated the issues.
Legal observers marched alongside protesters, and volunteers wearing yellow vests helped with crowd control. They made sure to keep the protest in the street and moving along a pre-determined route.
'We're overjoyed at the support we've gotten as people come in from across the nation,' said Derek Robinson, a local minister who is helping to organize the protests. 'It shows the strength of our message of justice.'
Chanting, 'Hands up, don't shoot' and 'No justice, no peace,' they marched about a mile through the heart of downtown toward the Gateway Arch.
Protesters demanded that a special prosecutor be appointed in the case and called for an end to racial profiling nationwide.
'I've been harassed on a daily, weekly basis by police,' said Jonathan Butler, 24, a University of Missouri student originally from Nebraska. He has traveled to St. Louis several times for protests since the Aug. 9 shooting. 'So it's important that I came out to show solidarity.'
It was a diverse crowd, with scores of participants from around the country.
As the marchers passed by, Rashad Lartey, 27, of Kansas, stood on the courthouse steps holding signs declaring: 'Bigger than Ferguson' and '2014 = 1964.'
'This is a struggle for human rights,' he said.
Few of those protesting expect Wilson to be indicted, in part because of the rarity with which police face criminal charges for on-duty shootings and because they perceive St. Louis County prosecutor Robert McCulloch as biased.
Instead, they hope to channel the outrage over Brown's shooting into reforms of a justice system under which minorities disproportionately face violence by police officers.
Labor unions, law students, community organizers and families came from nearby Illinois and as far as Minnesota to participate in 'Ferguson October.' In addition to protests, the weekend includes teach-ins and panel discussions across St. Louis and in Ferguson. Events are set to end Monday with acts of civil disobedience, organizers said.
Erin Everett, 37, Kelsey Hahn, 27, and Jillissa Reutler, 22, traveled overnight from Madison, Wis.
'This is important, so we got donations from people we knew to make this trip,' Everett said.
'It's already been a really powerful experience,' Hahn added.
Still most marchers appeared to be from across Missouri.
'There are Fergusons all over, in every state,' said Tony Pulliam, 38, of St. Louis. 'So of course we've got the support of so many from across the country.'
St. Louis police Chief Sam Dotson and Missouri Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson were both on hand and greeted demonstrators.
Immediately after the shooting, police in riot gear and using tear gas, rubber bullets and tanks clashed with protesters nightly. The standoffs drew national attention and alarmed some who raised concerns about militarized policing.
On Saturday, some officers rode bikes. Others videotaped the march as it moved past them - raising eyebrows among some protesters, but little overall reaction.
As of Saturday morning, organizers were drawing confidence from the fact that there had been three non-violent protests during Ferguson October.
Wrapped in a tan jacket and green scarf, Marina Balleria, 24, carried a sign quoting Frederick Douglass: 'Without struggle, there is no progress.'
A former schoolteacher in New Orleans, she moved to St. Louis six weeks ago and said she felt that she needed to support Brown's family.
'What happened is something that could have happened to any of my students,' she said. 'So it was important for me to show my support as a white ally.'
The marching crowds thinned out as they reached Kiener Plaza and a cavalcade of speakers took to the pavilion stage.
Whether at the hands of private citizens or police, the killings of black men - and women - have sparked multiple moments of outrage, but whether those moments turn into sustained, successful reform movements as Ferguson organizers hope is an open question.
Crowds similar to Saturday's gathered in 2012 in Fort Mellon Park in Sanford, Fla., too, after another unarmed black teenager, Trayvon Martin, was killed. Protesters were outraged that his shooter, George Zimmerman, did not immediately face charges. But by the time the neighborhood watch volunteer had his day in court, the demonstrations had shrunk in size and momentum.
Is that Ferguson's fate?
Volunteer Vetta Thompson, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis, watched over the crowds at the edge of Kiener Plaza, just feet away from where a bike police officer casually stood.
'I think this is different,' said Thompson, who volunteers at the Canfield apartments in the neighborhood where Brown died. His death is a consequence of attitudes about African Americans that have persisted in St. Louis and the state for too long, she said. 'This is a leverage point for change.'
Sandwiched between Martin and Brown have been numerous other controversial deaths and questionable police activity. Last week, another 18-year-old, Vonderrit D. Myers Jr., was fatally shot by police in St. Louis. Police said Myers had a gun and fired on the officer, but some family members and others are challenging that report.
The movement has to mean more than this one case, said Ronn Smith of the Federation of Block Units, an Urban League-affiliated community group.
'This moment I don't think is going to die,' he said. But the central cause is 'an evolving, shifting paradigm at this point. . . . I believe we are closer to a point where we have an endpoint and a goal.'
Posted by Unknown on Saturday, October 11, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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