This much should now be beyond dispute: this is a non-violent protest movement. Ferguson October drew some 7,000 people to the St. Louis region – after issuing a national call for activists working on police reform and social justice – and even after a weekend of daring direct actions, it’s clear that violence was never on the protest agenda. Although riot chasers and arsonists were attracted by the chaos immediately following the police killing of Michael Brown Jr. and came to town, or crossed town, to join the protests, they never got any real opportunity to distract or defame the peaceful protest leadership this weekend.
That’s mostly attributable to the sheer masses of diverse, peaceful protestors, compared to the violence-bent opportunists, who were forced to the margins. We also credit diligent internal policing and (whether or not the protestors will appreciate our citing this factor) some effective police intelligence work. Police did don riot gear at times, overreact at times, violate civil rights at times; but they also made a sincere and successful effort to police the protest movement, rather than try to destroy it. Some rules of engagement were accepted, in many instances, between police and protestors, a new sign of grudging reciprocal respect.
The complexity and daring of the successful direct actions plotted and executed – peacefully – by protest leaders showed everyone paying attention that this is a serious operation. And it’s not going away. The most vocal (and photogenic) protest leaders have a deep organization behind them, both peers and elders, local and national and international. While the message is strident – the people are angry, because justice has not been served – the intelligence is subtle and complex. One civic admirer of Ferguson October said these young movement leaders should be running major organizations a few years from now. She was not flattering them or trying to be hip, she was expressing her profound admiration and respect. We wholeheartedly agree.
Nevertheless, the message is being lost on the vast majority of St. Louis. To be blunt, the white people who are not deeply and passionately committed personally to any black people in our region don’t get what the fuss is all about. They are either not aware or not concerned about widespread patterns and practices of police harassment of black people, especially young black people, and young black men in particular, which is another reflection of our enduring racial inequities and segregation.
That’s not to deny the deeply diverse character of the Ferguson protest movement; from day one, some white women and men stood up at the Ferguson Police Department demanding answers alongside their black neighbors. The Weekend of Resistance was especially diverse. In fact, veteran local black protestors knew that the presence of large numbers of white protestors this weekend made the police more measured in their response, because they have seen area police go easier on white protestors from the beginning. But this diverse protest movement is poorly misunderstood by the wider mainstream community. In St. Louis, many black people and their allies feel like they are at the epicenter of a national movement of historic importance, whereas most white residents consider the whole thing an aggravating nuisance that only reinforces their support of the police and uneasiness around young black people.
Also, the protest movement is now more fully regional, following the community response to the St. Louis police killing of VonDerrit Myers Jr. in the Shaw neighborhood of South St. Louis. This incident was different from the police killing of Michael Brown, in that police claim Myers was armed and fired first. Court records show that Myers was under house arrest for a gun charge, and images of him posing with handguns have appeared. Protestors see this as blaming the victim after his death, though it lends some credibility to the police story and could pose a problem in holding together a unified protest movement, now that Ferguson protestors have embraced the Shaw shooting.
“Hands Up, Don’t Shoot!” has nothing to do with a shootout – if one in fact occurred. Police credibility with the protest movement is so low it’s difficult to imagine any physical evidence other than a livestream that will convince them that Myers wielded a loaded firearm and not the turkey sandwich we have all seen him order at the corner market just before he was killed. It does not help the police’s argument that they have started to produce selected pieces of evidence through the police officers’ union, in a closely guarded media event hosted by Jeff Roorda, whose credibility with the protest movement is – deservedly – less than zero. Roorda and union president Joe Steiger also made claims that struck protestors as outrageously disrespectful, such as Steiger’s claim that his only regret about the shooting was that the officer put himself at risk by hesitating to fire.
And so, a peaceful protest movement matures and expands and becomes more complex, as we all wait for St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch to tell us what the grand jury has decided in the matter of Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson. Mid-November is so near, and yet so far, away.
