Community leaders will shut down Interstate 70 on Wednesday in an act of civil disobedience demanding justice for Michael Brown.
“His death has sparked a movement to change the oppressive conditions under which black youth live, including being targeted by the police,” said Eric Vickers, a member of the Justice for Michael Brown Leadership Coalition, at a press conference Monday morning in front of the St. Louis County Justice Center.
“I think we all have an obligation to play a role in this movement.”
The coalition’s immediate demand is for the appointment of a special prosecutor in Brown’s case. Brown, an unarmed teen who had just graduated from Normandy High School, was shot and killed by a Ferguson police officer on Aug. 9.
St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch is responsible for bringing charges against the police officer, Darren Wilson. Vickers said McCulloch should recuse himself from the case, pointing to his past failures to charge police officers in other abusive-force cases.
Vickers said they will assemble on Wednesday, Sept. 10 at 3 p.m. at the intersection of Interstate 70 and Hanley Road – at the southeastern part of the intersection near a large public parking lot and a Metro light rail stop.
Express Scripts currently sits at the northeast part of that intersection. However in 2000, it was a Jack-In-The-Box, Vickers said, where two unarmed black men, while in their vehicle, were gunned down by police officers. McCulloch took no action against the officers in that case, he said.
“When that case was presented to him with an FBI investigation showing that those police officer officers lied, Bob McCulloch took no action,” he said. “Consequently, there is no confidence at all that the community has that he will fairly prosecute this case.”
Vickers said they also hope to show young African Americans how civil disobedience can be used as a means to justice.
“I want to thank the youth leadership that has come to the forefront,” he said. “Our obligation is to support them, to use our experience in civil disobedience to help bring forward their desire to change the system.”
This is the first action in civil disobedience, Vickers said. Their actions will escalate if their demand for a special prosecutor and other demands for “social and economic justice solutions” are not met.
Zaki Baruti, a coalition leader, said the shutdown is a response to Gov. Jay Nixon’s “moral ineptness” and his refusal to remove McCulloch from the case when he had the power to do so. State Sen. Jamilah Nasheed submitted more than 120,000 signatures from people asking for a special prosecutor.
“Highway 70 is a direct result of their actions,” Zaki Baruti said, “because they have refused to hear the pleas of the people.”