On Monday (Feb. 8),Rev. Osagyefo Sekou will face the first of several charges against him in the wake of protests in response to the death of Michael Brown, Jr. on August 9, 2014 at the hands of former Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson.
He was arrested on September 29 following an interfaith prayer in front of the Ferguson Police Station, in which protestors, community and clergy from diverse faiths joined in reflection and a rendition of seminal civil rights anthem, “Oh Freedom.” The Rev. Sekou knelt praying in front of an advancing line of heavily equipped police as they began to surge toward the crowd.
Detained in a bloodstained police van, the author, activist, musician and theologian (who currently serves as the Bayard Rustin Fellow with the Fellowship of Reconciliation) was charged with refusal to disperse and released only after activists stayed in the street in solidarity, demanding his return.
“In the aftermath of Michael Brown Jr’s killing and the draconian crackdown on human and civil rights that followed, more than a thousand people were arbitrarily arrested, charged, detained and brutalized on fanciful and fabricated grounds such as breaching the so-called ‘five-second rule’, while heavily armed forces occupied the streets of Ferguson with tanks and tear gas,” Sekou said. “While the city has quietly dropped hundreds of charges since then, they are proceeding with many hundreds others.”
Sekou will be represented by attorney Jerryl Christmas and plans to enter a not guilty plea. He faces a possible fine up to $1,000 and three months in jail.
“I face more serious charges than officers Darren Wilson, Daniel Pantaleo or Richard Haste ever have,” Sekou said “I have spent more time in jail than Officers Timothy Loehmann, Sean Williams or Richard Neri. I may be jailed for this, or for trumped up charges from clergy and community mass civil disobediences during Moral Monday protests held in Ferguson and St Louis.”
Sekou says his charges are just a fraction of the price many black people pay for the act of living in the United States under a system of law enforcement designed to systematically repress.
“The best of religion calls upon us to stand with the oppressed, to bear their pain and suffering as our own,” Sekou said. “Praying for justice in the streets of Ferguson remains a privilege.”
