“When you walk to your cars, don’t go over there by yourselves,” Rev. Darryl Gray told protesters. “Make sure you have somebody with you – and make sure you watch each other.”
“That’s right,” a woman standing near to Gray said. “They are still out to get us,” she said, referring to the police.
The group was just ending an action that temporarily shut down The St. Louis Galleria Shopping Center and the busy stretch of Brentwood Blvd. that grants access to the mall and other retail establishments on the busiest shopping day of the week.
“Touch one, touch all,” another protester responded to Gray’s remarks.
The catch phrase is a direct result of the turn of events that happened at the Galleria exactly one week before.
Last week’s mass arrest of 22 made headlines – particularly the arrest of Karla Frye. The church elder, Community Women Against Hardship Executive Director and former Managing Editor of The St. Louis American was violently arrested after attempting to intervene on an officer who had her grandson in a chokehold. The 13-year-old was mistaken for a protester when he and his cousin came to pick up Frye, who was protesting at the mall.
Frye was charged with a felony for allegedly assaulting a police officer, who qualifies as a “special victim” under state law.
Her grandson was released without charges.
Since then, protesters have vowed to collectively put their bodies on the line to interrupt excessive force from police.
“Touch one, touch all,” they’ve said as riot police assembled in every action since the arrests last week at the Galleria.
They didn’t have to employ that tactic today.
“I’m glad that we could show everybody how we could come out here and get our point across, without there being any violent arrests or confrontation,” Gray said.
It had only been a few hours since Gray had been released from the downtown after being sprayed with a chemical agent and arrested by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department the night before near Ballpark Village.
There would be no arrests, or riot police, for this action. Several police departments were on site – including Richmond Heights, Brentwood and St. Louis County – but none approached protesters.
“This was completely different from last week,” Gray said. “The biggest difference was that we weren’t attacked today. Last week, the police attacked us.”
Today, dozens made their way through the mall. It was their third visit to the Galleria in the span of seven days, and business as usual with respect to their disruption. They went about keeping the promise they made from the very first time they stepped into the mall as part of the nonstop protests – their response to the acquittal of Jason Stockley two weeks ago.
“No justice, no profits,” protesters have repeatedly yelled out at several of the actions that have been conducted since the not guilty verdict was announced on September 15.
“Y’all are gonna get tired before we do,” State Rep. Bruce Franks said in front of police headquarters last week.
Franks was on site today along with the others who have proven themselves persistent through the protests.
“We are not here because we don’t have anything else to do,” Cori Bush told shoppers who looked on as they marched through the mall. “We are here because police keep killing black folks. We are tired of it, and we are here to say, ‘stop killing us!’”
She encouraged shoppers to join in. Some obliged.
Police and mall security were present, but there was never a moment of confrontation in the mall or outside. They filed out and into Brentwood, where their chants continued for several minutes before they voluntarily dispersed.
“These police knew that last thing they needed was a repeat of the visual images of what happened last week,” Gray said. “They knew that couldn’t happen again – and it didn’t.”
