There was a crackle, a scream and then chaos in the final minutes that protesters marched through downtown Friday night.
“They got Cap,” a female protester yelled. “They electrocuted Cap. Come back y’all, they got Cap!” Cap is Calvin Kennedy – a familiar face among protesters since Ferguson. He’s often seen on the frontline wearing a t-shirt or sweatshirt that says “PEACEKEEPERS.” “He wasn’t doing anything. They just electrocuted him.” She said. “Oh my God, they got Cap!”
He was on the ground. His body was still jerking a bit from the taser. Police put zip ties on him and carried him off. Hardly anyone in the protester group saw what happened, because the mass of them were headed south on Broadway.
Several in the group demanded answers from the police. “Why did you do this,” a man said. “In fifteen seconds the whole thing would have been over.” They accused the police of targeting Cap, saying they preyed on him when he lagged behind the rest of the group.
One protester said the police wouldn’t do anything now that there was a large group in front of them. An officer unleashed pepper spray as his response. The spray landed directly in the protester’s mouth. Protesters in the line yelling at police turned their backs to shield themselves from the spray. He sprayed them again.
Among those hit were 5th Ward Committeeman Rasheen Aldridge and live streamer Heather De Mian.
“I was just sitting in my wheelchair and the cops [expletive] maced me for no [expletive reason],” De Mian told the audience watching her live stream. She squinted, coughed and spit her way through the statement.
Local filmmaker Chris Phillips was so outraged by what he saw through his lens that he was compelled to react. “Y’all were wrong for that, everything on this side was peaceful,” Phillips told the front line of police that had assembled after protesters confronted them for Cap’s arrest and the spraying of the protesters.
“I saw you. You were wrong,” Phillips said, pointed at an officer holding the spray. He shrugged and smirked at Phillips while putting his hands in the air. The spray bottle was in full display. The officer was encouraged to step back by a fellow cop in formation. Phillips was so enraged that he approached one of the commanding officers and tried to show him his footage from the incident.
Protesters continued to yell at police – a protester yelled at other protesters for “letting the police get Cap.”Street medics attended to those hit with pepper spray. Those leaving the baseball game speed walked to their cars. Another arrest was made.
Amid the commotion, the riot cops were released. Protesters were told they had two minutes to disperse. They linked up and crossed the street. The riot police did an about face in the direction of the protesters.
“Those who want to go over to the Justice Center to support those who have been arrested can follow us,” a woman’s voice said over the megaphone. “Other than that, the action for tonight is officially over.”
After what they managed to pull off inside Busch Stadium, which was followed by nearly two hours of peaceful protesting, it was not the ending they had in mind.
Banners at the Ballpark
Friday night’s crowd was noticeably smaller than the typical numbers they had pulled over the past two weeks. But as promised, the protests continued.
At about 175, they had enough to make their presence known. And as they gathered at 9th and Market, Cori Bush promised “something big” would be happening during the baseball game.
They marched over to the Clark Street entrance. They chanted and they shouted. It has become a familiar routine. It was two weeks to the day since protesters responded to Jason Stockley’s acquittal for first-degree murder in the 2011 shooting death of Anthony Lamar Smith with non-stop protests.
The chants died down as the protesters awaited “the big action.” “Whose Streets? Our Streets!” started up again, but it was coming from the inside.
A small group was hovering over the balcony of Busch Stadium initiating the chant “Whose Streets?” They were protesters who had infiltrated the baseball game.
“Our streets!” the protesters on the ground proudly shouted back.
Everyone was reenergized.
Inside the stadium, protesters had dropped a banner created by the Artivists protest group for the entire Cardinal nation to see.
It was an image of Fredbird wearing a jersey that said #ExpectUs with “Stop Killing Us!!” written at the bottom.
As they dropped the banner during the game’s third inning, a few Cardinals fans tried to yank the banner down.
Other protesters stood with a bright orange banner that read “Caution: Racism Lives Here.”
Getting out of the stadium didn’t go as smoothly as getting in. They were heckled and confronted, but made their exit without incident.
They were met with cheers from their fellow protesters as they were escorted to the other side of the barricades that were set up around the stadium.
“We did it,” Elizabeth Vega said while slapping a high five with fellow Artivist Derek Laney when he jumped the barricade. He was one those who helped facilitate the banner action.
When the group of the protesters saw the banners as protesters paraded them out of the stadium, they applauded all over again and clamored around to take pictures.
“Make these go viral,” Vega said.
They marched through downtown with a sense of accomplishment. They carried on as if they were taking a victory lap – until hell broke loose during the home stretch.
