Not enough changes in Ferguson, say activists who are ready for more protests

By J.A. Salaam | Last updated: Mar 20, 2015 - 12:35:22 PM

A protester yells at police outside the Ferguson Police Department, March 11, in Ferguson, Mo. Earlier in the day, the resignation of Ferguson police chief Thomas Jackson was announced in the wake of a scathing Justice Department report prompted by the fatal shooting of an unarmed Black 18-year-old by a White police officer.

FERGUSON, Mo. (FinalCall.com) - Spring time is here and things are heating up again.

Reports two officers had been shot ratcheted up emotions and tension but the man accused of the shooting has said the bullets weren’t meant for officers standing shoulder-to-shoulder over a football field away in front of the Ferguson Police Dept., where protestors have gathered for months.

By March 16 there were charges the man, 20-year-old Jeffery Williams, had been beaten in police custody. Police denied he had been abused.

“We got a few wins but the main things we have not gotten. We don’t have a federal consent decree to monitor and disband the police department. The mayor hasn’t stepped down,” said Anthony Shahid, a longtime activist and advisor to Michael Brown, Sr. The police killing of 18-year-old unarmed Michael Brown, Jr., ignited protests in this St. Louis suburb that have spread across the country. Mr. Shahid is also part of the Leadership Coalition for Justice.

A Ferguson, Mo., police officer listens to a protester outside the police station March 4, in Ferguson. The Justice Department cleared a White former Ferguson police officer in the fatal shooting of an unarmed Black 18-yearold, but also issued a scathing report calling for sweeping changes in city law enforcement practices it called discriminatory and unconstitutional.

A civilian review board is needed for these small municipal police departments in St. Louis County and money should be given back to Blacks who were targeted by the Ferguson Police Dept., he said.

We want Black contractors to get money for rebuilding parts of Ferguson as part of efforts to stop crime and help young men who need jobs, Mr. Shahid continued. Most young men are not going into a police department to get a background check because they have problems with police, he said. What’s needed are jobs in construction that don’t require background checks and where a young man can start off earning $17.50 an hour, learn a trade on the job and use that trade to make money, said Mr. Shahid.

Damaged buildings in Ferguson are being repaired but Blacks aren’t working on the rebuilding projects, he charged.

The Leadership Coalition for Justice is sponsoring a weekend of protest March 20-21. The March 20 protest will be in Ferguson as part of continued demands for justice. A March 21 protest in Clayton, Mo., the seat of county government, will commemorate the 55th anniversary of the Sharpeville Massacre, when a protest outside a police station in apartheid South Africa turned deadly. Unarmed people were fired on, leaving death and injuries in its wake.

Young people in South Africa were shot and killed as they marched for their human rights and this is modern apartheid in America, the same racist mind of arch-segregationists and brutal White Afrikaners but these Whites in power don’t see anything wrong, Mr. Shahid said.

The mayor of Ferguson doesn’t see a problem, he said.

Mayor James Knowles III remains, making just $4,200 a year in a job he called basically ceremonial before a White police officer shot Michael Brown, Jr., prompting weeks of protests, confrontations with police and a Justice Department inquiry. He’s now so involved that he’s opened a City Hall office and insists he will stay to see the city through the changes it must make.

Five residents have filed an affidavit seeking to recall Mayor Knowles. They have 60 days to collect enough signatures—15 percent of registered voters in the last mayoral election—to qualify for a special election. Mayor Knowles said he has no plans to step aside.

Clayton, Mo., is one of the most powerful areas in the country, said Mr. Shahid. The county prosecutor doesn’t see anything wrong, despite a couple hundred thousand signatures calling for his resignation, he said.

“We want the police department to reflect the community,” said Mr. Shahid. The population in Ferguson is 67 percent Black and the police officers should reflect those same numbers, he said.

The city of St. Louis has problems as well and so does the county chief of police, added Mr. Shahid.

Ferguson and the city of St. Louis have become the epicenter for a movement against racial profiling, police brutality and killings of Blacks. Eight young Black men have been shot and killed by White police officers in the St. Louis-area since the killing of Michael Brown, Jr., without any legal consequences or charges brought, said activists in March.

Former Ferguson, Mo. Police Chief Thomas Jackson. Graphic: MGN Online

Ferguson police Chief Thomas Jackson resigned March 11, one day after Ferguson’s city manager John Shaw stepped down and two days after Municipal Judge Ronald Brockmeyer resigned. Two other city employees also lost their jobs.

The three major Ferguson officials were under pressure after an extensive Justice Dept. report released by Attorney General Eric Holder. The Justice Department report found authorities in Ferguson saw residents as “sources of revenue.”

Blacks are 67 percent of the city population, yet from 2012-2014, represented 85 percent of vehicle stops, 90 percent of the citations, and 93 percent of the arrests. Large court bails, fines and fees were common and unjustified. A Black woman was jailed for six days and ordered to pay more than $1,000 in fines stemming from a parking violation that was originally $151, said the Justice Dept.

Trumped up charges for code enforcement generated fines and fees for Ferguson’s budget that reached $1.38 million of the $11.07 million collected in general funds in 2010, said the Justice Dept. Budget predictions continued to exceed expectations year after year. In 2012, city officials “predicted” that fines and fees revenue would increase 30 percent to $1.92 million, however Ferguson courts exceeded the “prediction” and collected $2.11 million. Predictions were exceeded again in 2013 by courts, which essentially are under the control of the Ferguson police chief, collecting $2.46 million in fines and fees.

“In America, in 2015, it is perfectly legal to murder Black women, men and children,” said Tef Poe, a young activist and hip hop artist from nearby St. Louis. He has been active in protests, organizing and speaking out. “It’s perfectly legal, and if anybody tells you that it’s not, they’re lying,” he told The Final Call after the report’s release.

“This was the best thing that could have happened to Ferguson, with these guys stepping down. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. We need more to do the same and not just in Ferguson but in all these little small municipalities in the county, Jennings, Pine Lawn, Wellston, Upland Park, Dellwood, all of them are taking advantage of the people,” said Anthony Bell, a St. Louis alderman who was in Ferguson when Michael Brown, Jr., was shot to death last summer.

The night of Chief Jackson’s resignation 500 or more protestors gathered in front of the Ferguson Police Dept. Throughout the evening March 11 people were yelling, pushing and protestors confronted protestors. The night was tense and chaotic at times. Several fights broke out within a 20-minute period. “He must be getting paid, he’s an undercover police,” someone yelled as they chased a man down the street. Some demonstrators expressed resentment at others and accused them of being more interested in money than the struggle.

It was unlike any other night in all of the months of protest.

As the evening started to calm down and the crowd disbursed around midnight, everyone headed to their vehicles. Shots were fired and two officers were hit. One officer suffered minor injuries to the face and another one was shot in the shoulder and the bullet discharged through his back, according to St. Louis County Police Chief John Belmer.

Protestors rejected the chief’s contention that officers had been ambushed and demonstrators were involved. They complained about how police were linking the shooting to demonstrators, but had no evidence of any connection.

Conflicting stories surrounded the alleged shooter, a Black male who was picked up after three days of police searching. He did not have a lawyer when he initially appeared in Clayton, Mo., for court. Mr. Williams is being held on a $300,000 bond and is expected back in court March 31.

St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch said the suspect told authorities he was firing at someone with whom he was in a dispute. “We’re not sure we completely buy that part of it,” Mr. McCulloch said, adding that there might have been other people in a vehicle Mr. Williams is accused of firing from. Mr. McCulloch said the investigation is ongoing.

“He was out there earlier that evening as part of the demonstration,” Mr. McCulloch said of Williams.

Jeffrey Williams, charged in connection with the shooting of two police officers in Ferguson. Photo: MGN Online

Many witnesses said the shots came from up the hill approximately 120 yards away. Protestors are asking who is Jeffery Williams and where did he come from?

“When I was out there that night I remember seeing that guy but didn’t pay much attention to him because I have never seen him before,” said Rev. Cori Bush of Kingdom Embassy International Church, who regularly joins the protests.

Brittany Ferrell, 26, a protest leader with the Millennial Activists United, had just left a meeting with other leaders when word of the arrest circulated. No one in her group knew Mr. Williams and they checked with other frequent protesters, who also never heard of him, she said.

Ms. Ferrell accused Mr. McCulloch of casting the alleged shooter as a protester to reflect negatively on the movement.

“This is a fear tactic,” she said. “We are very tight-knit. We know each other by face if not by name, and we’ve never seen this person before.”

Police said a .40-caliber hand gun was used by the alleged shooter and shell casings were also found.

The Truth Telling weekend, March 13-15, was organized by Pastor Bush, who called for protestors to come with signs and tape over their mouths with the names of the victims of police brutality written on the tape. There were discussions of the pain of loss and how those who have suffered injustices at the hands of police can be supported. Some of the organizers from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference along with Sonya Davis, the sister of 1970s activist Angela Davis, and Dr. Bernard Lafayette came to St. Louis and made presentations over the weekend. Approximately 150 protestors gathered at the Old Courthouse in downtown St. Louis as part of the gathering.

“We did it there because this is where the slave auctions were in St. Louis and where the Dred Scott decision was settled at that courthouse. We felt that would be a good place to have the march as a starting point. We made sure we marched by two court houses a mile or so away and by the jail. The theme of the march was ‘Justice Is Silent So Wake Up.’ We put tape on our mouths with names glowing and some of us wore bandanas,” said Pastor Bush.

During the “Bloody Sunday” Selma 50th commemoration the Leadership Coalition for Justice traveled with over 90 protestors from Ferguson to Selma, Ala. One of the organizers for the group, Zaki Baruti of the Universal African People’s Organization, was able to promote the planned March 20 weekend demonstration in Ferguson during a town hall meeting hosted by Mark Thompson of Sirius satellite radio.

“We were able to spread the word about the upcoming March in St. Louis,” said the longtime activist who was among the first to take to the streets of Ferguson. “We gave out thousands of flyers about it. We are hoping for a good turn out because the response from the people was very positive,” said Mr. Baruti.

The Urban League of metropolitan St. Louis plans to build a new Training Educational Center for their Save Our Son’s program. The location is a burned out gas station and convenience store, “Ground Zero” for Ferguson unrest last summer after the killing death of Michael Brown, Jr. The estimated cost to build the facility is $500,000 and construction is scheduled to start this summer.

The Justice Dept. may have closed its case, but Michael Brown’s parents are not sitting idly by and accepting what’s happened. Michael Brown, Sr. and Lesley McSpadden are planning to file a wrongful death civil lawsuit against Darren Wilson and the city of Ferguson, according to their attorneys.

Rika Tyler, a member of Hands Up United, an activist group in St. Louis, argued the Department of Justice has only said what activists have been saying about Ferguson for the last 200 days.

“We’ve been saying this for the longest. Now you have proof that this stuff is going on. I need to see action. I need to see people fired, or just dismantle the whole Ferguson Police Department and other corrupt police departments as well,” Ms. Tyler said.

(The Associated Press and Final Call staffers contributed to this report.)

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