Protesters took to the streets in St. Louis over the weekend after a judge acquitted ex-police officer Jason Stockley of the murder of Anthony Lamar Smith. In December 2011, Stockley shot Smith five times after a car chase, which began over a suspected drug deal. Though he was caught on video saying that he intended to kill Smith (countering his claims that he feared for his life) and despite the fact that the gun in Smith’s car only had Stockley’s DNA on it, a judge still thought it was a good idea to let him go free. People in St. Louis are rightfully outraged that yet another police officer is not being held accountable for murdering a black person and are making their voices heard. And after three straight days of protest, more than 80 people have now been arrested in what police are claiming is unlawful assembly and escalating violence.
More than 80 people were arrested on Sunday in connection with the protests, which police said were “no longer peaceful” as of late Saturday night, and five weapons were confiscated, according to the St. Louis Police Department. At least 32 people were arrested earlier in the weekend as demonstrators blocked highways, damaged property and threw rocks at the mayor's house and bricks at police officers, police said.
“People setting out do damage are being arrested and these criminals we've arrested should be held accountable and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” St. Louis Interim Police Chief Lawrence O’Toole said in a early-morning briefing on Monday.
“We're in control. This is our city and we're going to protect it,” he added.
Images emerging from St. Louis show a handful of people who are not peacefully protesting but instead damaging property. What they haven’t really shown, however, are the many instances where police are behaving out of control toward the public, as if they are an armed force engaging with enemy combatants. While arresting people, the police began chanting “whose streets, our streets,” the very same chant uttered by white supremacists and Neo-Nazis in Charlottesville. And video from Friday’s protest shows the police charging down the street in their riot gear and knocking over an elderly woman. They not only continue walking over her after she falls, they then return to pick her up and arrest her. You can watch the disturbing scenario below.
If this is how the St. Louis police treat folks in the community, it’s worth asking if some of this violence is actually the result of people who are simply defending themselves from the police. When people who are peacefully protesting have to seek refuge from police in synagogues, there is something very wrong with policing and our criminal justice system.
A synagogue in St. Louis opened its doors to provide sanctuary for protesters demonstrating against the acquittal of a white policeman for the killing of a black suspect after police efforts to control the protesters led to violence.
After St. Louis Metropolitan Police officers reportedly surrounded the Central Reform Congregation on Friday night and threatened to fire tear gas at the protesters inside, a trending Twitter hashtag called on the police to #GasTheSynagogue.
If police stopped killing people, they wouldn’t have to deal with damaged property and violence. Protecting property is not more important than people’s lives. Until we come to terms with the fact that policing is in desperate need of reform and do something meaningful about it, this hideous cycle of anger, outrage, and violence will only continue.