Hundreds of demonstrators peacefully kicked off a holiday weekend of protests dubbed “Ferguson October.”
Late Friday, people marched outside the office of St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch, confronted officers at the Ferguson police station and gathered nearby the scenes where two 18-year-olds, Michael Brown and Vonderrit Myers Jr., were fatally shot by police nearly two months apart.
Protesters from all over the country joined locals in what they said was an effort to show the national impact of both teens’ deaths. Throughout the day, emotions ran high but violence, rioting and looting were avoided.
“This is the turning point,” said Keith Jackson, 50, of Ferguson. “Day after day, there is a police shooting. It’s like the new lynching.”
Protesters organized four days of activities in Ferguson and surrounding areas over the Columbus Day weekend. Starting Friday, they expected as many as 6,000 people to take part in marches, rallies and a yet-to-be-detailed act of civil disobedience.
But Friday night a modest 200 protesters marched peacefully outside McCulloch¹s office in Clayton, Mo., for two hours in the rain, many shivering and huddling under umbrellas. Jackson, who was among them, said it was important to physically come to the office because such gatherings bring attention to the prosecutor and show solidarity among protesters.
His feelings were echoed by Joshua Williams, 18, of Ferguson. Williams came to Clayton after spending Thursday night protesting in the Shaw neighborhood of St. Louis nearby where Myers was killed. For him, coming to the prosecutor’s office represented getting to the heart of the matter.
“He¹s the one who can make the order and change,” said Williams, a dog trainer. “We need to keep putting pressure on him. He might change his mind because he might get tired of seeing us.”Protesters have been calling for McCulloch to step down from handling Brown¹s case. They want him to allow a special prosecutor to handle prosecuting Darren Wilson, the white police officer who killed Brown, who was black.
Friday’s protesters included an increasingly diverse crowd. Jenny Koons, a film director, and some friends drove 15 hours from New York City to be in Missouri for this weekend’s protests.
“It’s not a black issue, it¹s not a Missouri issue, it¹s a national issue,” Koons, 34, of Queens, said. “The only way things are going to change systematically is if everyone comes together. So it’s important for people around the country who were so outraged in August to show up and say I was outraged from afar, I tweeted about it and now it’s time for me to be here.”
Koons and her friends started Artists 4 Change NYC weeks after Brown was killed. The group brings together artists, activists and community leaders in an effort to change social ills that concern them.
Source and Original Content by BCNN1