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Walking while black The tension between police officers and young, black men is nothing new.

See page B3

St. LouiS AmericAn The

CAC Audited AUGUST 14 – 20, 2014

Vol. 85 No. 19 COMPLIMENTARY

stlamerican.com

Police killing sparks rage, chaos Chris Tallie is embraced by his mother, Angela Morgan, on Sunday during a candlelight vigil for his slain cousin, 18-yearold Michael Brown. Brown was shot dead by a Ferguson police officer around noon on Saturday.

French shares tragedy in real time City alderman earns national attention as stellar citizen journalist

See website for more photos!

By Kenya Vaughn Of The St. Louis American

stlamerican.com Photo by WIley Price

Department of Justice investigating murder of Michael Brown

By Bridjes O’Neil Of The St. Louis American Hundreds gathered Tuesday night at the Greater St. Mark Family Church, 9950 Glen Owen Dr., in Ferguson, Missouri to support the family of Michael Brown.

Michael Brown, 18, was unarmed when he was shot multiple times and killed by a Ferguson police officer on Saturday around noon in the 2900 Block of Canfield Drive at the Canfield Green Apartment Complex. He died at the scene, and police left his corpse lying on the street for four hours.

St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar held a press conference Sunday morning at the Ferguson Fire Department regarding the tragic incident that has garnered national and international attention. Witnesses and the police See BROWN, A7

Photo by Wiley Price

The parents of Michael Brown, Michael Brown Sr. and Lesley McSpadden, flanked the Rev. Al Sharpton at a news conference Tuesday afternoon at the Old Courthouse in downtown St. Louis.

Early Saturday afternoon an uncaptioned photo of a then-unknown man holding a crudely made cardboard sign that read “The Ferguson Police Executed My Unarmed Son!!!” exploded on social media.

Chaos was underway.

With his makeshift protest mechanism, Louis Head tipped the community to the fact that his stepson Michael Brown, a 2014 graduate of Normandy High School, was Antonio gunned down in the Canfield French Green Apartment Complex by a Ferguson police officer two days before Brown was to start classes at Vatterott College.

By weekend’s end, all hell would break loose in Ferguson and surrounding municipalities for all the nation to see.

Protests symbolized night one. On night two, peaceful demonstrators would be overshadowed by a small minority who decided to voice their rage and capitalize on the volatile situation by damaging and looting surrounding businesses.

Night three was marred by what many deemed excessive force by police and a “peace by any See FRENCH, A6

‘The most kind, gentle and loving teacher’ Estella Rash to receive 2014 PNC Bank Early Childhood Education Award

By Rebecca Rivas Of The St. Louis American Why do you think there are traffic lights? What do you think would happen to the garden if it doesn’t rain?

After 35 years of teaching three- and four-year-olds, Estella Rash has learned to ask her young “discoverers” lots of questions.

“Whatever answer they give me is correct,” said Rash, a teacher at the University Child Development Center, located at University of Missouri – St. Louis. “They might say, ‘They’re pretty.’ And I say, ‘You’re right, they are pretty.

But you know what, those lights are also to keep us safe.’”

She never says they are wrong. “Oh God, I never say

that,” she said. “That stops them from wanting to think and share information.”

On September 12, Rash will receive the 2014 PNC Bank Early Childhood Education Award from the St. Louis American Foundation at its 27th annual

Estella Rash

Salute to Excellence in Education Gala, to be held at the America’s Center Ballroom.

The gala will begin at 7 p.m., following a reception at 6 p.m.

“She is probably the most kind, gentle and loving teacher that kids would ever have,” said Lynn Navin, director

n “I never say they are wrong. That stops them from wanting to think and share information.”

– Estella Rash

of the center, who has worked at the center with Rash since 1991.

“She is always respectful

of kids and their feelings. She instinctually knows what’s best See RASH, A6

Editorial / CommEntary A4

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • AUGUST 14 - 20, 2014

For the sake of Michael Brown

The family of Michael Brown leave a message on the street where he was gunned down by a Ferguson police oficer on Saturday. Photo by Wiley Price

With deep humility, we admit we did not see this coming, and not where it came – in a ring suburb, rather than in the city – though we can see where it came from.

North St. Louis County and many of its municipalities have suffered decades of economic disinvestment, loss of manufacturing jobs and disruption by highway construction and airport expansion. Those who chose to stay in these ring suburbs, or who had no other options, had to live – or die – with the consequences.

White flight, particularly to St. Charles County, first hit the school districts, then the tax base. Remaining homeowners are heavily taxed in areas with often struggling schools, little industry and dwindling businesses and services.

The mortgage bubble really burst in these areas, with rampant home foreclosures. Large retail areas in North County have been abandoned.

Small businesses face difficulty establishing a presence due to high prices for retail space and insurance costs. Those who stay charge more, and those who buy from them pay more.

When businesses and retail move, those who remain have to spend their money with establishments elsewhere in the region. That builds up the tax base in other areas, not their own. For those who lack reliable transportation (let alone job skills and education), there are few opportunities to eke out a livelihood locally.

There is little escape.

Disillusionment, resentment and tension set in where economic opportunities, recreation and thriving businesses once flourished. The “look at us, we are on our way back” slogans boasted by chambers of commerce say nothing about those who have been treated as invisible or dispensable.

As for our youth, many of them may not be properly educated, but they are not stupid, and it is not difficult for them to hear what they are being told in the cold language of unaccredited districts and transfer students. Michael Brown graduated in the much-discussed Normandy School District, an unaccredited school district that expired not long before he was killed. He and his peers – specifically, those strivers willing to transfer to a better school district – were told they were not wanted by many other districts in the region, once those districts were no longer required to accept them.

It may take a village to raise a child, but many administrators and parents in better-resourced parts of our region had no problem saying quite publicly that Michael Brown and his brothers and sisters did not belong in their village.

So it is not difficult to understand the frustration and anger of the sons and daughters of these disinvested ring suburbs. It is even easier to understand why, when their frustration and anger turned to rage at the murder of one of their own by a cop, it was directed at the police.

Most obviously, a police officer killed Michael Brown – in cold blood, according to eyewitnesses. But our sons’ and daughters’ rage at the police started long before Michael Brown and his friend were told to get out of the street on Saturday afternoon by a foul-mouthed Ferguson cop.

In many North County municipalities, it seems police run contests to see how many young black men you can pull over, flaunting the officers’ power and the motorists’ powerlessness. Our young men especially are regularly inconvenienced and humiliated while simply trying to get where they are going. The Missouri Attorney General annually releases a report, which no black person needs to read, that documents appalling disparities in how often black drivers are pulled over and searched, compared to white people, all over the state and the region.

But Michael Brown was not pulled over while driving. He was told to get out of the street while walking. For offering what was initially, according to an eyewitness, the mildest of resistance to a rude and unnecessary police order, this unarmed teen was shot in the middle of the day, and his bullet-riddled body left by police to lay in the street for hours, as if to provide a grisly example.

That did it. That’s what drove people (not just young people) to act out their pent-up rage.

That’s what drove people to demonstrate (which is within their rights). That’s what drove people to the candlelight vigil on Sunday. And that’s what drove a few who disregarded the greater good to lash out at what was in front of them.

The resulting chaos created an opportunity for looters – many of them, according to reported arrests, not from the immediate area – to smash and grab from what businesses remain.

We can’t bring Michael Brown back. But we can insist on a prompt, credible, transparent investigation – under the leadership of the U.S. Department of Justice, we urge – and that his killer be brought to justice. The officer should receive the constitutionally guaranteed due process he did not give to his victim. When his name is finally disclosed – as should have been done immediately – there must be no effort to bring him to the vigilante justice we see too often delivered from behind the authority of a badge.

We also must insist – as a life-or-death matter essential to the peace and functioning of our society – on an immediate and thorough review of police policy, procedure and training throughout the region. There are successful models of police/community cooperation that can be adopted. We must diversify our police departments – the Ferguson Police Department reportedly has three black cops in a staff of 53. We must train police officers who patrol minority neighborhoods in how to better understand the people on their beats and interact with them in a spirit of mutual respect. And we must stop protecting police officers when they use unwarranted force, against black men or anyone.

In the meantime, our angry youth and many supportive citizens remain on the streets, taunting police in riot gear with snipers sprawled on what amount to tanks, training high-powered rifles on unarmed black people with their hands in the air, chanting, “Don’t shoot!” among other things we won’t print.

We commend St. Louis Alderman Antonio French, state Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal and community activist and writer Tef Poe, in particular, for showing leadership on the streets in these tense days. It is clear, now more than ever, that many more of us need to leave our offices, churches and comfort zones and engage more directly with our angry and misdirected youth.

“We as leaders can help redirect their justified anger,” French tweeted in the heat of the battle.

“But we can’t do it from churches or our living rooms. We have to be with them.”

It should also be painfully clear, now more than ever, that this is not a black problem, but a problem for our entire region and others like it across the nation. True, if our community were more organized and voted its strength, then municipalities like Ferguson would not have the utterly inadequate mayors and police chiefs that are making life-or-death decisions today – and making them very badly, with fatal consequences.

But these consequences have regional impact. In countless editorials, we have urged our corporate and political leaders to do more to include African Americans in educational, economic and social opportunities for the greater good of the region. Over and over, we have exhorted, our region cannot thrive when we consign so many of our youth to the oblivion of failing schools and poor job skills. Now, more than ever, it is clear that our region needs to do more to include African Americans from the earliest ages, for our region not only to thrive, but simply to function peaceably.

We believe it is because not nearly enough capable people with resources in this region have heeded our plea that we have reached this crisis point of complete breakdown, when the St. Louis region has entered the world’s spotlight, not as one of its great places to live and work, but as one of its war zones. We need peace. But first, we need justice and equity, so that Michael Brown’s death is not wasted, like so many young black lives before his, and with them the future prospects of this region and nation.

As I See It - A Forum for Community Issues

Focus on murder, not looting

By Akbar Muhammad For The St. Louis American As I sat and listened to the president of the NAACP and some ministers speak Monday night at the Murchison Tabernacle CME Church, I heard a lot of good words – and some that were insensitive and off-track.

The mayor of Berkeley, Ted Guest Columnist Hoskins, was on point because Akbar Muhammad the rallies, meetings and speeches should have never just been about the looting and how wrong it was.

But this seemed to be the theme of many who spoke. The focus was to be on the killing of a young, unarmed black man who was murdered in cold blood by a white police officer in the suburb of St. Louis, Ferguson.

This should have been about the murder of our child by a white police officer.

I was in California when I saw the news stories. From St. Louis and throughout the country, the initial report was that a black teenager tried to take a police officer’s gun and the police officer shot him,

making the assumption that it was in self-defense. This lie, which spread throughout America and the world, would have been left alone and no one would have said anything – if the young did not take to the street.

When young people witnessed this senseless murder and were in pain to know that Michael Brown was on his way to college in a few days, the young people who witnessed this brutal murder of one of their friends lifted up their voice and the community turned into outrage.

This is the story that has to be told. The looting can be seen as collateral damage of oppressed people taking advantage of a set of circumstances. The young man who was killed was our baby, and those looting were our babies. They need to be loved and cared for, as they are a product of us.

They rebelled because of the lack of opportunity, a state of poverty, want and helplessness were stoked by a police officer committing murder – which many people thought was justified – against this young black man under the pretense of so-called self-defense. It was only because young people raised hell that the eye of the

Letters to the editor In memory of Michael Brown Because of an overwhelming response to the Michael Brown tragedy from our social media community – Facebook, in particular – we have decided to share some of the comments that appeared with our print community as they expressed a range of emotions in the wake of the senseless killing of an unarmed teen. We encourage those who haven’t done so already to join the conversation on our various social media channels – including Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Instagram.

Speak up for justice Let’s not take away from the real issue at hand, which was the shooting. The actions that took place with the rioting and looting were disgraceful and did not honor Michael Brown in any way. To anyone that has information about the shooting, please speak up. Don’t let the negativity and ignorance stop you from speaking up and getting real justice.

Brittnay N. Powell

Praying for the family I pray for this family as I prayed for Trayvon Martin’s family – and for all families suffering loss of a young one to police brutality. They are here to serve us and protect us. It is so sad when they abuse their power. It puts the public in a position of mistrust and places the upstanding police and troopers in a position of danger from outrage and hatred. But by no means should we riot. Those shop owners are hardworking blue collar people trying to earn a living and raise a family. I am sure the young man and his family do not want this kind of attention to their suffering and situation. It is hurting them not helping them. I will keep them in my prayers.

Kimberly Brooks Price

Follow footsteps of Dr. King We as Americans have lost a family member due to a circumstance that no member of our family – black, white or any other ethnicity – should quietly tolerate. The behavior of some members of our American family after the murder of

world is on St. Louis.

Instead of spending time condemning the spontaneous reaction of the young people, we need to realize this would have never happened if this non-peaceful act of coldblooded murder of a young black unarmed man had not taken place.

Our rallies need to include our youth, not set up parameters that they need to listen to our dialogue on how we handle and manage this senseless murder.

It does not take weeks to deal with this. There needs to be a blood test given to the police officer who left Michael’s body in the street for four hours to see whether the officer was on drugs.

The murder of Michael Brown should not be taken off the agenda and made into an issue of looting instead of an issue of murder. The issue is the cold-blooded murder by a white policeman, instead of a twisted story about a young black man trying to take the police officer’s gun.

Akbar Muhammad is international representative of Minister Louis Farrakhan.

Contact Akbar at aakbar314@ yahoo.com or www.

AkbarsBooks.com.

All letters are edited for length and style.

this young man is not quietly tolerable either. Christians often ask what would Jesus do.

Being a self-professed heathen, I honestly don’t know, but I do know what Martin Luther King Jr. would do! He would have been outraged at the murder of a member of our American family, and he would have demanded justice be served.

Likewise, he would have been saddened and ashamed of what has happened after this heinous act that took our brother’s life. Please! Let us not have our brother’s death be in vain.

This should not be a time to throw up barriers. It can be an opportunity to build a better community for our American family.

Jerome Gaines

for the family.

Tonka Johnson

Knowing the system Understanding is key. I do not condone rioting or looting but I do understand the frustrations of the African American community.

Oppression, Racism, modern day segregation is still alive and well in our social, justice and political systems in America.

William Lowery

The largest weekly newspaper in Missouri

Heartbreaking tragedy

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It’s a sad story, and what just breaks my heart is that nothing is going to happen to the officer! Let’s be real! It’s terrible that a group of 17-yearolds are all considered the same. Praying for this family!

Continuously published, without interruption since 1928

Celestine Boo

Unjustifiable homicide Bottom line is that an unarmed teenager was murdered in cold blood. The police’s story doesn’t make sense. There were several eyewitness accounts of what happened. The murder was not justified and the victim blaming is irrational.

Kwame Thompson

A matter of trust What’s so hard about this is when it comes down to a cop shooting an unarmed person ( child) how are we supposed to trust that they will do the right thing with this investigation?

They called those tanks in way before the riot. On top of that they were called monkeys while they were demonstrating peacefully.

Danielle Lola Hawkins

Reaching towards a higher power It’s time for the body of Christ and the neighborhood to stand and begin to reach out to the families and the community.

This is the time to witness and most of all outreach. Praying

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ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • AUGUST 14 – 20, 2014

A5

Anger this time

By Lizz Brown For The St. Louis American

Photo by Wiley Price

Jessica Williams was one of hundreds who rallied in front of the Ferguson City Hall on Sunday morning in protest of the police shooting of 18-year old Normandy High school graduate Michael Brown on Saturday afternoon.

Enough.

I think we finally have had enough. Enough sad, weather-tattered teddy bears strapped to lampposts. Enough teary candlelit vigils that fail to touch the heart of those who caused the pain. Enough indifferent police officers leaving the bullet-ravaged innocent bodies of our babies lying in the streets uncovered. Enough.

And so this time, this time, when another police officer emptied his gun into the back of a fleeing, unarmed African-American teen, the ground in the St. Louis region began to shake. This time there was fire. This time anger took form.

Some in our region have characterized the moment when the ground shook as a night of vandalism and looting.

They are wrong and don’t be distracted.

The chief of police in Ferguson has also weighed in. According to the chief, the fires that were lit in Ferguson on Sunday can best be understood by separating the folks at the Mike Brown vigil into “good” protesters and the bad “outsiders.”

He is wrong and don’t be distracted.

Fact is we simply can no longer afford to waste time engaged in defense or apology about a fire that burned a building. Because every moment we do so is a moment spent looking away from the tinder that feeds the flame and the match that ignited it.

The St. Louis region has never honestly addressed the issue of race, racism and the demonization of African Americans. And now the region is feeling the impact of this color based neglect.

It has been reported that the Ferguson police department has 53 cops Lizz Brown and all but three are white. For a city that is over 70 percent AfricanAmerican, a minuscule 5 percent presence on the police force is beyond outrageous. This statistic reveals how little the chief of police is concerned about African-American contributions and African-American presence.

What the chief should already know is how this awful statistic goes a long way in explaining the results of the State of Missouri’s “Driving While Black” report. According to the findings in the report, African Americans in Ferguson are twice as likely to be searched and twice as likely to be arrested as white drivers – tinder for the flame.

If you want to look at the demonization of African-American people in our region, one only need look at the response of the City of St. Charles to the possible transfer of Normandy’s African-American students.

Well over a thousand white citizens gathered and worried out loud about increased crime and decreased property values if the transfers went through. As if a gapped-toothed 2nd grader smelling of cocoa butter and bubble gum could cause a downward spiral of property values.

And yet there was scant regional discussion about the weight and the impact of this unaddressed bigoted world view. It seemed as if our region was in agreement that the presence of African-American children in a public school classroom has a negative social, educational and financial impact – tinder for the flame.

Monday night the national NAACP came to our region and held a forum to discuss the killing of Mike Brown. The coverage of the event was surreal.

At the same time news reporters were showing viewers live video of police-barricaded highways and blocked streets that prevented access to the event, a representative from the Ferguson Police Department spoke on camera claiming there were no efforts by the police to prevent citizens from attending the meeting – tinder for the flame.

Yes, there was a fire in Ferguson, but don’t get lost looking at that flame. The unjustified police killing of Mike Brown was the match, and the unresolved, generationsold issues of race and racism continue to feed the flame. And until we are brave enough and honest enough to tackle these issues, the fires will continue to burn – one way or another.

Lizz Brown is an attorney, award-winning radio talk show host and political commentator. Follow her on Twitter @lizzzbrown.

A6

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • AUGUST 14 – 20, 2014

FRENCH Continued from A1 means necessary” approach to maintaining order. Area residents and journalists were victims of collateral damage while caught in the crossfire of tear gas and rubber bullets.

While the most dramatic moments played out like scenes from a film inspired by the milder moments of the civil rights era, committed individuals followed Head’s lead in feeding the people with an on-location, direct line of information.

Brittany Noble of KMOVTV, Majic 100.3 FM’s Tammie Holland, Casey Nolen of KSDK-TV, Hot 104.1 FM Programming Director Boogie D (who stopped the music on the hip-hop station so that listeners could call in and voice their frustrations), rapper and Riverfront Times contributor Tef Poe and Patricia Bynes were among them. And though it may run the risk of appearing self-serving, the work of The American’s own Chris King, Bridjes O’Neil, Wiley Price and Lawrence Bryant is worth mention as well.

But it would be former PubDef publisher and current St. Louis Alderman Antonio French who would emerge as the go-to citizen journalist using the digital-age approach to capture every waking moment of the aftershock following Brown’s killing.

A retweet of Holland, “@ TammieHolland What the hell is going on in Ferguson,” would start a stream of on-location coverage from French that is still underway at press time.

He has never been offline for more than two or three hours once or twice over the course of three days since the community began to react. His cell phone became a portable newsroom as he provided 140-character features, vivid Instagram images and Vine videos that served as a playby-play in real time at a host of locations related to the outcry for justice.

Tweets were often prefaced with ICYMI (in case you missed it) and featured accompanying photos.

“Right now in #Ferguson” served as headlines for most of the Vine videos.

From the moment he arrived on the scene, he began sharing first-hand observations:

RASH Continued from A1 for kids. She provides lots of opportunities to nurture what they love.”

Navin said both of her children had Rash as a teacher.

And being at the center since 1981, many of her former students return with their own children and specifically request Rash as a teacher.

Rash decided to enter early childhood education after her daughter, Enrika C. Rash,

Photo by Lawrence Bryant

Local youth gasped for breath after being hit with tear gas thrown by a SWAT team while walking back from McDonalds on West Florissant Avenue near Ferguson Avenue on Monday.

“Police from several jurisdictions have formed a line to separate the crowd from the crime scene.”

“People are marching to the #Ferguson Police Dept.

Headquarters following the killing of a 17-year-old boy” (Michael Brown’s age was later revealed to be 18).

“Ferguson police have dogs and shotguns. The unarmed crowd is raising their hands.”

“Police cars trampled the rose petals and candles at the memorial for #MikeBrown.”

“People are angry, frustrated but peaceful tonight in Ferguson. The police dept.’s heavy handed approach made things worse. Leaving was good.”

“Lots of people – some prayerful, some sad, some angry – have gathered outside the Ferguson police headquarters.”

People following the killing

become a trusted source on the and chaos began to take notice situation by those devouring of French’s coverage. He information through social garnered thousands of new media and a Twitter followers, contributor to including n “There is such major news celebrities. a disconnect outlets – “Your between the including CNN coverage, community and and MSNBC. Spirit, Intention On Monday & Attention the police that morning, he spent contributed 2 tensions have the better part these moments been rising for of five minutes of Peace,” years and years. (which converts Grammy Awardto about two winning singer It’s not exclusive hours in breaking Anita Baker said to Ferguson.” news time) in response to his coverage.

– Antonio French on eloquently giving local insight on “Grateful 4 your CNN the situation to Obedience...

CNN. #PeaceJustice” “I don’t know “@Antonio exactly what happened, the French did some heroic community doesn’t know reporting tonight #WeAre exactly what happened, but MichaelBrown,” said bestthose people that do think they selling author and Jay Z know what happened have been biographer dream hampton. very angry over the past few By day three, French had

days and that anger is very palpable,” French told CNN’s Ashleigh Banfield.

“What happens is there is such a disconnect between the community and the police that tensions have been rising for years and years. It’s not exclusive to Ferguson – or even the surrounding communities. It’s a disconnect around America between the community and the people that police it.”

He didn’t know it at the time, but later than night he would prove his statements true with video of tear gas being unleashed, guns being drawn at peaceful protesters and aggressive, confrontational behavior across the board.

And though Tuesday showed promise of being a busy, yet peaceful day of action and activism, French was back on the scene to

capture what would become yet another evening of unrest.

“Four men on the ground being detained by police on West Florissant and Chambers.

Not sure if it is related to protests,” French tweeted.

“Crowd forming around arrest.

Helicopter now here.”

He would, naturally, use Twitter to explain his motives.

“We as leaders can help redirect their justified anger,” French said. “But we can’t do it from churches or our living rooms. We have to be with them.”

His words reflected what he explained to the world Monday on CNN. “A lot of people from outside of Ferguson have come here because they share the anger and frustration,” French said. “Hopefully this can be a part of a conversation that lasts a long time, and we can rebuild in a better way.”

turned two years old, she said.

She then embarked on earning enough credits at Harris-Stowe State University to earn an associate’s degree in early childhood education.

Her personal teaching philosophy is a response to her own childrearing and schooling, she said. As a child, she and her 11 siblings were raised in a loving, spiritual environment in Shaw, Mississippi. However, it was also very strict.

“I didn’t like a lot of the limits,” she said. “I didn’t want to be that type of parent.

I wanted my doctors, nurses or n “Stella is a daughter to think firefighters, she mentor for new and challenge me, plans activities to teachers and but with respect. fit those needs, UM-St. Louis We were raised she said. At the with respect, but same time, she early childhood you couldn’t say students as well.” incorporates their what you wanted developmental to say.” needs, such as – Jaime Bergfeld This teaching numbers and style seemed to reading. work with her She also own daughter, she said, so creates different levels of she decided to explore it as a learning goals so every child teacher. At the center, she plans can hit their mark and feel they the curriculum based on the have achieved, she said. children’s interests. Whether “I think I’m really good they are interested in being at that,” she said. “Children

do have different learning styles. You have structured and unstructured children. I’ve learned to observe them and see what their interests are and what their abilities are.”

Karen Taylor, the center’s program coordinator, has worked with Rash for 20 years.

She said Rash has a genuine gift for individualizing the curriculum.

“That’s why kids have so much fun with her,” Taylor said. “The things she plans motivate the kids because she is such a good observer. She’s so passionate about what she

does.”

Taylor said the children always remember Rash, and former students in their 20s are constantly coming back to visit her. She has a lasting impact equally on the parents, said Jaime Bergfeld, who had Rash as a teacher with both of her children.

“She sets the bar high for young children and helps them get there through her constant love and support,” Bergfeld said.

And that support and care extend to the parents in her classroom, she said.

“She always has a nonjudgmental listening ear for parents,” Bergfeld said. “She models behavior-guidance techniques and offers concrete suggestions for parents to support them in their parenting efforts. Stella is a mentor for new teachers and UM-St. Louis early childhood students as well.”

In May, Rash plans to retire with 36 years under her belt at the center. Although she’ll be sad to leave the center, she said she still plans to volunteer.

“I love this place,” she said. “It’s a great environment to work in. Great families.

Wonderful children. This is what has kept me here.”

The 2014 Salute to Excellence in Education Scholarship & Awards Gala will be held at 7 p.m. Friday, September 12 at the America’s Center Ballroom, following a reception at 6 p.m. Tickets are on sale now. Individual tickets are $85 each/$850 table, and VIP/Corporate tickets are $1,500 table. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit www.stlamerican. com and click on Salute to Excellence, or call 314-5338000.

A7

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • AUGUST 14 – 20, 2014

BROWN Continued from A1 department have given sharply conflicting reports of the incident.

According to Belmar, the officer had an encounter on the street with Brown and his friend, 22-year-old Dorian Johnson. Johnson told local news stations that he and the victim were walking along the street when a patrol car approached them. Johnson claimed the officer cursed at them and told them to get on the sidewalk.

“We told the officer that we were not but a minute away from our destination and we were sure to be off the street,” he said.

Police officials claimed the officer – who still had been identified by press time – exited his vehicle and was pushed back into the patrol car where a struggle allegedly ensued over the officer’s weapon.

“There was at least one shot fired inside the car,” Belmar said at Sunday’s press conference.

Police claim no video record of the event was made.

Eyewitness accounts by Johnson and others differ on all points with the official version.

Piaget Crenshaw told local news stations that she witnessed the officer chase after the victim “full-force” and the victim “ran for his life,” she said.

“He put his arms up to let them know that he was compliant,” she said, but was shot twice more. Then, she said, “he fell to the ground and died.”

Although more than a few shell casings were recovered from the scene, Belmar said that he was unsure of the exact amount of times the victim was struck by gunfire. He did acknowledge that it was “more than a couple.”

Witnesses say Brown was shot at least eight times. No police report or autopsy have been released.

Belmar said it took a long time to process the crime scene. Brown’s lifeless body remained in the middle of the street for four hours, according to outraged witnesses.

Photos of his body were widely distributed on social media – some without a white sheet covering the corpse. The victim’s parents, Michael Brown Sr. and Lesley McSpadden, have requested that the photos be removed.

The medical examiner began conducting an investigation Sunday. Autopsy results could take as long as six weeks pending toxicology results, Belmar said. The community has cried foul, demanding that the officer also be given a toxicology test.

The St. Louis County Bureau of Crimes Against Persons Unit will conduct an independent investigation.

When the investigation is complete, Belmar said, the facts and circumstances will be turned over to St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert P. McCulloch. McCulloch will determine whether or not charges should be filed.

However, Attorney General Eric Holder has opened what he called “a concurrent, federal inquiry” into the case by the Department of Justice. Cheryl Mimura, a spokeswoman for the FBI’s St. Louis field office, said the agency opened an investigation Monday into possible civil rights violations that led to the victim’s death.

The officer involved in the shooting is a six-year veteran with no prior incidents and is on paid administrative leave, Belmar said. The officer has not been identified due to safety concerns, police officials said.

Florida attorney Benjamin L. Crump and local attorney Anthony Gray are representing the family of Michael Brown.

Crump represented the family of 17-year-old shooting victim Trayvon Martin.

On the steps of the Old Courthouse in downtown St. Louis, Crump addressed local and national media Tuesday afternoon. He was joined by civil rights leader the Rev. Al Sharpton.

Gray said he expects a transparent and open investigation into the circumstances surrounding Michael Brown’s death. Not releasing the officer’s name

is not an act of transparency and it certainly doesn’t build the community’s confidence, Crump said. He said the family wants the name of the officer released. A court order would force the department to release the officer’s name, Crump said.

“The local authorities have put themselves in a position where people will not trust anything but an objective investigation,” Rev. Sharpton said.

Gray has asked the public to come forward with any information or evidence that could assist federal investigators.

“His life was taken by the very people that were supposed to protect him,” Crump said Tuesday at Greater St. Mark.

Follow this reporter on Twitter: @BridjesONeil.

Email this reporter: boneil@ stlamerican.com.

Witnesses encouraged to come forward The Department of Justice encourages anyone with evidence or testimony to call the FBI at 314-589-2500 and ask for the Michael Brown shooting command center.

The Mound City Bar Association encourages witnesses of the shooting or people with evidence about police misconduct in Ferguson to contact them for counsel before approaching federal authorities with evidence. Call Mound City Bar at 314-2833867.

Photo by Wiley Price

Protesters march peacefully around the Ferguson Police Department with arms raised to protest the shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown by a Ferguson police officer on Saturday.

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • AUGUST 14 - 20, 2014

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Remembering Mike Brown Community responds to police killing Lament for Michael Brown Finding the way from grief to change

By Rev. Starsky Wilson For The St. Louis American

by black youth trying to be heard, and the violent expressions of pain and grief manifest in unfortunate looting.

“I have cried until the tears no The church folks gathered at longer come. My heart is broken, my Murchison Tabernacle and Christ the spirit poured out, as I see what has King perhaps recognize the sound happened to my people. Little children of the prophet Jeremiah singing the and tiny babies are fainting and dying blues, disturbed by his people being in the streets.” – Lamentations 2:11 devastated and captive to oppression with their children dying in the I made a big mistake Sunday streets. night. In an effort to assure The events of the last few that people understood the real days have exposed further cause atrocity committed in Ferguson, for and expression of lament.

I posted a picture of Michael Regret for the cultural Brown’s body laying in the street distance between police, as an on Instagram and Facebook. occupying force, and resident Thankfully, a friend hit my black communities. inbox with a message informing Regret for the disconnect me that Lesley McSpadden, between middle-class black Columnist Michael’s mother, asked that Rev. Starksky church leaders and disaffected we not do so. I immediately black youth who riot, while we Wilson responded by removing the post. engage in ritual.

But as I did, deep conviction and And, yes, crying out from sorrow set in. disenfranchised masses who choose Looking again at the picture on my unauthorized means to speak publicly. screen, I was reminded of the place on It is no less than Dr. Martin L. King the side of the street where my uncle’s Jr. who reminds us at this hour that “a body lay limp with bullet holes in my riot is the language of the unheard.” old neighborhood in Dallas. I was King also pushes us with the question overwhelmed with the image of my he asked with the title of his last text, brother lying face down after being “Where Do We Go From Here?: murdered just around the corner.

Chaos or Community.”

The tears began to flow. Tears First, let’s cry. Take time to turned into weeping, then weeping to lament. lament. To lament is to regret within Michael Brown deserves justice. or to cry out with grief.

The loss of his life is also a cause for My lamentations began with silent pause. One of God’s children has been reflection on the connection between slain too soon. The coming days will this communal crisis and my personal be marked by his memorial service pain. But, it quickly connected to the and the reading of obituaries. church that shaped me, YouTube posts Let us assess how our stories

Andrian Smith, Brenna Whitehurst, Cash Thirdkill, and Rachel McMaham show support for the Michael Brown during Sunday night’s candlelight vigil. Photo by Wiley Price

connect with his story. While passions are high now, only personal connection to the deeper realities of this narrative will energize the longterm movement necessary to make

n Regret for the cultural distance between police, as an occupying force, and resident black communities.

change.

Then, let us cooperate – specifically, with the authorities investigating this killing. As the Civil Rights division of the Department

of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are involved, anyone with information about Michael Brown’s death must contact them immediately.

It is also imperative that wellmeaning organizations and activists restrain from creating alternative records by pursuing their own investigations or interviews with witnesses.

Finally, let’s collaborate, not compete. There is much more to say about these matters, but even more work to do. As I write, I am aware of three separate groups hosting three separate gatherings at the same time.

Because there are systemic issues at play – including the fragmentation of local policing, citizen oversight for police boards, cultural competence of public servants and legislative actions that facilitate a highly weaponized and fearful culture in the state of Missouri

– there is enough work to go around.

But, we must coordinate our collective action through structured dialogue about these systems and organized responses.

This can not be the end. Over the coming months, let’s continue to cut the policy issues, map power and frame an advocacy agenda for the way forward.

With appreciation to the NAACP, the Clergy Coalition, the United Church of Christ, and specific acknowledgement to County Executive Charlie Dooley and the Rev. Traci Blackmon for guidance in our immediate responses, we must now commit to stay together for the long haul to address these wicked problems.

Rev. Starsky Wilson is president/ CEO of Deaconess Foundation and pastor of St. John’s United Church of Christ. Follow @reverendstarsky.

Don’t shoot!

A message from young and concerned African Americans

By Charli A. Cooksey et. al.

For The St. Louis American

of Ferguson in recent days by police officers, which includes assaults on pregnant women, unarmed men and We, the undersigned, as young families enjoying their own backyard and concerned members of St. Louis’ with tear gas, rubber bullets and African-American community, are physical force. writing to show our solidarity with We demand justice for Mike Brown the family of the slain Michael “Mike and the citizens of Ferguson. We Mike” Brown Jr. and those are engaging our region’s who oppose and are victims youth with a safe and relevant of violence and injustice in platform to voice their thoughts the community. The death of and ideas and turn them into another unarmed young man at constructive action and justice. the hands of a law enforcement Theirs are the most important officer only illuminates the voices. many dangers that we as Furthermore, to empower the African-American youth face people of Ferguson, we call for daily in our own neighborhoods. the following: We have reached a critical • By September 30, Columnist moment in our region and 2014, a full and impartial Charli A. country, where our young investigation will be underway, Cooksey African Americans are not supervised by the United States valued, heard or loved. This is Department of Justice; and, the direct result of a complex set of pending the outcomes, the swift and injustices: underperforming school transparent prosecution of any and districts, the removal of high-level all officers involved in the murder of African-American school district Michael Brown. leaders, the decreasing presence of •

By January 31, 2015, recruit African Americans in elected office, and hire at least 10 more Africanhigh youth unemployment rates, and American law enforcement officials in blatant police brutality and abuse.

Ferguson.

Our people are justifiably hurt and • A significant decrease in racial angry, yet passionate and ready for profiling in Ferguson, which will action. We do not condone the looting be indicated in the annual Missouri and lawlessness pervading the streets Attorney General Report. of Ferguson, but we fully empathize • To be established by June 31, 2015, with the feeling of powerlessness. We a civilian police review board that has also do not condone the excessive oversight powers over police officials violence exercised against citizens (i.e. the power to independently

“Don’t shoot” emerged as a rallying cry in the protests, along with upraised arms, since Michael Brown reportedly was killed by Ferguson police with his arms upraised. Photo by Wiley Price

review and constrain decisions that lead to militarization of our tax-funded policing community, and the power to mandate community policing strategies).

Join the #DontShoot Campaign! Your actions are simple: 1. Take a video of yourself saying one of the phrases: a. I want to go to college #DontShoot b. When I’m riding down the street #DontShoot c. When my son is standing at the bus

stop #DontShoot d. This is my community too #DontShoot e. If I don’t look like you #DontShoot f. Make up your own – six seconds or less!

2. Post it to Twitter, Instagram and Facebook 3. Tag #DontShoot #MikeBrown #Ferguson 4. Tweet others (especially celebrities and national news organizations) to make their own video and retweet yours.

Professor Stefan Bradley Mark Butler State Rep. Michael Butler Charli A. Cooksey State Rep. Courtney Curtis Justin Hansford, esquire Marshida Harris, president, NAACP, University of Missouri-Columbia Montrinaa Hill Treasurer Tishaura Jones Brittany N. Packnett Derecka Purnell Dr. Dwaun Warmack, president, Harris-Stowe State University

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • AUGUST 14 - 20, 2014

The political negligence of black leadership

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We must protect and advance the interest of the people we lead

By Mike Jones For The St. Louis American

and advancing the interest of the people you lead.

I say this not from the perspective I got a call Monday from the of some uninvolved third party, but Political EYE to discuss the murder as a member of that leadership for of Michael Brown. I know that’s a the last 30 years. Now there are a harsh judgmental description of this lot of African-American suits that tragic event without benefit of all the will disagree, but that doesn’t stop facts and any official findings, but as it from being true. There will be an a product of the sixties I know you official report of who did it and what don’t always need a weatherman happened, but real questions for to know which way the wind is us revolve around why? And blowing. by “why?” I don’t mean the The basis of our conversation Ferguson policeman that pulled was what did I think about the the trigger, but why could situation from the perspective of Ferguson, and by inference all someone who has spent 35 years of St Louis, be a place where in public life and who is retiring the conditions that produce at the end of this year? More these outcomes take root and specifically, what would I say to flourish? the men and women protesting Columnist The political negligence this tragedy? of black leadership over the Mike A fundamental truth I have last 30 years has produced an Jones learned in these past 30 years is existential threat to the black usually people fail because they community that calls our very focus on the wrong thing. We obsess existence into question. While Michael about the tactical, who did it and when Brown was literally lost to us Saturday did it happen, and we completely afternoon, how many thousands of ignore the strategic, what are we doing young black men and women are and why? It’s the difference between we figuratively losing every day to chess and checkers or the good poverty, drugs, violence and failing hustler’s critique of a bad hustler: “he public schools? plays for the hundred and misses the There are major organs in the grand every time!” human body that make life possible, My view is the circumstances that but as crucial as they are we can created the events that resulted in the live without some and some can be tragedy of Michael Brown’s much replaced when they break down. too early death can be placed squarely These organs could not function for us at the feet of black leadership, or I without the blood that carries oxygen should have said at the failure of black and other vital nutrients that allow leadership to fulfill the only moral these organs to do what they need to imperative of leadership – protecting do. When blood no longer reaches the

Protesters march peacefully around the Ferguson Police Department with arms raised to protest the killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown, an unarmed black teen gunned down in the street by a Ferguson police oficer on Saturday. Photo by Wiley Price

organs, they fail.

Politics is the art and science of acquiring and using power to make public policies that will benefit you and your community. Don’t ever believe that nonsense that rightwing hucksters and hustlers sell scared working-class white folks that government is your problem and the free market is the rapture.

Every successful economic activity requires the support of public policy.

If government isn’t important, why do the rich and privileged spend so much money to control it? To protect and advance their wealth and privilege, that’s why. Politics is to the health of a community what blood is to the body: essential.

I want to make an important distinction between government programs and public policy. A program is just that, but public policy defines the rules of the game, and he who makes the rules always wins the game. It’s one of those things you can count on, like the sun coming up in the east. Every major issue facing the

black community has a solution, and implementing that solution begins with a change in public policy. A change in public policy requires control, or at least major influence on government.

That requires power – that’s politics!

The reason the Ferguson Police Department looks (97 percent white) and functions the way it does is public policy. If the government of Ferguson looked like the Ferguson community (67 percent African-American), it could have had a different police force. I say “could,” because in St. Louis African-American leaders are no guarantee of better public policy for the black community. It’s what I call the fallacy of the politics of melanin; you can no longer afford to assume that ethnicity equals political allegiance or competence.

Competent public leadership is not showing up in church praying and giving speeches for the benefit of TV cameras. It requires showing up every day, educating and organizing the community to protect and advance its interest. It means when you’re in the

room you represent the interests of the people that sent you, not acquiescing to the wishes of those you are negotiating with.

Why my generation’s failure to provide public leadership is so stunning is because all of us owe whatever we’ve become to the leadership and political activism of those who came before us. We are fruit of their struggle and sacrifice, and unfortunately it’s a bitter fruit.

Upon giving up this seat, my advice to the next generation of leaders is: be leaders! The community we leave you is a testament to what happens to a people when leadership fails to perform.

Use my time in the seat as a warning, and not an example. We lost our way long before we lost Michael Brown.

Mike Jones is senior policy advisor for County Executive Charlie Dooley and a member of the State Board of Education.

Without law, there will be no order The community immediately sensed the fix is in

By Sylvester Brown Jr. For The St. Louis American

rights are ever violated. Thankfully, we’ve had high-ranking black officers who’ve come to class, respectfully “Mr. Brown, what are we going to listened and talked our students do about this?” through their frustrations.

Nadia Epps, 19, one of our “Respect” is the operative Sweet Potato Project teens, word as it relates to what has called Sunday morning to let me transpired since the Ferguson know she was headed out to the shooting. I wonder if the City of Ferguson. An 18-year“riot” that has now captured old teenager, Michael Brown, national media attention could had been shot and killed by have been averted if police police the day before. Nadia’s officials had simply listened, sister, who lives in the apartment respected and recognized the complex where the boy was feelings of young people, their gunned down, witnessed the peers, parents and protestors.

Columnist shooting.

What would have happened if Sylvester “His hands were in the air. they respectfully walked them Brown Jr. They shot him down in cold through their fears? blood,” Nadia told me.

If the region’s daily Her question – “what are we going newspaper, the St. Louis Postto do?” – both frightened and gave Dispatch, and other media outlets were me a measure of pride. We tell our less voyeuristic and more humane, students that they are “urban pioneers” they could have validated the crowd’s who are responsible for creating better, anger. If it had voiced immediate more holistic communities for their outrage over the fact that a dead peers and siblings. We talk about teenager was left lying on the cold the challenges and opportunities to concrete street for hours, according achieve this goal. to witnesses, police officials may In class every morning, we share have gotten a clue that they needed news stories. Last year, the Trayvon to proceed with caution under media Martin case was a huge topic of scrutiny. discussion. I will never forget the In a KMOX Radio interview this sense of betrayal and injustice students week, host Mark Reardon asked if I expressed when the verdict came was surprised that the shooting had down. It made no sense to them that turned into a riot Sunday night. “No,” the shooter of an unarmed teen with a I answered. I was surprised it didn’t bag of Skittles wasn’t convicted. To occur hours after the shooting. them, the acquittal was like declaring Imagine the indignity residents must open season on anyone who fits have felt when police immediately Trayvon’s profile. arrived on the scene dressed in full Unlike mainstream media, police riot gear, with M-16s and slathering brutality directed at youth of their canines in tow. The arrogant, age and hue is a topic that has their Apartheid-style response sent a very attention. Emotions have gotten very clear message: “You are the enemy!” intense during our discussions. Several The following day, Sunday, August naïve but braggadocios boys in our 10, St. Louis County Police Chief Jon program have vowed retaliation if their Belmar and Ferguson Police Chief

Pastor Charles Ewing, the uncle of Michael Brown, asks the youth to refrain from violent actions during Sunday’s candlelight vigil at the Canield Green apartments where the unarmed teen was gunned down Saturday afternoon. Photo by Wiley Price

Tom Jackson held a news conference offering a nonsensical explanation of the shooting. Apparently, according to Belmar, two individuals – one of them Mike Brown –physically assaulted the

n The fix was in; the

officer will be exonerated and Brown will be tainted as another menacing perpetrator who provoked his own demise.

yet-to-be-named police officer. Brown supposedly pushed the officer into his own vehicle and struggled for the officer’s weapon.

If this is true, how did Brown wind up getting shot some 35 feet away from the car, with his hands in the air,

according to witnesses?

The portrayal of Brown doesn’t reflect the profile of the promising Normandy High School graduate given by family and friends. Furthermore, why wasn’t the other suspect arrested?

It’s not like he’s been hiding. Dorin Johnson, the young man walking with Brown at the time of the shooting, has been interviewed by several news sources.

Imagine the insult people listening to Belmar felt when he talked about the officer coming back to the force after undergoing two psychological evaluations. Belmar gave people no clue that he gave a damn about their concerns or pursuing justice.

Belmar’s mention of a six-week wait for the dead teen’s toxicology report was a nod that Mike Brown – like Travon Martin – will be portrayed as another out-of-control, young, black druggie. With just a few syllables, relatives, residents and protestors sensed the fix was in; the officer will be exonerated and Brown will be tainted as just another menacing perpetrator who provoked his own

demise.

I’ve spent the past three year years listening and talking with teenagers in my program. Many, like Nadia, endure frequent police insults and harassment based on who they are, where they live and how they look. They’re angry, fed up and frustrated, mostly because they have no voice and no way to navigate the dangerous terrain that’s inherent with being a stereotype.

I’ve watched the wick of this powder keg burn slowly with constant internet footage of mostly black (but also brown, white, male and female) “suspects” choked, beaten and murdered by unrestrained, overreacting police officers. This is not just an indictment of police; it’s an indictment of those who tolerate police misconduct and injustice in America.

Yet, this recent regional travesty does make my student’s question relevant for us all: “What are we going to do about this?”

Sylvester Brown Jr. is founder of the Sweet Potato Project, writer and public speaker.

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ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • AUGUST 14 - 20, 2014

Police blocked off West Florissant Avenue on Monday in an effort to contain people protesting the police killing of unarmed teenager Michael Brown.

This time, for once, what it is, it is

Photo by Lawrence Bryant

The EYE is moving in unchartered waters writing about the police shooting of Michael Brown, the greater St. Louis African-American community’s unprecedented response in protest and the militarized police repression of these protests. The motto of this column is “what it is, it ain’t,” because in St. Louis

politics, and in much of our civic life, the truth seldom comes out plain. Almost always, it’s twisted.

In this case, for once, what it is, it is.

An unarmed black teen is shot multiple times in broad daylight and killed by a uniformed police officer.

Police officials release an implausible story, compared to civilian eyewitness reports, and mention pending toxicology tests, planting the suggestion that the dead man was stoned.

Nothing new, tragically, in any of this.

But then the people erupted – that was new in St. Louis – and the police responded literally as the jack-booted thugs typically described by people who fear the police and suffer at their hands. We are talking riot gear, rubber bullets, tear gas, rifles pointed in the faces of civilians, slathering dogs. What it is, for once, it is.

Chaos and looting ensued.

This let the conversation be shifted, by those uncomfortable with the dead black man and the cry for justice, toward looting, instead of the police shooting.

Police officials have continued to refuse to release the name of the police shooter (who was placed on paid suspension) or a police report.

Yet the county prosecutor, Bob McCulloch, made public images of looters. Justice for places to buy things was regarded publicly as more important to the county’s lead prosecutor than justice for a dead black man. What it is, for once, it is.

In social media, white men (they were always, in hundreds of posts, white men) licked their chops – even while posting to a black media site – about having the vigilante privilege to shoot looters. These white men showed no concern about a black teen shot dead by police, but they were very angry that black people were getting away with stealing shoes and hair weaves. They publicly expressed a desire to shoot these black people. What it is, it is.

Conflicts in the black community that are always silently glossed over came out in the raw. A prominent pastor pulling up for the candlelight vigil on Sunday, before it went to hell, saw a Muslim activist radicalizing some public housing youth who also were headed for the vigil.

“What is he saying to those boys?” the pastor asked a bystander he knew.

“Just what you think he is,” the pastor was told.

“O, Lord,” said the pastor.

O, Lord. What it is, it is.

We all know that we have almost completely lost this generation of black youth, though we always disguise this with words like “at-risk” and “under-represented.” Not this time. This time most of the grown folks were in church praying, and most of the youth were on the streets protesting, hurling words at the police you definitely can’t say in church.

What it is, it is.

The themes sounded weekly in this newspaper for decades, which are routinely ignored by the local mainstream media, were suddenly national and international news. Majorityblack communities with white officials and white police forces. Stratospheric racial disparities in traffic stops and tickets. Disinvested ring suburbs. Income disparities.

Black rage. Jack-booted thug cops. Our peers in the local media like to act as if we make this stuff up, week after week, but suddenly they were competing with the nation’s major metro dailies to tell our stories. What it is, it is.

The United States Department of Justice got involved with a greater St. Louis police shooting. Despite the incredibly cautious language used by President Barack Obama and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, the clear implication was that greater St. Louis police officials cannot be trusted to police themselves.

What it is, it is.

In St. Louis, many people style themselves as “leaders” who never lead anyone anywhere, and they are allowed to get away with it. But this thing erupted as a largely leaderless protest, and when the protest was met with vicious repression, the typically selfstyled “leaders” were nowhere to be found.

The lame duck County Executive Charlie A. Dooley made some public appearances and gave some strong interviews. Steve Stenger, the white councilman who defeated Dooley, the county’s first black county executive, in the recent Democratic primary, barely lifted a finger to tell The American to get his statement off Twitter. What it is, it is.

Surprisingly, Republican nominee for county executive, Rick Stream, made a much better showing. Stream showed more support for the community than Stenger and many other Democrats who come begging for black votes come election time, such as Attorney General Chris Koster, who wants to be governor. Term-limited Gov. Jay Nixon made a token

n “That young man laid out in the street how long?

Four hours? That’s ridiculous. You don’t let a dead dog lay that long.”

– Jeanette Culpepper

appearance at a memorial event after being hounded publicly by state Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal, who with St. Louis Alderman Antonio French were the leaders among elected officials on the ground.

U.S. Senator Roy Blunt also stayed in close touch with The American after hell broke loose.

The longtime congressional representative for North County, U.S. Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay, did not come home to protect and strengthen his people in their desperate hour of need. He did write a letter to Holder co-signed by two of his congressional colleagues challenging Holder to expand the DoJ’s investigation into police malpractice. But he did not appear at a local protest or even a press conference. He was absent as a leader. What it is, it is.

St. Louis – we know – is a fragmented region, and not all of its municipalities are viewed as equals. Typically, however, this fact is buried in relatively empty claims of working (or even “better”) together. Not this time.

Ferguson Mayor James

Knowles III tried to lay blame on the unrest in his city on residents of neighboring Dellwood. This is the white mayor of a municipality with roughly four times (roughly 21,000 to 5,000) the population of a municipality governed by a black mayor, Reggie Jones.

That kind of “Goliath insults David” story is seldom made public. This time, it was. What it is, it is.

The heated words a black mayor of a tiny municipality might have with the white mayor of a much larger municipality who has insulted him are seldom released to the public. They were this time.

Jones said he sent cops to quell Knowles’ city’s unrest and all he got in return was a public insult, and he wasn’t going to stand for it. What it is, it is.

Moving from local in-fighting to almost glamorous international digital intrigue, the hacker collective Anonymous got involved. Anonymous threatened the City of Ferguson with targeting its assets if protestors were harmed. Then it went after County Police Chief Jon Belmar, posting his personal information and images online and threatening worse if he did not disclose the name of the police shooter.

This was done on behalf of a community that fears how much information the police holds over their heads. This was information about the top cop being held over his head, for a change. What it is, it is.

The EYE returns, over and over, to an image from the very beginning of this crisis: the image of an unarmed black teenager with college aspirations, shot dead by a uniformed police officer, left to lie dead on the street in the sun for four hours. The EYE is convinced that if Michael Brown’s corpse had been treated immediately with the routine respect due to a dead human being, none of these horrible truths would have come to brutal light at this time.

The people may well have not erupted at last.

But this time – the EYE maintains – the police showed the community how it really feels about a dead black man.

Let’s hear it from Jeanette Culpepper, founder of Families Advocating for Safe Streets, who annually hosts a peaceful homicide vigil on New Year’s Eve. “That young man laid out in the street how long?” she called The American to vent and grieve. “Four hours?

That’s ridiculous. You don’t let a dead dog lay that long.

The dead are gone, but the family is still living, so you have to be sensitive. You have to treat people like you want to be treated. That’s a hurt to his mother, that’s a hurt to his family, that’s a hurt to his community. What does it take to get him up, get him on a stretcher? That’s wrong.”

This time, for once, what it is, it is.

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • AUGUST 14 - 20, 2014

Rev. Jackson calls Michael Brown shooting ‘crime of injustice’

By Chris King Of The St. Louis American

a non-violent candlelight vigil to commemorate Brown, should be seen in the context of a chronic urban crisis, he said.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson told “Poverty is a weapon of The American he hopes that the mass destruction,” U.S. Department Jackson said. of Justice sees the Ferguson n “Poverty is a “Poverty is in the community, Police shooting of weapon of mass guns are in, drugs Michael Brown on Saturday destruction. Too are in, jobs are out. Banks are and resulting many people bailed out without community violence as have no stake in meaningful community “systematic of a reinvestment. Too national crisis.” the culture.” many people have “It was a crime no stake in the of injustice,” Jackson said.

– Rev. Jesse culture.”

Jackson said The injustice, Jackson that chronic urban he said, was twoproblems remain fold: a police to be addressed shooting of an after the shooting unarmed black teen of Michael followed by black Brown and the youth from highcommunity’s outrage are unemployment neighborhoods resolved. erupting in rage.

“These kids need educations, “Black men should not be skills, job training, jobs, the objects of target practice,” scholarships to college,” Jackson said of the shooting.

Jackson said. “We need a “It’s not a unique situation. national forum on urban policy, It’s a prototypical American situation. Police departments do justice and repression. This is a national crisis that has not reflect the population. It’s manifested in Ferguson.” awful, but it’s not unique.”

Asked for advice to The resulting community organizers on the ground, violence on Sunday, following

Hundreds rallied Sunday morning in front of the Ferguson Police Department in protest of the police shooting of 18-year old Normandy High school graduate Michael Brown on Saturday afternoon.

Photo by Wiley Price

Jackson said, “That’s tough. I saw a sign that said we need quietness. Quietness is not

the answer. Quietness is the absence of noise. We need the presence of justice.”

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ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • AUGUST 14 - 20, 2014

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Protesters march peacefully around the Ferguson Police Department with arms raised in reaction to 18-year-old Michael Brown an unarmed black teen, being gunned down in the street by a Ferguson police oficer Saturday.

Protest – and then what?

How to proceed after the tensions have calmed

By Chris Krehmeyer For The St. Louis American This past Monday at the NAACP rally in North County, my good friend – and a leading voice on stopping the violence in our community – James Clark told everyone that “while we are good at protest, we need to be good at the pivot to solutions.”

His words are both insightful and instructive. The challenges

before us are both short-term and long-term.

In the short term, we must understand that the events around the tragic death of Michael Brown have led to a great deal of conversations about the state of the relationship between the police and the community. The issue for us all is how do we proceed after the tensions have calmed, the celebrities have gone away and we are left to talk to each

Solar Bottle Sky Lights Do you have a treehouse or dimly lit room that could use some more light? With a few household items, and the help of an adult, you can build your very own sky light reusing an old soda bottle. You’ll need a small hole made in a location that receives direct sunlight. The hole needs to be the exact diameter of the middle of your bottle. Fill it with cold water and a little bleach and be sure to seal the lid tight. Slide the bottle through the hole you made and get it to fit snug about halfway through the hole. Use some electrical tape around the edges to help hold it in place. The next time the sunlight hits this bottle you now have the same amount of light as a 55 watt light bulb and you’re also using zero electricity!

Tornado Toy

Photo by Wiley Price

other.

The emptiness of the violence in our community

permeates all of us, and now is this time to move past protest to long-term action that changes the dynamic of how we interact with each other. We must be willing to understand everyone else’s lived experience and try to build relationships with others.

In the long term, we must then become unwavering in addressing the underlying issues that prevent our communities from moving forward: education, housing, health, jobs and economic development.

As we move forward in the days and weeks ahead, we must create the environment and the opportunity for the police to hear from community members, particularly the younger members of our neighborhoods.

In turn, community members and our children must understand the incredibly difficult job that police officers have each and every day.

Our work at Beyond Housing for over the last 20 years has taught us that communitybuilding happens at the speed of trust and trust is not given, it is earned.

It is earned through constant conversations and actions that exhibit the respect for one another. It is earned by

listening. It is earned by doing what you say you are going to do. It is earned by showing up over and over again in the places where relationships are built.

There is no magic elixir, no silver bullet, and no glorious speech that will propel us forward. What will propel us forward is an unwavering commitment to not let Michael Brown’s life and death be in

n What will propel us forward is an unwavering commitment to not let Michael Brown’s life and death be in vain.

vain.

We need to have the collective courage to be in uncomfortable situations to open our eyes to someone else’s reality. We must be willing to say, “I did not understand your perspective, and now can and will interact with you differently.”

This is no simple task, but it is the only way we are going to move forward. Most police officers are good, decent people trying to serve and protect us.

Most community members are good, decent people trying to live their lives. We can find common ground, but we will have to work at it.

We must redefine the American Dream for everyone as more than just owning a home. While we all know that home matters, over the years we have learned that a home is more than the house that people live in. Home is about the life that happens in and around the house, as well as the life that fuels and draws the best out of the people with in it.

This includes access to quality education, living in safety, being healthy and having access to all of the necessary services.

Understanding this will help everyone come together to begin the process of healing.

With that said, let’s come together as a community to protest peacefully for justice, and in doing so we will honor Michael Brown.

Chris Krehmeyer is president and CEO of Beyond Housing. Follow him @ BeyondHousingMO.

Upcycling is the reuse of discarded items in a way to create a new product of a higher value.

Sprinkler

Turn your hose into a custom sprinkler with this little trick. Take an empty plastic bottle and poke a few holes in the side of the bottle. These holes can be many different sizes and shapes and be sure to experiment to find which ones you like best.

Remember, the smaller and fewer the holes the higher the water pressure will be coming out of them. Now that your bottle is ready you can connect it to a regular garden hose. Use electrical or duct tape to seal the bottle to the end of your hose, make sure everything is dry at this point and sealed tight.

Turn the water on and let it rip! Bottle sprinklers are the perfect way to have fun and to cool down on a hot summer day.

Edward Jones Diversity Career Fair Network with hiring leaders and discover career opportunities at our headquarters and branches.

When: Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2014 4:30 – 7:30 p.m.

Ever wonder how a tornado works? With the help of a parent and a few household items you can turn two old plastic bottles into a tornado vortex! First, take one empty water bottle and fill it almost to the top with cold water. Add a drop of dish soap. You can also decorate your tornado with food coloring, glitter, and even small houses from a Monopoly® board. Make the hole in both bottle caps about half-inch wide. Seal them on both bottles tightly. Now, with the bottle full of water on the bottom stack the other bottle on top so that their caps are touching. Wrap electrical tape around the caps very tightly.

Your tornado toy is complete! Just flip it so that the water spills down and give it a spin.

You’ll get better with practice too.

Next Week...

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n “I can play in this league.”

Sports

– Michael Sam

INSIDE Opportunities for youth is what it’s all about ~ See ‘Claib’s Call’ page B4 ~ B3

AUGUST 14 – 20, 2014

In the ClutCh With Ishmael H. Sistrunk

Walking while black

On point Parkway North guard Alecia Sutton has stellar summer

By Earl Austin Jr. Of The St. Louis American

Photo by Lawrence Bryant

A local man from Canfield Green Apartment Complex had an inadvertent face-off with local police at West Florissant and Ferguson avenues while trying to get home on Monday.

Michael Brown, black men and white police officers I understand.

Violence and looting have ripped apart North County since the shooting of unarmed teenager Michael Brown by a Ferguson police officer. It was disheartening to watch as young children were ushered into stores through broken glass Ishmael H. windows to grab free trinkets.

It was disappointing to see Sistrunk young black men videotaping themselves looting and eventually burning down the QuikTrip that has become a rallying point for protesters. It was disconcerting to watch our people running out of destroyed buildings with rims, hair weaves, shoes and more.

n The message was clear. My blackness was seen as a threat, even in my home neighborhoods.

It was wrong. It was reprehensible. It was also inevitable.

The tension between police officers and young, black men is nothing new. It’s not isolated to Ferguson or North County or even St. Louis. Though slavery ended nearly 150 years ago, young black men have been treated as second-class citizens by politicians and police ever since. You would think the election and re-election of our first black president would’ve signified that the United States has defeated

racism and prejudice.

On the contrary, President Barack Obama’s election has brought racism to the forefront, as many refuse to acknowledge, respect or work with him as commander in chief, as if a black man couldn’t possibly be worthy to lead our nation.

As a lifelong St. Louis resident, I can honestly say that the moment I received my driver’s license is the moment I became a prime target for police officers. Officers in North County and Mid County practiced “Stop and Frisk” well before it was officially enacted in the boroughs of New York. Between the ages of 16 and 25, I’m certain that I was pulled over more than 50 times.

See CLUTCH, B5

Parkway North girls’ basketball standout Alecia Sutton has been recognized as one of the top players in the St. Louis metro area for quite some time.

The Summer of 2014 has indeed been a breakthrough season for the talented 5’9” junior point guard on the national level as she has established herself as one of the nation’s top point guards in the Class of 2016.

Playing for the Missouri Phenom, Sutton led her team two championships in Parkway North’s national tournaments Alecia Sutton will earning Most has established Valuable Player honors herself as one along the way. The of the nation’s Phenom won both the top point guards Super 64 Tournament in the Class of in Frisco, TX and 2016. the Adidas National Tournament in Atlanta in the month of July.

Sutton was the MVP in both events. Sutton was also participated in the USA Basketball 17U Trials in Colorado Springs.

As Sutton’s game at reputation grows nationally, the offers have come in from colleges from all over the country. At the end of the July evaluation n Sutton enjoyed a period, Sutton stellar sophomore holds nearly season at Parkway 25 collegiate North as she led the offers. The schools on the Vikings to a 2107 list include record and a berth Baylor, in the Class 5 state Louisville, quarterfinals.

Maryland, Kentucky, LSU, Missouri, Saint Louis U., Florida State, Purdue, California, Iowa State and many, many more.

Sutton enjoyed a stellar sophomore season at Parkway North as she led the Vikings to a 2107 record and a berth in the Class 5 state quarterfinals. She averaged 18.3 points, 3.6 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 3.0 steals per game.

She also shot 53 percent from the field and 81 percent from the free throw line. She was selected to the St. Louis American “Fab Five” Girls All-Star First Team in 2014.

InsIde sports With Earl Austin Jr.

Prep programs start practice Demetrious Johnson Charitable Foundation hosts media day and National Football League Last Monday, August 4, player Demetrious Johnson and marked the first day of official his foundation. practice for high school Along with several football programs local high school around the St. Louis football coaches, area.

Johnson founded The first day of the St. Louis Urban practice is always a Football Coaches special one for those Alliance. With the young men as they help of local coaches prepare for an exciting Reginald Ferguson of season on the gridiron.

Vashon, Jim Collins For a group of young Earl of Normandy, Johnny men who attend city Austin Jr. Randle of Sumner, schools, last Monday DeAndre Campbell evening was just as of Roosevelt, Jason Dulick of special, thanks to the efforts Gateway Tech, Gary Johnson of former Public High League

Photo by Wiley Price

Sumner running back coach Johnnie Randell shows his players how to run agility drills during the first week of practice at Tuskeegee Airmen Field.

Johnson Charitable Foundation/ of Lift for Life, Lee Scott Eddie Mae Binion Center. of Carnahan and Rory Seals These high school standouts of Confluence, Johnson put had the opportunity to live together this organization the life of their to help promote these young n “We’re trying collegiate and professional heroes players through to make sure for an evening as several events and these players they sat at tables activities. Those are positive and answered eight schools are questions from part of the Alliance. young men “All of these and they get to media members who in attendance men are committed go to college.” were as this press to making a conference. difference in the – Demetrious “This was a community,” Johnson ground breaking Johnson said. opportunity for “We’re trying to these young men,” make sure these Johnson said. “Sometimes, they players are positive young men feel like they are forgotten, and they get to go to college.” but this is a reward for their Last Monday, several top hard work, dedication and players from these schools commitment to doing the right were celebrated as Johnson put together a special media day for them at Demetrious See INSIDE, B5

B4

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • AUGUST 14 – 20, 2014

Claib’s Call With Mike Claiborne

Opportunities for youth is what it’s all about This will be not be a column about the Rams’ first meaningless game, nor the continuing destruction of the NCAA as they continue to face a future that will be unlike anything we could imagine.

Nor is this about a high-school athlete, but rather a former high-school student who made the news this week for unfortunate reasons.

I did not know Michael Mike Brown, nor Claiborne did many who have taken up causes in his name, and that is where the questions lie. It did not take a CSI analyst to verify that Michael Brown was killed by a police officer on Saturday, but it may take one to find and document the actual description and account of what happened.

I am willing to wait for the truth. With that said, let’s talk about the causes at hand.

The most troubling element of this situation is how some have elected to use this tragedy as the starting point for a race for their 15 minutes of fame. This is a large race that includes both blacks and whites, rich and poor, even smart and stupid.

Let’s start with the stupid.

How is the death of a teenager grounds for destroying and looting businesses in their own community? While the official numbers are not in yet, anyone want to wager how many of those arrested were actually from the community of Ferguson? Clearly, an opportunity for someone to take advantage of the situation

A young resident of Canfield Green Apartment Complex protested with his father at the torched QuikTrip on West Florissant and Canfield avenues on Monday.

Photo by Lawrence Bryant

for all the wrong reasons.

While Black America is trying to be heard, to destroy your own community has never worked. The large corporations will just move to another neighborhood, and the local mom-and-pop store owners are flat out of luck, as the insurance never covers the

whole mess and the desire to reinvest decreases immensely.

There are several ways to get the attention desired – looting and destroying someone else’s property falls under the category of felonious stupidity.

The other question that comes into play is leadership.

As for the clergy and

representatives of civil rights organizations, it’s time to make room onstage for others.

Prayer is needed, for sure, but it is time for business leaders, especially those of color, to take the stage, as they have something at stake here, too.

This is no time to hunker down at the private clubs,

nor to try and get in another round of golf. St. Louis has more owners, CEOs senior vice presidents and differencemakers in more businesses than at any other time. It has more doctors and lawyers of color, not to mention other professions on the sidelines.

These individuals have impact – and yet not a word.

I guess there are no elections on the agenda, as few elected officials have come forward to be heard other than with a tweet or Facebook post. I am not questioning when these people will take the microphone and give a toothless speech, as we have had enough of them, but what about a plan of action on how these situations can be avoided or addressed in a civil, professional manner?

In some cases, media exposure leads to overkill of the wrong subjects. It creates a fear that Ferguson residents will be invading surrounding communities as if they were the Ebola virus. Civil unrest and what comes with it is a difficult story for anyone to cover, and for many who have been assigned this story, it is new territory. My only hope is that they take into account what the real story is and not become part of the story.

For the “community activist,” it’s time to have a real plan. Some methods of getting attention will soon fall on deaf ears, and then what? If you want the microphone, have a clue, get the message out, and let’s move forward, as we can see what is in our rear-view mirror.

The biggest question here

is: what can we do with our unemployed and at times under-educated youth who have nothing to do? Idle time has always been the devil’s workshop. Opportunities for the youth in our community to grow into something they and we can be proud of is what the real mission should be, aside from dealing with the death of Michael Brown. How we as a community deal with that death will hinge on what happens for our future youth.

Leaders and role models need to step forward and be seen and heard.

How can we get the ones who are most in need to the table? The looters – the criminals who have taken it upon themselves to take full advantage of a volatile situation – are certainly the ones who need direction most.

Churches and rallies are full of those who want to do right.

They are not the problem here. How do we get the other difference-makers in the room? That is a question that has to be addressed before we have any civil coexistence.

There has to be a meaningful dialogue here that involves the real players in the game. Feelings may get hurt if you don’t get an invite, but this is serious business that should be conducted by serious people. Front-runners, rabble-rousers, etc., need not apply. Perhaps our clergy, activists, politicians and all others with alleged good intentions can work on that a bit while we mourn the loss of a young man who had a bright future.

B5

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • AUGUST 14 – 20, 2014

CLUTCH Continued from B3 There were a handful of legitimate stops, such as speeding, failure to come to a complete stop or expired plates, but the vast majority were nonsense. The reasons given for the bogus stops were numerous. Driving While Black (DWB) is real. For Brown, so was Walking While Black.

I understand.

During my teen and young adult years, I recall being pulled over for a having a nonworking license plate light, despite the fact that it was shining brightly. I was pulled over for having a license plate partially obstructed by snow while it was snowing. I was stopped for having a small crack in my windshield, as if the officer could see that from 50 yards away.

Far too often after their bogus reasons (sometimes they gave none at all), the officers would ask the same questions.

Where was I coming from?

Where was I going? What was I doing in the area?

The message was clear.

My blackness was seen as a threat, even in my home neighborhoods. One officer swore that I was high and threatened me with arrest on my way home from work because he said my tongue was green and that meant “cannabis sativa.” My tongue was actually blue from the Powerade sitting in the cup

The tension between police officers and young, black men is nothing new. It’s not isolated to Ferguson or North County or even St. Louis.

Photo by Wiley Price

holder. Luckily for me, after I passed all his sobriety tests with flying colors he was kind enough to let me off with a stern warning.

Since I moved away from North County, I vowed never to return as a resident. I grew tired of looking over my

shoulder for police officers or the feeling of being nervous when an officer was around, rather than safe and protected.

Like many black mothers, mine felt compelled to teach me how to respond to police officers.

She knew that I could’ve easily ended up like Brown for having

the wrong reason, speaking in the wrong tone or making the wrong movement.

I understand.

Not all police officers are bad. I know and respect some good ones. But people with the power to take away your life or your freedom should be held to

a higher standard.

How many black bodies must we see laying in cold blood at the hands of police before we get serious about civilian review? How long will we allow the fraternity of officers to decide the guilt or punishment of their own brothers and sisters?

The inherent danger of their jobs means officers must form a tight knit bond and stick together. That bond impacts situations like this where, despite the apparent rogue actions by an officer, his department would rather protect him from prosecution and afford him all of his rights.

They protect him, despite the fact that he denied Brown the most basic right of all: the right to live.

As black men, there are steps we can take to protect ourselves.

First and foremost, we must stop perpetuating the negative, dangerous image of black men that the world is so comfortable viewing. While looting and destruction got the world’s attention, it also reinforced the popular idea that young black Americans are all violent criminals.

Nearly every rap song on the radio glorifies “the trap,” guns and drugs, despite the fact that many of the artists recording those songs are far away from the ‘hood and that lifestyle. If I hear another rapper glorify the thug life and still mention the name of Trayvon Martin, I’m going to lose my mind. Nearly every reality TV show features black women cussing, fighting

and plotting against each other.

The first step to saving young, black lives is to clean up our image. The second is to clean up our neighborhoods.

The fact that someone took the time to spray paint “snitches get stitches” on the Ferguson QuikTrip highlights the fact that we can’t expect the police to protect us when we’re not willing to participate in that protection. We can’t turn a blind eye to black-on-black crime, then riot and rally when an officer kills one of our young in cold blood.

We also can’t afford to be too friendly with or fearful of those committing violent crimes in our community.

Sound familiar?

In the end, the entire St. Louis community (and nation, by extension) will have to come together to solve this issue. It’s been no secret in the black community that black lives aren’t valued by the authorities. But with every tragic, televised killing, it’s become more evident to those who don’t have the same experiences as you and I. Those who feel comforted, instead of intimidated, by police presence are getting a glimpse into what it’s like to be black. Therefore, now is the time to be unified, to come together to find solutions of inclusion, diversity and building better relationships.

Now that the world is watching, we must have a message worthy to share.

Follow this reporter @ IshmaelSistrunk.

Mathews-Dickey Finest finishes as National Runner-Up The Mathews-Dickey Finest boys’ fourthgrade basketball team advanced to the championship game at the AAU National Tournament in Lexington, KY, finishing in second place. They won several tournaments during the season, including the Kansas City Keys Invitational, Coach T Classic, King James Classic and Ozark Regional title. The team members are (front row, left to right) Luther Burden III, Amir Turner-Petty, Jaden McClain, Traveon Brand, Isaiah Payne, Nick Kramer (back row, left to right) Coach Charles Woods, Carter Harrell, Aaron Coffey, Mark Jones, Jr.; Andre Gillespie, Bryan Marshall, Coach Vernon Hemphill

INSIDE Continued from B3 thing.”

It was a very nice affair and a great opportunity for these youngsters to shine in the spotlight. Each of the eight schools in the Alliance had three or four players represented. Some showed up in suits, others in shirts and ties and others in their football jerseys. The room was set up with tables with name tags for

each player placed upon them where they sat.

Each coach got the chance to talk for a few minutes about his players. After that, it was all about the players as we media members rotated from table to table to conduct interviews. Frank Cusumano of KSDK-TV, Andre Holman and his staff at STL-TV and yours truly were among the media members present. The kids really enjoyed being interviewed by Mr. Gary for the local show, Them Yo People, which airs on Saturday

nights on KDNL. Mr. Gary has his camera crew in tow for event to speak with the kids and coaches.

I got a kick out of seeing the smiles on the faces of the players as the interview sessions went on. You could tell they were a little nervous at first because this was something new to them.

But, once they loosened up, everyone had a great time.

“This was a blessing to be a part of an event like this,” said Confluence Academy standout Marvin Williams. “This was a

great experience for all of the players who were here.”

Sumner High standout Demondre Cooper added, “It makes you feel very special to

be a part of something like this.

I can’t wait to get our season started.”

Kudos to Demetrious Johnson for created this special

media day event for a group of deserving young men as they prepare for an exciting season of high school football.

NFL players speak out on Michael Brown

The Washington Redskins made a bold statement of solidarity with the protestors in Ferguson before their preseason game against Cleveland.

St. Louis American See page B3

The

CAC Audited AUGUST 21 – 27, 2014

Protesting youth were stranded on the street after curfew when Gov. Jay Nixon declared a State of Emergency and midnightto-5 a.m. curfew in Ferguson.

stlamerican.com

Vol. 85 No. 20 COMPLIMENTARY

“We are liberators”

Brown’s family releases autopsy results

Commissioned independent exam

See website for more photos!

By Sandra Jordan Of The St. Louis American

stlamerican.com

Photo by Lawrence Bryant

The roots of the uprising in Ferguson

By Kenya Vaughn Of The St. Louis American

“There is a passage in the scripture that says what the devil meant for bad,” said Pamela Meanes, “God allowed this mother to birth an angel to bring a face to police brutality.”

Meanes sounded more like pastor than the attorney who serves as the presidentelect of the National Bar Association and the president of the Mound City Bar Association.

Her brief, poignant remarks during a rally in Brown’s memory at the Greater Grace Baptist Church on Sunday reflect the inspirational phenomenon that was birthed

n I was speaking with students and I asked a third grader, ‘What do you do when you see the police?’ He said, ‘Run.’”

– Brittany Packnett

from this horrific tragedy.

For nearly two weeks the world has been tuned in to a small municipality of St. Louis County.

And yet before August 9, there were people born and raised in the greater St.

When Darren Wilson shot Michael Brown dead on that Saturday afternoon in the Canfield Green Apartment Complex, all hell broke loose – and it has yet to subside.

Louis area who didn’t even know Ferguson existed.

When Darren Wilson shot Michael Brown dead on that Saturday afternoon in the Canfield Green Apartment Complex, all hell broke loose – and it has See FERGUSON, A7

The family of Michael Brown released Monday preliminary results of an independent autopsy they commissioned.

At Greater St. Mark’s Missionary Baptist Church, attorneys n The independent and forensic experts said the unarmed experts concluded teenager Michael the first five shots Brown was shot at were survivable and least six times by the shot that killed Ferguson police officer Darren the teen was the Wilson at the last one.

Canfield Green Apartments on Aug. 9.

The autopsy, conducted by famed medical examiner Dr. Michael Baden and forensics pathologist professor Shawn Parcells, indicates that Brown was shot two times in the head, one in the chest, two in the arm and one in the palm of his hand.

“Six bullets struck and two bullets may have re-entered,” Baden said. “The two head wounds and the bullet in the chest stayed in the body and were removed at the first autopsy.”

Baden stressed the results were preliminary, See AUTOPSY, A7

Holder visits St. Louis

Attorney general meets with parents of Michael Brown, officials

By Bridjes O’Neil Of The St. Louis American Attorney General Eric Holder said he hopes his visit to Ferguson, Missouri “will have a calming influence on the area,” he said after arriving in St. Louis Wednesday morning.

Holder first met with students and community leaders at St. Louis Community CollegeFlorissant Valley, the first of four stops he would make that day.

“A lot has happened here,” said Molyric Welch, 27, a Florissant Valley student.

Welch was among a handful of students who met with Holder to discuss their “mistrust” of the police, Holder aid. She told the attorney general that her brother, Jason Moore, died following an encounter with Ferguson police in 2011. She

n “The eyes of the nation and the world are watching Ferguson right now.”

– Attorney General Eric Holder

said the 31-year-old man died of cardiac arrest after officers allegedly used a stun gun during a disturbance call.

“He promised things were going to change,” she said of Holder.

John Phillips, 61, a bio-technology student at Florissant Valley and long-time Ferguson See HOLDER, A6

Photo by Pablo Martinez Monsidais

Attorney General Eric Holder met with Missouri State Highway Patrol Captain Ron Johnson in St. Louis at the soul food restaurant Drake’s Place Restaurant on Wednesday.

Peace begets peace at protest ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • AUGUST 21 - 27, 2014

Change of police command transforms tone on the streets

A boy hitched a ride on a peaceful protest crowd last Thursday. A change in command, from St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar to Captain Ron Johnson of the Missouri Highway Patrol, resulted in a de-militarization of the protest zone and people were allowed to protest with intimidation or being targeted by riot-ready police with assault rifles.

By Kenya Vaughn Of The St. Louis American When St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar was relieved of command of the Ferguson protests last Thursday afternoon, the contrast in tone and energy was as palpable as the rage that ensued when 18-year-old Michael Brown was gunned down by a Ferguson police officer the previous Saturday.

The full day of protests was a ray of sunshine when measured against the clouds and thunder from tear gas – along with the drizzle of rubber bullets that were present last Wednesday, courtesy of a police force that had clearly declared war.

With the absence of the North County “peacekeepers,” unity in the quest for justice was as inspirational and encouraging as the nationwide “hands up” protests on Michael Brown’s behalf.

They stood in simultaneous solidarity with the people crowded down West Florissant, Ferguson police headquarters (and, in the city, downtown near the Arch).

Not long after Governor Nixon made the call to turn command over to Captain Ron Johnson of the Missouri Highway Patrol, the original intention of the protest was once again thrust into the forefront.

Michael Brown’s senseless death became an afterthought

A3

Photo by Lawrence Bryant

as soon as the footage showing the suburb where he was killed transformed into a war zone once darkness fell made its way around the nation – and the world.

The protest theme shifted – even though it served as further evidence of the systematically dysfunctional relationship between the area’s residents and police.

The lead story became the brutal and excessive force by police inflicted upon protesters and journalists. A collegebound, unarmed teen gunned down in front of residents of the Canfield Green Apartment Complex like an animal – and the apparent lack of progress in the direction of justice – was buried in conversations and media coverage.

“’Mike Mike’ wouldn’t want it to be like this,” 16-year-old Shaybreonna Johnson said last Wednesday. She had originally

He would have been especially proud of the turn of events that kicked off last Thursday afternoon and went

n Following Capt. Ron Johnson’s lead of marching alongside protesters, officers immersed themselves on the scene and practiced positive engagement.

come out to protest her friend’s death but was forced to wander nomadically through the back streets of Ferguson with her two-year-old niece after police refused to let her cross West Florissant to get in her car and go home.

past midnight.

Following Capt. Ron Johnson’s lead of marching alongside protesters, officers immersed themselves on the scene and practiced positive engagement. Instead of manning barricades, they

were integrated among the people stretched down from neighboring suburb Jennings and trickling into Dellwood.

Police hugged protesters. They kissed babies. They posed for photos.

“I’m so glad these ones are here,” one protester said to another. “These the nicest police I’ve ever seen.”

Protesters still headed towards West Florissant with their hands up, shouting “don’t shoot.” But this time it was actually a form of tribute to Michael Brown.

The night before the words were a literal plea to the officers who pointed militarygrade assault weapons with laser beams at protesters, journalists and people approaching roadblocks while

attempting to find alternative routes to avoid the action.

Thursday was a new beginning – though there was still a bit of shellshock.

“Yeah, pigs – y’all outta here,” a young man yelled as he stomped through ta crowd of people carrying candles and in good spirits. “Y’all can’t keep us down. We still out here.”

He was clearly still haunted by what had happened the night before.

The young man – who appeared to be in his teens – had also taken his shirt off and had it fashioned into a mask.

“Alright now, we don’t want to give them any excuses to bring ‘em back,” an older gentleman said to the young man in the tone of a stern uncle. “Yes, sir,” the teen said.

He decided to start chanting “No Justice…No Peace” in unison with a crowd of young people who made their way in his direction.

Before he had a chance to forge ahead with them, a police officer – who had to have heard him shouting the common pejorative that references the police – stuck out his hand to give him “daps.”

The boy reciprocated the fist-bump and chanted his way down the street.

Editorial / Commentary A4

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • AUGUST 21 - 27, 2014

Commentary Nixon must ask McCulloch to recuse himself The invisible Michael Browns

County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch may feel no sensitivity for this region’s African-American community, but he knows how to play Governor Jay Nixon, whom McCulloch has known since Nixon was a state senator. Faced with growing pressure from multiple individuals and groups to recuse himself from the case of Michael Brown, who was shot six times and killed by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson on August 9 and left in the street for hours, McCulloch put Nixon on the hot seat instead.

Tuesday evening, McCulloch issued a press release saying he is willing to recuse himself – if the governor ordered that action. Nixon responded with his own press release reminding the county prosecutor that there already is an established process for recusing oneself from a case and McCulloch should do so if he wished. So Nixon did not ask McCulloch to recuse himself, and McCulloch did not take the initiative to recuse himself. For now it looks like – for better and, more likely, worse – this is McCulloch’s case.

No one should be surprised by McCulloch’s stance. This pro-police prosecutor has been unapologetically defending the interests of police involved in fatal shootings his office is charged with investigating for years. Nixon’s political cowardice in not forcing McCulloch’s hand when challenged is also unsurprising, though deeply dispiriting. The protest in support of Brown is headed toward its second week and does not seem to be slowing. Given Ferguson Police’s shameful handling of Brown’s corpse and McCulloch’s manipulative release of evidence, the protest movement and wider community need and deserve a victory. McCulloch being removed from the case would be a major victory that might quell unrest in this case and help to keep this crisis from culminating in a disaster.

But McCulloch played chicken with Nixon, and Nixon proved he is unwilling to expend political capital to provide critical leadership.

Rather than risk some political capital with his conservative white male base and friends in law enforcement, Nixon did not rise to McCulloch’s challenge. This is true even with Attorney General Eric Holder visiting St. Louis on Wednesday. Nixon had an opportunity to request a private meeting with Holder and then emerge from it with a change in direction to ask McCulloch to stand down. Nixon missed that opportunity, bringing the possibility of real disaster a little closer.

McCulloch has already begun presenting evidence to the 12-person jury (which includes three African-Americans). The longer he remains in control of the case, the more inevitable it becomes that he will remain in control of the case. We have every reason to expect a continuing manipulation in the release and

A peaceful protestor on the streets of Ferguson tells the world what he thinks about Gov. Jay Nixon. Photo by Wiley Price

presentation of evidence and excessive concern for the rights and wellbeing of the police shooter rather than the shooting victim, who should be the prosecuting attorney’s special concern. If McCulloch’s work before the Grand Jury results in Wilson walking free, rather than defending himself on a homicide charge, then Ferguson and St. Louis may be headed back to the national news in the ugliest light imaginable.

We don’t believe for a moment that McCulloch will listen to our concerns or the black community that we represent, but it is just possible that Nixon will want to respond to the needs of our community in his last term of office, with other ambitions yet to fulfill. On behalf of victim rights and concern for public safety, we urge Nixon to take McCulloch up on his offer and ask the county prosecutor to recuse himself from the Michael Brown case.

As I See It - A Forum for Community Issues

Policing the community One of the best examples for good community policing was demonstrated when Missouri State Highway Patrol Capt. Ronald Johnson came to embattled Ferguson.

After unarmed Michael Brown was gunned down, mostly white officers from throughout the area, armed in combat gear, fired gas and rubber bullets at protesters – and even kicked reporters out of eateries who were simply trying Guest Columnist to file news stories.

Norm Businesses Parish were burned and stores were looted.

But last Thursday, the war zone-like images immediately changed. Johnson, an African American who grew up in the Ferguson area, led command of the area that was rocked by four nights of clashes between protesters and police.

Quite simply, a patrol without “a strong show of force to a more peaceful one” reduced tensions, acknowledged Cedric Alexander, president of the National Association of Black Law Enforcement Executives. Johnson was someone many area residents knew.

The peace, however, ended the following day after a video tape was released that allegedly showed Brown stealing cigars. Clashes then occurred for several nights.

As much of America now knows, Ferguson’s has 53 white police officers and just three who are black. Ferguson’s population is more

than two-thirds black.

In that environment, many crime experts said they were not surprised that eventually a conflict occurred between a white officer and a black resident. Ferguson officer Darren Wilson allegedly killed Brown after a dispute that started over the 18-yearold walking in middle of the street.

Brown’s police-related death is not unique.

A recent USA Today story showed that for nearly two times a week, a white police officer killed a black person during a seven year period that ended in 2012.

As a journalist, I have lived in a lot of places over the last three decades, including a black neighborhood just a few miles from Ferguson. But before I learned my password to sign into my computer, I had an encounter with a white officer that I thought was ridiculous.

Just a few miles after I crossed the state line from Oklahoma in 1997, a ShowMe-State white cop pulled me over while I was driving with my wife and toddler daughter. The officer accused me of driving too close to lane lines on the highway.

The officer then asked me where I was going.

(I thought that wasn’t any of his business.) But I relented and told the officer that I was moving to Missouri to start a job as a reporter.

He immediately let me go without a ticket or warning. A couple years earlier, a white Phoenix, Ariz., cop pulled me over because I looked suspicious. (I was wearing a tie.)

He kept asking a dispatcher on his radio for descrip-

tions of suspects. Finally, he asked me what I had been doing that day. I responded I had just left a state Senate committee meeting. I was an Arizona Republic statehouse reporter. He quickly let me go.

My perception of cops, however, is not all bad.

Community policing in the 1960s and early ‘70s allowed me to have close personal ties with police in my boyhood hometown of Robbins, Ill.; a historically black suburb just south of Chicago with a black chief and officers.

I wanted a track team in my community as a teen.

And a juvenile officer – James Moore, nicknamed Bumper – helped. Moore, a former 800 meters standout who was once in the Pan Am Games, drove us to daylong meets and helped us train.

Obviously, Moore and other Robbins cops weren’t my enemies.

In Robbins four decades ago, police officers were more than law enforcers.

A few were mentors and leaders. I didn’t fear them. I respected them. It was a far cry from Ferguson where the residents in the neighborhood seemingly didn’t know the name of the officer who allegedly shot Brown.

“There was an obvious lack of relationship between the police and community,” said Alexander, who was to meet with Ferguson officials over the weekend to talk about ways to increase black officers on their police force.

If they had good community policing, residents would have known the Ferguson officer, he said. And he would have known them better.

The fire this time is about invisibility. Our society expects the police to keep unemployed, poorly educated African-American men out of sight and out of mind. When they suddenly take center stage, illuminated by the flash and flicker of Molotov cocktails, we feign surprise.

The proximate cause of the rioting in Ferguson, Mo., is the killing of 18-yearold Michael Brown, who was stopped, a witness has said, by a white Columnist policeman for walking in the Eugene Robinson street. Officer Darren Wilson shot Brown at least six times, according to a private autopsy and, reportedly, one conducted by the county medical examiner. Two of those bullets struck him in the head.

There we have the familiar narrative: another unarmed black man unjustly killed.

Brown thus joins a long, sad list – Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, etc. – that seems to have no end.

This storyline is unassailable. Anyone who thinks race is not a factor in these fatal encounters should have to cite examples of unarmed young white men being killed by trigger-happy police or selfappointed vigilantes. Names and dates, please.

But the violence in Ferguson

tells of a deeper, more fundamental narrative about what African Americans have done, and what has been done to them, in the decades since the urban riots of the 1960s – the fire last time.

Tempted to conclude that nothing has changed? Please note that the Missouri highway patrol commander, brought in to bring proportion and discipline to what had been a provocative local police response, is black. The attorney general who interrupted his Martha’s Vineyard vacation to order a Justice Department investigation and a third autopsy is black. And, of course, the president and commander in chief is black.

Also note that this undeniable evidence of progress on the issue of race makes no apparent difference to the young men who have been rampaging through the streets of Ferguson.

Why not? Because the tremendous gains achieved by some African Americans have not just left some others behind but made their situation more desperate and hopeless than it was 50 years ago.

When the unrest in Ferguson is over, I predict that there will be a flood of ambitious journalism seeking to assess the status of black America. Most of this analysis will be ignored because it will so contradict what many Americans see every day with their own eyes.

Millions of African-Amer-

Letters to the Editor Obamas send condolences The death of Michael Brown is heartbreaking, and Michelle and I send our deepest condolences to his family and his community at this very difficult time. As Attorney General Holder has indicated, the Department of Justice is investigating the situation along with local officials, and they will continue to direct resources to the case as needed.

I know the events of the past few days have prompted strong passions, but as details unfold, I urge everyone in Ferguson, Missouri, and across the country, to remember this young man through reflection and understanding. We should comfort each other and talk with one another in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds.

Along with our prayers, that’s what Michael and his family, and our broader American community, deserve.

President Barack Obama Washington, D.C.

Mike-Mike matters The atrocity of the killing of Michael “Mike-Mike” Brown is pointing-up the absence of human, civil and labor rights, and the wholesale abrogation of the U. S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights, as a matter of course, in the streets of Ferguson, MO, and Anytown, U. S. A., for that.

Especially is this the case when it comes to our citizens of color. Michael Brown and his family had recently, before his murder, dealt with the stress and disappointment of his having graduated from an unaccredited high school, Normandy Senior High.

The predominately AfricanAmerican community in Normandy had decried and expressed outrage over the institutionalized racist response to that crisis, and the failure of Governor Jay Nixon to help bring an anti-racist, just response to an anti-democratic and heavy-handed, white dominated, State Board of Education, which nullified the Normandy School Board and its elected officials, its teachers, their union, and its children or students.

The fact that the murder of Michael Brown has pointed-up the use of the repressive and oppressive National Defense Authorization Act to suppress, repress and oppress community

icans took advantage of the opportunities created by the Civil Rights Movement to climb into the middle class – and in some cases far beyond, as exemplified by President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder.

Yet millions of other black Americans did not reach the middle class. This group, mired in poverty and dysfunction, finds the paths others took are blocked. They live in neighborhoods with failing schools that cannot prepare them for today’s economy. Secure, high-paying blue-collar jobs are a thing of the past. Racial bias in policing means they are much more likely to be arrested and jailed for minor nonviolent offenses, such as drug possession, than whites who commit the same crimes.

Increasingly, these African Americans who were left behind are invisible. What happens in poor black neighborhoods has less and less to do with the everyday lives of middle-class Americans, white or black.

Brown had no police record.

He had graduated from high school. He was about to enter a technical college. Given where he came from, it’s hard to do a whole lot better – and easy to do a whole lot worse.

Now that the streets are filled with incoherent rage – and the rioting must be strongly condemned – we can see Brown’s struggle. Momentarily, at least.

After the smoke clears, we will be blind once again.

All letters are edited for length and style.

democracy shows that we must – as the late, great Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Junior taught – find nonviolent ways to deal with deep yet solvable problems in our communities, we must re-order our priorities and policies from protecting mad money, power, militarism and mayhem to protecting people, peace, progress and nature.

Ramírez, Jorge Riopedre, Guillermo Rodríguez, Mario Rodríguez, Laura Rojas, Carito Romero, Herman Semidey Jr., Fernando Serrano, Mel Serrano, Juancarlos Solorio, Mercedes Stephenson, Alicia Sunshine, Jaime Torres, Lauren Wilmore, Cecilia Velázquez, Eileen Wolfington, Monique Zubkow via email

E.E.W. Clay, Via email

Hispanic community grieves with Ferguson We, members of the Hispanic community of the metro St. Louis area, grieve for Michael Brown and for his family who have suffered such a profound loss. We stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in the African-American community who had one of their sons taken from them before his time, and with all those affected by this tragedy.

We call for a complete and transparent investigation into the circumstances that led to Michael’s death and, once all of the evidence is collected and examined, for justice to be served.

We ask that all of us who call St. Louis home, whatever our color or creed, take this moment to rededicate ourselves to the principles of equality, inclusion, and communal responsibility.

Whether we are speaking in Spanish, English, SerboCroatian, Chinese, Portuguese, or any of the dozens of other languages spoken in our great city, let us all speak of peace, understanding, and of our mutual obligation to each other as St. Louisans and as human beings.

Diego Abente Cata Albarracin, Rafael Arriojas, María Teresa Balogh, Andrew Behnen, Santiago Beltrán, Bruno Benitez, Dinorah Bommarito, Virginia Braxs, Angela Castro, Jomo Castro, Natalia CarrollPabón, Eydi Cavalier,i Carmen Dence, Yolanda Díaz, Eileen Franco, Lisa Gage, Ildefonso González, Anthony González, Yenilyn Hale-Gallardo, Andres Hincapie, Aparna Kalyaraman, Bernadette Márquez, Daniela Martín, Jessica Middleton, Maria Lerma Mosquera, Luisa Fernanda Otero, Celia Pastore, Laura Pérez, Imani Ray, Abraham Reze, Karlos

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ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • AUGUST 21 – 27, 2014

Living while black

A5

By Comptroller Darlene Green For The St. Louis American

All-American peaceful protester shows his support for Michael Brown.

Photo by Lawrence Bryant

I feel very deeply for the mother and the entire family of Michael Brown.

No parent should have to grieve the loss of their young son at the hands of an overzealous police officer. There’s no acceptable state of mind for an armed police officer who’s sworn to protect and serve a community to ignore the universal sign of surrender by an unarmed human being – hands up in the air.

I also feel for the officer whose life has forever changed; but nonetheless, I want justice for this apparent crime.

Michael Brown was left dead, lying on the ground in the middle of the street in his neighborhood while the officer responsible for shooting him was allowed to flee the scene. That image—seen around the world gives credence to the notion that black people in this country are seemingly at war with the police: driving while black; walking while black; living while black.

Black teens are not the only kids that are found walking in the middle of the street who are stopped and questioned by police. White teens are stopped as well. According to a friend of mine, his teenage son who is white was stopped by a police officer in much the same way as Michael Brown—walking in the middle of the street in a suburb of St. Louis. The young white teen was questioned by the officer asking who are you, where do you live and who are your parents. Then, this young teen was given a ride home—delivered safely to his parents. Quite a contrast from what happened to Michael Brown and countless other black men and boys. Far too often in this country, a ride to Darlene the morgue follows black teen/police encounters.

Green On any given Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend at the Old Court House you might have heard me speaking to the community about gun violence; urging our young black men to stop killing each other, stop the violence, and to put down the guns. We have to continue to uplift our youth and help them to believe that they have a future.

I’m always working to support ways we can provide funding for youth jobs, job training and recreational opportunities. I stand with the police who want to serve and protect. I want community policing to benefit all citizens.

But, as an elected public official, I call for zero tolerance for the police shooting and killing of unarmed black men and boys—period. I stand firm with the black communities around the country that say enough is enough.

We cannot continue to tolerate the kind of police actions against unarmed black men and boys that cause their deaths. In public school systems, our children have to deal with zero tolerance mandates to stop violence in the schools. In many public and private work places in our country, zero tolerance mandates can be found. Today, it is time for zero tolerance for the police who shoot and kill unarmed black men and boys. I pray that Michael Brown is the last one.

I strongly believe that we cannot go forward from this terrible tragedy in Ferguson without all of us working to achieve a transformative change.

Finding justice in this situation is our first order of business. In moving forward, I believe police across the country must take a hard look at their respective forces to retool and retrain them in an effort to stop the senseless killing of unarmed black men and boys. For example, as a first step, arming the police officers with body cameras and police cars with cameras must be mandated and implemented immediately. Then, there must be tough penalties presented for police who engage in this behavior to keep these incidents from happening. And finally, we must be encouraged. The black community must continue to hearten one another to engage in efforts that will uplift and support ourselves living while black.

A6

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • AUGUST 21 – 27, 2014

A protestor put her hands up in the now-famous “Don’t shoot!” sign on an empty West Florissant Avenue in the Ferguson protest zone.

Photo by Lawrence Bryant

HOLDER Continued from A1

resident, took advantage of a brief opportunity to ask the attorney general if he planned to speak with Ferguson residents during his visit.

He lives about a mile and half away from where all the violence has been occurring and says he is considering leaving the area.

He viewed the attorney general’s visit as a “photo opportunity” and said nobody wants to address the real issues

like Ferguson’s economic and racial disparities, he said.

After meeting with students, Holder and other Department of Justice officials attended a second meeting at the college.

The Community Relations Service (CRS), a conflict resolution agency created by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, organized the meeting that included over 50 members of the Ferguson community.

CRS officials have conducted several such meetings on a regular basis since arriving on the ground in Ferguson on August 10 after the first night of protests.

The second meeting took place in an auditorium at the college; and like the first, was closed to the general public.

“The eyes of the nation and the world are watching Ferguson right now,” Holder told community leaders.

“This is something that has a history to it, and the history simmers beneath the surface in more communities than just Ferguson.

The attorney general spoke for 15 minutes and then took questions from the group. He explained the statute that gives the department jurisdiction to investigate the shooting death

of Michael Brown. Brown was an unarmed black teenager shot and killed by a white Ferguson police officer on Aug. 9.

Holder stressed that while federal prosecutors will be aggressive in conducting their inquiry, the St. Louis County Police and the St. Louis County Prosecutor have a job to perform as well.

Holder next stopped at the soul food restaurant Drake’s Place Restaurant where he talked with diners, Missouri State Highway Patrol Captain Ron Johnson, and Cool Valley Mayor Viola Murphy.

Before an investigative

briefing at local FBI headquarters, Holder said the Justice Department had assembled “very experienced” prosecutors and agents to pursue the federal civil rights inquiry.

“Our investigation is different,” Holder said in a meeting room surrounded by top local federal officials, including FBI Agent in Charge William Woods and U. S. Attorney Rich Callahan.

“We’re looking for possible violations of federal civil rights statutes,” the attorney general said.

He promised that the inquiry

would be “thorough and fair” to determine “what happened on Aug.9.”

Then Holder met at the U.S. attorney’s office in downtown St. Louis with the parents of Michael Brown.

Before meeting with the attorney general Wednesday afternoon, Brown’s mother viewed her son’s body at a local morgue for the first time since the Aug. 9 shooting.

During the private 20-minute meeting, the family asked about the investigative process. Holder pledged that it would be a “fair and independent” inquiry.

A7

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • AUGUST 21 – 27, 2014

FERGUSON Continued from A1

yet to subside.

The sad fact is that there is nothing new about an unarmed black man dying at the hands of law enforcement.

Just last month the nation watched video footage of Eric Garner being choked to death by police in New York go viral.

But with Brown’s death, push came to shove. And the community that witnessed it happen still refuses to stand down in their demand for justice.

Whether it was the way he was publicly shot and left to lie in the middle of the complex entrance for four hours, police and prosecutor ignoring the community’s demand for answers;, or a lack of respect for the family, the spirit of the Civil Rights Movement was resurrected on West Florissant Avenue and Canfield.

“Out of this has come the strangest bedfellows you can imagine,” said Stefan Bradley, associate professor of AfricanAmerican studies at Saint Louis University. “Everybody has been forced into a coalition that they couldn’t have created themselves.”

The community took to the streets as a collective – from all backgrounds, ethnicities and walks of life – to say “enough!” and to show that they won’t be moved until justice is served.

There have been all sorts of sidebars – from the excessive force imposed on journalists from around the nation at the hands of the police, the violation of the rights of

AUTOPSY Continued from A1

and Brown’s body did not have gunpowder residue on it.

“In order to be firm about that, we also need to look at the clothing,” Baden said.

“One of the things that will be important is for us to see those

Peaceful protestors rally around the flag in the Ferguson protest zone.

Photo by Lawrence Bryant

protesters, and the implication that Ferguson had long forsaken the majority of its residents.

Negative spins on the coverage have been prevalent as well.

Brown’s character was brought into question, thanks to the release of surveillance footage of Brown allegedly stealing cigars by the Ferguson Police – as they were announcing the name of the officer who fatally wounded Brown.

The vast majority of peaceful protests have included a small percentage of looters

and outside agitators – who have been erroneously all lumped together.

“There is this whole narrative of these protesters being labeled as rioters – it speaks to the whole black criminality issue,” said Justin Hansford, a professor of law at St. Louis University. “When what you have is youth with courage who stood up and amplified their voices.”

A small percentage of violent incidents get the bold face print above the fold, but the most compelling story is the resilience and unification of the masses to fight for justice

and challenge a flawed policing system that has antagonized blacks – black men, in particular – throughout the nation for decades.

“We are not looters, we are liberators,” Rev. Al Sharpton said to those in attendance at Greater Grace. “Ferguson and Michael Brown Jr. will be a defining moment on how this country deals with police and the rights of its citizens – and to address how police behave in this country.”

“The people suffering the

most in all of this are the children –and we can’t forget them,” said Brittany Packnett, executive director of Teach For America St. Louis. “And we can’t forget them or we will be raising a generation of hopeless people.”

They’ve been forced out of school. They can’t go outside. They have watched their neighborhood become a battlefield where protesters stand against police. Some have even been caught in the crossfire while attempting to peacefully protest with their family.”

“There are lessons being

x-rays … that will show where the bullets were before the autopsy was started.”

The first autopsy was conducted by St. Louis County Medical Examiner Mary Case’s office. A third autopsy, ordered by the Justice Department, took place earlier this week. Its results have not been released.

Some witnesses at the scene said the teen had his hands up

to surrender when Wilson shot him. Attorney Daryl Parks said the direction of two of bullets supports witness accounts.

“It shows a back-to-front for both of those, and it supports what the witnesses said about him trying to surrender to the officer,” Parks said. “And his head was in a downward position.”

Other than abrasions

where the teen’s face hit the pavement, Baden said the body did not show signs of a struggle.

The independent experts concluded the first five shots were survivable and the shot that killed the teen was the last one, which struck Brown at the

apex of his head.

Attorney Benjamin Crump said the family did not want to rely on St. Louis County investigators to tell them how their son died. They wanted to know how many times their son was shot and if their child was in pain.

Casualties of war

taught,” said Donald M. Suggs, publisher and executive editor of The St. Louis American.

“One of them is that it’s dangerous to be young and black and speak out. It’s as if the police reaction to these protesters is saying, ‘This is what happens when young African Americans amplify their voice.’”

And while Michael Brown’s death took the strained relationship between black men and police from the boiling point to explode before the eyes of the world, there is an opportunity in the wake of this tragedy.

The conversation around building better relationships between law enforcement and black citizens have taken center stage – as are the need to develop systems and policy for successful policing within the African-American community.

“You all ought to be thankful to the Brown family for Michael,” said Captain Ron Johnson, the Missouri Highway Patrol official charged with overseeing law enforcement operations in the midst of Ferguson’s unrest.

“Michael’s going to make it better for our sons.”

Teach For America staff and alumni will partner with community volunteers to provide lunch and activities at the Ferguson Public Library, 35 N. Florissant Rd, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, while district teachers receive crisis counseling training. The Florissant Valley Branch, 195 S New Florissant Rd., is also offering free lunch and activities this week from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Crump added, “And then lastly, his mother wanted to ask a question that neither Dr. Baden nor any of the lawyers could answer. ‘What else do we need to give them to arrest the killer of my child?’”

A8

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • AUGUST 21 - 27, 2014

Another fire raging in North County

Bob McCulloch and victims who are ‘bums’

the frustration the AfricanAmerican community had with the disinterest displayed

by County Prosecutor Bob “Bums.”

McCulloch and members That is what County of his team. For example, Prosecutor Bob McCulloch despite protests and requests called two African-American for transparency, McCulloch unarmed men gunned down and every other high-ranking and killed in the midst of a county official declined to drug sting operation on the attend a news conference parking lot of a St Louis Jack in the Box restaurant. The 2000 on the shooting. Instead his office issued a press release shooting deaths of Ronald stating the chief of police was Beasley and Earl Murray by “not entertaining interviews.” white undercover officers later McCulloch also initially came to be known as the “Jack refused to release the names of in the Box” shootings. the officers involved, After Beasley and and he expressed no Murray were killed, many sympathy or concern in the African-American about the “suspects.” community raised The use of the word concerns about why there “suspects” to describe were 21 bullets fired at both of the men who a vehicle backing away were killed was also from undercover cops. concerning to the In piece entitled “AntiAfrican-American Community Policing,” community because the former publisher of Lizz Beasley, father of three The Riverfront Times, Brown and manager at an auto Ray Hartmann, described repair shop, was an African-American innocent bystander. And yet concern directed at the Jack McCulloch’s office appeared be in the Box shootings as a very comfortable with hurling “fire raging in North County”. the slanderous and inaccurate According to Hartmann, term “suspect” at Beasley.

African-American leadership Fast forward 14 years, and wanted to know, among other we have yet another unarmed things, why the police fired African American killed by 21 shots at a “low-level drug another white police officer, dealer” and his passenger in along with unanswered broad daylight on the busy questions, disinterest and parking lot of a Jack In the arrogant disengagement by the Box. The community also same county prosecutor. And wanted to know why shots as a result, the North County were fired at a vehicle slowly African-American community backing away from the police. finds itself confronting another Hartmann also described

n Allowing a potential defendant who is a police officer to plead his murder case using any evidence admissible in front of a Grand Jury is an act of solidarity.

By Lizz Brown For The St. Louis American

“fire raging in North County.”

Earlier this week the office of state Senator Jamilah Nasheed issued a statement calling for a special prosecutor to be appointed to investigate and prosecute the killing of Michael Brown. Chief among Senator Nasheed’s reasons was the handling of the Jack in the Box shootings by Bob McCulloch and his office.

It has been 14 years. Why should Bob McCulloch’s handling of the Jack in the Box shooting matter? How is it possibly relevant all these years later, and why does the African-American community insist upon comparing the killing of Brown to the Jack in the Box shooting?

Perhaps the relevance of a Mike Brown/Jack in the Box shooting comparison can best be distilled down to Bob

McCulloch’s use of a single word to describe Ronald Beasley and Earl Murray: “bums.”

Why did McCulloch do that?

Putting aside for a moment the notion of “innocent unless and until proven guilty,” one could argue from some prosecutors’ point of view the fact that Murray had a criminal record and he had cocaine on him made him a “bum.” But how did the innocent, unarmed, working, African-American father of three and passenger hitching a ride become a dead “bum”?

The argument that many in the concerned community are making is that Bob McCulloch, when comes to a choice between protecting the reputation/careers of white police officers and searching for the truth in a case of a

“police-officer-on-AfricanAmerican-crime,” will choose protecting officers at the expense of fairness, decency and truth.

There are stunning similarities in how McCulloch investigated and responded to African American concerns in the killing of Mike Brown and the Jack In the Box shooting.

Initially in both cases there was a fierce refusal to release the name of the officers involved. There was also an effort to turn Mike Brown into a “bum” by allowing the release of the video tape purportedly showing Mike Brown engaged in shoplifting.

McCulloch also defended the use of military style aggression and finally McCulloch, after initially refusing to humanize the pain of the loss suffered by the Brown family, was forced to bow to enormous public pressure and publically acknowledged the family’s pain.

While many people are making the connection between the Mike Brown killing and the Jack in the Box shooting, others articulate additional concerns.

Earlier this week, County Executive Charlie Dooley called on Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster to remove Bob McCulloch from the Mike Brown investigation. Dooley was quoted as saying “I think Mr. McCulloch’s objectivity is in question.”

Many believe that is a more than fair observation. Local attorneys while reluctant to be identified, raised the same question: Can the son of a fallen police officer be fair and impartial in the murder investigation and the prosecution of a police officer who looks like his father on behalf of an 18-year-old who

French arrested, released

Police said he ‘wasn’t listening’

By Bridjes O’Neil Of The St. Louis American After spending five nearly non-stop days and nights of using social media to document and communicate the fallout out from the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson to the St. Louis region and, eventually, the entire country,

Global Grind’s Editor-inChief, Michael Skolnik, noted his concern that St. Louis city’s 21st Ward Alderman Antonio French had been quiet for too long regarding the latest developments in the municipality.

“Haven’t heard from @ AntonioFrench in over an hour,” Skolnik tweeted to his

Antonio French in the Ferguson protest area.

followers last Wednesday night via Twitter. “Anyone know if he is ok? #Ferguson.”

Skolnik’s concern was quickly validated, as reports of French’s arrest began to

Photo KTVI Fox 2

quickly spread on Twitter, sparking outrage in the community. French was booked on a 24-hour hold and detained at the Ferguson Police Station for “unlawful assembly,” he told local news stations Thursday morning after his release without bond.

“I guess within the law you can hold somebody without any real reason for 24 hours,” French stated.

He reports he was at a peaceful protest along with several hundred other people at QuikTrip on West Florissant Avenue. He was told by a

repeated twice before beginning to move in after issuing a final warning – an action that agitated the crowd, causing some young men to curse at officers, French reported.

“Police released smoke bombs into the crowd and people scattered thinking it was tear gas, he said. When some of the people began to return, police (dressed in riot gear) moved forward with their assault vehicles and tear gas.

“And that’s when the chaos started,” he said.

French was sitting in his car, when he said he was dragged

n French was sitting in his car, when he

said he was dragged out by a police officer with an assault rifle.

resident that police officers were demanding that everyone be off the street by 9 pm.

Information, French said, he shared with his followers on Twitter.

“All of a sudden officers got on the bullhorn and said that this was no longer a peaceful assembly,” French said, “and that everyone should leave.”

This was a demand police

out by a police officer with an assault rifle. His hands were upright, armed only with a cell phone. He asked why he was being arrested. He was told it was because he wasn’t listening, but French believes the police picked up the wrong people.

“You have reverends in there,” he told officers, and “young people organizing the

doesn’t?

Some attorneys argue that a vigorous prosecution of a white police officer accused of killing an African American “bum-ified” Mike Brown will put his working relationship with the police in jeopardy. Others are asking if it is even necessary to ask the local prosecutor to put his job and his career at risk with this prosecution – why not satisfy all possible concerns by bringing in a neutral prosecutor?

Concerns about the ability of Bob McCulloch to fairly, impartially and vigorously prosecute this case have erupted into protests at the office of McCulloch. Protests have been fueled in part by McCulloch’s first act in the investigation of the killing of Mike Brown.

As the first step in the prosecution and investigation of Darren Wilson, McCulloch stated that he will allow the potential defendant, officer Darren Wilson, to testify and defend himself in front of the Grand Jury. Is this an act that reveals that Bob McCulloch is impartial and is interested in a vigorous prosecution?

It doesn’t look good.

Allowing a potential defendant to plead his case in front of a jury is rarely done by a prosecutor who is seeking an indictment and is an awesome gift to any defendant. However, allowing a potential defendant who is a police officer the rare gift of pleading his murder case using any evidence admissible in front of a Grand Jury can only be interpreted as an act of solidarity to a police officer from the by the son of a fallen police officer. In the mind and heart of Bob McCulloch, this potential defendant is certainly no bum.

peace effort.”

He told reporters that he doesn’t believe he was targeted as a leader in the community, nor does he feel like his social media posts are inciting violence. He believes a heavy-handed “unprovoked” police approach is making the situation worse.

Freelance journalist Umar Lee was documenting peaceful protesters who had gathered outside the Ferguson Police Station when he heard of French’s arrest. It was also well into the early Thursday morning hours when Lee said two police tanks pulled up with rifles aimed at the crowd. Police carrying automatic weapons and dressed in full body armor positioned themselves in front of protesters. With upright hands protesters yelled, “Don’t shoot!”

An officer on a bullhorn threatened the crowd with arrest, if they did not disperse.

Lee was among the last to leave and was walking toward his car when police officers came running from across the street, he said. “They surrounded us.

Cuffed us up. Locked us up.”

He was charged with failure to obey a lawful order and noise violations and was bonded out five hours later.

“I haven’t done a tour of the municipal jails in St. Louis,” Lee mentioned, “but that one was pretty bad.” He reports the jail cell was “dirty and cold.”

Antonio French and Umar Lee were not the only controversial arrests made by Ferguson police that night.

Reports were widely circulated on social media that Washington Post Reporter Wesley Lowery and Huffington Post Ryan J. Reilly had also been arrested earlier that day at a McDonald’s.

“Media should be free to report,” Missouri Governor Jay Nixon said at a press conference held at Christ the King Church.

French said no laws were broken that night. Protesters were simply exercising their constitutional rights.

“We have a right to peacefully protest 24 hours of the day,” he said. “Our rights don’t expire at nine o’clock.”

Follow this reporter on Twitter: @BridjesONeil.

E-mail this reporter: boneil@ stlamerican.com.

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • AUGUST 21 - 27, 2014

What can Brown do for you?

By Bernie Hayes For The St. Louis American What has the killing of Michael Brown done to you? Has it produced anger, indignation, disbelief, distrust or violence? Are you stronger, weaker or still a pacifist?

Were you a part of the coalition of St. Louis-based progressive groups, churches and individuals that marched and protested, demanding justice, and shouting “no Bernie justice-no Hayes peace”? Did you carry a sign?

This coalition included The Universal African Peoples Organization, The Organization for Black Struggle, The Coalition against Police Crimes and Oppression, The Nation of Islam, St. Louis City and County NAACP, the Urban League and others, and hundreds, perhaps thousands, of individuals.

As you know, the case has attracted nationwide news coverage, and it seems as if everyone has done a story on the event. But since the initial gatherings it appears the coalition has disbanded, and the various groups are still demanding justice but operating separately. This is troubling to me.

The attention has attracted national civil rights advocates, as well as everyone who wants to be seen on television or heard on the radio, and the local and national news media is more than happy to offer them a platform. Now here is where it gets really tricky.

While the community is gathering in Ferguson and focusing on seeking justice for Michael Brown, some portions of the media are conspiring

with county police departments and elected officials to direct the attention away from charging Michael’s killer—to making the victim seem like the aggressor. A typical divisive tactic.

According to the account on St. Louis radio station KFTK, a woman named Josie phoned in describing the confrontation on August 9. She said the dispute began after Ferguson Officer Darren Wilson rolled down his window to tell Brown and a friend to stop walking in the street. Josie said Wilson told her that Michael Brown rushed at him full speed in the moments before the shooting.

Can you imagine anyone without a weapon “rushing” an armed police officer? This to me is preposterous and absurd, but it is another example of how some people are scheming while we are sleeping.

An autopsy conducted for Michael Brown’s family found no evidence that Michael struggled with Wilson,

n Justice cannot be done if the victim is forgotten and not treated justly. according to the pathologist in charge of the examination.

What is troubling to me is the radio station, KFTK, is a station that hosts many conservative show hosts such as George Noory, Glenn Beck, and Sean Hannity. Should it be a surprise that “Josie” chose this particular station to give her story?

There are no daily AfricanAmerican talk and information radio programs anymore in St. Louis, and I wonder is this a reason the original alliance became separated? Malcolm X once said, “If you’re not careful, the newspapers will

have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”

Fifty years ago, Malcom gave his “The Ballot or the Bullet” speech. He said, “So it’s time in 1964 to wake up. And when you see them coming up with that kind of conspiracy, let them know your eyes are open. And let them know something else that’s wide open too. It’s got to be the ballot or the bullet. The ballot or the bullet. If you’re afraid to use an expression like that, you should get on out of the country; you should get back in the cotton patch; you should get back in the alley.”

Justice cannot be done if the victim is forgotten and not treated justly. We must give victims a voice in the criminal justice systems. One thing is sure though—behind each case of police brutality, there is a victim, a family and their loved ones. And with each victim, there is a story of trauma, suffering and insecurity.

Anyone can be a victim of police brutality, and those not directly affected by the misconduct often do not understand how difficult the recovery can be. Yet victims play second fiddle when it comes to the criminal justice system. And the level of victims’ rights differs widely from county to county, city to city and state to state. We can’t allow Michael or his family to be the victims. Rise up and let us see what Brown can do for you.

Watch the Bernie Hayes Saturday at 10pm, Friday at 9 am and Sunday at 5:30 pm on KNLC-TV Ch. 24.

He can be reached by fax at (314) 837-3369 or email at: berhay@swbell.net. Follow him on Twitter: @berhay or view his blog at http:// berniehayesunderstands. blogspot.com/

A call for justice in the midst of a crisis

By Michael P. McMillan President and CEO, Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King once said, “Rioting is the language of the unheard.” His words still ring true as I look at the violence and devastation that has engulfed the city of Ferguson and surrounding areas of St. Louis County.

Today, we have all heard the language of the unheard coming from our televisions, radios, computers and even from Michael P. outside our McMillan front doors. The shooting death of Michael Brown by a Ferguson police officer has ignited a firestorm which has engulfed a city, region, nation and world.

For many years, racial profiling has been an issue that has been prevalent in American society. Racial profiling in St. Louis County has been legendary in the black community with traffic courts being filled with African Americans each week. For the past 13 years, African Americans have been more

likely to be pulled over in traffic stops than any other race in Ferguson, MO. Last year in the State of Missouri, blacks were more than one-and-a-half times more likely to be pulled over than any other race. The killing of Michael Brown was the last straw for a black community that has long been harassed by police officers.

That the Ferguson Police Department allowed Michael Brown’s body to remain outside for up to four hours was just more salt in an already festering wound.

The resulting rage that occurred after the fact has been magnified on the world stage because of its intensity and staying power. Although the methods that the rioters have used to express their anger are inexcusable, it is up to all of us to find a peaceful solution to this matter. By releasing the police officer’s name alongside a video of the deceased allegedly committing a “strong arm” robbery, the Ferguson Police Department continues to incite rage in the community while revealing its unrelenting unfairness and partiality. By revealing the convenience store tape, the Ferguson Police Chief gives the community the impression that he is more concerned with protecting his own (officer) than seeking true justice in the case.

The people of St. Louis County, the nation and the world are looking for justice in the killing of Michael Brown.

For far too long, young black men such as Trayvon Martin of Florida, Eric Garner of New York City and Ezell Ford of Los Angeles have been killed with no justice given in return.

Today in the Show-Me State, we are demanding justice for Lesley McSpadden and Michael Brown Sr., Michael Brown’s parents, and the citizens of Ferguson. It is important that police officers respect the citizens they are sworn to protect and serve. I encourage the St. Louis County and Ferguson Police to openly cooperate with the federal investigation and not try to protect their own (officer).

We are grateful to President Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder and the Justice Department for conducting a federal inquiry to ensure that a fair and impartial investigation takes place and that the constitutional rights of the demonstrators and the media are protected. In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

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Looking down the barrel Reporter faces rifle of police officer

By Bridjes O’Neil Of The St. Louis American I caught wind of 21st Ward Alderman Antonio French’s arrest via Twitter late last Wednesday, and tweeted that I was en route to the Ferguson Police Station. According

to initial reports, Alderman French had been arrested for unlawful assembly and would be detained for 24 hours.

I arrived at the police station to find a growing group of protesters outside the jail.

They chanted, “These killer cops have got to go!”

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • AUGUST 21 - 27, 2014 “Who shot Mike Brown?!

Ferguson police,” they answered.

And the now famous, “Hands up! Don’t shoot!”

I noticed a steady succession of police vehicles – \slowly driving by watching us or mockingly pumping his fist, as one officer in the passenger seat did.

“I’m going to count how many patrol cars drive by,” I tweeted. “Another just passed. #Ferguson #MikeBrown.”

By 12:48 a.m., I had counted five police vehicles.

North of S. Florissant Rd., we heard several pops that sounded like gunfire. About nine Ferguson police officers stationed themselves across the street.

Protesters became agitated, to the point of wanting to fight, after a motorist had pulled up and made some remarks out of my earshot. I overheard a woman tell the group that they had been set

up and not to give in to their tactics.

Next, we heard the low rumbles of tanks with snipers perched on top making its way down a residential street.

The tank positioned itself in front of us and was trailed by police in riot gear and additional police vehicles.

People immediately held up their hands yelling, “Don’t shoot!”

We were told by an officer with a bullhorn that if we did not leave, we would be arrested. Most, including myself, left as quickly as we could without alarming the trigger-happy cop on top of the tank. Five protesters, including freelance journalist Umar Lee, were arrested that night – captured in a cell phone photo and tweeted by USA Today reporter Yamiche Alcindor.

“I have never had a gun pointed at me,” I later tweeted. “Let alone from a police officer.”

Obituaries

Parker M. Word

Parker M. Word passed away on August 14, 2014, leaving three children, five grandchildren, two sisters and a host of extended family and friends to celebrate his life. A Celebration of Parker Parker M. Word’s Life will be held Word on October 4, 2014 in St. Louis, MO. Condolences can be sent to Mathieu Word, 3142 S. Indiana Ave., Chicago, Ill 60616.

Gloria Yvonne Thompson Whittico September 13, 1923 August 12, 2014 Who was blessed in life to be wife, mother, grandmother, sister, and Christian, passed away peacefully at home after a brief illness at age 90. A native of St. Louis, Gloria was the daughter of Susie Ellens

and Elvis Thompson. She leaves to mourn husband Dr. James M. Whittico, Jr., son Jarrhet and daughter Joi, sister Joyce Smith, nephew Gregory and niece Lisa, grandchildren John and Julia, great nieces Kalyn and Kelsy, great nephew Camron, and great grandson Hayden. Gloria attended Marshall Elementary School and Sumner High School, where she was a member of the Honor Society. She obtained an Early Childhood Education degree from Stowe Teachers College and taught at Carr Lane and Cole schools.

Gloria was a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority and Lane Tabernacle C.M.E. Gloria Church.

Thompson Gloria and Whittico James were married on June 20, 1948. At her living request, Gloria’s memorial service will be private and limited to family and immediate friends. In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the Salvation Army.

Attention St. Louis American Readers As a service to the community, we list obituaries in the St. Louis American Newspaper, on a space-available basis and online at stlamerican.com. AT NO CHARGE. Please send all obituary notices to kdaniel @stlamerican.com.

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • AUGUST 21 - 27, 2014

The Ferguson revolt

By Dr. Maulana Karenga For The St. Louis American There were numerous rumors and partially reliable reports that the country was shocked and surprised to hear of and see its police in brutal action: killing an unarmed teen, Michael Brown; attacking peaceful demonstrators and journalists; flashing and using military weapons, vehicles and tactics; and turning the small town of Ferguson, Missouri into a war zone and battlefield.

But to those of us whose very life and death depend daily on avoiding, negotiating and surviving aggressive, abusive and deathDr. Maulana dealing police behavior, Karenga Ferguson did not come as a surprise, nor did it send us scratching a self-deluding, selfie-diverting head, wondering how could this happen in America.

For if America could see itself beyond self-medicating illusions and self-congratulatory narratives of an achieved “more perfect union” and “a post-racial society,” it would see itself from the eyes and experiences of its most vulnerable and victimized. Perhaps, it would then realize that it is in urgent need of a radical restructuring, not only of police policy, procedure and practices, but also of society itself, if it is to achieve anything remotely resembling racial, legal and social justice.

Certainly, it is easy for us to see why many would call or compare Ferguson to “a war zone” or “a scene from the Middle East” and describe the police as acting like “an occupying army.” Such designations and comparisons arise out of people having witnessed in horror the recent Israeli rampage and slaughter in Occupied Palestine.

It also is extracted from similar practices of occupying armies, whether in Haiti, colonial Congo, Kenya and Algeria or Iraq, Afghanistan and other places.

It is within this understanding of similarities in oppression and resistance that Palestinian resistance groups and persons sent social media messages of solidarity and support and varied suggestions of how to deal with tear gas attacks by the police to the people of Ferguson.

It is important to note here, however, that although we were not surprised, we never get used to the ongoing targeting, battering and killing, and the awesome toll it takes on the lives and life of our people. Otherwise stated, we will never

get used to or accept in submissive silence the structured violence of the unwarranted and undeclared “low-intensity” war against us as a people, and especially us as black males and men by police across the country who appear and act as an occupying army.

And the history of this repression is long, with an equally lengthy record of righteous resistance.

Indeed, since the Sixties, we have often defined the black community’s and the police’s relationship as that of an occupied people and territory and an occupying army. And we knew then, as we know now, that this occupying army, like all others, is marked by two defining features: a pervasive and sustained use of repressive violence and a deep and often depraved disregard for the life and rights of those under occupation. Moreover, this violence and disregard is to be seen not as the acts of a rogue cop or a department gone-wild, but as culturally-rooted, socially sanctioned, and undergirded with racist notions of human difference and human dignity and thus, of who deserves and does not deserve human rights and required respect.

And so, as early as 1965 our organization Us and other community groups created a Community Alert Patrol (CAP) which followed and monitored police activ-

n America is in urgent need of a radical restructuring, not only of police policy, procedure and practices, but also of society itself.

ity, informed those stopped and arrested of their rights, and secured pro bono lawyers to assist in this project. Likewise, the community put in place structures and processes to deal with this serious and ongoing problem of police violence under the cover and camouflage of law.

There is a persistent pattern of police practices all over the country, making black mothers and fathers constantly afraid for their male children. Likewise, there’s a history of blaming the victims for their own killing and a white supremacist mentality made even more aggressive by the possession of military weapons and a sense of a socially sanctioned and legally grounded right and responsibility to suppress, humili-

Tennis Ball Buddy With the help of a parent you can make a Tennis Ball Buddy within minutes. First, you’ll need to find an old tennis ball, try to find one without dog slobber. Have an adult slice a small, 1-inch slit across the middle of the ball, between the two white lines. This should look like a talking mouth if you squeeze the ball.

Next, with either a marker (or googly eyes and some glue) create some eyes. Finally you’ll need to find a home for your buddy. A wall near your front door or above the kitchen counter works great and you can use any type of adhesive to make it stick (glue, poster stickers, strong tape, etc.). You can even use a long push pin by poking it through the Buddy’s mouth and out the back. Get a parent’s permission of course. Now your Tennis Ball Buddy can be used to keep track of keys, hold on to mail, or leave notes for other members of your family!

ate and humble those criminalized by race and deemed unworthy of equal regard.

The revolt of black people in Ferguson against aggressive and deadly police violence comes in a month rich in the history of revolution, revolt and radical resistance.

I note here the beginning of the Haitian Revolution, August 14, 1791; the Gabriel and Nana Prosser Revolt, August 30, 1800; the Nat Turner Revolt, August 21, 1831; the Watts Revolt, August 11-16, 1965; and the Ferguson Revolt, August 9, 2014.

This revolution and these revolts against the Holocaust of enslavement, segregation and racism, in both its raw and re-invented forms, demonstrate the unbreakable will of the people to resist, to be free, to eventually break the back of oppression in all its forms and build a new society and world.

Thus, the sustained resistance in Ferguson is a homage to the history of which it is a part. And to maintain this struggle and keep the fervor and fire of resistance burning, several considerations and commitments are due.

Surely, we cannot listen to those who call for a peace without justice and are satisfied with justice as going through procedures, rather than producing rightful and due results. Also, we must have an agenda beyond this unjustifiable killing and gross injustice and extend the struggle to deal with police policy, procedure and practice as a whole.

It means also establishing a civilian review board to monitor and discipline police behavior, and build simultaneously community structures to monitor and hold accountable the civilian review board.

Moreover, our agenda must also selfconsciously extend from concerns about legal justice to those of social justice with due consideration of how these particularly serve the needs of racial justice. This means, in turn, rebuilding the movement, moving beyond periodic anger and episodic engagement to an ongoing righteous anger at and resistance to evil and injustice wherever we find it.

And it means recapturing and renewing our expansive historical sense of ourselves as a moral and social vanguard, whose moral vision and vocabulary and unrelenting and righteous struggle became an inspiration and instructive model for other oppressed and struggling peoples of the world.

Dr. Maulana Karenga is professor and chair of Africana Studies, California State University-Long Beach; executive director of African American Cultural Center (Us) and creator of Kwanzaa.

Upcycling is the reuse of discarded items in a way to create a new product of a higher value.

Speaker Amplifier So many of us watch tv shows and movies on tiny devices. It’s nice because you can hold the screen close but sometimes the sound just isn’t loud enough, especially if you’re with a group of friends and headphones aren’t an option. Using another old tennis ball, you can amplify that sound directly toward your ear holes. Carefully cut the top quarter off of the tennis ball so that you’re still left with most of the ball but have a big enough hole to amplify the sound in your direction. Then slice a 2-inch slit (similar to the Buddy mouth) about 1/4” inch below that hole so that you can attach the amplifier around the gadget. This will also work even if the speaker is on the back of the device so long as it makes it inside of the amplifier.

Next Week...

Egg Cartons

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Monsanto School ‘Gateway to the future’

On September 12, Gateway MST Elementary will receive the 2014 Monsanto School of Excellence Award.

St. Louis American See page A5

The

CAC Audited AUG. 28 – SEPT. 3, 2014

stlamerican.com

“We are required to leave here today and change things.”

– Rev. Al Sharpton The Rev. Al Sharpton delivered one of two eulogies at the funeral of Michael Brown held Monday at Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church in St. Louis.

Vol. 85 No. 21 COMPLIMENTARY

Protest turns to voting

‘People still have to be excited about lifting their voices,’ says Gaskin of NAACP

By Rebecca Rivas Of The St. Louis American

Michael Brown mourned by family, world

Photo by Wiley Price

Slain teen’s life celebrated as leaders call for change

By Bridjes O’Neil Of The St. Louis American On Monday, thousands celebrated the life of Michael Brown, 18, at Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church in St. Louis. Brown – as the world now knows – was shot six times and killed by Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson

on August 9, sparking two weeks of protests that drew national media to St. Louis and ignited international outrage.

Three White House officials attended the funeral. Broderick Johnson, head of the My Brother’s Keeper Task Force and assistant to See BROWN, A7

Photo by Wiley Price

Lesley McSpadden, mother of Michael Brown, walked behind the casket bearing her slain son during Monday’s funeral services at Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church in St. Louis.

If Ferguson residents want a diverse police force that reflects the community, they need to elect someone who makes inclusion a priority, said Michael McMillan, president and CEO of the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis.

In Ferguson – where an unarmed black teenager was fatally shot by a white police officer on Aug. 9 – the police department has three black officers and 50 n In 2013, officers. The only about six white town’s population is percent of the 67 percent Africaneligible black American, yet Ferguson has a white voters cast mayor and five of their ballot in the six-member city Ferguson’s council members are municipal also white.

As the Postelection, Dispatch illustrated compared to with a startling 17 percent of graphic on the front white voters. page of the Sunday paper, Ferguson is typical among county municipalities for its lack of representation of blacks in police and government.

Several local leaders are encouraging protesters fighting for justice in the Michael Brown case to keep marching, but also register to vote. The Urban League, NAACP, ministers and politicians have all organized volunteers to educate residents on the voting process and register especially African-American voters. In 2013, only about six percent of the eligible black voters cast their ballot in Ferguson’s municipal election, compared to 17 percent of white voters.

“The need for voter registration See VOTING, A6

County NAACP strategizes for civic engagement Civil rights group makes demands and organizes community

By Sandra Jordan Of The St. Louis American While thousands, including many celebrities, rallied for unity and justice last week at Greater Grace Church to support the family of Michael Brown and the widespread public outcry that ensued a week after the unarmed teenager was gunned down by a Ferguson, Missouri police

officer, the St. Louis County NAACP assembled a small but impactful group of organizations and individuals. They began the work toward civic and political engagement that will last beyond protests, rallies and demonstrations.

“We at the NAACP have to have a call to action,” said John Gaskin III, a member of the NAACP national board of directors. “We have to do something about this.”

The St. Louis County branch of the nation’s oldest civil rights organization called for: • A formal apology from the City of Ferguson to the family of Michael Brown • The U.S. Department of Justice take over See NAACP, A6

The St. Louis County NAACP, Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis and other groups organized a protest march in Ferguson on Saturday. The NAACP has issued a list of demands in response to the police shooting of Michael Brown.

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • AUG 28 - SEPT 3, 2014

Salute to Excellence in Education 2014

Cindy Mayer shows students how to get there

Hancock Place Counselor will be honored at 2014 Education Salute

Cindy Mayer, guidance counselor at Hancock Place High School, is the St. Louis American Foundation’s 2014 SEMO Counselor of the Year.

By Rebecca Rivas Of The St. Louis American Hancock Place High School has a 100 percent graduation rate, and its guidance counselor, Cindy Mayer, played a big part in hitting that mark.

“My proudest achievement is watching these young men and ladies graduate,” she said.

“Sometimes it’s a rocky road for them.”

Over 70 percent of the students in the Hancock Place School District, located in South St. Louis, qualify for free or reduced lunch.

“I believe everyone is able to go on beyond high school and do something that makes them feel fulfilled,” she said.

“The most important thing is to enjoy what you do and feel what you do has a purpose.”

On September 12, Mayer will receive the 2014 SEMO Counselor of the Year award by the St. Louis American Foundation at its 27th annual Salute to Excellence in Education Gala, to be held at the America’s Center Ballroom. The gala will begin at 7 p.m., following a reception at 6 p.m.

Mayer started with the school district as a family consumer science teacher 16 years ago, but she soon decided she wanted to reach all the students. So, she went

back to earn a master’s degree in counseling from Missouri Baptist University. Now serving 10 years as a guidance counselor, she said she loves being able to get to know all of the students before they graduate.

“Our families know that Cindy is available to help with all problems and challenges – from tears and breakups to college,” said Shelly RostVogler, assistant principal at Hancock Place High School, 229 W. Ripa Ave. “She goes to great lengths to make sure that she knows all of our students, and they know that she truly cares for them.”

With the roll out of the state’s newest requirements, there has been a big push to make sure all students have a plan after high school, Mayer said.

“That is my biggest role – making sure they find the right thing for them,” Mayer said.

Mayer helped guide the school through a big turnover to align the district with the

Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s MSIP4 requirements. She said she sees the value of DESE’s individual planning requirement. However, calculating academic achievement isn’t always so black and white.

“Sometimes the state’s requirements make it really hard because there are barriers in some people’s lives that make it difficult to achieve at the levels that the state wants them to achieve at,” she said.

“I know everyone’s goal is 100 percent, but we are not there yet.”

Despite the challenges, Mayer has raised standardized test scores by digging through each student’s performance data and developing a plan of action for each student’s success, Rost-Vogler said.

Mayer was instrumental in making the school a national testing site for ACT, and she works closely with parents and students to prepare them for ACT. Mayer introduced the Key Club to the students, and it has turned into one of the most popular clubs on campus, Rost-Vogler said. She has run Hi-Step, an organization to help students make the right decision regarding drugs and alcohol, and Renaissance, an organization that recognizes student achievement and behavior. She consistently

urges students to get involved in charitable organizations.

When Mayer speaks to her students about taking leaps and making changes in their lives, she speaks from experience. At 35, Mayer was running her mother’s salon and working as a cosmetologist when she decided she wasn’t completely fulfilled. She took a chance and enrolled in college for the first time to become a teacher.

She is also proud that all three of her daughters understand the importance of education and have earned their degrees. Mayer said she was “very spirited” in high school and has continued to be deeply passionate about education.

“I get very excited when we take college tours,” she said. “I wish I could go back to college over and over; it’s such an exciting time.

My excitement in so many different ways is something that I’ve brought to Hancock – that, and the fact that every one of our students gets looked at. They just need guidance in knowing how to get there.”

The 2014 Salute to Excellence in Education Gala will be held at 7 p.m. Friday, September 12 at the America’s Center Ballroom, following a reception at 6 p.m. Tickets are on sale now. Individual tickets are $85 each/$850 table, and VIP/Corporate tickets are $1,500 table. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit www.stlamerican. com and click on Salute to Excellence, or call 314-5338000.

Follow this reporter on Twitter at @rebeccarivas.

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Where we go from here

By Stefanie Williams For The St. Louis American People around the world have been chanting “No Justice, No Peace” after Michael Brown was killed by Officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri.

I myself have been chanting “No Justice, No Peace” throughout the streets of Ferguson.

We want justice, but how do we get it? The evident incompetence of the local police, mayor and governor has made it impossible to keep Stefanie Williams protesting in the peace. Protesters Ferguson. Photo by Wiley Price continue to march, and the media continue to make revisions to their stories of what actually took place.

The media, police and government officials have tried to make Michael Brown look like a criminal and thug, as well as make the protesters look uneducated, and uncivilized people. Meanwhile, the police are treating us like animals. Instead of Isis, which is chopping off heads, the police use military tanks, tear gas and dogs on unarmed civilians, including babies and the handicapped.

They don’t discriminate!

To get justice in Ferguson, we need to accomplish several very important tasks. We need to put a stop to the Federal 1033 Program which allows the Department of Defense to transfer used military equipment to local police agencies like Ferguson. This led to the disturbing level of militarization of local police forces. It is up to President Obama to stop immediately all transfers of military equipment to local police forces with a bad record of racial profiling and police brutality.

Ferguson police arrested two journalists in McDonalds.

America has been so quick to criticize nations like Turkey, Syria and Egypt for suffocating the press. President Obama needs to send a signal that abuse of the press will not be tolerated in the United States.

Lastly, we need to start a bi-partisan voter registration program.

In a sign of bi-partisan support for the citizens of Ferguson, RNC Chair Reince Priebus and DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Shultz should send representatives to conduct a massive voter registration drive immediately. In the last mayoral election, voter turnout in Ferguson was less than 12 percent.

What a misfortune to have to lose a life to be heard. This is our opportunity for Washington leaders to confront a problem that is bigger than Ferguson. America watched Ferguson burn to the ground while the federal government did nothing other than investigate. We need Washington leadership to help us move forward and start to heal.

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Editorial / Commentary A4

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • AUG 28 - SEPT 3, 2014

All of us must solve this

“A movement means we’ve got to be here for the long haul,” Al Sharpton said at Michael Brown’s funeral, “and turn our chants into change, our demonstration into legislation.” Photo by Wiley Price “All of us are required to respond to this,” the Rev. Al Sharpton said Monday to mourners at the funeral of Michael Brown at Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church and to television viewers all over the nation and beyond. “And all of us must solve this.”

What we must solve, Sharpton said, is how we do police work in the United States. Sharpton was not warmly welcomed by all of the young people who started the protest movement in Ferguson – one young protestor said, “I don’t need a 60-year-old man to lead me around my own neighborhood” – but he spoke sharply on point in his eulogy.

For the dramatic events that unfolded in Ferguson since a white police officer fatally shot an unarmed black teenager on August 9 may have “started a national conversation about race,” as we have been told in countless media reports, but at root here is unacceptably bad police work that must be changed.

A police officer should not pump at least six bullets into an unarmed teenager in broad daylight. The body of a dead young man should not be left on the street in plain sight of family and friends for more than four hours while police slowly go about their crimescene business. Evidence about a police-involved shooting should not be withheld and manipulated as we have seen

Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson, St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar and St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch do in this case.

And the conduct of the police officers under Belmar’s command that repressed the mostly peaceful protests would be unacceptable in any theater of war, let alone on the suburban streets of America. We are amazed that we watched on national television as police officers pointed assault rifles directly at peaceful protestors and (offcamera) initiated countless acts of alleged violence – including firing tear gas canisters at families with children – without reprimand. How some of these men, including Belmar himself, still have police jobs in our community is beyond belief.

Now that we have the region and world’s attention, what do we do to move toward positive change? Many of the mostly young people who propelled the Ferguson protest movement (with great assistance from their adept use of social media) have started to talk about organizing toward systemic social change. “A movement means we’ve got to be here for the long haul,” Sharpton said at the funeral, “and turn our chants into change, our demonstration into legislation.”

We do need to register voters, vote our full strength and leverage our influence on policy decisions affecting our

communities, which includes our police departments. There is a strong backlash about voting coming now from our impatient young leaders – many have said that it was a police officer who killed Michael Brown, not poor black voter turnout. While this is true, and we believe that Officer Darren Wilson deserves his day in court, we should not ignore the obvious. Officer Wilson was protected by Chief Jackson, who was protected by Mayor James Knowles, who was voted into office – and who should be voted out of office at the earliest opportunity.

We commend the outraged young people, in particular, who are demanding changes in policing and the penal code to ensure protection for the rights of everyone. Thanks to them, we are now at an inflection point in this region – at a unique moment for a region that is struggling, in a lowgrowth economy, to become more innovative and more competitive for the human and financial capital necessary to grow and prosper. The stakes are high for all of us, and we need to better negotiate and act to address the corrosive conditions that plague large segments of the people in this region. Our futures are inextricably bound together, and if we continue to ignore those trapped in the margins of society and fail to act in meaningful ways, we will suffer the consequences.

As I See It - A Forum for Community Issues

Police culture gone rogue

By Christi Griffin Guest columnist There are few who did not rise to the occasion, who did not donate, plan or pray. There are few who did not view the senseless and brutal shooting of Michael Brown as a reflection of the lack of value placed on the lives of black males. There are few who did not vow to carry on, to demand justice for Michael Brown and all who died Guest Columnist before him.

But there Christi are also few Griffin who realize the connection between brazen police shootings of young, black males and entire system of so-called criminal justice.

They don’t see a carefully designed plan to demoralize African Americans and bolster incarcerations. They don’t see that the failure to vote out a prosecutor whose disregard for the African-American community has empowered law enforcement to shoot to kill without fear of prosecution.

For every white officer who goes unindicted for gunning down black boys, a message is sent to others. To the police, no matter how disproportionate the response or incompetent the confrontation, there’s little to fear as to consequence. To

black boys, it’s a message of diminished value. To the world, it’s one that they are above the law.

The U.S. system of mass incarceration is big business.

It generates over $72 billion a year in profits for corporations and those who buy their stock.

Mass incarceration breeds on poverty, unemployment, disrespect and hate. It breeds on generations of black males once again learning their place; castrated by Tasers, billy sticks and guns.

It breeds on their submission to the constant taunting of racist and overbearing police – routine traffic stops turned into searches, routine searches turned into arrests.

It’s a circuitous practice that criminalizes black males for

n From this point forward, the words “To Serve and Protect” will include our sons as well. behavior routinely ignored when engaged in by whites. It’s a practice that has prison cells disproportionately filled with minorities.

With a staggering increase in the rates of incarceration, the correlation between prisons and a police culture gone rogue should be clear. Those who

profit from prisons, whether private or not, have bought their way into the pockets of politicians, courts and police.

They have insured that their investments bring a return and that prison beds stay filled.

All prisons generate profits, but since the inception of private prisons 30 years ago their profits have soared.

Essentially engaged in human trafficking on the stock exchange, their populations have increased by 800 percent.

There are few who ever thought St. Louis would be the epicenter of social change.

That the killing of an unarmed teen in Canfield Green would galvanize a region and generate a resolve previously unknown.

Outside of St. Louis, there are few who know the protests, violence and meetings are an indication that the days of unchecked police brutality has come to an end.

There’s a price to pay for our sons and that price will be high.

We’re tired. We’ve had enough.

From this point forward, the words “To Serve and Protect” will include our sons as well.

Christi Griffin, is the founder of The Ethics Project, a nonprofit organization addressing the impact of crime, injustice and incarcerations. She is the author of “Incarcerations in Black and White: The Subjugation of Black America.”

See www.TheEthicsProject.org or email TheEthicsProject@ gmail.com.

Commentary

When mistakes become deadly

To be young, male and black in America means not being allowed to make mistakes.

Forgetting this, as we’ve seen so many times, can be fatal.

The case of Michael Brown, who was laid to rest Monday, is anomalous only in that it is so extreme: an unarmed black teenager riddled with bullets by a white police officer in a community Columnist plagued by racial tension.

Eugene African Robinson Americans make up 67 percent of the population of Ferguson, Mo., but there are just four black officers on the 53-member police force – which responded to peaceful demonstrations by rolling out military-surplus armored vehicles and firing tear gas. It is easy to understand how Brown and his peers might see the police as troops in an army of occupation.

And yes, Brown made mistakes. He was walking in the middle of the street rather than on the sidewalk, according to witnesses, and he was carrying a box of cigars that he apparently took from a convenience store. Neither is a capital offense.

When Officer Darren Wilson stopped him, did Brown respond with puffed-up attitude? For a young black man, that is a transgression punishable by death.

Fatal encounters such as

the one between Brown and Wilson understandably draw the nation’s attention. But such tragedies are just the visible manifestation of a much larger reality. Most if not all young men go through a period between adolescence and adulthood when they are likely to engage in risky behavior of various kinds without fully grasping the consequences of their actions. If they are white – well, boys will be boys. But if they are black, they are treated as men and assumed to have malicious intent.

What else explains the shameful disparities in the application of justice? As I have pointed out before, blacks and whites are equally likely to smoke marijuana; if anything, blacks are slightly less likely to toke up. Yet African-Americans – and Hispanics – are about four times more likely to be arrested on marijuana charges than whites.

Studies also indicate that among people who are arrested for using or selling marijuana, black defendants are much more likely than white defendants to actually serve prison time. Similarly, blacks and whites are equally likely to use cocaine. But a person convicted of selling crack cocaine will serve a far longer prison term than one convicted of selling the same quantity of powder cocaine, even though these are just two forms of the same drug.

One arrest, even for a minor offense, can be enough to send a promising young life

Letters to the Editor Remembering history, resisting occupation I appreciate your publishing Dr. Maulana Karenga’s article: “On the Battlefield in Ferguson: Remembering History, Resisting Occupation,” but I’m also disappointed that the title was changed. Dr. Karenga always chooses titles as a lead into and a reaffirmation of the points he makes in the article and without the title something essential is lost. Certainly, the assigned title “The Ferguson Revolt” in no way captures the theme so essential to the article of remembering history and resisting occupation. I would like to request that you restore the original title. In solidarity and struggle.

Chimbuko Tembo, associate director, African American Cultural Center (Us) Los Angeles, CA Editor’s note: We substituted a title that was a better fit with our print layout. The original title has been restored in the online publication. Our apologies.

Organizing to help create change I am particularly sympathetic to the parents and relatives of Michael Brown for their loss, and am unsettled over the circumstances of his death. I was reared in St. Louis, attended elementary school and was a graduate of Vashon High School. Still today, I have many family members in St. Louis and recently buried my mother there, Velma Carr Moore.

I have closely followed the daily reports regarding the circumstances of Michael Brown’s death and have paid close attention to eyewitness accounts of the shooting. I have also continued to watch the televised protests. I have been in contact with some of the elected officials and community leaders in the St. Louis area and join with the overall community in calling for justice for Michael Brown.

My presence at the funeral affords me the opportunity to personally share my condolences with the family.

While I am in St. Louis, I will meet with local leaders and

reeling in the wrong direction.

Police officers understand this and exercise discretion. But evidence suggests they are much more willing to give young white men a break than young black or brown men.

Why would this be? In Ferguson, one obvious factor is the near-total lack of diversity among police officers. What year is this, anyway?

But there is disparate treatment even in communities where the racial makeup of the police force more closely resembles that of the population. I believe the central problem is that a young black man who encounters a police officer is assumed to have done something wrong and to be capable of violence.

These assumptions make the officer more prepared than he otherwise might be to use force – even deadly force.

The real tragedy is that racist assumptions are self-perpetuating and selfreinforcing. If young black men are treated unfairly by the justice system, they are indeed more likely to have arrest records – and, perhaps, to harbor resentment against police authority. In some circumstances they may feel that standing up to the police is a matter of self-respect.

Michael Brown had no police record. By all accounts, he had no history of violence.

He had finished high school and was going to continue his education. All of this was hidden, apparently, by the color of his skin.

All letters are edited for length and style.

offer my assistance in future political organizing to help create change in the Ferguson community.

U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters Los Angeles, CA

Trust on both sides The Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, Missouri, has once again focused attention on an unarmed person of color losing his life in a situation that certainly appears should have been avoidable. This has become an all-too-familiar scenario in America. The deaths of Fong Lee, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and countless others demonstrate that the law enforcement and justice systems in our nation are broken and must be immediately addressed.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) is working to create conditions where vulnerable children of all races can thrive and be successful.

Since the birth of our nation, racial privilege and structural inequities have influenced the nation’s policies and social systems, from justice and law enforcement to healthcare, education and child welfare and other facets of everyday life. In America, those who differ from the majority because of race, color, sexual orientation, religion, gender, weight and other characteristics face a deluge of outright discrimination and unconscious bias.

As the nation addresses the system failures that have contributed to the deaths of Brown and the others, we must also acknowledge the role that racism plays in these tragedies. WKKF believes that racial healing must be a major component of the prescription that takes our nation on a course toward equality and justice for all. Our America Healing initiative has been helping communities bridge their racial divides and move forward together. We will continue those efforts through our grantees across the country.

WKKF proudly supports the work of Phillip Atiba Goff, president of the Center for Policing Equity, who is at the forefront in helping police departments understand how their officers’ unconscious biases can affect their police

work and their attitudes toward the people they serve. We must have communities working together with law enforcement, but that only comes when there is trust from both sides. We don’t have that today.

La June Montgomery Tabron, president and CEO W.K. Kellogg Foundation Battle Creek, MI

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A6

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • AUG. 28 – SEPT. 3, 2014

VOTING

St. Louis City Alderman Antonio French, who was among the first supporters Continued from A1 of the protest movement, is shifting his efforts into a education and mobility has project he calls “HealSTL.” always been a cornerstone of French said on Wednesday that the Civil Rights Movement,” HealSTL organizers opened McMillan said. their first office at 9171 W. If African Americans Florissant Ave. are not registered to vote, “Our first mission: register they can’t serve on a jury, and organize black voters McMillan explained. St. in #Ferguson,” he stated on Louis County Prosecuting Twitter.

Attorney Robert Metropolitan McCulloch Congregations n “The need for recently chose United, which voter registration represents more to have a grand education and jury consider than 40 churches whether Ferguson mobility has across St. Louis, police Officer recently called always been a Darren Wilson, on all of its cornerstone of 28, should face member churches the Civil Rights charges in the to register 100 fatal shooting of percent of their Movement.”

Brown. The grand members and get jury consists of – Michael McMillan, 100 percent of one black man them to the polls.

Urban League and two black Interestingly, women, and right-wing six white men conservatives and three white were quick to women. denounce these efforts.

Last week at the Dellwood “If that’s not fanning Recreation Center, the Urban the political flames, I don’t League of Metropolitan St. know what is,” said executive Louis, St. Louis County director of the Missouri NAACP and several other Republican Party, Matt Willis, organizations joined together on the website Breitbart. “I to offer food, rental and utility think it’s not only disgusting assistance and other services to but completely inappropriate.” the residents in the Ferguson McMillan said the area who were affected by comment went against “logical the unrest following Brown’s reasoning.” The Voting Act death. of 1965 helped to rectify They also set up a table to the longtime oppression of register voters. McMillan said African-American people in Urban League and NAACP this country, he said. volunteers have also been out “It is irresponsible to say talking with young people on it’s ‘disgusting’ to register West Florissant Avenue, where African-American people to the protests have taken place, be part of their government,” about becoming more engaged McMillan said. in their communities.

St. Louis County NAACP’s

John Gaskin III recognized the familiar tune.

“These are the same people who worked tirelessly to pass voter suppression laws,” Gaskin said. “Those are the same people who don’t want us to vote.”

Gaskin said the NAACP’s voter registration campaign is focused on civic engagement on several levels. They want people to understand how to get their concerns on the agenda at city council meetings, for instance. They’re also handing out dates for fire

department and school board meetings.

Many people don’t know how to actively and effectively participate in their local governments, he said.

“We don’t want to allow the newness of the situation to die out,” Gaskin said. “People still have to be excited about lifting their voices.”

During the NAACP’s Saturday rally, resident Debra Reed stood in the center lane of West Florissant Avenue with a handmade voter registration sign. Reed was

not volunteering with any organization. She and her daughter are simply “two people who care,” she said. She believes voting brings about change.

“We do not have to accept police brutality,” she said. “We do not have to accept white boards in a 70 percent black neighborhood.”

Reed, who began protesting in the ‘60s, said, “This is déjà vu to me.”

In the ‘90s, police officers beat her bi-racial son, she said.

“I never thought that I’d get

down on my knees and thank God it happened in the ‘90s because today he’d be dead,” she said.

“Grandma!” her grandson interrupted.

“I do not want a grandchild to be killed by police,” she said. “I don’t want a system ran by privileged white people.”

NAACP

impartial, transparent and uncompromised

ensure transparency of police operations

and racial profiling

• Establishment of citizen review boards for every municipal police department in St. Louis County to

• A state investigation of every municipal police department in the county that has a history of police brutality

the Anti-Defamation League of Missouri/Southern Illinois, Ferguson-Florissant School District, the Urban League, UAW, Mound City Bar Association, Pan Hellenic Council, Regional Human Relations Commission, as well as representatives from higher education, diversity and cultural competency training, school board members, retired educators and St. Louis County residents.

Attendees were asked to

University, talked about a recent meeting with a group of 13-year-old males as they discussed the Michael Brown killing.

“Lots of them hadn’t really heard of the Constitution before, lots of them didn’t know what the First Amendment is about,” Norwood said. “None of them knew ‘know your rights’ stuff or what to do when you are stopped by a police officer.

None of them knew any of these kinds of things that we need to get out there.”

The American Civil Liberties Union website provides a history of the Bill of Rights https://www.aclu. org/racial-justice_prisonersrights_drug-law-reform_ immigrants-rights/bill-rightsbrief-history; and the right to protest https://www.aclu.org/ free-speech/know-your-rightsdemonstrations-and-protests and about racial justice https:// www.aclu.org/racial-justice, among other issues.

Perhaps the most controversial proposal by the organization is the County NAACP’s call to dissolve small municipal police departments, which they say lack accountability and the resources to properly train officers. They propose direct oversight by the St. Louis County Police Department and St. Louis County government.

“Although many smaller townships rely on traffic stops for city income, this is at the expense of citizen’s safety and overall transparency and accountability,” the organization stated.

The St. Louis County NAACP is recruiting youth to become peer leaders to teach other youth about their rights and civic engagement for the betterment of their communities.

Continued from A1 the entire death investigation to ensure a probe that is

Photo by Wiley Price

Michael Brown Sr., father of Michael Brown, wore an image of his slain son on his tie when he attended his funeral service on Monday at Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church in St. Louis.

• Mandatory training for all police officers in St. Louis County to prevent racial profiling as part of law enforcement training.

Some of those points are partly being addressed, independent of the demands.

The Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice is investigating the case, in addition to the state criminal process, in which a grand jury is reviewing evidence to determine whether criminal charges should be filed against the shooter, Darren Wilson, who is currently on paid administrative leave.

On August 21, Missouri U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill announced she will lead a hearing in September to examine the militarization of local police departments.

In its call for an end to police brutality and the demilitarization of police forces, the NAACP plans to meet with police chiefs and mayors for open discussions about the proper protocol for documenting reports or concerns of police brutality and to encourage community policing.

The group working with the NAACP included leadership from Latinos en Axion STL,

n The County NAACP called to dissolve small municipal police departments, which they say lack accountability and resources. help the organization execute an aggressive voter registration and mobilization campaign and to call for greater civic engagement and attendance at city council and fire protection district meetings in all municipalities in St. Louis County. In education, the group is asking parents to becoming active in PTA/PTO groups and district-wide committees and school board meetings.

Kimberly Norwood, a law professor at Washington

St. Louis American’s Bridjes O’Neil contributed to this report.

Follow this reporter on Twitter at @Rebeccarivas.

For more information, call 314-389-1552 or visit www. stlcountynaacp.org.

Visit The St. Louis American’s award-winning website for updated news, sports and more, www. stlamerican.com

A7

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • AUG. 28 – SEPT. 3, 2014

BROWN

1787 Three-fifths Amendment.

“He was not three-fifths of a citizen,” Crump said of Brown. “He was an Continued from A1 American citizen, and we will not accept three-fifths justice.”

President Barack Obama and White Sharpton, who gave one of two House cabinet secretary, was joined by eulogies, told those gathered that it was Heather Foster and Marlon Marshall, “out of order” for Michael Brown Sr. both with the White House Office and McSpadden to bury their child. of Public Engagement. Marshall is a Brown should have been well into his St. Louis native who attended high second week of studies at Vatterott school with Brown’s mother, Lesley Technical College, Sharpton said.

McSpadden.

Brown was set to begin his first day of Nationally renowned personalities college on Monday, Aug. 11, two days such as Spike Lee, Tom Joyner, Bishop after he was killed.

T.D. Jakes, Congresswoman Maxine Sharpton glanced at the black and Waters, D-CA (another St. Louis gold casket that bore Brown’s body and native), the Rev. Jesse Jackson and two said, “All of us are required to respond of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s to this.” children were also in attendance.

“God is not going to judge you by Officiating pastor Rev. your behavior in Heaven,” Michael Jones announced Sharpton said. “He’s going to n “There is that an estimated 600 of judge you by what you do on a cry being those in attendance were earth.” made from family members. Family Brown would not have members honored the the ground for wanted to be remembered “gentle giant” by wearing for riots, Sharpton said. He justice.” shades of red, and buttons or would have wanted to have black neckties with Brown’s – Pastor been remembered as the one image on it. who made the country deal Charles Ewing, Brown’s stepmother, with how it polices its people, uncle of Calvina Brown, said she Sharpton said. Sharpton Michael Brown felt privileged to speak said the country will have to on behalf of someone she come to terms with how it considered a “dynamic has enough money to obtain young man” and her “best military equipment, but lacks funds for friend.” Before his death, Brown told job training and public education. her that one day he would shape the Sharpton called into question the world – that one day the world would handling and release of evidence by the know his name, she said.

Ferguson and St. Louis County police Brown’s uncle, Pastor Charles departments.

Ewing of Jennings Mason Temple “How do you think we look when C.O.G.I.C., referenced the Bible’s the world can see you can’t come up account of Cain and Abel and said with a police report, but you can find “there is a cry being made from the a video?” Sharpton said. “How do ground for justice.” you think we look when young people The youth have taken a stand and march nonviolently asking ‘for the land said they have had enough of seeing of the free and the home of the brave’ their brothers and sisters killed in the to hear their cry and you put snipers on streets, Brown’s cousin Eric Davis the roof?” said. Only by voting can the youth The community is not anti-police and continue being agents of change, he believes that the “rotten apples” need said. to be “taken out the bushel” and held Some said that history is repeating accountable, Sharpton said. And the itself, in that Brown’s police-involved African-American community should shooting death and its aftermath are be equally outraged at black-on-black reminiscent of the civil rights era. violence.

“You might not have been around “I understand that nobody will help in the 1960s,” an elderly photographer us if we don’t help ourselves,” Sharpton was overheard saying outside the said. “We are required to leave here church before the funeral. “But, this is today and change things.” just like the 1960s.”

St. Louis American web editor and Before introducing National reporter Kenya Vaughn contributed to Action Network President the Rev. this report.

Al Sharpton, lead attorney Benjamin Follow this reporter on Twitter: @ Crump referenced the Dred Scott BridjesONeil. E-mail this reporter: Decision of 1857 and its precedent the boneil@stlamerican.com.

Photo by Wiley Price

Lesley McSpadden, mother of Michael Brown, fought back tears during Monday’s funeral services for her slain son at Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church in St. Louis.

A10

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • AUG 28 - SEPT 3, 2014 St. Louis Alderman Antonio French on the front line of the Ferguson protests, trying to convince an enraged protester to stop taunting the police who confronted him in full riot gear.

National March on Ferguson set for Saturday The protest movement in Ferguson that brought the world’s attention to some of the dire conditions of many African Americans in the St. Louis region and beyond has been a leaderless movement, or a movement with many leaders, and that poses challenges as the reaction to these conditions begins to evolve beyond street protests into calls for change.

Protests first arose from the grief and anger of family and friends close to Michael Brown, who was shot and killed by a Ferguson Police officer on August 9 and left to lie on the street in the blazing sun for more than four hours in plain view of his friends and loved ones.

That initial core of protestors, many of them teenagers and youth in their early 20s, immediately attracted supporters who were mostly in their late 20s and early 30s.

They arranged for basic protest relief supplies – water, ice, snacks – and tried to channel the anger of the youth. That first 20- and 30-somethingyear-old support group produced the movement’s first unofficial spokespeople, who would soon become international media phenomena.

Also from the beginning, there was a back line and a front line of slightly older adults. On the back line, more supplies were collected and

distributed. Prayers were sent to heaven and alerts were sent to some of their peers in the region that the young people were very upset and looked serious. Folks got up in the morning and cleaned up the mess on the streets left by the police, protestors and outside opportunists who drifted into the movement, wanting to fight the police or make out with loot.

On the front line, the older support group became formal and informal Peacekeepers, who fought to keep a dangerously escalated militarized police response (and the fight-the-cops faction) from provoking the angry youth into their self-destruction. Also on the front line, black St. Louis’ protest veterans came to keep counsel, focus anger and organize grievances into formal demands. This older generation of protestors is more internally organized than the young hip-hop generation leaders, who mostly are discovering their own power for the first time, on a world stage, and going through understandable growing pains.

The militarized police response was subsequently tamped down by a belated change in police command – removing from the top spot County Police Chief Jon Belmar, a SWAT team advocate – and aggressive

Photo by Maurice Meredith

community policing from within the protest movement and (again, belatedly) by the police themselves. Increasingly peaceful protests, with fewer opportunistic instigators and a less militarized police presence, came to a stand-still on Monday, at the request of Michael Brown’s family.

They, of course, started the movement, with their terrible grief and rage, and they alone were able to stop it, if only for a day of silence while their son was laid to rest.

Now this movement with multiple leaders is producing multiple lists of demands and presenting them more or less independently of each other and not always to the same authorities.

The St. Louis County NAACP came out early last week with a strong set of demands: a formal apology from the City of Ferguson to the family of Michael Brown: the U.S. Department of Justice take over the investigation; establishment of citizen review boards for every municipal police department in St. Louis County; a state investigation of every municipal police department in the county that has a history of police brutality and racial proofing; mandatory

training for all police officers in St. Louis County to prevent racial profiling.

The NAACP announced plans to meet with police chiefs and mayors for an open discussion about the proper protocol for documenting reports or concerns of police brutality and to encourage community policing.

The County NAACP also called for the dissolution of small municipal police departments, which they say lack accountability and the resources to properly train officers, with the St. Louis County Police Department taking over enforcement.

On Tuesday a group that has the support of Tef Poe, one of the movement’s first young supporters and organizers, and the Organization for Black Struggle, from the older protest generation, rallied at St. Louis City Hall and then marched to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in St. Louis to present a varied list of demands. This was new, because for the first time it brought heat out of St. Louis County, where this fire started, to the City of St. Louis. It also sought to connect the Michael Brown shooting by Ferguson police (a municipal department in the county) with the fatal

shooting of Kajieme Powell by two St. Louis city cops on August 20.

There are differences in the two shootings and how they were handled. Powell was brandishing a knife, whereas Brown was unarmed, and city police leadership responded instantly to document the crime scene, remove the body and address the community to their face. But the shooting of Michael Brown followed so close upon the August 5 police shooting of John Crawford in Beavercreek, Ohio (who was killed for leaning on an air rifle he was getting ready to purchase at a Wal-Mart), and the Powell shooting followed so closely on the killing of Brown and happened so nearby, that the Ferguson movement embraced it. Indeed, as Rev. Al Sharpton recognized in his eulogy, Michael Brown has become a symbol of police violence against black men everywhere.

There is one irony in the Ferguson movement protesting at St. Louis City Hall. City government now administers its own police department, and the city Police Chief Sam Dotson was alone among regional top cops in standing down from Belmar’s SWAT attacks on the protest movement in the early days. Dotson was careful not to make his criticisms too public, but he couldn’t understand why Belmar escalated so much so fast without trying to isolate and remove the more disruptive elements within the protestors.

That is the more productive policing model that would be introduced after Belmar was removed by Gov. Jay Nixon and replaced with a unified command under the public leadership of Captain Ron

Johnson of the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

For not letting his men support their Ferguson brothers and serve in Belmar’s SWAT show, Dotson was targeted by the city police union, co-signed by the statewide police fraternal order. A Washington University anthropologist who has had to dodge coups and counterrevolutions in Latin America read the police union statement as calling for a “police coup” against Dotson.

Another list of demands has been prepared by a faction of older protest veterans who are working in closest contact with the Michael Brown family.

These organizers are more sophisticated and seasoned, and their demands are more coherent. To quote from a poster for a National March on Ferguson they are organizing for Saturday, October 30, they demand that Darren Wilson be removed from the Ferguson Police Department and charged with murder and that Nixon remove St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert P. McCulloch from the case involving Michael Brown.

They also call for U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster to investigate the policies and practices of policing in the St. Louis region and throughout the state and then institute effective policies against racial profiling.

They call for Missouri Auditor Tom Schweich to audit local municipalities that have demonstrated a history of racial profiling and demand “accountability of how much revenue is being generated from traffic violations and how these funds are being spent.”

And they call for the immediate resignations of Ferguson Mayor James Knowles and Police Chief Thomas Jackson – and a recall efforts against the mayor of Ferguson if he remains in office, as he certainly appears prepared to do.

The National March on Ferguson will start at 10 a.m. Saturday, August 30 at “Ground Zero,” the torched QuikTrip at Canfield Drive and West Florissant Avenue.

Contact organizers, the Justice for Michael Brown Leadership Coalition, at 314-594-7022 justice4bigmike@gmail.com.

A16

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • AUG 28 - SEPT 3, 2014

Activism is in season

Ashley Bell and Angela Green stood with hundreds of young protesters marking a fifth day of unrest in Ferguson on Thursday, Aug. 14.

Photo by Wiley Price

Bearing witness to brave youth from the frontlines

By Danie Rae For The St. Louis American Usually, during this time of year, we are dishing on the hottest trends for students who are headed back to school.

But with the tragic killing of Michael Brown, it doesn’t seem appropriate for me to give the latest scoop on style and fashion trends.

Despite the sadness surrounding the injustice that has taken place here, young black youth throughout the St. Louis area have taken this tragedy and turned it into an opportunity to make a statement to confront the despicable, racist practices that not only the police throughout our region practice, but that the larger racist institutions in our society promote.

History tells the best story through photos. Through many other life-changing moments in the past, images serve as a time capsule for the future to get a full idea of what the life and times were like for those who were the voice for the struggle.

The protests and rallies that have come about as a result of Michael Brown’s death have produced iconic images that will be bookmarked as a time in our history when the topic of race came to a boil.

Specifically, the now famous photo of the young man throwing the tear gas canister back at the police while holding a bag of Red Hot Riplets potato chips will forever be synonymous with the “We are not going to let you mistreat us anymore!” tone of the times.

Other pictures of protestors in

Reflections on a killing

By Lizz Brown For The St. Louis American It has been a long two weeks since the killing of Mike Brown. Folks are tired, weary from the responsibility that telling the tale the city of Ferguson brings. You can hear it in the gravelly, battered

voices of the activists in the street. You can see it in the tired, intense eyes of those who have been the faces of this story.

I too have been tired – drained even. But my exhaustion set in not because cause there is so much to say about how we have arrived at

various statement T-shirts – branding slogans like “Justice for Mike Brown,” “Hands Up! Don’t Shoot!” and “Stop Killing Us!” – will be forever engrained in us.

Instead of pop or political figures being the face of a movement, the youth of St. Louis have now been seen and heard. They are not out here just posing for the cameras. Their sincerity and

authentic disposition has been documented for history to tell how when faced with blatant injustice, there can be no pacifying us with what they think we want to hear.

Local faces are national heroes and are now the face of the movement.

For me, being on the ground in Ferguson since the Sunday after Michael was killed has afforded me a firsthand account

this horrible place. My possibly Republican, exhaustion stems from historically illiterate, the rush to “solution” in racially ignorant, white an attempt to hurry the mayor able to run “heal.” unopposed in a majority Now that it seems the black city? protesters are occupying And so it began. the streets of Ferguson From the highest differently, we are elected officials in starting to hear more Missouri to children Lizz observations and theories not even old enough about how the Ferguson to vote, black voices, Brown African-American white voices – voices community finds itself united in one common in such a racially lopsided African-American beat down political position. Why is there – “if African Americans in only one elected AfricanFerguson had voted in the last American council member? election this may not have Why was a conservative, happened – things might have

of not how the police botched their relationship with the community by treating us like hostile insurgents instead of tax-paying citizens. It also put in perspective how fed up we as black people are with being harassed, mistreated and ultimately preyed upon by law enforcement. And our frustration shows not only through our raw, unfiltered emotions of anger and outrage,

but through our outwardly swagger that has a “ready for anything,” “no justice, no peace” tone.

Being privileged to share my own experiences with various media outlets throughout the country helped me try to process the horrendous events that have taken place. It also allowed those who don’t know the racial and police climate here in the St. Louis region to get a real unfiltered look at how the community refuses to be silenced, despite inaccurate media coverage, misinformation that has been concocted by police, and defaming details about Michael Brown’s life and the events that occurred right before his killing.

This tragedy has forced me to reengage with my passion for fighting for equality for all people. Being that it’s going down in my own back yard, I have had no choice but to be fully engulfed in making change within our community.

been different.” “Y’all should have voted.”

Why? Why has this statement been allowed to go unchallenged?

As an African American, I should not have to register to vote or vote in order to expect to be treated as a human being. No other community is told “well, you should have voted” when a member of the community is killed. No other community has to shoulder this horrendous burden. No other community has to sustain such an ugly hit.

African Americans should be able to live without deadly

consequences, irrespective of the color of political leadership.

And if we are not able to live without race-raged bullets directed at our children, the fault is with the person or institution that is pulling the trigger.

In America, AfricanAmerican voter turnout cannot be made the blame when a white mayor and a white police chief choose lawless police to patrol a largely African American community. The guilt, the punishment and the responsibility for their crime goes on their political backs not ours.

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Staging a movement ‘Purlie’ at the Black Rep offers Ossie Davis’ prescient perspective on Ferguson

See page C1

St. LouiS AmericAn The

CAC Audited SEPTEMBER 11 – 17, 2014

Vol. 85 No. 23 COMPLIMENTARY

stlamerican.com

City Council hears from protestors Concessions don’t appease public angry at police and court policies

By Chris King Of The St. Louis American Photo by Jason Rosenbaum/St. Louis Public Radio

A diverse, majority-black crowd thronged the Sept. 9 meeting of the Ferguson City Council, held at Greater Grace Church to accommodate greater citizen involvement sparked by the Ferguson protest movement.

When Michael Brown was walking down Canfield Drive on the sunny Saturday of August 9 with his friend Dorian Johnson, surely he never dreamed his memory would one month later fill a Ferguson City Council with

young, engaged black men. But that is just what happened.

The protest movement sparked by Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson’s fatal shooting of the unarmed black teen on August 9 is still going strong a month later. This was evident Tuesday night, Sept. 9, when a passionate crowd filled Greater Grace Church in Ferguson to

“We will continue to protest until justice is met.

We are not going to end this.”

attend the first meeting of the Ferguson City Council convened since Brown’s death.

The public was greeted by a police line searching for weapons – and surprised to be told that people would be allowed to speak for three minutes See COUNCIL, A6

Salute to Education 2014

Suggs Scholar is pursuing law degree

– Rhea Willis, a school teacher from Normandy

Maikieta Brantley keeps moving beyond masters in accounting

By Bridjes O’Neil Of The St. Louis American

Photo by Wiley Price

Organizers Eric E. Vickers and Brother Anthony Shahid led a chant as protesters assembled in an effort to peacefully shut down Interstate 70 on Wednesday afternoon. Organizers say they are starting a series of direct actions to protest St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch being allowed to handle the prosecution of the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teen shot at least six times and killed by a Ferguson police officer in broad daylight.

Protests move to direct action Attempt at I-70 shutdown intended to pressure McCulloch off case

By Rebecca Rivas Of The St. Louis American More than a dozen people were arrested Wednesday during a protest that attempted to shut down Interstate 70 in what organizers called an act of civil disobedience demanding justice for Michael Brown.

Michael McMillan,

n “They are stopping the people from peacefully protesting.”

– Amir Brandy

president and CEO of the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, was among the first handful of arrests – along with

See story video at

www.stlamerican.com Rev. Larry Rice.

About 100 police officers lined the on and off ramps to Interstate 70 at Hanley Road,

several dressed in riot gear.

When the protest began at 3 See PROTESTS, A6

When Maikieta Brantley, 23, enrolled at the University of Missouri-Columbia’s prestigious School of Journalism, she had dreams of becoming a broadcast journalist.

“Mizzou is number one for journalism,” Brantley said in a phone interview. “I knew that this was where I wanted to go.”

She turned down two full-ride scholarships to attend Hampton University and Howard University, two HBCUs or Historically Black Colleges and Universities. To finance her education, she applied for the University of Missouri Columbia Donald M. Suggs Scholarship. In 2009, the then-senior at Rosati Kain High School was named a scholarship recipient.

“I believe that everyone should have the opportunity to receive higher education,” she wrote in 2009 for The St. Louis American. “I am blessed to Maikieta have been awarded with such a lucrative Brantley, a scholarship.”

2009 recipient The University of Missouri Columbia of a Donald Donald M. Suggs Scholarship is a M. Suggs Scholarship at four-year, $57,000 scholarship—the university provides $46,000 of the the University scholarship funds and the St. Louis of Missouri American Foundation provides $11,000.

Columbia, is It was the first of what has grown to now pursuing a law degree at become eight scholarships at Missouri the UM School schools named after the St. Louis American publisher and president of the of Law in St. Louis American Foundation.

Columbia.

Each year, the proceeds from the St. Louis American Foundation’s four Salute to Excellence events fund scholarships for minority students. This year, the foundation, together with its educational partners, will foster over $370,000 in scholarships for local minority students and community grants, as well as laptop computers See BRANTLEY, A7

A5

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • SEPTEMBER 11 – 17, 2014

Gov. Nixon chose the State Fair

By Jamala Rogers

Photo by Lawrence Bryant

‘Too little justice’ A young protestor joined his family in protesting abusive police practices in Ferguson and St. Louis County during the recent National March on Ferguson.

Nothing is more contemptuous than allowing the body of a black kid to lie in the street for over fours, bleeding out. Instead of an ambulance picking up the body of Mike Brown to take his remains to the medical examiner, his lifeless body was hauled away in a police SUV. These powerful images quickly went viral as did the message: black life is worthless.

All the white men in charge, from the governor on down to the mayor, appeared to have no problem with this scenario. There was no rise of indignation, no empathy with the righteous anger from citizens – only cover up and justification.

We now find out that Gov. Jay Nixon went about his regular duties after the shooting, implying the death of an unarmed, black kid is no big deal. According to documents acquired by the Associated Press, the governor’s schedule included “announcing grants to preschools and visiting the State Fair.” It wasn’t until the fifth day of Ferguson going up in smoke that the governor turned his full attention to the volatile situation. Apparently, the black folks who have the governor’s ear were also Jamala Rogers sleep at the wheel.

This level of indifference and insensitivity takes me back to another man in high authority who had to be told to put on his human cap and respond to the suffering and deaths of black folks during Hurricane Katrina. It is unclear whether these people can be sufficiently humanized to accept the fact that black people are human beings with inalienable rights. Still, black people and other people of color must stand their ground and demand their civil and human rights.

Nixon is also at the center of the lethal injection scandal where the state has been fast-tracking executions, regardless of pending court rulings, circumstances or newly discovered evidence. He has gotten Attorney General Chris Koster and the General Assembly to help hide the state’s execution methods.

On the eve of the execution of a black man named Earl Ringo, National Public Radio has discovered the Missouri Corrections Director George Lombardi has lied under oath about the drugs being administered to death row inmates. The governor has the power to say let’s halt executions until we get it right. In my opinion, you can never get the death penalty right, but Missouri’s veil of secrecy has to be fully yanked off to see what else is behind that sinister curtain.

We keep getting droplets of the immoral, unethical and now illegal execution process. I was furious to find out that the state has administered the illegal drug midazolam before the execution warrant of Michael Taylor had even been completed. What is up with this haste to kill black men?

Ferguson must become a very different place, valuing the participation of black folks at many levels. As America’s racial and ethnic demographics change, attempts to maintain white supremacy cannot be tolerated. White men in power can chose to be leaders in the healing and empowerment of the Ferguson community.

Every time a decision is made to casually end a black life, a reaction can be expected. What we say and how we treat people who don’t look like us can have consequences – or could move us into a place of justice and peaceful co-existence.

A6

COUNCIL Continued from A1 each but would receive no responses from the council, which includes Mayor James Knowles III. The public comments made it clear why this protest movement remains strong a month after it erupted.

“It’s over with,” one young black man said, after reciting a litany of police abuses. “I’m tired of it.”

Another young black man talked about the trials of driving while black in Ferguson and North County, when during a brief drive one may be stopped and ticketed in several different municipalities.

“We know where the good jails are from being locked up so many times,” said another young black man.

Though the public was told to identify themselves by name, address and phone number, few complied. Most either spoke

PROTESTS Continued from A1 p.m., several young people lay on Hanley Road at the approach to the highway. All were arrested, as well as Rhea Willis, a special education teacher and former board member for the Northeast Fire Protection District in Normandy.

“We demand justice,” Willis said before the protest began. “This is the history of St. Louis. It’s always been discriminatory, and it’s time to stop. We will continue to protest until justice is met. We are not going to end this.”

As the protest started, police called over the intercom that people could not block the ramps to the interstate or the intersection at Hanley Road.

After the first arrests, protesters moved to the sidewalks and Hanley median.

However, police soon

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • SEPTEMBER 11 – 17, 2014

anonymously or identified themselves as “Mike Brown” with the address “Ground Zero.”

One young white woman and one young white man each self-identified as “Mike Brown.” When the young white man did so relatively early in the three-hour meeting, protest chants got going throughout the church for the first time.

Racial solidarity was a constant theme throughout the meeting. A black woman pointed out this is a matter of right vs. wrong, not black vs. white, and was cheered.

A helpful white woman who offered pointers about researching city government and running for office received a round of applause. Statements of strong solidarity from white speakers really gave spirit to the majority-black crowd.

John Chasnoff, a white man who has been organizing against police repression and brutality for decades, lectured the City Council on the provisions necessary

for a meaningful civilian review board, such as political independence and subpoena power. He received a mob of hugs from black activists as he stepped away from the mic.

The City Council had preemptively released a list of planned changes to appease protestors, including a weak version of a civilian review board and various changes to municipal court policy, presumably meant to ease the burden on residents suffering under what one speaker described as a “modern debtor’s prison.”

The City Council also was responding to legal pressure from attorneys at the Saint Louis University School of Law and Arch City Defenders, three attorneys who have been fighting injustice in area municipal courts.

When Attorney General Eric Holder spoke about the situation in Ferguson last week, his remarks reflected a detailed awareness of the Arch City Defenders’ work.

The presence of Department of Justice investigators in Ferguson, which was ordered

by Holder, was noted.

“It’s a shame that this child had to die before the federal government stepped in,” a black woman said.

If the City Council thought its advance concessions would placate the public, it was mistaken.

“We need municipal court change, not just here,” said state Rep. Kimberly Gardner, who represents part of the city of St. Louis.

Brendan Roediger, co-author of a stinging letter from SLU Law’s legal clinic to the City Council, said at a press conference earlier on Tuesday that the concessions did not go far enough.

“Our letter requested that all nonviolent convictions and warrants go away – that the warrants be lifted and there be no fines,” Roediger said outside City Hall. “We are looking to repair the relationship between the city and the community.”

That relationship is far from repaired, as the City Council meeting made clear.

For one, the process that produced the concessions was questioned. The City Council seemed to have agreed on new legislation without a public meeting, which would violate state law about open meetings.

“How can you propose a bill for a first reading?” one man asked. “Have you been meeting in secret?”

It did not help that council members sat through three hours of questioning and (at times) abuse from the public without offering any answers or explanations. A City Council being addressed by an entire church full of constituents without answering any of their questions ranks up there with riot cops pointing assault rifles at innocent people with their hands up among the bizarre images to emerge from Ferguson.

“It looks like a good job,” one black man taunted the council, “to sit up there and say

nothing and get paid.”

A black woman derided the mayor for his lack of leadership. “Mayor Knowles, it has to be you,” she said. “And if it’s not you, it has to be someone else.”

Knowles, in one of his brief remarks to the audience, managed to refer to a constituent as a “customer,” when he called the next speaker to the mic by saying, “Next customer.”

A recall of the mayor was threatened. Another resident asked of Police Chief Tom Jackson, “Why is the chief still employed?”

The dominant spirit was renewed black political engagement, with support from white allies, moving toward change in Ferguson.

“We’re not fighting each other anymore,” one young black man said. “Those days are dead.” He pointed at the City Council. “Now, we’re going to be fighting you,” he said, “because you been fighting us.”

announced that everyone – including members of the media – had to leave the area or face arrest. When protesters refused to leave, police selected certain members from the crowd standing on the median and sidewalks, chased them down and arrested them.

Police chased a few people into the BP gas station at the intersection and tackled them in front of car owners pumping gas. People were screaming and running as police ran into the crowds, not knowing who was being targeted.

A reporter for The American had to leave the area at 4 p.m. to meet print deadline. While leaving the public parking lot by the North Hanley Metro Station, about five Missouri Highway Patrol officers were chasing a young AfricanAmerican man, who had been one of the loudest protesters.

They finally caught him on the sidewalk near the Metro stop – far from the highway – and then tackled him to the ground

and handcuffed him.

Eric E. Vickers, one of the organizers of the shutdown, said at 4 p.m. that he expected the situation to escalate.

Amir Brandy wore his black T-shirt with “Peacekeepers” printed in white and watched police tear through the gas station.

“They are stopping the people from peacefully protesting,” Brandy said.

“Nobody is going out on the highway, so up until that point they are within the guidelines of the law.”

Brandy has been out on West Florissant Avenue since the protests began, following Michael Brown’s death on Aug. 9, he said.

“You see a reflection of what we’ve been seeing in Ferguson continuously – law enforcement disallowing the public to peacefully protest,” he said.

At a press conference Monday, protest leaders said the shutdown was a response

to Gov. Jay Nixon’s “moral ineptness” and his refusal to remove St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch from Brown’s case when he had the power to do so.

State Sen. Jamilah Nasheed submitted more than 120,000 signatures from people asking for a special prosecutor.

“Highway 70 is a direct result of their actions,” said Zaki Baruti, of the Justice for Michael Brown Leadership Coalition, “because they have refused to hear the pleas of the people.”

The coalition’s immediate demand is for the appointment of a special prosecutor in Brown’s case. Brown, an unarmed teen who had just graduated from Normandy High School, was shot and killed by a Ferguson police officer on Aug. 9.

St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch is responsible for bringing charges against the police officer, Darren Wilson. Vickers

said McCulloch should recuse himself from the case, pointing to his past failures to charge police officers in other abuseof-force cases.

Express Scripts currently sits at the northeast part of the Hanley intersection. However in 2000, it was a Jack-In-TheBox where two unarmed black men, while in their vehicle, were gunned down by police officers. McCulloch took no action against the officers in that case.

“When that case was presented to him with an FBI investigation showing that those police officers lied, Bob McCulloch took no action,” Vickers said. “Consequently, there is no confidence at all that the community has that he will fairly prosecute this case.”

Vickers said they also hope to show young African Americans how civil disobedience can be used as a means to justice.

“I want to thank the youth leadership that has come to

the forefront,” he said. “Our obligation is to support them, to use our experience in civil disobedience to help bring forward their desire to change the system.”

This is the first action in civil disobedience, Vickers said. Their actions will escalate if their demand for a special prosecutor and other demands for “social and economic justice solutions” are not met.

Indeed, the shutdown action started to spread on Wednesday, according to numerous reports on social media. Many protestors from I-70 moved to the Ferguson Police Department, where they blocked off South Florissant Road, forcing a faceoff with police that was broken up by a thunderstorm.

There were also reports of brief highway shutdown on I-64 in the city of St. Louis near the Saint Louis Science Center.

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • SEPTEMBER 11 - 17, 2014 this: the most powerful elected official in the nation and in the world, President Obama, made two statements on the crisis confronting Ferguson. The top law enforcement official in the U.S., Attorney General Eric Holder, made two statements and took a trip to Ferguson.

The governor, U.S. senators, congressmen and politicians from all over the region weighed in by voice and body extended by the City of because they could not ignore Ferguson was replete with their responsibility as elected profiling and disturbing, it officials. was nothing compared to the And yet as the city burned, relentless, ugly and dismissive what was heard from the people treatment that came once folks who were elected to represent settled in for the long-delayed and govern Ferguson? – council meeting. nothing.

The meeting began And so, last night, with a prepared in their first public statement read by appearance in over a the Ferguson Mayor month, the City Council James Knowles III. had an opportunity His words followed to make their failure exactly the content right. At Greater Grace of the press release Church in front of God, created by a media firm Lizz the generous pastor hired by the City of Brown and hundreds of black Ferguson. Problem is folks, the entire City the statement Knowles breathlessly read word by word Council could have asked for forgiveness. They could have said nothing about why the offered to make amends. They entire council has been MIA could have said they were and stone silent for nearly a sorry. month. Additionally, nowhere They declined – choosing in this carefully crafted, mediadefiant indifference instead. manipulative statement was a Given the fact that the single word about the killing of makeup of the council includes Mike Brown.

And perhaps most disturbing an attorney, a former Ferguson cop, a city renovator, a of all was the absence of a collective apology by the entire diversity trained community council for their mind-boggling volunteer and a councilman with over 15 years experience, failure to govern during the the failure of the entire biggest crisis ever to confront council to engage during this their city. past tumultuous month can To put this epic failure on only be assessed as political the part of Ferguson elected malfeasance. officials into context, consider

The mayor on the other hand, has made public statements during this last month. He has gone on television and granted numerous interviews. Problem is when he engages he exudes either happy ignorance or dunderheaded politics.

And it was no different last night when the mayor seemed very content to tell the crowd that he would allow statements but he would not entertain any questions. Needless to say, once the mayor told citizens who came to the council meeting for answers that there would be no answers, the meeting took an activist turn.

The crowd chanted, “We ain’t gonna stop until it stops” and “I am Mike Brown.”

Young people demanded the mic and spoke of the political Promised Land named “recall.”

Others described the failure of the council to answer questions as yet another reason why the community must continue the fight on behalf of Mike Brown.

At the end of the council meeting, after listening to hours of testimony by citizens, a couple of points became crystal clear. Elected officials in Ferguson are going to be taken out by recall or some other act of political extraction.

And the elected members of the Ferguson City Council who thought they answered no questions at the council meeting were wrong.

They did answer a question.

In fact, they answered the most important question of the entire evening. They gave us the answer to why they all must be removed from office.

residents of Ferguson, Dellwood and North County with job and educational opportunities, free food and toiletries, as well as recreational activities for youth.

“We are excited to provide much-needed services and resources to distressed residents in North County,” said Michael P. McMillan, president and CEO of the Urban League of

Metropolitan St. Louis.

The Ferguson Job and Resource Fair is sponsored by St. Louis Community College, Emerson, The Salvation Army, St. Louis Area Food Bank, Regional Business Council, USBank and America’s Job Center of St. Louis County.

For more information, call 314388-9840.

Recall them all Ferguson City Council meets for first time since killing of Michael Brown

By Lizz Brown For The St. Louis American Maybe the weather had been waiting for an opportunity to express an emotional commentary on the killing of Mike Brown. Right before Ferguson’s City Council meeting on Tuesday night, the first since Brown’s death, angry winds prowled the streets. The sky heaved and then dumped down rain. As if single droplets were too puny of a vessel to contain its feelings. And then suddenly, the meteorological venting was over, the sky settled down into a dark murmur and people begin to take their places in line to enter Greater Grace Church.

As folks stepped through the doors of Greater Grace, they seemed to be stepping into a Christian contradiction. Instead of smiling ushers in white gloves handing out programs, citizens were confronted by a force of all-white police officers demanding that they walk through metal detectors and empty their pockets. It was extraordinary. Appearing to cynically mock the Mike Brown protest movement, police ordered “hands up” and “pat downs” in a church foyer.

While the church greeting

Job and Resource Fair in Ferguson The Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis is partnering with St. Louis Community College to host a Job and Resource Fair 10 a.m.

– 2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 13, at the Florissant Valley campus, located at 3400 Pershall Rd. in Ferguson.

The fair will provide

Bird Feeder This Bird Feeder is super-easy to make and only requires a cleaned ketchup bottle, scissors, bird seed, string, and a small dish. First, find the right dish or bowl: the ideal dish is plastic and easy to cut. Remove the lid from Pancake your ketchup and use the ‘mouth’ of the bottle to trace a circle in Batter Dispenser cap the center of the dish.

Once they’re empty, Cut a hole in the the finished dish shape of this ketchup circle. Next, cut bottles still seeds a small triangle, make about halfexcellent an-inch long, dispensers ketchup on both sides, bottle for almost near the mouth anything. of the bottle - this Paint, triangle is how the homemade BBQ sauce, seed spills out of the and pancake batter bottle and refills the dish will work great after the birds eat. Now you’re coming out of an ready for seed! Fill your bottle empty ketchup with seed, then slide the dish bottle. For added upside down around the lip. fun, decorate Finally, screw the cap down the bottle to securing the dish onto the match the bottle. Carefully flip the whole contents. With thing over and your Bird Feeder the bottle is nearly complete. Cut nozzle you two small holes near can also cook the top of the bottle your pancakes and use a string to into awesome hang your Feeder shapes! from a tree branch.

Bowling Pins Save all your ketchup bottles and paint them to look like bowling pins! With ten bottles and a ball you can have your very own bowling game in no time.

Next Week...

Reusing Jars

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ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • SEPTEMBER 11 - 17, 2014

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Dhoruba Shakur (at the mic) and other activists from the Ferguson protest movement spoke at Ferguson City Hall on Tuesday afternoon in advance of the City Council meeting that evening. Photo by Chris King

Movement with many leaders – and many press conferences On Tuesday, Sept. 9, which marked one month since the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown, no fewer than three coalitions associated with the Ferguson protest movement gave press conferences. This goes to show that a movement with many leaders will have many press conferences – indeed, the EYE went on a whirlwind press conference tour of Ferguson.

The tour started Tuesday morning in front of Ferguson Police Department headquarters, the site of a month of protests since Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson shot Brown dead in broad daylight.

“Either we need to redefine what probable cause means and say that the police are not subject to it – or we arrest him right away just as we would with any other person accused of committing a crime,” said Rev. Carlton Lee of Flood Christian Church and the St. Louis Chapter of the National Action Network.

Flood stood with the Brown family, a member of the family’s legal team and a few dozen concerned citizens to ask that Officer Wilson be placed under arrest.

“If I walk in somewhere and I shoot someone six times that is unarmed, the police would immediately arrest me,” Lee said. “They would take me into custody, they would take my picture, they would fingerprint me and I would be waiting until proper charges are filed against me. We are wondering why Officer Wilson has been granted immunity.”

The Brown family – including his parents and several cousins – and friends continued to nod in agreement as attorney Anthony Gray spoke.

“Michael Brown Jr. had his hands in the air, which is a sign of surrender, and was shot from this position,” Gray

said, holding his hands in the air. “We have upwards of six witnesses saying that, which distinguishes this case from any other case – and is why you have interest from around the globe.”

Ferguson police claim that Brown was rushing Officer Wilson, after trying to wrestle his gun away from him, when he was shot at least six times. But the Brown family’s version of events has captured public interest and spawned a nationwide “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot!” movement. “ “With known enemies, seconds before we are going to take their heads off, if you shot and killed one of them with their hands like this, you will be charged with a war crime,” Gray said.

“We think that Mike Brown Jr. should receive that same treatment in America – his country – where his arms were raised in surrender, yet he was still gunned down. When you get the accumulation of these types of killings, we can no longer turn our heads when Darren Wilson is somewhere peaceful and secluded while waiting for the grand jury to take action.”

St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch – whose father was a cop killed in the line of duty by a black man – is presenting evidence to the grand jury. McCulloch has a long history of siding with police and has been attacked for his handling of this case and many before it.

Adolphus Pruitt, president of the St. Louis branch of the NAACP, suspects that McCulloch will lead the grand jury to a non-indictment of Wilson.

“We are not going to be satisfied with a nonindictment,” Pruitt said.

“Let’s ask the Ferguson Police Department and the St. Louis County Police Department what the use of force policy is. Has

anyone seen it? Let’s find out, release it, talk about it.”

“Our police departments need to understand they are here to serve and protect us – all of us,” Lee said. “When they commit crimes they need to be arrested like everyone else.”

Ferguson United announces itself At 1 p.m. the press conference tour moved to Plaza 51 on South Florissant Road in Ferguson, where a new coalition of African-American elected officials who represent parts of Ferguson announced a new campaign of civic engagement.

State Rep. Courtney Curtis, St. Louis County Councilwoman Hazel Erby and Ferguson Township Committeewoman Patricia Bynes – all African-American Democrats – said they are starting weekly meetings intended to educate Ferguson residents about the political process and groom new candidates for elected and appointed office.

The group, calling itself Ferguson United, will meet with residents 6-8 p.m.

Thursday evenings at Greater St. Mark Family Church, 9950 Glen Owen Dr., where the Rev. Tommie Pierson is pastor. Pierson also is a state representative and chairman of the Missouri Legislative Black Caucus.

Curtis, Erby and Bynes told media their group also included Ferguson Councilman Dwayne James, state Rep. Sharon Pace and state Rep. Rochelle Walton-Gray, also black Democrats. That does not include the African-American state senator for the area, state Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal (D-University City), who has been working out of the HealSTL office in Ferguson.

Bynes has accused HealSTL founder Antonio French, an alderman from the city of St. Louis, of “political looting.”

The group also does not include the U.S. representative for the region, Congressman Wm. Lacy Clay, another a black Democrat. While they said they had not talked to Clay about their efforts, Bynes did say, “I am sure he would be supportive of what we are doing.”

They said their goals are long-range and bent upon empowering the community.

James is the only African American on Ferguson’s six-

member City Council, despite the city’s 67 percent black majority, and Mayor James Knowles III also is white, as is Police Chief Tom Jackson.

Only three of the city’s 53 police officers are black.

“People keep asking, ‘Where is the leadership?’” Erby said. “We’re here. Anybody who would like to join us, we welcome that.”

Bynes said some of the new political activity generated by the protest movement sparked by the police shooting of Michael Brown is getting ahead of itself.

“There is this talk of recalling the mayor,” Bynes said. “We need to slow down and take a few steps first.

First we should go to the City Council and ask for a vote of no confidence. We don’t want anybody to jump to conclusions. We need to start with very small steps.”

‘It’s not enough’ The Ferguson press conference tour ended shortly thereafter at City Hall, where about 25 mostly younger people from the Ferguson protest movement peacefully assembled with not one assault rifle pointed at any of them.

The activists responded to policy changes proposed in an announcement made by the Ferguson City Council in advance of Tuesday night’s council meeting, the first since Brown’s death.

Qiana Williams, an activist with MORE’s bench warrant campaign who lives in the neighboring municipality of Jennings, said, “I’m happy to learn that Ferguson is taking steps in the right direction, but it’s not enough. Bench warrants impact people’s housing and stability.”

Dhoruba Shakur, an organizer with HandsUpUnited. org, said the roots of the protest movement lie in racial profiling by the police and a lack of economic opportunity for young African Americans in the St. Louis region. “Everybody is proud to be a part of St. Louis, but these issues cannot be ignored,” Shakur said. “It’s time for St. Louis to step it up and fix these things.”

Michael McPhearson spoke for the Don’t Shoot coalition on the weakness of the civilian review board proposed by the Ferguson City Council. “A civilian review board must be structured with financial independence and subpoena power and must represent all stakeholders, with the whole community involved,” he said.

Brendan Roediger, professor of Law at Saint Louis University School of Law and an advocate for the Ferguson community, said the proposed changes to municipal court policy did not go far enough, but they did represent “progress” – and a victory for the protest movement. “This,” he said, “is something that the people got done.”

Business

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SEPTEMBER 11 – 17, 2014

in Your Business

New political shop in operation in Ferguson Healing STL by registering voters – and testifying about tear gas

PeoPle on the Move Art McCoy is the new Chief Academic Officer and Superintendent-in Residence of MIND Research Institute, an organization serving over 630,000 students, 25,000 teachers, and over Art McCoy 2,000 schools in 35 states and Africa and Australia. Most recently he was Lead Consultant for redesigning UMSL’s College of Education school leadership preparation and development programs. Before that he was Superintendent of the FergusonFlorissant School District.

Tiffany Byndom of Florissant joined the Hauser Group, a public relations firm, as intern for the fall semester. A senior at Webster University, she will graduate in December with Tiffany a Bachelor of Byndom Arts in Public Relations. She has serves as public relations assistant for Webster University’s Global Marketing and Communications department and is a member of Webster University’s chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America.

Bryan T. Scott, of St. Louis, was appointed by Gov. Jay Nixon to the State Highways and Transportation Commission. Scott has been with the Boeing Company in St. Louis since Bryan T. 1988 and currently Scott serves as Director of Quality and as a member of the Boeing management negotiations team. The commission works to preserve, enhance, and support the state’s transportation system. The commission makes and tracks transportation policy and has authority over all state transportation programs and facilities..

Photo by Lawrence Bryant

Antonio French and HealSTL volunteers put in some early hours at the office on West Florissant Avenue in Ferguson on Saturday.

By Chris King Of The St. Louis American “We are looking for people who have been tear-gassed,” state Senator Maria Chappelle-Nadal said, looking up from a laptop.

Lordell Rush, 27, was someone she was looking for.

“I was tear-gassed,” Rush said.

“I also had a sniper rifle pointed at me.”

It turns out she was also looking for people who had sniper rifles pointed at them.

n “We discovered that people don’t know the political process.”

– Maria Chappelle-Nadal

An African-American Democrat from University City, ChappelleNadal was collecting eyewitnesses who were personally impacted by the militarized police response to the protest movement sparked by the police shooting of Michael Brown.

She planned to read their testimony on the floor of the Missouri Senate on Wednesday when it convened for a veto session.

“The veto session starts at noon,” she said. “I’ll call a special point of order and get up and talk about

what my constituents and myself went through.”

Chappelle-Nadal certainly went through it, repeatedly on live television. A legislator known for her passion and fearlessness, she dropped everything to support the young protestors who rose up after Brown, an unarmed black teen, was shot at least six times and killed on August 9 by a Ferguson police officer.

But Rush is not her constituent, according to the division of Missouri See HEALING, B6

Chauncey Granger, principal of Hazelwood Southeast Middle School, was recognized by North County Incorporated (NCI) as one of its 30 Leaders in their Thirties.

Chauncey Established in 1977, Granger NCI is a regional development organization which says it “acts as a catalyst to advocate economic and community development for North St. Louis County.”

SBA offering low-rate disaster relief loans Staff at Ferguson Library through Sept. 17, application deadline June 2015

By Chris King Of The St. Louis American The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is now accepting applications for low-interest disaster loans available from business owners and non-profit organizations in north St. n “The SBA is Louis County that suffered substantial economic injury as a result of the events in offering a belowmarket rate. Terms Ferguson.

Eligibility is based on the financial can be as long as impact of the disaster only and not on any 30 years.” actual property damage. These loans have an interest rate of 4 percent for small businesses – Bill Koontz, SBA and 2.625 percent for private, nonprofit spokesman organizations with terms up to 30 years, and are restricted to small businesses without the financial ability to offset the adverse impact without hardship.

As requested by Governor Jay Nixon, who asked for the disaster loan program, the SBA designated St. Louis County as the primary county for See SBA, B2

Aviana Brown earned a Master’s degree from New York University’s interdisciplinary program Visual Culture: Costume Studies, which examines the history of dress, textiles Aviana and the body as Brown material culture and its relation to fine and decorative arts from antiquity until the present. She is a fashion historian, Abstract Expressionist painter and public relations practitioner from St. Louis.

‘Major’ support for scholarships Major Brands recently donated $2,500 to The St. Louis American Foundation’s Scholarship Program. Left to right: Elson Williams, community affairs liaison, Major Brands; Sue McCollum, CEO, Major Brands; and Donald M. Suggs, president of The St. Louis American Foundation and publisher of The St. Louis American.

Niketta Dailey was named one of Thirteen Hospitality Super Heroes in the St. Louis region by St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission, which honors front line Niketta workers who best Dailey exemplify the region’s ongoing commitment to great service. Dailey is a guest service agent at the Residence Inn by Marriott – Downtown.

Nominations were solicited from management of hospitality industry companies and judged by a panel of customer service experts.

On the move? Congratulations! Send your professional news and a color headshot to cking@stlamerican.com.

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ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • SEPTEMBER 11 – 17, 2014 HealSTL is the brain child of Antonio French, the St. Louis alderman, citizen journalist and now worldfamous broadcast and social media commentator who also is pursuing an MBA at Washington University.

HEALING Continued from B1 into Senate districts. A black man from the near south side of St. Louis city, his state senator is Jamilah Nasheed – another passionate, fearless AfricanAmerican Democrat who supports the protest movement.

Indeed, Nasheed called the HealSTL office on West Florissant in Ferguson, where Chappelle-Nadal was working, while her constituent was contributing to future Senate testimony about police tactics.

“Don’t curse at me, senator,” Chappelle-Nadal said politely to Nasheed. “I have to vote my district. What’s-hisname put that language in there – it has a negative impact on my district.”

“What’s-his-name” was state Sen. Kurt Schaefer, a Republican from Boone County, who added to a noise violation bill a totally unconnected liability clause concerning a landfill in Bridgeton where radioactive waste has been burbling since the Manhattan Project of World War II. ChappelleNadal politely described her objection to that liability clause and the danger of radioactive waste festering in a pit near residential neighborhoods.

That conversation attracted a volunteer from the voter registration table, Jessie Geahlen. “Do you need a cancer researcher?” Geahlen asked.

Chappelle-Nadal nodded that she did not.

“I’d be happy to help,” Geahlen said. “That’s actually what I am most qualified to do.” A white woman who lives in the city of St. Louis, she has a PhD in cancer research from Washington University.

“I’m just between jobs,” she said, explaining her presence in Ferguson, “and I wanted to help.”

HealSTL is the brain child of Antonio French, the St. Louis alderman, citizen journalist (who could go pro, if he chose) and now world-famous broadcast and

Photo by Lawrence Bryant

social media commentator.

An African American who was pursuing an MBA at Washington University when Ferguson exploded, French was huddled in a back office, door closed, though visible through a Plexiglas window. He’s still on schedule to graduate in December, in spite of losing a month now to constant organizing and reporting in Ferguson.

On this Friday afternoon, first French was huddled with Glenn Burleigh, a white progressive political organizer from the city, and then with an intent, professional-looking white couple who had the appearance of a possible funding source.

When Burleigh left the conference to rejoin the volunteers, he said he was accepting a modest wage to help professionalize the voter registration operation that

French and colleagues are a white mayor, white majority building in Ferguson. “I’m on the city council, and white helping to make things more police chief – all of whom systematic,” Burleigh said, “for spectacularly botched their when we do go bigger.” response to a protest movement Voter education that put their starts the moment inadequacy before n “Any time you one steps inside entire world. register people to theBurleigh the HealSTL thinks vote in minority office, located in like an organizer, communities, for not a protestor – a strip mall next to the now-iconic whatever reason, he is bringing the McDonalds, needed method you put a target whose golden to the movement. on your back.” arches loom like “Once the rage is a beacon in wargone, how do we – Glenn Burleigh zone photographs keep the energy of the protests’ focused and most violent moving toward nights. The systemic change?” demographics of Ferguson he asked. Informing the are hand-printed in black community and empowering it Sharpie on a placard right to vote its strength is one place inside the door: 14,297 African to start, French and others Americans and 6,206 whites decided, but that involves a (more than a two-to-one complex process guided and margin) – plus 103 Asians and restrained by law.

597 “others” – in a city with “Voter registration is a

legally complicated matter,” Burleigh said. “You need somebody who did it before.

You don’t want to mess up in a way that puts you or your volunteers in trouble.”

How can you get in trouble just by registering people to enjoy a constitutionally provided liberty like voting?

By doing so in black communities.

“Any time you register people to vote in minority communities, for whatever reason, you put a target on your back,” Burleigh said. “I want to make sure when they pull the trigger, they don’t hit anything.”

“They” could be the Republican Party in Missouri, which loses ground whenever more African Americans vote.

Missouri Republican leaders said it was “disgusting” that protestors were using the death of Michael Brown to register

voters. “They” could also be white Democrats, who would face tougher primary opposition if more blacks voted. But French was also sniped at on Twitter by a fellow African-American Democrat, Patricia Bynes, an elected Democratic committeewoman in Ferguson. She accused French of “political looting.”

However, it’s difficult to see how French could “loot” voters, since he represents the 21st Ward in the city of St. Louis and HealSTL is registering voters in St. Louis County – where French has no intention of relocating.

Nor is French an advocate of the city merging with the county to pool voters – especially now that he has seen first-hand what a mess county government and police can be. French has pledged for HealSTL to work with elected officials in the county, including Bynes, County Councilwoman Hazel Erby and state Rep. Courtney Curtis.

“And you can see that Maria is working out of the office,” Burleigh said, “and she is a county elected.”

Perhaps it’s just that anyone who is managing to get elected the way things stand now could be intimidated by an upstart political shop like HealSTL, where change is in the air and on the white boards and getting into young people’s heads.

“We discovered that people don’t know the political process,” ChappelleNadal said. “They don’t know that their elected leaders are supposed to be experiencing the same things as the people they represent.”

And then she was out the HealSTL door, looking for more people who had been tear-gassed or had sniper rifles pointed at them, just like their state senator.

HealSTL is on Twitter @ HealSTL. Chappelle-Nadal also hopes to organize all Ferguson protest efforts under the rubric @ EyesonFerguson.