Protesters arrive at the Ferguson Police Department Saturday, Oct. 11, 2014, for a rally in remembrance of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. On Aug. 9, 2014, a white police officer fatally shot the unarmed Brown, in theSt. Louis suburb. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
LOUIS — Seventeen protesters were arrested early Sunday in a St. Louis convenience store parking lot near where a recent police shooting reignited anger about an earlier shooting of a black male by a white police officer in suburban Ferguson.
St. Louis police said in an email that the arrests were for unlawful assembly. Demonstrators had turned up at the Quicktrip gas station convenience store amid the four-day Ferguson October summit to protest the early August police shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown, who was unarmed.
St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson posted on Twitter that protesters were “attempting to storm” the business. He later posted that protesters were “throwing rocks at the police” and “arrests have been made for continued illegal behavior.” Police said in the email that there were no reports of injuries or property damage.
The man killed in the latest shooting was 18-year-old Vonderrit D. Myers.
A weekend of peaceful daytime protests and nightly police standoffs was expected to continue Sunday as organizers prepare for a wave of resistance they anticipate will lead to widespread, intentional arrests.
On Monday, a “direct action” led by local and visiting clergy members is planned for Ferguson and other places in and around St. Louis. Protest leaders don’t plan to release details until shortly ahead of time to avoid tipping off law enforcement.
“We still are knee deep in this situation,” Kareem Jackson, a St. Louis rap artist and community organizer, said Saturday. “We have not packed up our bags, we have not gone home. This is not a fly-by-night moment. This is not a made-for-TV revolution. This is real people standing up to a real problem and saying, ‘We ain’t taking it no more.'”
A crowd that organizers estimated at 3,000 marched peacefully through downtown St. Louis on Saturday to protest Brown’s death and other fatal police shootings of black males in the St. Louis area and nationwide. No arrests were reported on Saturday.
But early Sunday morning, protesters made their way to the south St. Louis neighborhood where the 18-year-old Myers was killed by a white police officer just days earlier. Protesters occupied the Quicktrip convenience store and staged a sit-in, some sitting outside.
Two months after Brown’s death sparked an initial wave of violent riots and led Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon to summon the National Guard, the highly organized weekend brought many newcomers to St. Louis.
The arrivals included Vietnam-era peace activists, New York City seminarians, many college students and hundreds of fast-food workers bused in from Chicago, Nashville and other cities.
The planned events began Friday afternoon with a march outside the St. Louis County prosecutor’s office, where protesters renewed calls for prosecutor Bob McCulloch to charge Darren Wilson, a white Ferguson officer, in the death of Brown, who was black. A grand jury is reviewing the case and the Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation.
Dotson said the city had enlisted extra officers and was prepared for trouble, though he hoped for the best.
Organizers said beforehand that they expected as many as 6,000 to 10,000 participants for the weekend’s events. Police were not able to provide a crowd estimate Saturday.
Tensions have simmered since Brown’s death. Residents were upset about the way his body lay in the street for more than four hours while police investigated the shooting. Many insist Brown was trying to surrender, with his hands up. Residents also protested the military-style police response to the days of riots and protests that erupted immediately after Brown’s shooting in the predominantly black St. Louis suburb where just three blacks serve on a 53-officer force.
Since Brown’s death, three other fatal police shootings of black males have occurred in the St. Louis area. The most recent involved an off-duty St. Louis officer who was working for a private neighborhood security patrol when he shot and killed Myers on Wednesday night.
The white officer, whose name hasn’t been released, fired 17 rounds after police say Myers opened fire. Myers’ parents say he was unarmed, and many speakers at the Saturday rally echoed those doubts.