Police Draw Ire With Arrests Before Missouri Grand Jury Decision

By Toluse Olorunnipa, Elizabeth Campbell and Mark Niquette  

Police and politicians spent weeks meeting with protesters in Missouri to avoid violence when a grand jury decides whether to indict a white police officer in the shooting of an unarmed black teenager. Demonstrators point to a standoff this week as a sign it may not matter.
About 60 police holding riot shields rushed protesters in the street in front of the Ferguson Police Department on the night of Nov. 19, pushing most back onto the sidewalk and arresting five.
While police said that they used minimal force and that they’re communicating with protest leaders, demonstrators said talks could have little effect once
people take to the streets. The panel considering charges against Darren Wilson in the Aug. 9 killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson may reach a decision today and it may be disclosed two days later, CNN has reported, citing law-enforcement officials it didn’t identify.
“People are just exercising their rights, and the police are just trying to make people go home,” said Michael McPhearson, co-chair of the Don’t Shoot Coalition of about 50 local groups. “That’s not the type of action that’s going to de-escalate the situation once the announcement is made.”
Four were arrested for refusing to disperse and another had an outstanding warrant, said Brian Schellman, spokesman for the St. Louis County Police Department.
“The arrests were made because blocking traffic is against the law,” he said.

Talk Sessions

St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar has been meeting with protest leaders during the past several weeks to discuss 19 “rules of engagement” proposed by demonstrators, Schellman said.
While protesters and police have come to terms on issues such as designating safe spaces in churches and other locations where police will avoid, divisions remain, McPhearson said.
Protester requests to police have been as simple as asking for better amplification, said Renita Lamkin, pastor at an African Methodist Episcopal church in St. Charles. When police use a loudspeaker to give commands to protesters, demonstrators can’t hear them, Lamkin said.
Police in other cities are also contacting protesters to head off violence. The Ferguson National Response Network and Ferguson Action, a coalition of groups in the St. Louis area, list details of demonstrations planned for when the grand jury decision is announced or the day after in more than 90 cities in 34 states.

Safe Places

Oakland, California, is establishing three “healing centers” for “productive dialogue and healing around any emotions brought out” by the news, according to a Nov. 18 letter that Mayor Jean Quan sent to residents.
In Albuquerque, New Mexico, the scene of demonstrations in March after two police shootings, authorities are cooperating with church, neighborhood and community leaders, Officer Tanner M. Tixier said in a statement.
In Ferguson, there may be violence even if police and protesters follow the agreed-upon rules because of people from outside the area, said Rasheen Aldridge, 20, a demonstrator from St. Louis who serves on a commission to study inequality and division.
“You’re going to have outside groups that are coming in to agitate,” he said.
The Reverend Osagyefo Sekou said the police’s actions Nov. 19 showed how they may respond.
“They have given us their answer,” said Sekou, a Baptist pastor in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, who has been involved in demonstrations in Missouri since August.
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