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St. LouiS AmericAn The
CAC Audited DECEMBER 11 – 17, 2014
Vol. 85 No. 36 COMPLIMENTARY
stlamerican.com
Protest movement goes global
NAACP completes ‘Journey for Justice’ National, regional leaders meet with Governor, Attorney General at Capitol By Bridjes O’Neil Of The St. Louis American
Photo by Lawrence Bryant
Alisha Sonnier, president of Tribe X, adopted a new slogan of the national movement to reform police work during a protest in front of the Fox Theatre in Midtown St. Louis on Sunday, December 7. Eric Garner repeatedly told the New York City police officer strangling him to death on July 17, “I can’t breathe.” On Wednesday, December 3, a New York grand jury decided not to indict Officer Daniel Pantaleo in Garner’s death, sparking a new wave of protests globally.
‘Ferguson provides a model for what resistance can look like’
See NAACP, A7
City introduces civilian review bill
By Rebecca Rivas Of The St. Louis American
n “The people were fed up. If someone said, ‘Meet up at 9 p.m. in Shaw,’ the people just knew they needed to go.”
Growing up in Brooklyn, 20-year-old Keeshan Harley has been frisked more than 150 times since he was 13, he said. He often chooses to stay home rather than chance an encounter with police, he said, where he could be stuck in the back of a cop car for an hour. Even a walk down the block to the corner store can end in being roughed up by police for no reason, he said. When the Brooklyn college student heard that Michael Brown Jr. was shot and killed by – Keeshan Ferguson Police Officer Darren Harley Wilson, he immediately felt drawn to come to Ferguson. “Everything in my body said it’s where I needed to be,” said Harley, youth leader with the New York-based nonprofit Make the Road. “There was that innate sense of urgency. Being a young black male, I understand what that’s like. That could have been me just walking home from the store.” Harley came to St. Louis in October for the See PROTEST, A6
Participants on the NAACP’s “Journey for Justice” march concluded their 134-mile trek from Ferguson to Jefferson City on Friday, December 5. They marched seeking systemic change to the criminal justice system and justice for Michael Brown Jr. The march began a week NAACP before in the Canfield Green President Apartments in Ferguson, where Cornell the unarmed teen was shot and Brooks killed by now former Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson on August 9. Maida Coleman, director of the state’s new Office of Community Engagement, addressed marchers and supporters at a “Journey for Justice” rally in the State Capitol Rotunda. Brown’s mother and step-father, Lesley St. Louis McSpadden and Louis Head, City NAACP also spoke. President “They thanked us for the Adolphus work we were doing, and we Pruitt reaffirmed our commitment to work with them on getting some justice,” said St. Louis City NAACP President Adolphus Pruitt. Many packed into the State Capitol Rotunda including a “good contingency” of young Ferguson protestors, Pruitt said. Gov. Jay Nixon said in a statement on Friday
Ferguson unrest propels measure mayor vetoed in ’06 By Rebecca Rivas Of The St. Louis American
Photo by Lawrence Bryant
Protestors locked arms and prepared for a direct action in St. Louis’ Central West End on Wednesday, December 3, after a New York grand jury decided not to indict Officer Daniel Pantaleo in the chokehold death of Eric Garner. Like Michael Brown Jr. in Ferguson, Garner is considered a martyr of the Black Lives Matters protest movement.
After nearly a decade of resistance, Mayor Francis Slay and some St. Louis aldermen have changed their tune about police oversight following the Ferguson unrest. On Friday, December 5, St. Louis Alderman Terry Kennedy introduced a long-awaited bill to establish civilian review of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. In 2006, Kennedy championed a bill for a Civilian Oversight Board that passed the Board of Aldermen but was vetoed by Slay. The new bill (BB 208) has 15 sponsors, including See BILL, A6