[anarchist23]

What next? What's your vision of the future?






Saturday 16 September 2017 15.54 BST
Last modified on Saturday 16 September 2017 18.27 BST

St Louis police said 32 people had been arrested during demonstrations against the acquittal of a former police officer, who had been charged with murder in the 2011 fatal shooting of 24-year-old Anthony Lamar Smith.

Ten law enforcement officers were injured in the mostly peaceful protests, which began after the not-guilty verdict was handed down by circuit judge Timothy Wilson on Friday morning.

The demonstrations quieted early Saturday morning, having taken place in different parts of the city, including outside the home of mayor Lyda Krewson. At one point, the crowd around her home swelled to about 1,000 people, including some who pelted the home with red paint and broke at least two windows.

Police distinguished between peaceful protesters and agitators in their description of the events, and said people damaging property “distract from the mission of peaceful protestors”.

Ahead of the verdict on Friday, activists had warned that a not-guilty verdict for the former police officer, Jason Stockley, would result in acts of civil disobedience.

On Friday night, a line of police in riot gear approached protesters who would not retreat, knocking down one woman in a scene captured by local television helicopter. Officers pepper-sprayed the remaining, standing protestors as the woman remained on the ground, until she was cuffed and led away.


Some protesters became frustrated with a longtime local television reporter, Dan Gray, and threw water bottles at him and his photographer, Tauna Price. Footage of the interaction shows a group of other protesters intervening to help protect the journalists and escort them to a more safe location. “I understand their frustration, I understand their anger,” Gray said. “Perhaps they needed someone to vent it to.”

A series of protests were scheduled for the weekend and on Saturday morning, in the suburb of University City, demonstrators gathered at a local park.


Stockley, who now lives in Houston, said on Friday he felt “like a burden has been lifted”.

“The taking of someone’s life is the most significant thing one can do, and it’s not done lightly,” Stockley told the St Louis Post-Dispatch.

“My main concern now is for the first responders, the people just trying to go to work and the protesters,” he said. “I don’t want anyone to be hurt in any way over this.”

In a 30-page ruling, Judge Wilson said Stockley was not guilty of murder because the prosecution failed to prove the officer was not acting in self-defense.

The shooting occurred in 2011 after Stockley and his partner attempted to corner Smith’s vehicle in a fast-food restaurant parking lot, believing they had witnessed a drug deal.

Smith backed into the police vehicle twice to evade the officers, who said they saw a gun in the man’s vehicle. Stockley fired seven shots at Smith’s car as he drove away, prompting a car chase.

During the chase, video recorded Stockley saying: “Going to kill this (expletive) don’t you know it”. The judge said on Friday that the statement was taken out of context.

The officers eventually forced Smith’s vehicle to stop and Stockley shot Smith after approaching his vehicle.

Prosecutors accused Stockley of planting a gun on the scene and said it was suspect that the officer entered Smith’s vehicle after the shooting, potentially interfering with evidence. They also highlighted that Stockley’s DNA was on the gun, but not Smith’s, suggesting the man could have been unarmed.

The judge said there was no proof Stockley planted the gun.

Stockley told the Post-Dispatch on Friday, after the judge’s ruling, that he had wanted to find the gun as quickly as possible if Smith had thrown it out the window.

Stockley was suspended from the police department in 2013 for carrying an AK-47 pistol on-duty. He resigned shortly after and took a job with an oil company in Texas, where he lives today.

Smith’s mother, Annie Smith, said she was disappointed in the judge’s ruling.

“My soul is burning,” she said. “My heart is broken. I say, I ain’t get no justice, I could never be at peace.”

Police-involved shootings have sparked several high-profile protests in recent years, including in the St Louis area.

Three years before Stockley killed Smith, Darren Wilson, a white police officer,fatally shot unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown, leading to weeks of demonstrations in Ferguson, a suburb of St Louis. The shooting, which followed many other high-profile killings of black people by white officers, renewed discussions about police relations with minorities and prompted a federal civil rights investigation that found the Ferguson police department had discriminated against black citizens.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... ttal#img-1

[Suntzu]

Let's see, homeboy was convicted felon, drug and weapons convictions. He had a bag of heroin in the car along with a full size revolver. He led police on a high speed chase. Cops eventually rammed his car to stop him. One of the cops said "gun" during the stop. They waited six years to prosecute the case. Cop chose to not have a jury (wise move in my opinion).

Cop was West Point graduate, decorated Iraqi war veteran. Graduated first in his police academy class, no discipline history. Judge said the gun planting claim was bogus. Whole thing was on video tape. Gun was large, hard to conceal, couldn't have been in his pocket or waistband or would have been evident on tape.

Correct decision. Time to meet violence with violence. You won't have to shoot more than a couple before this crap stops.

[blackjack21]

Yes. Typical left wing bullshit. Black people need to watch this:

It's really not that hard to not get killed by police. The adoption of gangsta culture has been one of black Americans' biggest mistakes. Utterly stupid, and obvious what is going to happen to you.

[maz]

It's mostly white liberals who are getting these black people all wound up. Guess what liberals, these blacks aren't going to care how tolerant you are or if you voted for Obama. If you are white you are a Nazi. Those are the new rules YOU set.





No this is not Mogadishu, this are armed protesters in St. Louis. Remember when people lost their shit because some white militia members showed up armed in Charlottesville?

Oh, and some of these "peaceful protesters" trashed the mayor of St. Louis. Interesting factoid about the mayor of St. Louis Lyda Krewson.

In 1995 Krewson's husband, Jeff Krewson, was murdered in an attempted carjacking in front of their house. In 1998, she married local news anchor Mike Owens.[10]

[anarchist23]

On Monday evening, protesters reassembled in the city’s Delmar Loop district, the scene of Saturday’s protests, hoping to continue their momentum.
As the day turned to night, the protests remained peaceful, following the pattern of early demonstrations.


Chris Campbell in St Louis, Missouri
Tuesday 19 September 2017 02.54 BST

As protests over the acquittal of the former St Louis police officer Jason Stockley moved into their fourth night, some observers said the response from law enforcement had grown heavy-handed, and that local and state authorities had learned little from their actions during the Ferguson protests.

Stockley, who is white, was accused by prosecutors of murdering Anthony Lamar Smith, who was black, following a high-speed car chase.

During intense demonstrations on Sunday night in downtown St Louis, police were accused of co-opting and chanting the popular protest slogan “whose streets? Our streets”. The interim police chief, Lawrence O’Toole, whose department made more than 120 arrests, said at a press conference that St Louis police “owned the night”.

Cara Spencer, alderman for the city’s 20th ward, said she was “deeply disappointed” by the rhetoric.

“The chants were disheartening and ‘we own the night’ sets a bad tone,” she said.

While acknowledging the need to protect the safety of officers, Spencer also criticized law enforcement’s response for its militarized overtones.

“Seeing troops marching down the street and in tanks or humvees is a horrifying scene to behold,” she said. “The protest leadership deserves kudos for asking everyone to disperse at a reasonable hour. The people who remain are agitators with different goals.”

Marching in unison through the downtown streets and dressed in riot gear, police seemed to take a firmer approach on Sunday, after several evenings of intense protests, arrests and property damage around the city.

Downtown resident Christian Misner, who watched some of the street scenes unfold in front of his home, said he was taken aback by the tone of the police response.

“It was militaristic, coordinated, antagonistic and intimidating,” he said. “They were chanting and hitting the ground and their shin guards in unison with sticks.”

Misner said there was a disconnect between the behavior of the crowd and the response of the police officers.

“I saw no bottle-throwing, spitting or anything else,” he said. “Everyone was hanging out, talking, taking photos and video. Only two people were loudly vocalizing their frustration.”

On Friday evening, protesters surrounded the home of the St Louis mayor, Lyda Krewson, breaking windows and throwing paint.

Protest leaders, encouraging use of the chant “you kill our kids, we kill your economy”, have vowed to sustain large public demonstrations in an effort to disrupt the city’s economy. While protests after the teenager Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson were largely confined to a few blocks within that small St Louis suburb, these demonstrations have targeted areas of the city with concentrated wealth and business activity.

These tactics have already borne fruit: the rock band U2 and singer Ed Sheeran both canceled scheduled concerts in St Louis as a result of the protests. Protests have also resulted in shortened business hours, canceled hotel bookings and depressed retail and restaurant activity.

Many protesters believe economic disruption is the best option for effecting change.

“This was a bad verdict,” said one, Percy Woodbury. “Right is right and wrong is wrong, and there is no justice here.”

On Monday evening, protesters reassembled in the city’s Delmar Loop district, the scene of Saturday’s protests, hoping to continue their momentum. As the day turned to night, the protests remained peaceful, following the pattern of early demonstrations.

After a brief demonstration there, protesters moved on to downtown St Louis, where they gathered outside city hall.

A crowd of several hundred people chanted Smith’s name and held two minutes of silence in his memory.

Shortly thereafter, heavy rains began to pour, though the crowd grew louder in response and did not disperse. Protests remained peaceful.

Spencer, who said St Louis police officials in her ward had had some success at deepening community links at a neighborhood level, called for better communication between those coordinating law enforcement activity and local leaders.

“A lot of people aren’t part of the conversation,” she said. “We need to bring in people who are working to change the system.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... stretch-on

[skinster]

It's mostly white liberals who are getting these black people all wound up.

Nope, it's mostly cops who go around shooting people to death very regularly that's got these "people all wound up".

[maz]

Nope, it's mostly cops who go around shooting people to death very regularly that's got these "people all wound up".

I am far more liberal on the issue of police shootings than you think, but even I have to admit that the police aren't going around shooting black people for no reason.

I know plenty of black people who have never been harassed by the police in their entire lives, let alone shot by cops.

We do need for some kind of police reform, but it does not help blacks or anyone else to focus on the questionable shooting deaths of drug dealers, car thieves, armed robbers ect, the kind of blacks that even black people don't want to live around.

[skinster]

I am far more liberal on the issue of police shootings than you think, but even I have to admit that the police aren't going around shooting black people for no reason.

I'm sure if I posted a number of videos from the last couple of months alone you still wouldn't believe what's actually happening. Cops kill people regularly in America, with impunity. This isn't new, it's been going on forever, the only difference is now people can document these crimes with their phones.

[maz]

I'm sure if I posted a number of videos from the last couple of months alone you still wouldn't believe what's actually happening. Cops kill people regularly in America, with impunity. This isn't new, it's been going on forever, the only difference is now people can document these crimes with their phones.

I didn't say that it wasn't happening, and I also said that we need some kind of reform in conflict management by police.

However it does seem like white liberals and their BLM pets really only care about black criminals who get shot and killed by white police. Is that right or am I missing something?

[skinster]

I know you didn't say it wasn't happening, but I'm saying it's very much happening and it's happening basically every other day.

As for missing something, I guess you missed the part where I don't give a fuck about white liberals and in reality, most white liberals don't give a fuck about black people getting killed in America.

[maz]

I know you didn't say it wasn't happening, but I'm saying it's very much happening and it's happening basically every other day.

But it's really not happening every other day though. In fact, this particular incident happened in 2011.

But they are happening. I don't think that the extra-judicial killings by the police should be tolerated, but we also have to acknowledge that many police regularly have to deal with a certain group of people who are responsible for majority of violent crime in urban areas like St. Louis.

Have you been to St. Louis?

I have, and there are small pockets of relative safety surrounded by extremely poor, violent areas. You probably aren't aware that per capita, St. Louis is one of the most dangerous cities in America, and it's not because of racist police or white supremacy.

Found an interesting article on Yahoo about the problems between blacks and the police in St. Louis. It blames slavery, segregation, rent to own companies, Republicans, police profiling and everything else but the problem which is black crime.

New riots over police shooting raise the question: What is it about St. Louis?

For the past four nights in St. Louis, peaceful daytime protests over the acquittal of a former police officer charged with the fatal shooting of a black motorist in 2011 have degenerated into violent clashes with police, resulting in more than 100 arrests.

St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson announced Tuesday that in anticipation of a fifth evening of protests, she would postpone scheduled town hall events where she was expected to discuss various issues — including crime and the police. The images of broken glass, protesters dousing themselves with milk to counteract police pepper spray, and defiant demonstrators facing off against officers clad in riot gear evoked memories of the unrest that unfolded on the streets of nearby Ferguson just three years ago.

In the wake of Ferguson, protests over police shootings in cities including Chicago, Baltimore, New York and Minneapolis made clear that the problems between police and the black community, in particular, exist well beyond Ferguson. But the clashes this week in St. Louis suggest that racial problems run deep in this former slave state.

Slave state? Really?

A study published this summer by 24/7 Wall Street named St. Louis the 10th most segregated city in America, with 39.3 of the city’s black residents living in predominantly black neighborhoods. The study also found a poverty rate of 29.9 percent among African-Americans in St. Louis, compared with a white poverty rate of 8.5 percent.

The reason for segregation is because non-blacks prefer not to live in communities that contain a certain percentage of blacks, not that blacks are forced to live in all black neighborhoods.

A 2016 report from the state attorney general’s office found that black drivers in Missouri were 75 percent more likely to be pulled over than white drivers. This spring Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, a Republican, signed a bill making it harder for businesses to be sued for racial discrimination.

There is a reason that blacks get pulled over more and it is because they commit the most crime.

Together they prompted the NAACP to issue its first-ever travel advisory for Missouri, warning “African American travelers, visitors and Missourians to pay special attention and exercise extreme caution when traveling throughout the state.” Derrick Johnson, CEO of the national organization, termed the conditions in Missouri “unconscionable” and “simply unacceptable in a progressive society.”

LOL the NAACP aren't warning blacks that they are likely to be killed by other blacks. What a joke!

What about warning white people, or any other people not to go to St. Louis?

St. Louis, Missouri Police Department (SLMPD) - 2017 UCR Homicide Analysis

According to the recently released report, young black men aged 20-29 are represented as both murderers AND vicitms in St. Louis.

The FBI has declared St. Louis to be the most violent city in America.

FBI ranks St. Louis top US city for violent crime

ST. LOUIS, MO (KTVI) – The Gateway City takes the top spot in a list of violent US cities released by the FBI. St. Louis ranks number one in the first half of 2015 for rape, robbery, aggravated assault, and murder. There were 88.1 violent crimes per 10,000 residents.

The list was released in the FBI’s Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report from January to June 2015. You can read the full report here.

[skinster]

But it's really not happening every other day though. In fact, this particular incident happened in 2011.

It is happening every other day. That's why Black Lives Matter became a thing.

In this "particular incident" a black man was shot to death by a cop 6 times, including once where the gun was six inches from his face. The cop who killed him was recorded minutes before the killing saying "I'm going to kill this motherfucker" and was also found by the court to have planted a gun in the victim's car. Yes it took place in 2011 but it was only this week that the court acquitted the cop, hence the protests which are taking place, which were promised if the cop - as usual - got away with murder. Even a cop "union" supported a conviction of murder in this case, but what a surprise to see you here apologizing for killers once more.

[Oxymoron]

Thugs protesting because other thugs got shot for being thugs...

[maz]

It is happening every other day. That's why Black Lives Matter became a thing.

In this "particular incident" a black man was shot to death by a cop 6 times, including once where the gun was six inches from his face. The cop who killed him was recorded minutes before the killing saying "I'm going to kill this motherfucker" and was also found by the court to have planted a gun in the victim's car. Yes it took place in 2011 but it was only this week that the court acquitted the cop, hence the protests which are taking place, which were promised if the cop - as usual - got away with murder. Even a cop "union" supported a conviction of murder in this case, but what a surprise to see you here apologizing for killers once more.

The officer may have gotten away with a killing, he was however, acquitted of the murder charge.

Also, the judge the dismissed the prosecutor's claim that a gun was planted.

Judge Rules No Evidence That Stockley Planted Gun

The Circuit Attorney's Office argued in court that Smith did not have a gun, but that Stockley planted one in Smith's vehicle following the shooting.

In his 30-page "Findings and Verdict," Judge Wilson writes that central to the issue is whether Smith was in possession of a firearm inside the car at the time he was shot.

According to Judge Wilson, Stockley testified that Police Officer Brian Bianchi warned him of a gun in Smith's Buick in the parking lot of the Church's Fried Chicken, where Stockley and Bianchi believe they had witnessed Smith involved in a drug transaction. Stockley testified that he then observed a gun in Smith's hand as the Buick drove past him.

"The Court finds the State's contention that Stockley planted the handgun found in the Buick is not supported by the evidence," Judge Wilson concluded.

Wilson writes that cell phone video showed that Stockley was not wearing a jacket that evening, and if the full-sized revolver was in his possession prior to his planting it in the Buick, it would have been visible on the video.

"The gun was too large to fit entirely within any of the pockets on the pants he was wearing, there was no bulge in any pocket indicating a gun within the pocket, and the gun would have been visible if it was tucked into his belt," according to Wilson.

Wilson in his findings quotes early on from the Code of Judicial Conduct: "A judge shall not be swayed by partisan interests, public clamor or fear of criticism."

[skinster]

but what a surprise to see you here apologizing for killers once more.

[maz]

but what a surprise to see you here apologizing for killers once more.”

but what a surprise to see that you aren't at all interested in the facts once more

[Suntzu]

It is happening every other day. That's why Black Lives Matter became a thing.

In this "particular incident" a black man was shot to death by a cop 6 times, including once where the gun was six inches from his face. The cop who killed him was recorded minutes before the killing saying "I'm going to kill this motherfucker" and was also found by the court to have planted a gun in the victim's car. Yes it took place in 2011 but it was only this week that the court acquitted the cop, hence the protests which are taking place, which were promised if the cop - as usual - got away with murder. Even a cop "union" supported a conviction of murder in this case, but what a surprise to see you here apologizing for killers once more.

There's lies and damned lies. The court didn't find that the cop planted the gun. As a matter of fact the judge said the whole thing was on video tape and it was clear the cop couldn't have planted the gun.

[skinster]

I understand you're amused because you're a racist piece of shit who probably had humanity beaten out of you when you were young, but you should reconsider your thinking because it's sad. The cop who killed was filmed going back and forth from his car to the victim's car. He was also recorded having an extra gun with him that day, that he wasn't meant to have. And of course, the cop is the only one whose DNA was on the gun.

[Deutschmania]

Yes. Typical left wing bullshit. Black people need to watch this:

It's really not that hard to not get killed by police. The adoption of gangsta culture has been one of black Americans' biggest mistakes. Utterly stupid, and obvious what is going to happen to you.

This video is better

. People should be respectful , but we don't have to allow the police , whom are after all supposed to be public servants , to infringe upon our civil rights under the Constitution .

[SpecialOlympian]

If only these protestors would carry nazi and confederate flags. I'm sure our genius right-wing posters would sympathize with them then. Unless maybe there's some other underlying issue I'm not recognizing that causes these same posters to call them violent thugs simply because they're assembling peaceably while armed.