Dispatches from Ferguson, Missouri—Li Onesto

August 19, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

8/19 a.m.

People ask about the youth who have been in the streets. The defiant ones. I’ll share notes of an interview I did with a young Black man – and other people jumped in as well. I haven’t had time to organize these notes but let me share them raw:

Question: What—what have—what has your experience been in this area with the police department?

Young Black man: Oh, this has been a war zone, quite simple. They’re out here with M-16s...

Question: Before—I’m talking about even before...

Young Black man: Oh, you mean before this?

Question: Yes.

Young Black man: The police been over there—they’ve been racist. I’ve been there—I’ve been here for 12 years now. The police, they will follow you. They will harass you. They will—they’ll shine a light on your car as they drivin’, they’ll shine it until they drive by you and then they’ll get behind you. And they’ll pull you over. Then they’ll take you out of your car, want to search your car, want to—they’ll push you on the car. They’ll say oh, I smell weed in your car. I don’t even smoke.

They’ll pull you out, put you in handcuffs, put you on the curb. You’re embarrassed as people driving by. This is a main street. I done have people—I done have one of my professors drive by and see me.

You know what I’m saying, like they don’t care about you. The police, period. It ain’t just Ferguson. That’s what everybody keeps missing. It is not just Ferguson. It’s Florissant, it’s Pagedale, Pine Lawn, Dellwood. It’s all of this—Sabelfeld, all of that. You ain’t—look, every—every municipality here in North County and the surrounding areas is full of racist officers.

Their makeup determines that. Whatever you—how do you assign a—a person outside of the community to police the community? You don’t know me. You don’t know what I go through.

Question: How many times have you been stopped by the police...

Young Black man: I don’t know.

Question: Since you were 12 years old?

Young Black man: I don’t know I can’t even tell you. I would be lying to tell you about how many times I’ve been stopped and harassed or how many vehicles I’ve had illegally searched or ran through.

(A second man): We may be stopped today on the highway leaving here.

Young Black man:  Exactly. On my way down here one night, on Tuesday night when I was coming down here, they tried to stop me. I had to take back roads to get over here. I tell you, they don’t care. Like no matter how much press coverage—this—all this shit is cool. It’s cool. I like. It’s cool. Everybody here. But when you all leave, the cameras cut off, we’ve got to live here.

It is going to be right back to what they’ve been doing, because they don’t care. Any time you’ve got 53 officers in a—in a—in a police department, three of them are black, the 70 something percent of the community is black, how does that work? How do you think that that works?

A person who’s supposed to be smart and a person who’s supposed to care about your community, how do you sit there and say, you look at your police department roster and you say OK, I’ve got 50 white police officers. You look at the community and see, 60 percent of my community is black.

Damn, why—why is it like that? That doesn’t make sense. It is not just Ferguson. If you look at all the departments, there is a—a huge—a huge disparity in black police officers, in actual /like the police department. And then when you get black police officers, you don’t have no black police chiefs.

Question: But then let me ask you this, though, I’m from New York.

Young Black man: Yes.

Question: And we have lots of black police officers. But they still murder people, and do all this.

Young Black man: The NYPD is just racist.

(A third man jumps in): Black officers won’t solve the problem, because the problem is the mentality that we’re judged by. Until that changes, there will be no—no...

 Question: I mean this is racist America.

(Third man): It’s a systemic institutional racism. Like we weren’t designed in the mind of America. When “The Constitution” was drawn up, we were no more than just yard tools. So you don’t—when you make plans for your life, you don’t say, damn, what is my vacuum cleaner going to do tomorrow? I need to write some rights for my lawn mower. He going to want—he going to want to do some boatin’, probably. You don’t think like that.

Young Black man:  Right.

(Third man):  They never created this system with us in mind. We were never factored in. The fact that we got... the whole system needs to be thrown. The whole entire system. People in positions of power is an anomaly. We were never supposed to succeed. They done everything to stop black men from succeeding, everything. You look at prisons, we’re far more incarcerated than any other race. We don’t even make up enough of the population to have that much black people in prison.

Young Black man:  It doesn’t make sense.

Question: Yes. It’s 12 percent of the population and something like over 60 percent...

Young Black man: Is black and brown men.

Question: Yes. Right.

Young Black man: The laws are rigged to make sure we get these Black men locked up.

Question: Well, Michelle—Michelle Alexander has called it the new Jim Crow.

Young Black man: That’s all it is. Like all we doin’ is facilitating their prison systems, which is one of the biggest industries in the—in the country and all of these people who are in power, political power, have prisons—Halliburton, George Bush owning a prison, all these type of things—all these—what’s this guy, the dude—the dude who shot—Dick Cheney owned Halliburton. You know, it’s like all these programs that people are getting paid off of incarcerating black people.

And nobody cares because we’re black. That’s what it boils down to. If reporters didn’t get shot at the other night and didn’t get tear gassed...

You wouldn’t be here. And I’m not saying that is a respectful thing to you at all, but you would not be...

Question: Well, I would be here.

Young Black man:  Yes, yes, not you...

Question: Because I’m with Revolution

Young Black man: Well, yes… most of like all these other media outlets, nobody would be here if we were—if it was still them shooting niggers, they wouldn’t care. I was out here and I seen snipers sitting on top of an armored truck and a police line...

Question: Now how intimidating was that?

Young Black man: To be honest with you, I was scared for probably about 30 seconds, until they started shooting and I realized fuck it, we out here. We here now.

(Woman joins the conversation):  That’s right!

Young Black man:  It is very simple.

Question: It is true, though, you know, like what—I just interviewed Dick Gregory, you know. And one of the things he said was that like...

Young Black man: Here?

Question: Yes, he was here.

Young Black man: Where he at?

Question: He’s over there. He was being interviewed by CNN.

But Dick Gregory, one of the things he pointed out, and I think this is really true, he said the whole world is watching this now.

Young Black man:—that’s why you see Ron Johnson walking through and taking pictures of people.

Question: Yes.

Young Black man: Man, fuck him.

Question: That’s bullshit. Exactly.

Young Black man: Fuck him. You know what’s funny to me, whenever they—whenever they fuck up like this, they throw a black face on it and then expect everybody to be cool. I’m not cool.

Young Black man:—that goes back to the Stockholm Syndrome. That’s where we lose sight of the fact that we—we think that any sense of empathy or any sense of them letting up is empathy, when, in all honesty, it’s not. We’re still being oppressed. We’re still being forced into a position that they want us. But like my brother said, they’ll throw a black face on something just to get multiple black faces. Oh, OK, it’s safe now. When, in all honesty, it’s not, because it’s not even about color, it’s about justice. That’s the main issue. It’s about justice. That’s everything. They’re—they are afraid now because they see when they us unified. and when they shot at us, they unified us.

They made us one. They made us realize, you know what—because I seen, last night when was out here, there was Bloods, Crips, Six Deuces, GDs. It was all type of gangs out here kicking it, drinking, smoking, having a good time, kicking it with each other. People who I’ve seen before shoot at each other are now friends, because of what? Because of this event. You’ve got gangs unifying... We’ve got black people getting together. We’ve got black people sticking together now. And so what’s scary to these police is the fact that now they know they can’t control us no more. We were—we were divided, fighting amongst each other, that was our main issue. We was fighting amongst each other. Now we’re not fighting amongst each other. We’re ready to fight them. That’s why they scared. And that’s the problem. That’s exactly why they scared, because they—now they see, they fucked up when they came over here with that tear gas and they started messing with us. They fucked up when they keep on making these police size and they keep on harassing us...

They’ve harassed us for years and years. Now you want to be peaceful. No, you declare a war, you can’t—you can’t scream for peace after you just started a war. That’s what they did. And now—and now they seeing it, we’re not scared no more. Ain’t nobody out here scared. Nobody is worried, because it’s like they’ve got arms and they’ve got provisions for themselves, so do these people out here. Nobody scared. That’s why they scared, because they see—they—they fucked it up. When they had us scared, they should have left it at that. Once we see, oh tear gas ain’t that bad. It ain’t that bad. You’ll be OK. Tie your shirt around your face, you’ll be all right. You’ll get used to it. You’ll be OK. Rubber bullets? These are just like regular bullets. We’ve been ducking bullets for years here. They’re not surprising nobody.

And they’ve agitated that situation, because now that they’ve—they’ve dis—they’ve stripped the right—the First Amendment right for us to assemble peacefully, they’ve stripped our rights, now they’ve got black people learning about their rights, understanding the First Amendment and the Second Amendment and understanding what they can do to arm themselves, what they can do to protect themselves, not just physically, but intellectually, as well.

Black people are out here sharing knowledge. We’ve had lawyers out here. We’ve had others out here. People are talking. People are out here actually communicating with each other. You’ve got people—you’ve got thugs, criminals, drug dealers talking to lawyers, professors, doctors. Last night we was marching through Canfield, you had a professor standing next to Bloods with tattoos on their face. You see how crazy that is?

But—but that’s the problem. See, they—at a point in time a few years ago, it was all—we was all looking at each other crazy. Now you don’t see that out here. We’ve been out here for two nights straight, no fights, no violence, no gunshots, no nothing.

That’s scary. And they thought they was going to leave us alone and niggers was going to start being niggers, we were going to start hating each other again. They fucked that up.

They messed that up. They messed that up themselves. That’s why they’ve got Ron Johnson out here trying to be the spokesperson and trying to be out here kissing babies and shit. I mean get the fuck on. Nobody trying to hear that. We know what they did. We—the jig is up. The jig is up, America. We know. We smart—we—we read now. Massa gave us books. We read now.

8/18 Afternoon

Let me just start with this. The curfew has been lifted here in Ferguson. But now, in effect they have a 24-hour curfew on the people because they have essentially outlawed anyone “congregating in groups.”

This became apparent right away when Carl Dix tried to go up to Florissant Street to hold a press conference Monday at noon. I was there to cover this for Revolution/revcom.us and saw firsthand how the new level of repression against the people is being put into effect. For all their talk—from Obama on down—about the people’s right to peacefully protest, now people are not even being allowed to stand on the street! And the press is being contained and bullied by the police as well.

I started walking up the street toward the Quick Trip—the convenience store that was burned down right after Michael Brown was killed and has since become a gathering points for protesters. Other media also been set up on this corner. But as I got closer I saw lines of police who started moving on the few dozen people gathered around. They moved on people saying, “you have to move, leave or you will be arrested.” There was even some kind of press conference already going on but the cops didn’t care, they just had their orders to clear the whole area and they were quickly moving on people, including the press who were all breaking down their tents and leaving.

Other media were re-assembling at the Target store parking lot much further down the street and we stopped by there where there was also a group of National Guardsmen.

After this I went to the Ferguson Market where I heard media and protesters had gathered. When I arrived on the scene there were a lot of cops controlling the area but there was a real defiant edge going on in the crowd. As I walked up I saw the police moving on a crowd of people, forcing them down the street. People were chanting and holding signs: “Indict, Convict, Send the Killer Cop to Jail. The Whole Damn System is Guilty as Hell!” Signs: “Indict the Killer Cop!” “Fire the Police Chief!” “Full Accounting of What Happened Immediately” “Fight the Power and Transform the People, For Revolution” and “People are standing up in Ferguson. Its Right to Rebel!” Also: “No Justice! No Peace” “Protect Our Children” “Please don’t shoot me. My Hands Are Up.”

When Carl Dix was speaking to the press he made the point that he was had come from New York to stand with the people of Ferguson and then later, a woman came up to him and thanked him for coming.

One young Black man was heard saying, “This is not a racial thing, this is about justice”—a sentiment I have heard many other times out here in the streets.

Some people were getting right up in the face of the police each time the cops tried to force people to move, voicing their anger at the murder of Michael Brown as well as the whole way that the people’s protests are being suppressed—how now people are not even being allowed, literally to stand on the street. One guy said, “What about if I want to wait for the bus? I can’t even do that now.” The police moved people down the street and then when people turned around and tried to come back they moved on the crowd again.

At one point an older Black woman who was being pushed by the police down the street along with everyone and she challenged them saying, “I have the right to protest out here. I know my constitutional rights.” A group of cops came up on her and the crowd gathered around this scene and she said, “I’m ready to be arrested.” Some white-shirt cop quickly tried to diffuse the situation, trying to cool things out because people were so outraged that the police were messing with this elderly Black woman. The cop led her away from the crowd.

Soon after this the cops moved on two people—at least one of who was wearing a revolutionary t-shirt. A whole group of cops forced one person down on the ground, got on top of him and cuffed him. Immediately people yelled, “Someone’s getting busted” and people started running toward the scene. The police blocked people from getting close, the media all rushed in. People were yelling, “Let him go, let him go!” Another person was also dragged away. This all happened in a couple of minutes. And there are reports in the news of a number of other arrests today. At this writing both were released from jail, one is injured. 

Among others arrested this afternoon was Getty Images photographer Scott Olson. His iconic photos have provided the world with a picture of what is going on in Ferguson, and his arrest has been an international scandal and is an outrage! One online story on him shows a bunch of his photos with the headline “What a Getty Photographer Captured Before He Was Arrested in Ferguson.”

Before his arrest he had taken photos of the people with revolutionary t-shirts being arrested.

I see on Twitter Scott Olsen was released this evening, and issued a statement “I want to be able to do my job as a member of the media and not be arrested for just doing my job.”

Tonight the National Guard will be in town.

And there is still no justice for Michael Brown.

8/18 (From my earlier notes)

“Our System Completely Fails Us.”

I talked to one Black man the other night. He told me, “Oh, man, I've had some pretty terrible experiences. I've been profiled and the crazy thing is I have two vehicles.  I have no stops at all in one of them. And then in another one that's a little more flashy, I'm consistently pulled over, consistently badgered, consistently followed, consistently having my license plate ran. And the crazy thing is on the one car, the plates and stuff weren't even right.  Go figure that, right? That's the one they don't stop me in. That—I was never bothered, never followed.  I don't have tinted windows. I don't have rims on that one. It's just a plain vehicle with some hail damage. No issues at all in that one.

I ask—was he basically being stopped for being a black man with a nice car?

“That's what it seems like to me. I'll put it like this, the last eight tickets I've had all came in my new vehicle. I haven't been pulled over one time in my old one. And I've had it for three years longer. The new one I've only had for about a year and a half. I never got pulled over in three years in that car. And then in my new truck, like I've had about 10 tickets in the last year and a half.”

How does he feel about no arrest yet of the cop who murdered Michael Brown?

“I think that that is a representation of a system that is in despair. I mean I don't know what to say. But when it comes to justice for African-Americans for things like this, our system completely fails us. And that's why people—that's why people are taking to the streets. That's why they're looting and things like that. Although I don't agree with it, I understand the anger. I understand the frustration behind it.

* * *

“It’s Like a Modern Day Lynching”

I spoke with a woman who has been in the streets. She told me, “I've been out there supporting the struggle and you know, getting justice for Michael Brown, and not just for Michael Brown, for any young African-American male that has been killed by the police unjustly.”

Like others, she has a lot on her mind. “My thoughts are for Mr. [Eric] Garner and his family, for Michael Brown and his family, I think that some justice that needs to be served. From my opinion, it's just been an up rage in the youth, in the people in this world on what is going on with cops killing black people, Black men, unjustly. So I'm concerned about that. It's almost modern-day lynching that's done by the police officers.”

How did she feel about the curfew? “People are not going in. They're not turning in. They're not leaving.  It's going to be people that are locked up. Tear gas is going to be just like they did the other night. It's just going to be more chaotic. I think that the people should be able to protest peacefully as long as they want to.”

What is her take on the mood on the street?

“Well, I think that it's mixed. I think that they feel that it's in correlation with the piece that was released on Michael Brown regarding the incident at the Mart and the actual killing that took place. I think that it's doing something that the police wanted it to do. It's creating dissention amongst the supporters. And it's also created another level of issues. The focus needs to be on Michael Brown, the injustice that was served and the way that he was executed. The police officer, Charles Wilson, has not been indicted. He hasn't been brought up on charges.  His face hasn't been seen. Allegedly, he's out of town. There's no current information. And this has been over a week now, or just about—just at a week that this child has been killed. It's ridiculous! Because it sums it all up... from beginning to end. Indict, convict him, send him to jail and this whole system needs to be redone. It's just this is set up. This is an old system. They need to go back and redo all these laws. They need to get all these people that's targeting people.

“I feel like if people would look at everything that happens and put a loved one in the place, think about your child and think about your child lying in the middle of the street with a bullet hole through their head. And then I think you would probably see where those parents are coming from.

“You know, it's just—it's crazy. I think it's absurd that we even have to stand here and ask them to do what's right, you know? To indict the cop. To let him go to court. That's the whole point of the court system, of the system that they have in place, is so that someone can determine did he do something wrong? And you won't even allow that system, you won't even, you know, indict him so that it can be determined whether he did something wrong. The fact that you won't deny it—that they won't even indict him says something about the system. Something is wrong. You don't trust the system that you put in place to make a determination as to whether or not this man has done something wrong? That's the question.”

And there is still not justice for Michael Brown.

Sunday, August 17, 11 P.M.

As I send this dispatch from the streets of Ferguson at 11 p.m., people are being hit with rubber bullets. People are being hit with tear gas. Police are blocking the ends of the street to keep people from escaping, running their hippos—which is what people call the armored vehicles they use to attack people from—on the street. There are helicopters overhead.

Here's what happened tonight: Police attacked people far before the announced midnight curfew. I was not there when the initial attack came, but other reporters who I am talking to, who were there, are insistent that all that was going on was that people were peacefully marching when the police started shooting tear gas.

And since then, police have been progressively pushing people up and down the street. People have been resisting, while retreating, because of the intensity of police attacks.

I was gassed while attempting to photograph and report on the events.

I'm with a group right now of a few dozen people, journalists and protesters. I just spoke with an older woman had come out tonight to be part of a peaceful protest. She had planned to go home at curfew time. But when the march was attacked hours before the curfew was supposed to begin, for no reason, this woman who had not planned to stay past the curfew remained in the streets. She has been shot by a rubber bullet and is injured.

People are especially furious because the march was attacked hours before the unjust curfew was to go into effect. They are still in the streets.

And still no justice for Michael Brown.

Saturday, Sunday, August 17

It is 3 a.m., Sunday morning, August 17, 2014. I just made it back after covering an amazing, beautiful night on the streets with hundreds determined to get justice for Michael Brown—to demand that the killer cop who shot him down in cold blood be indicted, convicted and sent to jail. Yesterday, the governor announced a state of emergency and a curfew from 12 midnight to 5 a.m.—a vicious attack on the people, to try and suppress their anger. But tonight people weren’t having it.

As I reported earlier, in the afternoon at the Governor Nixon/Captain Johnson press conference, there was a lot of anger that what the governor was talking about was more repression and nothing about the indictment of the police who executed Michael Brown. 

I got down to Florissant Street around 9:30 p.m. For a week now hundreds of people have been gathering on this major street, close to where Michael Brown was killed—lining the streets, holding their hands up and chanting “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot!”—a steady stream of cars honking in unity. Again, the scene this night had an edge of defiance and celebration. But the rain that came and went was not the only storm brewing.

Hundreds lined up along the street and on one corner, and lots of others were standing in groups, some engaged in intense discussions. The crowd was overwhelming Black and from Ferguson. But there were lots and lots of others—from around the country—and tons of journalists, including international press. There were also many white people from other cities as well as surrounding neighborhoods who wanted to stand with the people of Ferguson.

There is still shock and seething outrage over the military style repression unleashed against the protestors earlier in the week. The authorities have put considerable effort into a cosmetic change in the image of the police while still not charging the murdering pig or removing the chief of police and while still using SWAT teams, tear gas and military vehicles to break up peaceful protests. And along with this they have also actively worked to create “peace police”—enlisting various social forces and confused people (some of whom claim to be radical) to enforce the authorities decrees on the people, like the curfew. 

I went through the crowd and talked to people. Some said they were getting ready to leave. But others were very clear—they had come to defy the curfew. I walked up to one group of men who basically said, “Fuck the curfew, there’s no justice, we’re not going home. They got bullets but we aren’t scared of that.”

At one point a guy, who was clearly a provocateur started going among people saying the he had just come from the police command center and that there had been some kind of information that the police were not going to use tear gas or rubber bullets—they were going to use live ammunition against anyone who stayed past the curfew. This was meant to scare people and get them to go home.

I walked down to the main intersection where most people were gathered—it was about 11:30. Here the scene was intense—mainly because at this point the people who wanted to go home had pretty much left. The hundreds gathered now were those who were standing up for justice for Mike Brown and facing an illegitimate curfew—in the face of tear gas and rubber bullets and maybe more. Looking way down the street you could already see the forces of the state arrayed, the police cars with their flashing lights and MRAPs (“mine-resistant ambush protected vehicles”).

The peace police were going around, at this point not asking but demanding that people leave.

The multi-national crew of revolutionaries—who have been out in the streets with the people all week—were standing with the people. Among the protestors there was a clear sense that this curfew is illegitimate. It has been seven days, and the killer cop has not been charged—they want to suppress the people’s anger while they “investigate”—when, in fact, it has been the rebellion of the people that has put this out in the world and forced the system to even respond to this murder. People took up chants including: “Indict. Convict. Send the Killer Cop to Jail. The Whole Damn System Is Guilty as Hell!” “The curfew is illegitimate. We refuse to live like this!”

It was less than 10 minutes til midnight and people weren’t leaving when these political firemen attacked the revolutionaries, trying to drive a wedge between them and the masses. They got on their bullhorn and started calling on the people to reject the “cracker communists.” They thought this would help to get people to heed the curfew. But again, the masses weren’t having this. Some were saying, “If you want to go home, then go home. But we’re staying!”

Then in the middle of all this, a woman stepped up and started calling out to people: “No Justice! No Curfew!” In response to the call to “go home and get some rest” she said—“Michael Brown can’t get no rest, he can’t go home. We’re not going home!” She was unstoppable in calling on people to go up against the curfew. This really helped to strengthen people’s resolve as the minutes ticked down to midnight.

Another guy was going through the crowd saying, “Get these white journalists out of here!” A tall Black man in a hoodie responded, repeatedly shouting, “This ain’t about Black and white—this is about the system. This is about the system!”

Then right at midnight people surged into the street—“Hands Up! Don’t Shoot!” The defiance was palpable. The police all the while were blasting over their sound system that people were going to be arrested for violation of the curfew. The rain, which had been pretty much coming down all night, actually stopped for a while. People came up against a line of cars that had been placed as a barricade across the street. The rain began to pour down, but again, people were undeterred—it seemed to only bolster people’s fierce determination. It was like they were saying: NOTHING is going to stop us!!

Then as people continued to march, the smoke grenades and tear gas began. People started to run, then some turned around and ran back toward the police. I heard someone yell, “Throw them back! Throw them back!” and people hurled back the tear gas canisters towards the police lines.

Then, only seconds later, we heard people behind us shouting, “The police are coming,” and people started running.

It was close to 1 a.m. now. Bravely, the people had defied the curfew for almost a full hour. 

Along Florissant, one woman had carried a sign that read, “Making History.” Indeed, this is what people did tonight. Again, people sent a message around the country and the world that they demand justice and refuse to live this way!

Tonight the curfew is in effect again. And there is still no justice for Mike Brown.

Saturday, August 16

It’s raining pretty steady today in Ferguson but this has not dampened the anger and impatience of the people here who continue to come into the streets to demand justice for Michael Brown. There was a march from the site where Michael was killed by the police down Florissant Street where hundreds have been protesting for a week now—where people were attacked by the police with tear gas and rubber bullets.

Early Saturday morning in Ferguson, Missouri. Photo: Reuters.

At a church in the afternoon the powers that be had a big press conference—they assembled everyone there, major political figures and national and international media to make their new announcement: yet another attack and insult to the people. The Governor of Missouri got up with some bullshit honey-eyed words about maintaining the rights of people to protest. He even talked about how people around the country are speaking in “one united voice” for justice. But then went on to announce a State of Emergency—that there would be a curfew in the “effected area of Ferguson” starting tonight, from 12 midnight to 5am. He said, “The eyes of the world are on us.” No shit—this is why he is taking this repressive step to try and put a lid on the people’s anger.

Then one reporter shouted out: “Excuse me, Governor, you need to charge that police with murder.” And this was followed with many shouting, “yeah” and “where’s the indictment.” 

From this point on their well-planned, scripted press conference turned into a battle where they had a difficult time maintaining control.

The next speaker—Ron Johnson, chief of the highway patrol in the St. Louis area, now in charge on the streets in Ferguson—was also interrupted after a few minutes with: “Why has it taken so long to indict the killer cop?”

When they opened things up to questions and answers this was when things got heated. Several people asked questions about why there was no indictment and people also wanted to know how they were going to enforce this new curfew—with rubber bullets and tear gas like they had done before? Just about every time such questions were asked people in the crowd would start speaking out, calling for justice.

The Governor and Chief of Police kept bringing things back to “security” and “keeping peace.” But many reporters and others in the crowd persisted in trying to change the whole focus of the Q&A to why there had been no arrest of the killer cop and the brutality that protesters have already faced from the police out in the street.

The room was clearly divided. There were those in the room who were totally with the program of “keeping the calm,” and putting a lid on the people’s anger. There were those who got up and stated that they were fully willing to work with the police to enforce the curfew. But others clearly weren’t having it.

I was sitting directly in front of the podium and at one point I was able to get the floor and ask the Governor a question: “Excuse me, can you explain to us why this whole press conference is focused on controlling the anger of the people when the whole reason the people have been in the streets for a week now is because people are demanding justice and there has been no arrest, there has been no indictment and people know that this poor child, this 18 year old young man was killed in cold blood and there has been no arrest and people are demanding justice, that is why people are in the street and now this whole press conference has been turned into an explanation of why you are controlling people’s anger and suppressing people’s anger and telling people to calm down. Why is that the case?”

The whole time I was saying this, the Governor and Chief of Police were staring at me, looking rather annoyed but also very nervous—especially when lots of people yelled and clapped in agreement at the end. But then they just went on with the press conference as if I hadn’t even asked a question.

There continued to be several more outbursts from the crowd from people—impatience, anger and frustration coming out at the outrage of this whole thing. Then finally, they just ended the whole thing.

One reporter asked if they were going to use tear gas and their hippo tanks against the people again to enforce the curfew. They answered by promising to not use “unnecessary force.” But this just means they’ll use what they see as “necessary force” tonight to clear the streets.

I’ll end now so I can go out and be among those who are standing up. It’s gonna be a long night. Stay tuned.

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