Protesters storm police headquarters in downtown St. Louis; 5 arrests made

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About time they did something productive.

Why couldnt it have start like this??? why did they have to burn the city down first?

Around 10:30a.m., police say roughly 75 prostesters participated in the march downtown before gathering outside of police headquarters. Nearly 15 entered the lobby and read a list of demands to department officials. Those demands included, a meeting with Chief Sam Dotson, Mayor Francis Slay or Board of Aldermen President, Lewis Reed. The protesters also want an immediate termination of Officer’s Flannery and Hayes. Their request also include amnesty for protesters who have been charged with non-violent offenses, a creation of a diverse citizens review board with subpoena power along with a seven day release of all information regarding police shootings not limited to transparent release of unedited videos and audio.

Perfect! Dont stop until something changes! Which will probably mean civil war...

a reply to: onequestion

Isn't there a better way to do this? Why advocate violence? If 15 were arrested, they weren't just asking nicely...

Can't the people get a petition with thousands of names and signatures and send to the mayor or someone to have these officers removed? I mean, they are paid their salary from US, the taxpayer, so we should have some pull if something like that was requested by thousands of taxpayers....That is just my initial thought, but I don't like the storming police stations idea, beat them with smarts...Don't throw a temper tantrum like a child...THERE HAS TO BE AN EASIER AND NON VIOLENT WAY TO GET THIS ACCOMPLISHED!!! I would think anyways....What do you think?

a reply to: onequestion

So Flanery is the cop who supposedly got into a shootout and killed a guy, but who is Hayes? Or is there another Flanery case out there right now?

PSA: I'm not trolling, just can't find anything about Hayes at all and not sure what all went down with Flanery besides what I posted.

a reply to: onequestion

I wonder how many of these protestors are from the area.....10%...50%? What is the point of protesting and asking for the very things you are against?



Many of these young people are not from the area and they are wanting a communist form of government? Sadly they have no idea what that really means. Watching this entire thing unfold has been eye opening for me.

a reply to: onequestion

The "kids" or 'people' are wrong.

The police are not the enemy.

The President is the person they should protest.

Mr. Obama is ridiculous.

The President has caused more harm than good.

Think before ewe act.

a reply to: Chrisfishenstein

Sadly, in America, id wager there is very limited change done if peacefully...wtf do petitions do really?

originally posted by: Chrisfishenstein
a reply to: onequestion



Isn't there a better way to do this? Why advocate violence? If 15 were arrested, they weren't just asking nicely...



Can't the people get a petition with thousands of names and signatures and send to the mayor or someone to have these officers removed? I mean, they are paid their salary from US, the taxpayer, so we should have some pull if something like that was requested by thousands of taxpayers....That is just my initial thought, but I don't like the storming police stations idea, beat them with smarts...Don't throw a temper tantrum like a child...THERE HAS TO BE AN EASIER AND NON VIOLENT WAY TO GET THIS ACCOMPLISHED!!! I would think anyways....What do you think?

you are not being clear. You insist that they done something violent but you have zero evidence of that. Perhaps they were arrested for standing in the wrong place. THIS IS NONVIOLENT

I suppose you believe mlk should have just stuck to petitions

a reply to: onequestion

Never mind questions above. Finally found something on both. Even watched the video of the Hayes shooting. It was a pretty clear suicide by cop imho. With Flanery, shots were exchanged. Why do they want them both fired?

Eta: most of what I found pertains to the event in the OP and only offers briefs recaps of the incidents, and the one video. I'm not finding a ton of articles. Excuse the ignorance on details

a reply to: Chrisfishenstein

Isn't there a better way to do this? Why advocate violence? If 15 were arrested, they weren't just asking nicely…

What were they charged with? Probably protesting. Or if asked to leave and they didn't, trespassing.

More funds for the city coffers.

If they marched into the building instead of assaulting it then they shouldn't have been arrested. Getting arrested gets them in the main stream media lime light, calling attention to their plight down there. In olden days that got the press and population to write letters to their congressman and the White House. When knee deep in letters in the mail room action would be taken. Nowadays knee deep in Emails isn't going to accomplish anything. If there even is an Email address to complain to, that is.

a reply to: intrptr

In the article it says 5 were arrested so I dunno where 15 came from. 4 caught trespassing and peace disturbance charges, the 5th caught an assault charge for allegedly going after a "city marshall" on top of the other two charges.

a reply to: Shamrock6

4 caught trespassing…

The police are going to react like the law is being broken because thats what they need, to discredit the very real goal of the protest, to change the policies of policing in their community.

Thats the bottom line.

Just observing…

a reply to: Chrisfishenstein

Can you you point to a precedent where the non-violent solution and peaceful solution has ever produced a lasting and meaningful change.

What everybody needs to understand is you have to hit TPTB with both violence and non-violence.
The violent arm looking for social justice needs to be more focused on what and who they strike out at. The peaceful arm needs to understand and not hinder or condemn the violent wing, but be ready for when it fizzles out as it always will so something constructive can be built from the ashes.

The non-violent people are usually just sloppy thinkers spouting catch phrases , "the ends never justify the means", "We must be the change we wish to see" "You can’t use the master’s tools to dismantle the master’s house. We've all heard them.

The master’s house will never be dismantled using only one tool, whether that tool is discourse, hammers, or high explosives. A hammer can as easily dismantle or assemble, what does ownership have do with its function.

The biggest thing PEOPLE need to get through their skulls is the POLICE are defacto AT WAR with civilians who don't want to be abused anymore. Derrick Jensen wrote and I agree

A man tries to rape a woman. She runs away. Her freedom from being raped just came at his expense: he wasn’t able to rape her. Does this mean she exploited him? Of course not. Now let’s do this again. He tries to rape her. She can’t get away. She tries to stop him nonviolently. It doesn’t work. She pulls a gun and shoots him in the head. Obviously her freedom from being raped came at the expense of his life. Did she exploit him? Of course not. It all comes back to what I wrote earlier in this book: defensive rights always trump offensive rights. My right to freedom always trumps your right to exploit me, and if you do try to exploit me, I have the right to stop you, even at some expense to you.

DEFENSIVE RIGHTS ALWAYS TRUMP OFFENSIVE RIGHTS. End of story. Stop thinking pacifism is going to solve all problems.
Its naive, sloppy, shortsighted, and just plain stupid. Violence works. That is why they use it!!!!!

At least this was constructive and they now have a solid idea of what they actually want and changes that they actually want.

looks like this guy is updating things as they happen


twitter.com...

a reply to: intrptr

Not sure how 5 people catching a trespass charge is going to discredit anything. If anything it calls more attention to the action.

a reply to: Shamrock6

Not sure how 5 people catching a trespass charge is going to discredit anything. If anything it calls more attention to the action.

Right. The police there continue to shoot themselves in the foot.

Law and order clamping down is the problem. If the protesters can just remain non violent no matter what happens…

When the jails are over full and the police overworked they will begin to complain to the mayor…

a reply to: American-philosopher

Totally agree with the two posters above.

a reply to: intrptr

So when the police officers were protesting how come riot squads werent mobilized by the national guard and the police werent dispersed using violence and charged with multiple charges?

a reply to: onequestion

So when the police officers were protesting how come riot squads weren't mobilized by the national guard and the police werent dispersed using violence and charged with multiple charges?

Because they are the police.

This is far from over, folks.

The Civil Rights Movement didn't have a turning point until the Watts Riots.