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ferguson protests
Remembering Mike Brown: Recommitting to the Fight for Power
As the nation reflects on how Ferguson changed the world, I’m asking that you think about what we have to do in the next 10 years to ensure that we’re moving closer to a world where uprisings like that one aren’t necessary.
Aug 14, 2024
On August 9, 2014, I was at the United Nations, attending the Convention on Eliminating Racial Discrimination, or UN CERD, as part of a delegation of Black organizers and activists who were testifying to the conditions of Black people in the United States organized by the U.S. Human Rights Network. I cried for the greater part of that day, sitting with the weight of the injustices and murders of Black people.
There was a chill in the air and not a dry eye in the room at the UN CERD as Trayvon Martin’s mom, Sybrina Fulton, testified about the murder of her son. I remember the testimony of Jordan Davis’ father, Ron Davis, about the murder of his son and the silence that fell as he broke into tears. Both of their sons were murdered by state-sanctioned violence—by the state emboldening police, or even neighborhood watch volunteers, to take Black lives with impunity. I can still hear the testimonies of Black feminist organizations like Black Women’s Blueprint and activists from Chicago who spoke about police violence and murders of Black women and men. I spoke and testified about housing insecurities and violence against LGBTQI+ people. For us, all of those stories were connected and shared—they were all about Black lives not being valued and Black folks needing to build people power in order to stop it.
While at U.N. CERD, an African diplomat asked, “What is happening in Ferguson?” This was the first time I had heard of Ferguson, Missouri. I quickly researched all I could about Ferguson and what was happening. As a parent, I immediately felt another profound loss of another child, Mike. The murder of Mike Brown Jr. felt as intimate, as close, and as violating as that of Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis, Aiyanna Jones, and the many others taken by state-sanctioned violence before August 9.
Our work continues as we navigate the rapidly growing rise and threat of fascism, a complex electoral landscape, an ever-worsening climate crisis, and the continued murder of Black people by the police, such as the killing of Sonya Massey
It was all overwhelming. It was clear that, as a people, we had lost too much. In our time of deepest need, the state responded by further declaring war against its people with tanks, tear gas, and militarized occupation. We were outraged. We knew that we had to take action; we didn’t know what to do, but we knew we needed to be there with those brave freedom fighters in Ferguson. A few comrades and I left the U.N. CERD meeting and headed straight to Ferguson.
Upon arriving in Ferguson, we learned about Mike through the memories his people shared of him. He was beloved by the community, and more than that, he represented so many of us, and we all shared so many similarities with him—Mike’s life was not abstract; it was real, tangible, and familiar. Mike Brown Jr. looked like many in our families and neighborhoods. Mike Brown Jr. looked like my nephew and other young men in my own life. It is a psychological terror when faces and bodies so much like your own are hunted down and killed. We still grieve and mourn Mike, and his memory continues to fuel our fight for power and liberation.
As revolutionaries, our role is not only to grieve and mourn but to honor our people—present, past, and those who will come after us—by acting to create the society we deserve. For months, Mike Brown Jr. was honored through the sustained action and rebellion in the streets of Ferguson and actions around the globe. Uttering his name invited millions to say the names of Black people killed by police, and that reverberation ignited a new conversation about racialized violence. Each day, each hour, there was resistance against police murders and state-sanctioned violence and an assertion that Black people deserve to live without the fear and threat of police terror. The days were consumed with marches, rallies, escalations, and time in community, and the nights were long and filled with strategy meetings, event prep, and far less rest than our bodies needed. But even when those protests ended, the work did not. Mike Brown Jr. and the Ferguson Uprisings woke something up in us, inspiring a new era of the Black liberation movement that has sustained for a decade and counting. Our lives, my life, changed forever.
At the Movement 4 Black Lives (M4BL), we are fighting for a fundamentally different world, one where he and all of us would be safe, protected, and given the best conditions to thrive and determine our own outcomes.
Since the Ferguson Rebellion, M4BL has remained committed to advancing abolition, anti-capitalism, and Black Queer Feminism. We organize and advance our vision in local communities and nationally. Our strategies range from advancing policy and electoral shifts to building our own institutions and alternatives to oppressive systems. We are proud of the organizing of our member organizations in Ferguson and St. Louis, who have been vital in the resistance and power building, such as Action St. Louis and the Organization for Black Struggle.
In our 10 years of building social movement power within Black communities, we are proud of our interventions to create policy and legislative change through the Vision 4 Black Lives, Breathe Act, and People’s Response Act that all emphasize divesting from the carceral state and instead investing in alternatives that support and nourish Black lives and communities. We are excited to report about the dozens of campaigns that have won and advanced local wins, ranging from removing police officers from schools to creating housing, changing educational policies, creating safety pods and alternatives to policing, advancing reproductive justice, and engaging communities in environmental and climate change preparedness.
Our work continues as we navigate the rapidly growing rise and threat of fascism, a complex electoral landscape, an ever-worsening climate crisis, and the continued murder of Black people by the police, such as the killing of Sonya Massey. We are clear about our need to build more power to position ourselves to create the world we need and deserve. Now and forever, we honor Mike Brown Jr. in our organizing work and all those who have been taken from us. Today, as the nation reflects on how Ferguson changed the world, I’m asking that you think about what we have to do in the next 10 years to ensure that we’re moving closer to a world where uprisings like the one that rattled the foundation of our nation aren’t necessary. We are still feeling the impact of what happened 10 years ago across all aspects of society: culturally, politically, socially, and economically. And we are less than 80 days away from a presidential election where the freedom to engage in our democracy is literally on the ballot.
We know that much of what is being promised in Project 2025 is a direct response to the transformational change that came out of the Ferguson Uprising. So, I’m asking that you keep that front of mind as you consider the change you want to see in the next four years. I’m asking that you don’t overlook the communities in Ferguson who never asked for their city to be thrust into the spotlight but acted quickly to demand change and accountability from their local police and from the system of policing at large. Please remember Mike’s family, loved ones, and the organizers on the ground who carry on liberatory work in ways that can only be described as revolutionary and rooted in a deep love for their people. Today, consider your personal responsibility in changing our world over the next 10 years.
We began seeding M4BL during the Uprising because we knew there were necessary things we could do together that we could not do apart. And we still believe that. Join us in building people's power to make liberation more than a freedom dream; let’s make it a reality.
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Report Details Intensifying Police Crackdown on US Journalists Covering Protests
"The inadequacy of press freedom protections was starkly exposed during the Trump administration, when some of the largest street protests in American history took place," according to a new report.
Jun 20, 2023
In recent years, particularly since former Republican President Donald Trump took office in 2017, U.S. police have failed to uphold basic constitutional rights for journalists covering rallies and other protests, a new report from the Knight First Amendment Institute said Tuesday, with the study documenting a number of physical attacks, unjust arrests, and suppression tactics used by police at protests both large and small.
Senior visiting fellow Joel Simon interviewed dozens of journalists and legal experts about the resurgence of police violence against journalists in recent years—a trend that recalls numerous "notorious incidents" that took place during the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 60s, including the harassment of reporters attempting to cover school integration in Little Rock, Arkansas and the seizure of camera film from journalists in Greenwood, Mississippi as police dogs attacked protesters.
In the 1980s and 90s, Simon wrote in the report, "violent police attacks on journalists receded along with police-protester clashes, perhaps in part because many police departments adopted a more conciliatory, negotiation-based approach to demonstrators."
"The steady growth of police militarization post-9/11," however, "helped fuel further conflict with the press," Simon wrote.
In recent decades the Department of Defense has supplied police departments across the U.S. with "military-grade equipment like armored vehicles, rifles, and grenades," noted the author, and a PEN America report on the protests that erupted in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014 after the police killing of Michael Brown illustrated how that change in law enforcement agencies' arsenals has intensified police officers' treatment of journalists as well as protesters:
The actions against journalists, as well as those against protesters, were "fueled by the aggressive militarized response by police to largely peaceful public protests... This apparently created a mentality among some police officers that they were patrolling a war zone, rather than a predominantly peaceful protest attended by citizens exercising their First Amendment rights, and members of the press who also possess those rights." The number of reported abuses "strongly suggests that some police officers were deliberately trying to prevent the media from documenting the protests and the police response."
In Ferguson, Simon wrote, researchers documented 52 alleged violations of reporters' constitutional right to cover protests, including physical attacks and aggression, obstruction of access, and 21 arrests.
"Protests have always been dangerous to cover, but we had never seen anything on this scale."
The protests in Ferguson marked a milestone in law enforcement's changing relationship with the press, the report shows, followed six years later by a number of rights violations during the nationwide racial justice uprising of 2020 in response to the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
"The inadequacy of press freedom protections was starkly exposed during the Trump administration, when some of the largest street protests in American history took place, including those against the Floyd murder," wrote Simon. "During that period, police frequently assaulted, arrested, or detained journalists at protests, particularly when enforcing dispersal orders, imposing curfews, or deploying crowd control measures. In 2020, at least 129 journalists were arrested covering social justice protests. More than 400 journalists suffered physical attacks, 80% of them at the hands of law enforcement."
Photojournalist Mike Shum described to Simon how "law enforcement turned on the media" in Minneapolis four days after Floyd's murder, after Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) imposed an 8:00 pm curfew that ostensibly exempted the press:
That night police fired on a group of journalists with rubber bullets, hitting Shum in the foot. "It was confusing because we just kept screaming 'we’re press, we're press,’ but the bullets just kept flying," Shum recalled. In a separate incident that day, police in Minnesota fired on photojournalist Linda Tirado with what is believed to be a rubber bullet, permanently blinding her in one eye.
Other journalists were "pelted with pepper spray, tear gas, and other projectiles as they ran to take cover" after police "formed a skirmish line" to enforce the curfew. A photographer working with NBC, Ed Ou, was "hit in the head with what he believes was a flash-bang grenade" and then "blasted" with pepper spray by police who ignored his pleas for medical assistance.
Outside the Twin Cities, other journalists covering the uprising were hit with batons, beaten, and shot with rubber bullets, as well as arrested for trying to report on the protests.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker—whose data Simon used to compile the report—found that "hundreds of separate incidents" of police violence against journalists took place in 80 cities across 36 states in the year following Floyd's murder. Journalists in 309 cases said they were targeted by police officers between May 26, 2020—the day after the killing—and May 26, 2021, and 44 of those cases took place in Minneapolis.
"Protests have always been dangerous to cover, but we had never seen anything on this scale," Kirstin McCudden, managing editor of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, told Simon.
The report also details the use of "kettling"—in which police contain protesters, and in some cases, journalists, by surrounding them in one area—which was prevalent during the demonstrations that erupted in Washington, D.C. during Trump's inauguration in 2017.
One journalist, Aaron Cantú, was reporting on the "DisruptJ20" rally when he was trapped by the police officers' kettling tactic.
"He assumed he could approach the police line and explain he was reporting on the rally," Simon wrote. "But when he initially tried to engage with police, he was hit with pepper spray in his eyes and temporarily blinded."
Police also applied zip ties to Cantú's wrists "so tightly that his hands went numb" and refused him access to food or a bathroom "during the more than eight hours he was held in the kettle." Law enforcement also demanded access to his phone and electronic communications.
"The nature of journalism has changed, and the law does not appear to have kept up," Cantú told Simon. "In these dangerous situations, law enforcement is deciding who is or who is not a journalist."
Cantú was one of more than 200 protesters and journalists who were arrested at the protest, none of whom were ultimately convicted of a crime.
"These events could have played out differently. Police could have opted not to use kettling, an indiscriminate tactic that detains everyone in a geographical area, instead attempting to single out for arrest those who were violating the law," wrote Simon. "Police might have made a greater effort to ascertain if journalists were accidentally caught up in the kettle and to release them if their role could be confirmed. Prosecutors could have made a decision not to charge them, based on the fact that they were acting as journalists and engaged in newsgathering activities."
In the report, Simon called on police to refrain from interfering with or using force against anyone engaged in newsgathering activity and exempt reporters from curfew and dispersal orders.
"When the general public is no longer permitted to remain at the site of a protest, police can use indicators like a press credential, distinctive clothing marked 'press,' or professional recording equipment, to guide their determinations about who is exempt from the order," he wrote. "When in doubt, police should assume that someone who appears to be engaged in journalism is in fact a journalist."
Other recommendations include:
- State legislatures codifying such exemptions into law and requiring police to actively work to ensure journalists can operate at protests;
- News organizations offering police training on upholding press freedom and meeting directly with law enforcement agencies to establish a dialogue between press and police; and
- The U.S. Department of Justice opening investigations into credible allegations of the mistreatment of journalists at protests to establish whether there is a pattern of such conduct at police agencies.
Three years after the George Floyd protests, and ahead of the 2024 election, Simon wrote, "America remains polarized and broader policing issues are a source of deep controversy."
"This is the moment to tackle the historic challenge," he added. "The next wave of mass protests could be just around the corner. So could America's next press freedom crisis."
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Fires Burn As Community Feels Pain of Injustice: Dispatches from Ferguson
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon deploys National Guard troops following outpouring of community anger in response to grand jury decision not to indict police officer
Nov 25, 2014
Following Monday night's announcement by St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch that a grand jury would not indict police officer Darren Wilson for the shooting death of unarmed teenager Michael Brown, the city of Ferguson, Missouri erupted in unrest fueled by an outpouring of emotion by those both outraged and saddened by the decision.
Dozens of fires burned buildings and cars throughout the night in Ferguson and National Guard units were ultimately deployed in the early hours of Tuesday. And the New York Times reports that Missouri Governor Jay Nixon is ready to send additional soldiers to Ferguson if he deems it necessary.
While the national response to the grand jury decision included spontaneous marches in dozens of cities--including Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Oakland and others--on the streets of Ferguson, in areas near the police department headquarters and in the neighborhood where Brown was killed on August 9, the anger to the news was reported as palpable and intense by those on the scene. As police officers in riot gear fired tear gas to disperse gathered crowds, some people responded to the prosecutor's announcement by smashing windows of cars and breaking into local businesses. According to reports, approximately 29 people were arrested by law enforcement during the course of the night.
Subsequent to McCulloch's announcement, which took place just after 8:00 PM local time (9:00 PM EST), the prosecutor's office released a set of documents said to be the complete file from the grand jury. You can view those documents here.
As individuals and organizations responded to the news of the 'no indictment,' many on the streets in Ferguson reported scenes of chaos as clouds of tear gas mixed with smoke from burning cars and buildings. The sounds of what appeared to be gunfire were heard intermittently throughout the night. Local hospitals reported dozens of injuries, but no deaths, associated with the street protests and police clashes.
What follows is a mix of reporting and reaction to Monday's announcement from community members, legal and civil rights groups, protest organizers, and journalists.
Reacting to 'No Indictment'
Statement from Michael Brown's parents, Lesley McSpadden and Michael Brown, Sr.:
We are profoundly disappointed that the killer of our child will not face the consequence of his actions.
While we understand that many others share our pain, we ask that you channel your frustration in ways that will make a positive change. We need to work together to fix the system that allowed this to happen.
Join with us in our campaign to ensure that every police officer working the streets in this country wears a body camera.
We respectfully ask that you please keep your protests peaceful. Answering violence with violence is not the appropriate reaction.
Let's not just make noise, let's make a difference.
Statement from NAACP president Cornell William Brooks:
The NAACP stands with citizens and communities who are deeply disappointed that the grand jury did not indict Darren Wilson for the tragic death of Michael Brown, Jr. We stand committed to continue our fight against racial profiling, police brutality and the militarization of local authorities. The death of Michael Brown and actions by the Ferguson Police Department is a distressing symptom of the untested and overaggressive policing culture that has become commonplace in communities of color all across the country. We will remain steadfast in our fight to pass the End Racial Profiling federal legislation. And we stand in solidarity with peaceful protesters and uphold that their civil rights not be violated as both demonstrators and authorities observe the "rules of engagement." The grand jury's decision does not mean a crime was not committed in Ferguson, Missouri, nor does it mean we are done fighting for Michael Brown, Jr. At this difficult hour, we commend the courage and commitment of Michael Brown's family, as well as local and national coalition partners.
Statement by Tef Poe, co-founder of Hands Up United (h/t The Dissenter):
In this moment, we all have a choice to make. We can stand by while police and their apologists in prosecutors' offices and city halls continue to kill, harass and criminalize our communities - or stand up in this moment to demand that our elected officials lead and finally deal with our broken policing system.
Remarks by Montague Simmons, chairperson of the Organization for Black Struggle:
We are devastated that the grand jury has failed to indict Darren Wilson in the killing of Mike Brown.
All this community wanted was simple justice. Wilson killed an unarmed man and should face a trial by jury. Instead, he benefited from a highly unusual grand jury process, led by a prosecutor with whom the local community pleaded to step down or be removed from the case.
Mike Brown was a young man with his entire life ahead of him. He could have been any of us. In fact, since his murder, we have seen more police killings of unarmed Black people. In the last week alone, the killings of Akai Gurley in New York City and Tamir Rice in Cleveland have served as stark reminders that the problems with policing in Ferguson are rampant throughout the country.
Statement Jeffrey Mittman, executive director of the ACLU of Missouri:
The grand jury's decision does not negate the fact that Michael Brown's tragic death is part of an alarming national trend of officers using excessive force against people of color, often during routine encounters. Yet in most cases, the officers and police departments are not held accountable. While many officers carry out their jobs with respect for the communities they serve, we must confront the profound disconnect and disrespect that many communities of color experience with their local law enforcement.
The ACLU will continue to fight for racial justice. We must end the prevailing policing paradigm where police departments are more like occupying forces, imposing their will to control communities. This 'us vs. them' policing antagonizes communities by casting a blanket of suspicion over entire neighborhoods, often under the guise of preventing crime.
To build trust, we need a democratic system of policing where our communities have an equal say in the way their neighborhoods are policed. Collaboration, transparency, and communication between police and communities around the shared goals of equality, fairness, and public safety is the path forward.
A Street Level View
Huffington Post: Ferguson Erupts in Protests After Darren Wilson Grand Jury Announcement
The Brown family had called for peaceful protests in a statement -- but not everyone assembled would heed their wishes. McCulloch's long, combative announcement and its references to Brown's alleged theft of cigarillos inflamed tensions. Within minutes of the news that there would be no indictment, some protesters had smashed the windows out of a police car. Others threw bricks at police guarding the station.
Law enforcement officers responded with orders to disperse. At the same time as President Barack Obama addressed the nation, the police filled the air filled with teargas, sickening protesters and journalists.
During one episode, captured by Fusion media, a woman thought to be having a heart attack was carried to a police line for assistance, but the police responded to those trying to help the woman by firing tear gas and shooting rounds from bean-bag shotguns:
Police fire tear gas, rubber bullets at group carrying unconscious woman in FergusonFusion's Tim Pool witnessed an unconscious woman getting tear gassed by police in Ferguson last night. Subscribe to Fusion: ...
The Intercept: "Burn This Shit Down": Mayhem and Protests Engulf Ferguson
Standing outside the Ferguson Police Department headquarters, the mood of the crowd of a few thousand was initially jubilant and brimming with anticipation, but around 8 pm, when the announcement of the grand jury decision was made, all hell broke loose. Michael Brown's mother Lesley McSpadden addressed the crowd as McCullough was speaking, apparently already informed of what the decision was going to be. She broke down sobbing in tears and agony saying, "they took my baby," and "we're sick of this." After that, the stepfather of Michael Brown, Louis Head, shouted through tears, "burn this shit down." At that, some of the crowd got agitated and very aggressive with police.
Simultaneous with the announcement of the decision, St. Louis County officials released transcripts of grand jury testimony. Wilson, who is 6'4 and 210 pounds, described Brown in his testimony as "Hulk Hogan," and stated that he looked "angry as a demon." According to Wilson, Brown reached for his gun while he was seated in his police cruiser and said "you are too much of a pussy to shoot me."
In front of the Ferguson Police Department headquarters, after Head's outburst and after the grand jury decision was announced, the police took out their riot gear and formed a blockade in front of the headquarters building. There were also snipers visible on the roof of the police headquarters.
The Guardian: Ferguson ablaze after Michael Brown verdict: 'This is a war zone now'
At 1.30am, amid escalating unrest, Chief Jon Belmar, the St Louis County police chief, told a press conference: "Unless we bring 10,000 policemen in here, I don't think we can prevent folks that are destroying a community."
He said police had arrested 29 people. There were no reports of deaths, but several reports of injuries. [...]
A block north from where the Swat teams made their brief stop, a woman and man stood in front of a burning building, arms aloft. "This is America. I am a citizen of America," the woman shouted. "I want justice and peace."
She was interrupted by a man walking past. "Don't burn this down," he said. "Let's go burn down their neighbourhoods."
He didn't say who 'they' were, but throughout the looting, arson and the attacks on police there was a thread that seemed to unite the protesters in their violence. Brown's name was mentioned occasionally. Often anger was expressed with the more succinct "fuck the police". Some of those taking part in the riots stepped aside to explain their actions.
"What is going on here is real simple," said DeAndre Rogers Austin, 18, who was with his two younger sisters. "We told them no justice, no peace. We didn't get our justice, so they don't get their peace. We're fucking shit up over here. Plain and simple."
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