Omali Yeshitela, head of the Uhuru movement for black independence, lead a peaceful protest at 5th Street and Central Avenue in downtown St. Petersburg today, on the heels of a Missouri grand jury's decision not to charge Officer Darren Wilson in the death of Michael Brown, the unarmed Ferguson teen who was shot six times and killed by Officer Wilson.
The protest lasted about an hour, and seemed to face no real opposition. A religious zealot came by for ten minutes to shout about considering God before making any "genius decision," and a couple guys in a truck stopped at the red-light on 5th got frustrated when they realized they couldn't cross Central and were going to have to turn around. "This isn't the answer," the driver said to a couple reporters before pulling his hat down and driving forward, realizing his image might later be on TV.
During the concluding press conference, Mr. Yeshitela derided the "disproportionate" amount of "power that white people have" over black people and reiterated some of the more polarizing evidence much of the public holds against Officer Darren Wilson, like the amount of shots fired, and the fact that Brown was unarmed. Before the event was over, Mr. Yeshitela brought out a relative of TyRon Lewis, the black teenager who was shot three times and killed by police during a traffic stop in 1996, which led to riots on the south side of St. Pete after a Florida grand jury failed to criminally charge either police officer involved in Lewis' death.
This article appears in Nov 20-26, 2014.