BREAKING NEWS — No charges to be filed against police officer in Michael Brown shooting.
Earlier this afternoon, the New York Times announced that a decision had been reached by the grand jury in Ferguson, MO, and that its contents would be revealed later this evening. Whatever the outcome, citizens are already planning to gather in Williams Park in downtown St. Pete at 5 p.m.
On Sunday evening, in the heart of south St. Pete, about 20 citizens sat down with me at Gallerie 909 for an impromptu round-table style talk about the potential for race-related violence in the wake of the Ferguson grand jury decision.
The always outspoken Eric “Cook E Man” Atwater, whose parents' renowned soul food restaurant was once the nexus of political life in south St. Pete said, “You got to let the young people know that everybody gotta do right, not just the citizens but the people that look over the citizens.”
Channeling Uhuru leader Omali Yeshitela, the consensus at the gathering was: no justice, no peace.
When asked if he supports Yeshitela, Atwater said, “I support people doing right. If the police is right, I support the police. If the police did wrong, they gotta pay, and that’s the bottom line.”
Gallery owner Carla Bristol said, “I couldn't have said it better myself.”
At times, frustration and righteous indignation boiled over as several participants told of frightening and unnecessary run-ins with the law.
Dee Dee Griffin, who once thought of becoming a cop, pointed out that the police are now taught to shoot to kill, despite having other means of apprehension at their disposal, and made the chilling observation that the targets at target practice are all black figures. She then pointed out the alarming escalation in the number of deadly shootings since the Trayvon Martin cases. The mood was grim as participants discussed the horrific incidences that have brought race relations to the forefront of American public discourse.
Since February 26, 2012, when neighborhood Crime Watch coordinator George Zimmerman fatally shot 17-year-old African-American high school student Trayvon Martin and thrust the issue of race relations back into the American spotlight, there have been five highly publicized fatal events involving unarmed black youth, four of which involved the police.
The next event was the bizarre shooting by Michael Dunn, a 47-year-old white man who fired multiple times into an SUV carrying four unarmed black teenagers and killing Jordan Davis, a 17-year-old from Marietta, Georgia, during an altercation at a gas station over loud music. He was arrested, tried and convicted of first degree murder.
In September of 2013, Officer Randall Kerrick of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department in North Carolina fatally shot Jonathan Ferrell, a former FAMU football player who was seeking assistance at a nearby house after a car accident. A North Carolina grand jury has indicted the officer on a charge of manslaughter.
On Aug. 4 of this year, police shot 22-year-old John Crawford III while he shopped at a Walmart in a stylish suburb outside of Dayton, Ohio. Crawford was holding a pellet gun that he was considering buying.
Five days later, on August 9, Michael Brown, an unarmed black man, was shot and killed by white officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, MO. According to several accounts, Brown and a friend were walking down the middle of the street when Wilson drove up and ordered them to move to the sidewalk. Allegedly, Brown and Wilson struggled through the window of the police car. The two young men then fled in different directions. Officer Wilson pursued and fatally shot Brown. A grand jury is now deliberating the facts of the case in an effort to determine whether or not Officer Wilson should be charged with a crime.
The grand jury findings are expected this week and cities all across American are bracing for racial unrest in the event the officer is cleared. In Ferguson, the National Guard has already been called out and many area schools are closed for the week.
Noting that St. Petersburg is light years away from Ferguson, MO, Carla Bristol said, “I have observed injustice in St. Petersburg. I have an 18-year-old son, I have a brother…what I am against is kinda what Cook E Man said earlier. If the police is right then I am for [them]. We need the police, but the police also need to answer to the people because it is a tax-paid job.”
A young black man who asked to be identified only as Rell said, “In St. Pete, if you are black and you go north of the Mason-Dixon Line [referring to Central Avenue] and you drive a nice car, you might as well put a target on your back and that has got to change… Black men are shot here [non-fatally] all the time by police, and it never makes the news."
A same-day vigil and a next-day demonstration are planned in St. Petersburg to show support and solidarity for Michael Brown and his family and to call attention to racism, mass incarceration and the rising tide of deadly police shootings. Organizers for both demonstrations say that the events will be held, no matter what the grand jury finds.
The first event will be a candlelight vigil at Williams Park at 5 p.m. tonight. A second demonstration, "The Day After," organized by the Uhuru, will convene at 5th St. and Central Avenue. No time for the second event was given.
Interviewed via telephone, vigil organizer Ashley Green said, "The whole community is frustrated. We were promised justice for Trayvon and more than two years later we still do not have the Justice Department's findings, but look at what happened then. That case didn't go the way we thought it would go and, at the time, everyone thought we would have riots and although the community was very disappointed we were peaceful."
Despite remaining calm after the Trayvon Martin incident, St. Pete does have a history of civil unrest related to racial violence. The most recent incident occurred on October 24, 1996, when two of St. Pete's finest spotted a stolen gold-colored Pontiac Le Mans speeding on 18th Avenue South. They pulled the car over and at the traffic stop Officers Jim Knight and Sandra Minor approached the stopped car. Knight stood in front of the vehicle and ordered Lewis to turn off the car and put his hands up. Instead, Lewis slowly moved the car forward, repeatedly bumping the officer with the vehicle. Knight drew his weapon and shot Lewis dead at point blank range. St. Pete exploded into several days of riots and violence with the National Guard using Tropicana Field as a staging area.
"My greatest hope is that this situation is productive and not destructive," Green said.
