Above: A protester at the Ferguson police station on November 21, 2014.
Update: Since reports that the grand jury decision would be announced on Sunday there have been strong denials in the media. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported late Saturday:
There will be no announcement from the St. Louis County grand jury hearing the Michael Brown shooting case this weekend, sources have told the Post-Dispatch.
An announcement was widely expected this weekend but the grand jury is still gathering information. The grand jury is to reconvene Monday.
In addition, the article below has changed its lead sentences to provide wiggle room — no longer are they saying a decision was made or that the decision would be announced on Sunday. Here’s the new lead:
A St. Louis County Grand Jury returned on Thursday with a possible decision whether or not to levy charges against Darren Wilson for the August 9th shooting of Michael Brown Jr.. St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch considered announcing the jurors’ conclusions this Sunday morning.
People on the ground in Ferguson are maintaining a position of being ready to mobilize as soon as a decision is announced, whether that’s Sunday or another day.
Note: Another stage in confronting injustice in communities of color, police abuse as well economic unfairness will begin tomorrow when the grand jury decision in the Michael Brown killing is announced. While some corporate media outlets are reporting that no decision has been reached or it is unclear when a decision will be announced we find the Sparrow Media report to be credible because (1) DC Police Chief Kathy Lanier announced there would be no time off for DC police on Sunday and Monday when she announced the activation of riot squads. She made this announcement on Thursday, the same day Sparrow reports the grand jury decision was reached; (2) On Friday, the Ferguson schools announced they would be closed on Monday and Tuesday. These actions are consistent with the decision of the grand jury being announced on Sunday morning.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch notes how the protests have been dominated by nonviolence writing:
Amid the anxiety about worst-case scenarios after the grand jury decides whether to indict Officer Darren Wilson for the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, it’s easy to overlook how nonviolent the unrest has been thus far.
The protests have not caused death or widespread destruction. They have sparked conversations about inequality and structural racism, and forced concessions that the region’s criminal justice system is broken.
We hope the police in St. Louis and across the country, where there have also been nonviolent protests against police abuse, remember these facts and do not escalate their tactics resulting in a self-fulfilling prophecy of riots. Organizers are not planning riots, they have planned and trained for a strategic nonviolent campaign to create transformation of policing and treatment of people in communities of color. KZ
Ferguson Grand Jury Has Returned a Decision in Mike Brown Case, While Community Speaks About Systemic Change
A St. Louis County Grand Jury returned Thursday and with them a decision whether or not to levy charges against Darren Wilson for the August 9th shooting of Michael Brown Jr.. Despite having the decision, St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch, for logistical purposes, has opted to announce the jurors’ conclusions on Sunday morning. Area schools have responded by announcing closures for next week, and over the next 48 hours, the media, who has once again descended upon Ferguson, MO, will repeat iterations of the same lede, variations of hysterical accounts, or ominous foreshadows of impending violence. Few will ask how locals about their desires to create a more equitable Ferguson and even fewer will provide a platform to those who already laying the foundation for that prospect. We set out to fill this void.
Ferguson Speaks: A Communique From Ferguson from FitzGibbon Media on Vimeo.
Last week, with support from Hands Up United, Sparrow’s Andy Stepanian and Jeff Wirth of Burning Hearts Media created the video communiqué above. This 9-minute clip provides a surreal temperature check of what it is truly like during these uncertain hours on the ground. In an effort to forego our own analysis and keep focus on the community of Ferguson, attached below are statements from community members and activists we interviewed. Please consider sharing their words this weekend in place of the hyperbolic headlines that will otherwise occupy your timelines:
“I wish that they would have did the right thing. I wish that . . . This was a golden opportunity for our politicians to be on the right side of history, but they chose not to. So for me, man, it’s like . . . I’ve always felt if it’s “fuck us,” then it’s “fuck you” toward the system.”—Tef Poe, Artist & Cofounder of Hands Up United
“Until the Governor chooses to truly address the systemic issues that the murder of Michael Brown brought to the surface for many Americans, no press release or commission board will truly help this community move forward from this tragedy” — Ashley Yates, Millennial Activists United
“For nearly 100 days, the preponderance of violence has come from the hands of police. We have proven we can peacefully assemble and function at a protest, can the police say the same?” —Community Organizer Damon Davis
“You’re killing young, black youth, my age, in the streets. We ’90s babies, ’80s babies. I don’t give a fuck how many guns you got, none of that. We react off our feelings.” —Community Organizer Low Key
“Governer Nixon’s choice to act unilaterally in this police plan is a slap in the face to every protestor who has worked tirelessly over the past 90+ days to reach peaceful solutions.” —Taurean Russell, Cofounder of Hands Up United
“If Governor Nixon wants to instruct police as to how to respond to protestors he need not look any further than the rules of engagement issued by the Don’t Shoot Coalition” —Montague Simmons, The Organization for Black Struggle
“I’m not here to try to validate the justice system, because there’s a lot of changes that need to occur. But the indictment of Darren Wilson is the first step of many that need to take place. We got to get him indicted first.” — David Whitt, The Canfield Watchmen
“Nobody is asking for Darren Wilson to be killed. Nobody’s asking for him to be shot in the street. Nobody is asking for him to be strung up, like we have been for every decade of every century that we’ve been here. We’re asking for him to be charged for the crime that he committed in front of witnesses. There’s a system that’s in place. You created the system. You enforce the system every day. We’re saying that guy should be included in the system. That’s all.” — Jesse Williams, Activist & Actor
“When they actually offer something that stares in the face of anti-black sentiments that exist in this country, when we actually start to talk to each other and hear each other, and we don’t throw the race card term around, we don’t throw the racism word around, this innocuous word that no one knows what it means, when we actually sit down and we go, ‘No’ these systems that we have in place are anti-black. These policies that we have in place are anti-black. This shoot-first, ask-questions-later is anti-black. The way that we treat our black slain men and women in the media after they’ve been gunned down and can no longer speak for themselves is anti-black. When they throw that political bone, and we can actually address it and start to make change, then we’ll be satisfied” — Ashley Yates, Millennial Activists United