ST. LOUIS • About 125 people protesting officer-involved shootings marched through downtown Saturday to the Gateway Arch, prompting park police to close the national monument a couple of hours early and briefly blocking some streets.
The protest, called United We Stand Silent March, started at Union Station around 3 p.m. and involved a racially diverse group of young and old. The marchers held signs with slogans that included “Black Lives Matter” and “We are in this together.”
Participants were handed a list of 90 names titled “Victims Killed by Police” dating to 1999.
Each was asked to pick a name from the list to write on a piece of fluorescent-colored tape and place it over his or her mouth. Some wrote other messages or stuck the tape to their clothing.
Names on the list included people killed in the St. Louis area, such as Kaijeme Powell, Michael Brown, Jared Harris, Earl Murray and Ronald Beasley.
The protesters joined arms in rows of 10 and marched down the middle of Market Street, staying eerily quiet under the gray skies and drizzling cold rain.
“We don’t always have to be vocal and loud. Silence can make a powerful statement,” said one organizer, Bishop Derrick Robinson, of the pastoral group Kingdom Destiny Fellowship International.
Storm Argieard, 33, of Ferguson, said she participated in the march because she wants to raise awareness about the number of unarmed black men killed by police.
“The names of everybody we are remembering should speak volumes,” Argieard said. “We don’t have to say anything.”
While the protesters were quiet as they headed north on Broadway from Market Street and then south on Third Street toward the Arch, things changed when they reached the Arch.
Park security quickly shut iron gates outside the entrance to keep them out. Curious visitors watched from inside as protesters shook the gates and demanded to be let in, chanting, “Open the gate.”
About eight park police officers held the gates as protesters yelled at them and chanted. Some onlookers outside were annoyed they couldn’t visit the Arch during their holiday stop in the city.
“Welcome to St. Louis!” one said after learning the monument would be closed the rest of the afternoon.
The protesters also pulled the tape off their mouths and clothing and left it on the erected gates or on the south leg of the Arch. The marchers eventually dispersed.
Before leaving, Robinson said over a loudspeaker, “We’ll be here the next day, the next day and the next day until we get justice.”