老澳门开奖结果

As we wait for the St. Louis county grand jury to reach a decision on whether or not to indict Officer Wilson in the killing of Michael Brown, 老澳门开奖结果 national staff is in Ferguson, Missouri, to support the work of the 老澳门开奖结果 of Missouri and to share the stories of who have been on the ground since August.

Larry Fellows III, a 29-year-old accidental organizer from St. Louis City, talks to the 老澳门开奖结果 about his experience organizing in Ferguson in the wake of Michael Brown鈥檚 killing.

How did you get into organizing in the aftermath of the Ferguson tragedy?

The Sunday after Mike was killed, I met friends and went to the memorial. Later that night, we were supposed to go to the vigil. My friend lives a block away from where it happened, so we parked at his house an hour and a half before the vigil. We didn鈥檛 make it to the vigil.

When we arrived there, the police were blocking off the streets. There were guard dogs. They already had riot gear. For them to block off a major street was crazy.

Did that surprise you?

Oh yeah. That is not a common thing in this area for police brigades. They made things very uneasy, not just for me, but for everybody. I checked in with my friend, and was like, 鈥淚s everything okay?鈥� He said, 鈥淵eah, we鈥檙e at the vigil.鈥� Then your mind starts going in a different space. Like, what are they really preparing for? They know we鈥檙e angry. They know we鈥檙e upset. They know we have a legitimate reason to be uneasy right now. They didn鈥檛 seem to understand that people are mourning here.

Had you seen yourself as an activist before?

No, never. It wasn鈥檛 until the next day I went to a protest. That was the first being shot at with rubber bullets and having M-16s aimed at me, and seeing armored vehicles, and being teargased, with, like, these weird Pok茅mon balls that spit out gas. All this stuff I had never seen before in my life.

It just showed me we should be able to fight for our constitutional rights without being terrorized by the police. That鈥檚 initially when I became upset and angry with everything that was going on.

How did you start organizing?

Initially, it would just be that we would show up for protests, and the next day we鈥檇 clean up the streets. A lot of the same people were out at the protests and going out to lunch and talking about what was happening. That became a cycle until a lot of us figured out we needed to have a strategy. The police would come with different tactics every day, so we needed to figure out other tactics of how to protest. Then a lot of organizers from across the country started to come in to help us do the planning and do the strategizing. That helped us start doing it on our own, and planning out actions and what our narratives were going to be. Our meetings and actions are geared toward getting something accomplished.

What are your fears or hopes of what is going to happen when the grand jury decision comes down?

My main focus has always been our safety. The safety of the protesters; the safety of the residents in St. Louis County. The fact that we are being painted as violent, but when you look at photos: Who鈥檚 been showing up with gear? Who鈥檚 been showing up with weapons? It鈥檚 been the police.

One thing the 老澳门开奖结果 has focused on is how the militarization of police has a disparate impact on communities of color. Is that something you feel in your personal experience?

Most definitely. It鈥檚 sad we have to look at it that way. A bunch of black people unified 鈥� people automatically think something violent is going to happen. Why would you assume that? When groups of white people do show up and are rioting the same tactics aren鈥檛 used. Look at Look at any NHL championship game.

If anything good can come of this tragedy, what do you hope it will be?

I think something good has already come of it. I鈥檝e definitely built relationships and friendships with so many different people I hadn鈥檛 crossed paths with before, or if I did, we hadn鈥檛 noticed each other.

And it鈥檚 definitely opened our eyes to what is going on in St. Louis. There鈥檚 been this thing for years that hasn't been blatant racism. Since August, l鈥檝e seen black people, including myself, be called ugly names. I鈥檝e seen people spit on. It鈥檚 made people more open to be racist. So having to have these conversations about race, it鈥檚 definitely happening way more often now.

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