More than 50 arrested at Ferguson police station on 'Moral Monday,' other events elsewhere

FERGUSON • After a long standoff in heavy rain, 43 protesters who had offered themselves for arrest outside the police station were taken into custody about noon Monday -- the first of several "Moral Monday" demonstrations. More arrests were made later in the day and into the night, some during a series of flash mob-like protests around the area.

St. Louis County police released a list of 49 protesters who were arrested by late afternoon by their department, Ferguson Police, and the Missouri Highway Patrol. Of that list, 24 were from St. Louis area, and three were from outstate. The rest were from throughout the country. None were from Ferguson.

Among those arrested was Cornel West, an activist, author and commentator who has been in St. Louis for the weekend of protests. They were booked on peace disturbance at the St. Louis County Justice Center in Clayton.

About 500 people took part in the protest outside the police station, which began before 11 a.m. and ended shortly after 2 p.m.

Two miles away, six more protesters were arrested in the intersection of West Florissant Avenue and Lucas & Hunt Road, where they had been blocking traffic by holding up a sign. They had been part of a separate demonstration that began about a block away, at the entrance to the Emerson Electric Co. world headquarters. Watched by officers, the demonstrators never ventured onto Emerson property.

They were charged with refusal to disperse, the police spokesman said.

The two events were the first of several planned as "Moral Monday" by organizers of FergusonOctober, a series of protests that began over the weekend. They are the latest demonstrations in the St. Louis area since a Ferguson police officer shot and killed Michael Brown, 18, at the Canfield Green apartments on Aug. 9.

Shortly before 6 p.m., about 75 protesters converged upon a fundraiser in Webster Groves, for County Councilman Steve Stenger, Democratic candidate for St. Louis County Executive in the Nov. 4 election. Two protesters were arrested after they got inside the event, at 110 East Lockwood Avenue, and at least five more were arrested outside.

A line of about about two dozen officers stood in front of the building. Four protesters sat outside the front door holding a sign saying, "Stenger, McCaskill, Which side are you on."

U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., was attending the fundraiser. Many Ferguson protest leaders have sharply criticized Stenger, and some Democrats have withdrawn their support, after he defeated County Executive Charlie Dooley in the August primary with the support of County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch.

Protesters have demanded that McCulloch step aside from the investigation into the shooting of Brown, but he has declined.

Stenger faces state Rep. Rick Stream, a Republican, in the Nov. 4 election.

John Hickey, chapter director of the Missouri Sierra Club, attended the Stenger fundraiser and said he took part in the big march downtown Saturday. He said Stenger and the protesters share goals.

“We're all here for the same thing,” Hickey said, accusing Stream of having “a terrible record on human-rights issues.”

A coalition of north county Democrats recently endorsed Stream, and among their reasons was Stenger's defeat of Dooley.

Two more demonstrations began about 4 p.m., one at St. Louis City Hall and the other at Plaza Frontenac in west county. At the mall, about 35 demonstrators who had been milling about gathered together near the central escalator near the Tiffany's store and chanted. Shoppers stopped to watch, some of them snapping pictures with their phones. One person walked out of Cardwell's restaurant and hugged a protester.

Participants said they belonged to a local group called Millennial Activists United. Alexis Templeton, one of the leaders, said of Frontenac, "This is a rich and affluent area. We wanted to march here to bridge that distance from our situation.”

Jamell Spann, another organizer, said, "We made people feel uncomfortable, but we want to show them how we feel uncomfortable every day.”

There were no arrests. About 10 police officers in regular uniforms watched the event.

Downtown at City Hall, about 60 organized by Young Activists United gathered in the rotunda, blowing whistles and chanting. They had met a block away at Soldiers Memorial and marched to City Hall, going through security one by one to get into the rotunda.

In a statement, spokesman Kennard Williams said, “As the citizens who elect the public officials and pay the taxes to maintain the police force, we find the conduct of the officials who oversee police action as unacceptable for our community.” Williams said the group wants all police officers to wear body cameras "during any public interaction" and for the city to create a civilian review board chosen by citizens, not appointed by City Hall, that would examine police shootings.

Mayor Francis Slay was not there but Jeff Rainford, his chief of staff, met with a representative of the group and said the mayor would meet with the protesters soon.

"We are going to listen to them," Rainford said. "You are going to see action from this."

Rainford stressed the city must consider all viewpoints. He told reporters that Slay wasn't at City Hall because of an unspecified medical procedure, but said the mayor will "be fine."

At 6 p.m., about 60 protesters gathered outside the Walmart in Ferguson, which had been the scene of looting on the wild night one day after Brown was shot. A line of police officers guarded the store's locked front door. Ferguson police said six people were arrested for trespassing and failure to comply and a reporter was detained.

Mark Esters, vice president of the St. Louis chapter of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists and organizer for the Communications Workers of America, said the protest was at Walmart to remember John Crawford, an Ohio man who was killed by police in a Walmart store.

"It's another unjust killing of another black male at the hands of the police," Esters said. He said that was in addition to Michael Brown and VonDerrit Myers and others in other cities. "All were killed at the hands of law enforcement who should have been serving and protecting the community."

At about 8:30 p.m., another group of protesters gathered outside the Walmart in Maplewood, where they chanted outside the store and police stood waiting. At least five people were arrested, some inside the store. 

Downtown at the Edward Jones Dome, about 60 protesters bought tickets to attend the Rams game against the 49ers. They unfurled banners in their seats and over a jumbotron. Outside the dome, another group of protesters held signs that said "Touchdown 4 Mike Brown" and "Black lives matter."

Police watched but didn't engage the protesters, and there had been no arrests as of 10:20 p.m.

At about 10:30 p.m., protesters went to the QuikTrip at 12700 St. Charles Rock Road. Police arrived and protesters quickly left.

At about 10:45 p.m, they went inside Hollywood Casino in Maryland Heights with bullhorns, chanting. 

The first and biggest protest so far Monday began in the morning with a march from Wellspring Church, two blocks away, and with about about dozen clergy walking up to a line of officers outside the station and offering to hear their confessions. The ministers then moved toward the side door of the station, which was guarded by officers in riot gear.

Brian Schellman, county police spokesman, said the protesters told police several times they wanted to be arrested. He said officers made no arrests until protesters bumped police riot shields and tried to get through the police line. 

The other protest was near Emerson Electric in the 8000 block of West Florissant, a few blocks south of the main site of protests in August. Demonstrators sat in West Florissant for a brief time during a heavy rain, then moved toward Lucas & Hunt. About 20 protesters were on the sidewalk as the sign holders were arrested.

The FergusonOctober protests have drawn many protesters, most of them young, from across the country.

The police station is on South Florissant Road, which is a different street from West Florissant Avenue.

The protesters who gathered at the station had formed up before 11 a.m. from Wellspring Church.

After the offer to hear confessions, clergy then approached the side door of the police station. A leader on the bullhorn warned anyone who didn't want to be arrested to stay behind a setback line of people holding hands.

The station door was covered by a line of police officers in riot gear.

Protesters in the crowd shouted, "Shut it down," and, "Fight back."

Protesters created a memorial to Michael Brown outside the station by drawing a chalk outline of a body on the pavement and placing candles.

The gathering at the police station was a mixture of young protesters from out of town for the weekend events, local veterans of the Brown demonstrations and about 100 clergy who had been prepared to be arrested. The clergy group included 20 from Eden Theological Seminary in Webster Groves.

They marched to the police station chanting, "Hands up, don't shoot," the signature slogan of the many demonstrations.

The Rev. Michael Kinman, dean of Christ Church Cathedral downtown, said he was taking part in the action outside the police station because, “Every person is a child of God, made in God's image, and as long as there are people who are not being treated with dignity and respect, we need to stand up for them.”

Lucia van Diepen, a Quaker minister from Portland, Ore., said she traveled to St. Louis for the weekend events because she believes the shooting of Brown by Ferguson officer Darren Wilson was wrong on two levels.

“I think not only human law was broken ... but also he (Wilson) broke the divine law. We have a moral crisis because this is happening all over the United States,” van Diepen said.

Pastor Osagyefo Sekou of Boston, one of those arrested at the Ferguson police station, said after his release that officers at the Justice Center asked him who was leading the protest. "'Jesus,'" he said he told them.

Sekou said they knelt in front of the police line, and said officers pushed them back with batons and shields before making the arrests.

As for the police officers, he said, "There can be good people in an immoral system. It's not about bad apples. It's about a bad system.”

FergusonOctober participants also have protested the shooting last week of VonDerrit Myers Jr., 18, in the Shaw neighborhood of St. Louis by an off-duty officer. St. Louis police say the officer fired after Myers first shot three times at the officer.

There have been arrests and scattered outbreaks of violence, mainly property destruction in the Shaw neighborhood, where Myers was shot.

On Saturday, thousands marched through downtown St. Louis to protest the deaths of Brown and Myers and call for an end to police violence. On Sunday, hundreds attended an interfaith service at Chaifetz Arena at St. Louis University. Some protesters then staged a sit-in at the St. Louis University campus Sunday night.