Police make 16 arrests outside Ferguson police station
At about 10:30 p.m. dozens of police officers in riot gear waded into protesters standing in the middle of the street outside the Ferguson police station. They forced them back onto the sidewalk and made at least half a dozen arrests.
St. Louis County Police tweeted that they issued a warning for protesters to leave the street, and some protesters ignored the warning and were taken into custody.
On Saturday morning, St. Louis County Police revised the total arrests from 15 to 16, and included a breakdown of where the protesters were from. Of the 16 arrested, nine were from New York; three from the Chicago area; two from California; one from Iowa and one from Berkeley in suburban St. Louis.
Missouri Department of Public Safety spokesman Mike O'Connell said 15 people were arrested. St. Louis County police tweeted that one faced a charge of assault on a law enforcement officer.
People are also reading…
About 75 protesters milled around the area by about 11:30 p.m. Members of the National Guard stood by. By about 11:45 p.m., most of the protesters had left.
— Paul Hampel and Valerie Schremp Hahn, 11:50 p.m.
• • •
Protesters walk through Central West End, sing social justice holiday carols
A group of protesters met up at MoKaBe's coffee house in Tower Grove South at about 8 p.m. to go over lyrics to social justice holiday carols. They planned to carol in the Central West End and possibly Flora Place in the Shaw neighborhood later tonight. By 9:45 p.m. they were caroling in the Central West End.
They distributed copies of a “caroling for justice” song book with modified lyrics to popular carols. Lyrics to “White Christmas” included: “They’re dreaming of a white Christmas/just like the ones the bigots know/Where justice is missing and fairness isn’t/Because fairness and justice they don’t know.”
“Life is Hell,” sung to the tune of Silver Bells, included the lyrics: Life is Hell, Life is Hell/It's a racist time in the city/Ring-a-ling, hear them sing/Slim hope for justice today.”
The group grew from about 30 to 45 protesters as they caroled outside various restaurants and businesses, and then staged a four-and-a-half minute “die-in” in the intersection of North Euclid and McPherson avenues. City police approached organizers and told them they had to get out of the street.
Said one officer to protesters: “You have rights, but you don't have the right to block traffic.” But by the time that conversation took place, the protesters got up and left and planned to carol on Flora Place in the Shaw neighborhood.
— Joe Holleman and Valerie Schremp Hahn, 10:33 p.m.
• • •
Police, about 150 protesters in stand off in front of Ferguson police station
At about 9:20 p.m., a group of about 150 protesters began walking in a circle, blocking the intersection of South Florissant Road and Paul Avenue, just south of the police station. Among the protesters was a group heralding from New York City, identifying themselves as students. They carried a 10-foot long banner saying they were joining the fight against “racist police terror.” As protesters were gathering, about 20 police cars pulled up south of them, joined by about half a dozen National Guard Humvees, blocking them.
At about 9:30 p.m., police in riot gear, with about 50 National Guard troops behind them, stood off with protesters in front of the police station.
Some of the protesters were handing out literature from the Revolutionary Communist Party.
— Paul Hampel and Koran Addo, 10:06 p.m.
• • •
About 150 protesters march through Chesterfield Mall
Shortly before 7 p.m., a group of about 150 demonstrators went to Chesterfield Mall and walked through it, shouting “Shut it down!” and “Arrest Darren Wilson!” The demonstrators seemed to surprise security people, and there were very few of them evident. Police also did not appear to be at the scene right away, but then appeared after the demonstration began and simply walked with the crowd.
Stores shut their doors and rolled down security gates as the demonstrators went by. Shoppers simply stared, and some recorded the scenes on their cellphones.
“They seem peaceful enough, there's no problem for me,” said Jon Nuttall a shopper from St. Louis City visiting with his teenage son. “It's more annoying because it's causing all the stores to close,” said the son, Joshua Nuttall.
The crowd was mostly young and racially mixed. Some carried signs and danced to the beat of a drummer marching with them.
After 20 minutes of marching, the group held a “die-in” with all of them lying on the floor, next to the merry-go-round.
Shoppers basically abandoned the mall in the midst of the march. By 7:30, demonstrators and security people were virtually the only people in the mall. A Chesterfield Mall spokesman, Shawn Phillips, said the mall closed its doors during the demonstration but reopened them shortly afterwards. But a reporter saw that many mall stores had their doors or security gates closed as of 8:30 p.m.
The mall remained officially open until 10 p.m. and planned to reopen at its normal time at 8 a.m. Saturday.
“I think it's good that they're standing up for themselves, but at the same time, they're putting people in harm's way, just as that white cop did,” said Crystal Young, 35, a shopper from House Springs, referring to the violence in Ferguson.
A Chesterfield police spokesman said the protest was peaceful and there were no arrests.
Meanwhile, up in Ferguson, only a handful of protesters stood outside the Ferguson police station. Charles Reid of St. Louis held a sign that said "Justice, Peace, Love." He asked: "Where is everybody tonight?"
Minutes later, a motorist drove by making a gun symbol with his hand and pretended to shoot.
"Can you believe that?" he asked.
Two protesters standing behind him said, "Next time, we'll pull him out of his car."
By 9 p.m., though, about 70 to 100 protesters had showed up at the police station. Shortly after 9, they began marching south on West Florissant Avenue.
— Jim Gallagher, Paul Hampel, Koran Addo, and Valerie Schremp Hahn, 9:07 p.m.
• • •
Our earlier story:
UPDATED at 4:55 p.m. Second demonstration at West County Center moves onto Manchester Road, police block entrances to mall for about 40 minutes.
More than 100 protesters marched loudly through the St. Louis Galleria at midday Friday and then moved to West County Center for another demonstration.
The march through the Galleria in Richmond Heights led to a closing of the mall for more than an hour. At 4:15 p.m., protesters already had scattered from the West County Center, but police blocked off entrances both to the building and its parking lots for about 40 minutes.
The event at West County Center included protesters lying on the floor on the upper level near the Barnes & Noble bookstore. The demonstrators, who appeared in nearly the same numbers as the event at the Galleria, left after police said they had three minutes before arrests would begin.
Many of them moved to a hillside near Manchester Avenue, where police kept a close watch. A small group briefly blocked the northbound ramp onto Interstate 270 from Manchester.
The protest at the Galleria was the first big event in the Black Friday protests in the metro area.
It lasted for about an hour and ended shortly before 2 p.m. Participants marched together shouting, "Stop shopping, join the movement," and, "No Black Friday shopping," in addition to some of the regular slogans in the three months of protest since Michael Brown was killed by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. Security guards and police officers observed the protest inside Galleria but stayed back.
A group lay down on the floor near the escalators in the center of the mall and continued their chants. Richmond Heights police, with backup that included officers from Clayton and Crestwood and National Guard soldiers, continued to watch nearby.
Shoppers also made way for the march and watched it pass by. Many shops shut their nighttime security gates while the event was underway.
"It's not just about race," said Candace Reese, 28, of Florissant, one of the participants. "Violence shouldn't be a part of our daily life. How amazing it would be if this all amounted to something."
Police made no arrests.
The protesters who marched through the Galleria had gathered at Shaw Park in Clayton and then headed down Brentwood Boulevard in vehicles. They returned to the park from the Galleria, then headed for the West County Center.
There had been a smaller, separate march earlier in downtown Clayton.
Until those events, only a few isolated protests had unfolded in what was billed as a major effort to boycott and disrupt shopping on the busiest retail day of the year. Earlier, about two dozen chanted outside the Walmart in Manchester. About 10 Ferguson protesters briefly joined with a pro-union rally outside the Walmart in Bridgeton, and one protester was arrested, police confirmed.
It all began slowly, both in the stores and on the streets. At Tropicana Lanes, 7960 Clayton Road, the announced mustering point for Black Friday protests at the Galleria, no more than eight protesters had arrived by 7 a.m. They agreed to abandon that event and head to one planned for 8:30 a.m. outside the St. Louis County Justice Center in downtown Clayton.
But only a few people were outside the justice center at the appointed time, either. Another event was planned for 11:30 a.m. at Shaw Park, which became the march through the Galleria.
Travis Martin, a protester who was at the bowling alley and the Justice Center, said he didn't think that activist leaders had done enough planning and promotion for an event at the Galleria.
“I think the main organizers weren't so focused on anti-capitalism. They are more focused on justice for Mike Brown,” said Martin, 27, a student at the Washington University School of Law.
St. Louis County Police reported receiving enough telephone inquiries about protests that it issued the following statement shortly after 8 a.m., "We are receiving multiple inquiries as to the status and safety of our shopping malls and stores. Currently there are no reported disturbances, protests or problems with any shopping locations in St. Louis County."
Later that morning, activists Anthony Shahid and Zaki Baruti led about 50 marchers through downtown Clayton, chanting, "No Justice, No Profits." They walked past boarded-up shops in the otherwise empty business district.
At the Walmart in Manchester, about two dozen protesters chanted outside as police moved them away from the store.
"We want to really let the world know that it is no longer business as usual," said Chenjerai Kumanyika, an assistant professor at Clemson University in South Carolina, according to The Associated Press.
Outside Plaza Frontenac Friday morning, a married couple from Seattle stood along South Lindbergh Boulevard Friday morning holding signs that called for a boycott and included the line, "No justice, no profits."
Cathy Whitmire, who grew up in Kirkwood, told the Post-Dispatch, “We'll hopefully have people pause and reflect and not just go into the holiday season thinking it's business as usual.”
The comment by her husband, Tom Ewell, was more pointed: “From black guys we get a wave. From whites, a finger.”
There had been isolated protests at a few stores Thursday night, including the Target in Brentwood and the Walmart in Maplewood.
Shortly after the Galleria opened at 6 a.m., Dionne Diuguid of Alton and her two daughters had little trouble getting their shopping done. The crowds looked more like a typical Saturday morning.
“I think it's a hidden gem here, but this year is less than normal,” Diuguid said of the crowds. “People are scared, but they shouldn't be. They think if there are protesters, then automatically something bad is going to happen.”
However, the slow morning at many stores and mall also happened nationwide as Thursday deals pulled many buyers forward, Associated Press reported this morning.
At the Best Buy in Brentwood, no protesters were in sight as only a dozen people waited for the doors to reopen at 8 a.m. The line had grown to about 60 when doors opened.
“We don't think the crowds are out this year,” said Alex Pierce of the Tower Grove neighborhood in St. Louis. She and relatives had been in the store Thursday night, when she said lines were heavy. The store was open from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m.
At the Walmart in Maplewood, customer Francine Rhodes of West County, said, “It looks like a ghost town.” She thought it was due mainly to Thanksgiving Day shopping.
It also made it easy for her to pick up a 32-inch TV for $198.
Shopping had a slow start Friday morning at the Taubman outlet mall in Chesterfield Valley. Latricia and Jaioua Singleton, sisters from Maryland Heights, carried bags stuffed with gifts as they left the Gap in the mall. They said Black Friday is one of their traditions, and they had no trouble browsing and buying this time.
Another shopper there, Wendy Williams, walked briskly as she hunted for deals.”I do very little actual Christmas shopping,” she said – and was having an easy time of it Friday morning.
Out in St. Peters, about 50 people were lined up outside the Best Buy at Mid-Rivers Mall waiting for the doors to open at 8 a.m. It grew to about 150 by the opening. By 9:30 a.m., the Stores in St. Charles County generally were busier than those in St. Louis County.
Store manager Greg Coleman said he hadn't expect that many because of the steady business on Wednesday and Thursday evening. Matt Cooseman of St. Peters, one of the early birds, said, “It's been like empty. I'm sure it's because of the Thanksgiving openings.”
Tim O'Neil, Jacob Barker, Samantha Liss and Debra Bass.
