St Louis, MO: Stockley Verdict Day 2

Well y’all, over here in Missouri we had yet another day experiencing the lack of inhibition that comes along with the sometimes brutal life we experience here among the bricks. Once again the blunderous and impotent strategies of a corrupt police force gave way to another outburst of rebellious rage in the streets of St. Louis (um, well, technically University City). The phrase of the day was “No Justice, No Profits,” and boy, o, boy did them profits get curbed.

The strategy so far has been to bring the ruckus to the centers of commerce and leisure in order to disrupt life as usual and fuck up the cash flow for the segments of our society that could give two shits about Anthony Lamar Smith. Earlier in the day people shut down some malls and disrupted a food festival in the surrounding area.

Later on, over a thousand people marched through the streets of University City and in the Delmar Loop, also known as, “The Delmar Divide.” Delmar is street which historically and to this day is a dividing line of race and class. If you walk or drive down it you can literally see collapsing buildings on on the north side and shiny mansions on the south side. The loop is a section of Delmar, near a university, which has many upscale bars and restaurants.

The Big March shut down traffic, had a die in, and ended in the loop. The official organizers declared it over and told everyone to go home. Much to their distress, many people weren’t ready to call it quits and an informal march was organized with a crowd that seemed to fluctuate between about 100 to 150 people. People shut down traffic, burned flags, threw water bottles at cops, and chanted.

Soon enough the police were ignorant enough to materialize at the end of the bar strip in riot gear. So people yelled at them, stood around, and occasionally threw stuff at them. At one point they divided the crowd, but somehow people were able to reunite. Around this time, informal organizers at this march (not the ones who spearheaded it) tried to convince everyone to leave and declared their departure. Their pleas were ineffectual. K, bye.

Eventually, the frequency with which they were getting hit with water bottles picked up and a Starbucks and cop car window got broken. They began to advance. At this point, it was on. Within minutes people on both sides of the street were smashing out every window they could while staying ahead of the riot cops.

Around 1:30:00 Rebel Z crosses the police line, shit pops off for real a couple minutes later.

Police were not prepared for things to erupt like this.

At this point they whipped out a fucking army of riot cops. The street was filled with riot cops slowly advancing up Delmar and from the other direction a handful of cops rushed us resulting in 7 arrests. Almost all young black men. These pigs. I can’t even.

As the police advanced they repeated over and over again that old familiar phrase: “This is an unlawful assembly. You need to disperse immediately. If you do not disperse you will be subject to arrest or the use of chemical munitions. Do it now!” The crowd dispersed.

In the end some 23 shops got smashed up and few cops got injured. All in all, I’m gonna say that considering the situation, both the cops and people in the street showed allot of restraint. Probably because everyone involved knows that it ain’t over.