Police in St. Louis, Missouri, said they made more than 80 arrests Sunday after some people smashed store windows following what had been a peaceful protest against the acquittal of a former officer in the shooting death of a black man.
Police Chief Larry O’Toole told reporters early Monday that some people assaulted officers and threw rocks at them.
“We’re in control, this is our city, and we’re going to protect it,” O’Toole said.
Mayor Lyda Krewson spoke of the difference between those who caused damage at night and the daytime protesters who rallied again peacefully in response to Friday’s verdict in the case of former officer Jason Stockley.
“Today we saw again that the vast majority of protesters are nonviolent, but for the third day in a row the days have been calm and the nights have been destructive,” Krewson said. “After the demonstrations, organizers announced that the daytime protest was over, but a group of agitators stayed behind, apparently intent on breaking windows and destroying property.”
Stockley had been charged with the killing of Anthony Lamar Smith after a car chase in 2011. Prosecutors alleged Stockley also planted a gun on Smith’s body, and that video from his car captured the officer saying during the chase that he was going to kill Smith.
The judge in the case said the prosecution had failed to prove the shooting was not a justified use of force in self-defense.
There was some violence late Saturday with protestors breaking windows and throwing objects at police. Nine people were arrested then.
Missouri Governor Eric Greitens warned that his administration will deal harshly with those responsible for the violence.
“These aren’t protestors, these are criminals,” Greitens said. “Criminals, listen up: you break a window, you’re going to be behind bars. It’s that simple.”
Saturday’s protests included several hundred people walking through two malls in suburban St. Louis shouting “black lives matter” and “it is our duty to fight for our freedom” as they marched.
Protests started peacefully on Friday, with hundreds gathering in the streets of St. Louis holding signs and chanting “No justice, no peace.” Some made their way to police headquarters, calling for police resignations.
By the end of the night, demonstrators had broken a window and splashed paint on the mayor’s home, prompting police in riot gear to move the protesters away from the residence.
“We are saddened [about the acquittal], we are frustrated,” St. Louis Alderman John Collins-Muhammad told the St. Louis Post Dispatch. “Until black people in this city get justice, until we get a seat at the table, there will be no peace in this city.”
Damone Smith, a 52-year-old electrician, told the newspaper, “I think the verdict is disgusting.”
“Time and time again, African-American men are killed by police and nobody is held accountable,” he said.
Racial tension in the area is not new. One of the suburbs of St. Louis is Ferguson, Missouri, where two weeks of protests began in August 2014 with the shooting death of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old black man, by a white police officer.
That November, the decision not to indict the police officer sparked another week of protests, and the anniversary of the shooting in 2015 was the occasion of a third protest.
Brown’s father told a St. Louis television station after Friday’s verdict, “You all know this ain’t right and you all continue to do this to us. Like we don’t mean nothing, like we’re rats, trash, dogs in the streets… my people are tired of this.”
The incidents in Missouri were followed by police shootings and protests in a number of American cities, among them Baltimore, Maryland; Charlotte, North Carolina; St. Paul, Minnesota; and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
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