After a third night of violence and unrest in St. Louis, about 100 protesters marched in silence along downtown streets Monday during the morning rush hour. Once they reached City Hall, the silence gave way to chants for justice.
The city has been marked by protests since Friday, when former police officer Jason Stockley was acquitted on charges of murdering a black motorist after a police chase in 2011. Stockley is white.
Overnight Sunday, police arrested more than 80 people after a peaceful protest turned violent as night fell. In a concentrated area downtown, some protesters smashed windows and overturned trash cans, while others threw chemicals and rocks at police, authorities said.
“After the demonstration, organizers announced that the daytime protest was over,” Mayor Lyda Krewson said in news conference at about 1 a.m. Monday. “But a group of agitators stayed behind, apparently intent on breaking windows and destroying property.”
She declined to take reporters’ questions.
Some protesters complained that police were unnecessarily aggressive. Further inflaming tensions, a St. Louis photographer reported he and others heard police chant “whose streets, our streets” after making some arrests.
The photojournalist, David Carson, later tweeted that he’d spoken to the commander at the scene, who said that he did not hear the chant but that it was unacceptable and he would “deal with it.”
The Associated Press also independently reported on the police chanting. The phrase used is commonly chanted by demonstrators, particularly Black Lives Matters protesters.
At around 11:20 p.m. Sunday, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department’s Twitter feed said “multiple warnings to disperse” had been given near the intersection of Washington Avenue and North Tucker Boulevard. They soon started arresting those that hadn’t left.
But several protesters said police had encircled them and there was no way out. Caught in the melee was St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Mike Faulk, who tweeted, “Less than 100 of us including media blocked in at wa and Tucker on all four sides.”
Shortly afterward, Faulk was among those arrested. In a photo, he appeared to be wearing a media badge around his neck at the time of his arrest.