MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Racial tension erupts in St Louis as heavy handed police arrest demonstrators
The fatal shooting of an African American teenager by an off-duty cop last Wednesday has inflamed tensions 
St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson tweeted that protesters were throwing rocks at the police. However this was denied by witnesses and the protesters Riot-gear clad police arrested at least 17 people on Sunday after they refused orders to disperse from a spontaneous sit-in outside a convenience store in St. Louis during a weekend of otherwise peaceful protests against police violence.
Thousands of people are staging protest marches, vigils and other demonstrations in the St. Louis area this weekend, calling for the arrest of a white police officer who shot dead an unarmed black teenager in August.
Another fatal shooting of an African American teenager by an off-duty cop last Wednesday has further inflamed tensions. Sunday's arrests were in the same neighborhood where Wednesday's shooting occurred.
St. Louis police spokeswoman Schron Jackson said 17 people had been arrested for unlawful assembly early on Sunday at the parking lot of the QuickTrip convenience store.
Mervyn Marcano, who is handling media relations for a group that provides jail support for protesters, said at least 19 people had been arrested.
St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson tweeted during the protest that protesters were throwing rocks at the police. But the protesters tweeted that they had not thrown anything.
Witnesses transmitting live video from the small overnight protest in Shaw, a neighborhood of St. Louis, showed a few dozen people sitting on the ground outside the convenience store and said some people were hit with pepper spray and what appeared to have been tear gas, though that could not be confirmed.
Last Wednesday, an off-duty white officer working for a security firm shot dead 18-year-old Vonderrit Myers Jr. in the Shaw neighborhood in what police described as a firefight.
There were no reports of arrests at protest rallies on Saturday that drew thousands of people. The police have largely adopted a non-confrontational stance and protest organizers work to maintain order and a non-violent approach.
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Read all commentsLately they are paralizing each US city that a cop shoots dead a criminal. It happens when you patronize people for far too long and you send the message that the country owes you something because of a particular ethnic background. Too much political correctness also is to blame for the Paris and London riots.
Oct 13th, 2014 - 02:00 pm 0What Latam countries that had substantial ammounts of blacks in them got right was not fall into this patronizing and political correctness and positive discrimination that the US developed since the 1960s onwards. And countries like Brazil abolished slavery far later and had imported far more africans into the plantations that the Americans did. Never ever Brazil nor Colombia had racial issues.
We are seing this play out in Argentina as today there is news of attacks on park watchers in Nahuel Huapi. The message is Roca was bad man that should be erased from $100 notes, your ancestors were peaceful natives unfairly opressed, you need a radio funded by the State to express your views, private property is not respected. And so on. 10 or 20 years this didn't even exist in Argentina.
This country has racism, poverty, violence, moratorium, poor infrastructure, poor education, poor health disorganized (Ebola kills nurse).
Oct 14th, 2014 - 09:44 am 0The first world is shit!
Here we have the American government warning travelers not to visit Argentina because (as they say) it has a high crime rate. What do they call this in St Louis??
Oct 14th, 2014 - 02:10 pm 0Maybe th erest of the world should be telling its nationals to look out for trigger happy cops in the USA!! and stay home. ummmmmmmmmmmmm
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