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| Ferguson Missouri: Land of the free |
From John Reimann in Ferguson. *
http://oaklandsocialist.com/
http://oaklandsocialist.com/
First I should say this: The most impressive thing about what is
happening here is again the huge number of young people who are coming
out and really taking the lead. Their leadership is in ways that old
timers like me never would have thought of, and the main thing is in
revving up and keeping the spirit going. People gather in the lot of the
QT that was burned to the ground, but they also line the street. From
time to time, a young person will march up and down the street leading
chants. “Hands up! Don’t shoot!” is the main one, but “No justice, no
peace!” is also changed.
Then there are the carloads of young people slowly driving up and down the street blowing their horns,, hanging out the doors and windows, hands raised…
It all really looks like a new movement being born.
This afternoon there was a huge rally at a church a couple of miles away from the main gathering point for the protest. The big names spoke there – Al Sharpton, local Democrats, etc. The way it was set up, and given that the cops block off the main street where the protest is, even before it was over it was impossible to drive back to the protest and difficult to drive anywhere near it.
Could it be that that was the plan – to try to keep people off the street?
If it was, it didn’t work very well, because by nightfall the crowd was at least twice the size of Saturday night. Up and down the street we marched. Until suddenly the people at the front came running back. The cops had shot off tear gas. As far as I could see, this was totally unprovoked, as the mood was angry, yes, but also festive and there was absolutely no vandalism or anything like that.
There was massive confusion, but also order in the confusion.
I would like to write more and also post photos and video, but it’s late here and it’s been a long day. I will have a lot of photos and video up on a day or two, so to all of those I met in Ferguson: Please check back later.
Then there are the carloads of young people slowly driving up and down the street blowing their horns,, hanging out the doors and windows, hands raised…
It all really looks like a new movement being born.
This afternoon there was a huge rally at a church a couple of miles away from the main gathering point for the protest. The big names spoke there – Al Sharpton, local Democrats, etc. The way it was set up, and given that the cops block off the main street where the protest is, even before it was over it was impossible to drive back to the protest and difficult to drive anywhere near it.
Could it be that that was the plan – to try to keep people off the street?
If it was, it didn’t work very well, because by nightfall the crowd was at least twice the size of Saturday night. Up and down the street we marched. Until suddenly the people at the front came running back. The cops had shot off tear gas. As far as I could see, this was totally unprovoked, as the mood was angry, yes, but also festive and there was absolutely no vandalism or anything like that.
There was massive confusion, but also order in the confusion.
I would like to write more and also post photos and video, but it’s late here and it’s been a long day. I will have a lot of photos and video up on a day or two, so to all of those I met in Ferguson: Please check back later.
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