After the shooting of Mike Brown on August 9th, Missouri has been the epicenter for addressing racial profiling, discrimination, and civil rights. There have been many protests since then to get justice for Mike Brown, and for the most part these protests have been peaceful. Of course not all in the crowds were peaceful, some protesters were throwing bricks, rocks, bottles, and even spitting at officers, which ultimately led to police using tear gas and rubber bullets. In more recent news, thirty five protesters were arrested in Berkeley, Missouri in hopes to block off interstate 70.
Sadly, traffic continued to flow without many disturbances. Demonstrators and police, some in riot gear, stood at a constant standoff, sometimes tense. Demonstrators were outnumbered by some 100 police officers from three different law enforcement agencies, many felt this was unnecessary. Amougnst the demonstrators, many were shouting ‘McCulloch got to go! McCulloch got to go!”, referring to St. Louis county prosecutor, Robert McCulloch., whose office is investigating the shooting. Less than a minute later, protesters were being handcuffed for “unlawful assembly”. Out of the thirty five people arrested, four were arrested for assault on officers. Even after the demonstrators diffused, one woman said, “don’t worry, we’ll be back tomorrow. We’ll be back everyday until justice is served.”
The fact that the officials in Missouri are one, putting a curfew and restriction on protests, and are arresting people for that is baffling. This is a problem, we have to the right to assemble when we feel our government has failed and when we feel there needs to be justice. One way to help with this problem is that if demonstrators, for the most part, are being peaceful, then there is no need to have hundreds if not thousands of police around. I get that there will be some people that will get violent or use force towards police officers, but you should just arrest those people and use the necessary procedure for that, rather than tear gas and shoot rubber bullets at everyone. I would like to see justice in this situation by this going to the supreme court and making a difference in this country, not just Missouri. Other than Mike Brown and Trayvon Martins deaths, there have been hundreds, if not thousands of unarmed blacks killed by white officers. Racial profiling is real, discrimination still happens everyday but now because there is no Jim Crow laws, we look at discrimination differently. I would like to see someone, a great political figure preferably address this situation and make a change, rather than justifying the actions if these officers.
