密苏里州圣路易斯警方表示,他们星期天逮捕了80多人,这些人砸碎商店的玻璃。在此之前,示威者举行和平集会,抗议一名开枪打死黑人的白人警察被判无罪。
圣路易斯警察局长星期一凌晨对记者表示,一些人袭击警察,向警察扔石头。
他说:“我们控制了局势,这是我们的城市,我们必须保护。”
圣路易斯市长克鲁森把和平集会抗议上周五前警察杰森·斯托克利被判无罪和夜间砸碎商店门窗玻璃的人作对比。
她说:“我们今天看到大多数示威者都是非暴力的,但连续第三天出现白天平和夜间破坏的局面。”
斯托克利被控在2011年11月的一次汽车追击中开枪打死了安东尼·拉玛尔·史密斯。检控官指称斯托克利事后把一支手枪放在史密斯的尸体上,斯托克利车上拍摄的视频可以听到斯托克利扬言要杀掉史密斯。
本案的法官表示,检方未能证明斯托克利开枪不属于正当防卫。
星期六晚也发生了暴力,一些示威者打碎窗户 玻璃,向警察投掷杂物。有九人被逮捕。
密苏里州州长格雷腾斯警告说,州政府将严惩制造暴力者。
格雷斯腾星期天说:“那些不是示威者,那些人是罪犯。”
星期六的示威有数百人参加,他们在圣路易斯郊区两个购物中心游行,喊着“黑人命也是命”和“争取自由是我们的义务”的口号。
抗议活动以和平方式开始,几百名示威者走上圣路易斯市的街头,举着“没有公正,没有和平”的标语。一些人走到警察局,要求警察辞职。
到了夜间,示威者打碎了一扇玻璃,在市长家的房子上喷洒油漆。穿着防暴服的警察把抗议者从市长家附近驱离。
圣路易斯的居民阿尔德曼·约翰·柯林斯-穆罕默德(John Collins-Muhammad)告诉圣路易斯邮报:“我们对无罪释放感到悲痛,我们很失望。 “在这个城市的黑人得到公正之前,在桌子旁有我们的一席之地以前,这个城市不会有和平。”
一名52岁的电工史密斯告诉圣路易斯邮报:“我认为这个判决是令人厌恶的。”
他说:“一次又一次,非裔美国人被警察杀死,没有人被追究责任。”
该地区的种族紧张局势并不新鲜。圣路易斯的一个郊区是密苏里州弗格森,2014年8月,那里爆发了两星期的抗议活动,起因是一名白人警察把18岁的黑人迈克尔·布朗(Michael Brown)枪杀。
后来,11月份,不起诉那名警察的决定引发了一周的抗议活动,2015年,在这个事件的周年纪念日,爆发了第三次示威。
布朗的父亲在星期五的裁决后告诉圣路易斯电视台:“你们都知道这是不对的,你们都继续对我们这样做,就好像我们什么都不是一样,就好像我们是街头的老鼠、垃圾、狗……我们都厌倦了。”
在密苏里州发生的事件之后,还有一些美国城市发生警察枪击和抗议活动,其中包括马里兰州巴尔的摩市、北卡罗来纳州夏洛特、明尼苏达州圣保罗和路易斯安那州巴吞鲁日。
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 Sunday. “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.