Acquittal of ex-police officer sparks protests

The police department has gone so far as to warn the band U2 it would be unable to provide security for the band’s concert there, causing it to be canceled.

Following the violence, rock band U2 canceled a concert scheduled for Saturday night in St. Louis, citing safety concerns for fans who would have attended.

A woman is being helped by a protester after she was pushed down by police during demonstrations in St.Louis on September 15, 2017. “Ho ho! These killer cops have got to go”. “It is on this occasion that defense motion “Black lives matter” (” The lives of black matter “) was increased in power.

Mike Jones of our editorial board reminds us of Dr. King’s outrage and scorn at the white moderate who holds back progress, Dr. King came to believe, even more than white supremacists hold back progress. His son, also Michael Brown, was the man killed in the 2014 Ferguson shooting.

The case was among several in recent years in which a white officer killed a black suspect.

The protests started Friday afternoon after Stockley’s acquittal was announced, with protesters filling streets, stopping traffic on highways and shouting at police.

A total of nine police officers had been reported injured as of 9 p.m., including one officer with a dislocated shoulder and an officer with a possible broken jaw, Acting Police Chief Lawrence O’Toole said shortly after midnight Saturday, appearing with Krewson in a video. Earlier in the day, protesters stood in front of a bus filled with officers in riot gear, blocking it from moving forward. Throwing rocks and breaking windows, despite being instructed not to. That’s not protest. That’s a crime.

“What the country needs to know is, every single person in our country, we have a right to be mad”, Al Watkins, an attorney for Smith’s fiancée, Christina Wilson, said after the acquittal.

Stockley had said he acted in self-defence and believed Smith was reaching for a gun in his vehicle, but prosecutors accused the officer of planting a silver revolver to justify the shooting. If you want to fight the police – physically fight them – you are going to lose in the end, in one way or another. Stockley was also heard saying said he was gonna “kill this motherf-cker minutes” before fatally shooting Smith. “This mob was intent on destroying or damaging property, assaulting police officers and setting fires”, he said. The gun was too large, Wilson said, for Stockley to hide it from the cameras at the scene. “It’s been a long road for him”, Bruntrager said.

U2 won’t be playing St. Louis tonight. “I understand their frustration, I understand their anger”, Gray said.

Stockley, 36, requested his case be decided by a judge alone.

Stockley, who left St. Louis’ police force in 2013 and moved to Houston, could have been sentenced to up to life in prison without parole. “Urban means ‘black”, attorney Al Watkins said.