Usually during BLM protests and antifa protests, it’s the protesters who do the chanting but not in St Louis on Sunday night. The police wanted to make one thing perfectly clear. They weren’t about to roll over and play dead as rioters began tossing bricks and other objects at the police. So, as they were arresting the criminal element, some were chanting a BLM slogan:
“Whose streets? Our streets.”
Several sources including St Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson said that the planned protest went off without any violence but after it ended, the violent element remained behind and broke store windows and attacked the police trying to protect the local businesses. All told, eighty were arrested, proving once again whho owns the streets. The cops do.
An article written by Breanna Edwards for The Root, a black publication took offense to the police chants although she didn’t mention the attacks against the police but only just in passing:
Well, in case you had any doubt, or were curious as to what police officers make of citizens attempting to assert their rights to peacefully assemble and protest the seemingly inexplicable killings of unarmed black men that go unpunished, here you have it.
Police apparently thought it was appropriate to chant “Whose streets? Our streets,” Sunday night while making some arrests during the continued protests over the acquittal of Jason Stockley, who had faced murder charges in the 2011 killing of black motorist Anthony Lamar Smith.
According to the Washington Post, Sunday’s protests turned volatile after some protesters broke off from the peaceful groups and began smashing windows and pushing over trash cans. Others, according to the police, threw chemicals and rocks at police officers.
In her first paragraph she makes the claim that police were trying to stop the peaceful demonstration but she herself wrote that the action started after the peaceful demonstration was over, so you can file this under fake news. The police action took place after the peaceful demonstrators were done for the day.
In the end, at the news conference early Monday, interim Police Chief Lawerence O’Toole insisted that law enforcement would do its job to “protect” the city, insistently calling those who had been arrested “criminals,” the Post reports.
“I’m proud to tell you the city of St. Louis is safe and the police owned tonight,” he said. “Once again, a group of criminals set out to break windows and destroy property. Tonight, those criminals are in jail.”
