Following last night's shooting the the Shaw neighborhood of South St. Louis, the above video was posted via ustream. The cameraman, BassemMasri, indicated that he had also participated in protests in Ferguson over the last two months.
The video runs for just over an hour and twenty minutes, and covers protesters, the police on the scene, and other citizens not involved with the protest.
The vast majority of the footage consists of repeated chants:
No justice, no peace.
No racist police.
Hey hey, ho ho,
These killer cops have got to go.
And so on. Many of the protesters chanted Mike Brown's name, or simply yelled “Eff the police!”
But a few of the highlights:
20:30
Cameraman and others, to police: “You are terrorists. You are ISIS, homie.”
21:20
Cameraman and others, to police: “We shooting back next time. Eff you, coward. Terrorists.”
23:40
Cameraman and others, to police: “I'm praying for your death. And your death, and yours. All of you going to die. Pull that trigger, I dare you.”
40:00
Cameraman, attempting to reign in the crowd: “We are not against the businesses. We are against the police. The businesses are safe. These are our streets, these are our businesses. The businesses are safe.”
(No local businesses were looted during this protest that lasted several hours and swelled to over 300 at one point.)
41:05
Off camera voice: “They [cops] deserve everything they get. I straight spit in that cracker's face.”
54:00
Cameraman and others, to people sitting in traffic as they block off the entire street: “They killing folks, and y'all don't care. Y'all gonna have to sit right there.”
55:40
Cameraman, to protesters: “Let the ambulance through! It's an emergency, let the ambulance through!”
1:05:00
Police chief, attempts to clear the streets to keep protesters from being hit by cars. Protester response: “Chief, these aren't your streets. These are our streets. You owe us an explanation.”
1:05:30
When the police chief's explanation doesn't pass muster: “Stay where you are! We don't negotiate with terrorists!”
1:10:50
A close up of a police officer with spit dripping down the back of his hat, accompanied by assorted insults and laughter.
1:15:50
Off camera voice, talking to cameraman: “Antonio French, he got half a million dollars from Jay Nixon and he didn't give any back to the community. All of the politicians are corrupt. He needs to…he needs to get got. Like Ron Johnson.” Cameraman attempts to defend French, saying he doesn't know enough to comment, but seems to agree with him on the subject of Ron Johnson.
Throughout the entirety of the video, what stood out to me was the police response. The police officers who spoke addressed the crowd with respect, only raising their voices to ensure that they could be heard. Police officers who were being threatened, called terrorists, and even spat on, showed remarkable restraint. To be fair, BassemMasri (the cameraman) also seemed to be instrumental in directing protesters to refrain from violence and looting. The question remains as to whether any future protests will be as peaceful from both sides.
*title image via the gatewaypundit.com