by Sylvester Brown, Jr.
This weekend, St. Louis’ Baseball
Cardinals will glow in the national media spotlight as they square off against the
San Francisco Giants for the 2014 National League Championship. Internationally, however, it’s more likely
the media’s attention will be focused on a city embroiled in civic unrest. Tensions
have escalated in the region, partly due to the fact that Ferguson MO policeman,
Darren Wilson, has yet to be charged for the fatal shooting an unarmed
teenager, Michael Brown, two months ago.
Ten days after that August 9th shooting, two St.
Louis City police officers gunned down a knife-wielding young man, Kajieme Powell, 25, fewer than three miles from Ferguson.
Then on Oct. 8th, two days after the Cards beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL Division Series, an off duty St. Louis cop
shot and killed an 18-year-old teen, Vonderrit Myers, in south St. Louis.
Police, according to local media, are expecting a “hot”
weekend. They’re gearing up for large and possibly violent confrontations with protesters
downtown and throughout the region. Protesters, like they did at a recent
Powell Symphony Hall concert, are making plans to visually and
creatively disrupt, make “the comfortable uncomfortable” and generally draw the
world’s attention to what they view as an out-of-control and deadly police
force.
“Baseball
& Blood” is an appropriate title for this weekend’s activities. Since the
Ferguson shooting, race relations, political and police power has been heavily scrutinized
by media from all over the world. Our region has unexplainably become the lynchpin
that’s exposing the pitfalls of whites who dominate police departments in
mostly all-black neighborhoods and majority white municipalities profiting off “driving
while black.”
It’s because of St. Louis that politicians on Capitol Hill have
held hearings on militarized police departments and we’re the reason why police
chiefs are fumbling to explain inhumane and flawed policies and training. And,
finally, we’re holding real conversations and having constructive dialogue about
our region that’s famously known for still being segregated in the 21st
Century.
It may sound callous but we should celebrate
the duel monikers of “baseball & blood.” Just as the Red Birds earned their place
for playing and winning hard, St. Louis deserves a thorough analysis of its hard-headed
tolerance of institutionalized, discriminatory behaviors. Police officials still
don’t understand that policies that result in the deaths of unarmed black men
are not OK. Since the Ferguson
shooting we’ve heard or seen several graphic cases nationwide of police
unloading their guns or roughing up citizens for offenses as trivial as “seatbelt
violations.”
There must be a reckoning for blood loss in
the name of “law enforcement.” Hopefully, whites who sympathize and defend
police-many who wore “I am
Darren Wilson” wristbands-will understand that these sentiments fuel the “us
vs. them” mentality of cops and reinforce the concept of killing without consequence.
The explosion in our region has been a
long-time in the making. We need to ensure the region’s “talking heads” or the
media’s appointed “leaders” do not dampen the revolutionary spirit of powerful protest
and meaningful progress. As Dr. Cornel West pointed out in a recent op-ed, we
are experiencing a “leader-less”
movement, buoyed by youthful angst-not traditional religious or political stoic
rhetoric.
The euphoria of strike-outs, stolen bases and home runs should
run parallel with our support of bold protests and public acts of righteous indignation. Under
the media’s glare, civic leaders and police officials will have to think about
more than just the millions they’ll make off baseball. They’ll have to give serious
thought before strapping their officers in military gear, rolling out the tanks,
unleashing the dogs or hurling flash-bang grenades and tear gas canisters at downtown
crowds.
I marvel at this particular moment in St. Louis and not because
“our team” may be headed to the World Series. I’m prouder of the long-awaited mix
of young, middle-aged and old, black and white and “other.” I stand in solidarity
with the radicals, the religious and the regular folk defiantly bringing “people
power” to the living rooms of the powerful. I am inspired by their willingness
to say “no more” and risk it all in a region that’s in desperate need of holistic
change.
It is with these thoughts and more that I gladly welcome this
weekend’s unofficial theme of “baseball & blood.”
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