“I could taste the tear gas from my house,” said Kenya Vaughn, an editor with the St. Louis American, an alternative newspaper. IT’S A QUESTION, of course, we all should be challenged to answer.
News of the Ferguson, Mo., riots after the shooting of Michael Brown on Aug. 9 and again after a grand jury ruled not to file charges against the police officer who fatally shot Brown, made international headlines.
Trouble is, the widespread coverage of the violence and looting was just a small faction of what should have been a much broader narrative, said Vaughn.
“Out of 120 days of protests, you can count on your hand the days of violence,” Vaughn said. Furthermore, the strip where the looting and tear gas took place is just a small part of town.
“By the TV reports, all of St. Louis was on fire,” she said. “What they don’t cover is all the people coming together trying to get to the root of the problem of fear and mistrust.”
Vaughn was part of a panel Monday morning that addressed a gathering of journalists from Kansas and Missouri in Kansas City, Mo.
“There were many different narratives to the story,” said Adam Goodman, managing editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “Everybody brought different perspectives to what they want you to believe the story was.”
Beyond the actual shooting, lie the racial dynamics of the Ferguson-area police force — 53 are white, three black; the underlying problems of poverty; laws that are weighted to favor police in situations such as Brown’s death and that of Eric Garner in New York City; the pent-up anger by not only blacks who are routine targets of police and but also those of other ethnicities and demographics who used Ferguson as a platform to vent their frustrations.
“Everybody had their agenda and Ferguson was the place where they were going to plant their flag,” Goodman said.
Of those arrested during the protests, 75-80 percent were not from Missouri, said Charlie Riedel, a photographer with the Associated Press, who covered the protests.
Anarchists and communists were in the mix. According to Riedel, communists from Chicago held makeshift classes on how to make Molotov cocktails.
Brown was killed on a Saturday afternoon. By Sunday night, 10,000 protestors had amassed on the streets.
“It was a spontaneous event that caught the attention of the world because of its authenticity,” said Vaughn.
At the forefront is what citizens view as serious systemic issues between civilians and law enforcement officials.
“We are past the days where we are going to take the word of the police,” said Goodman, a white man who has covered St. Louis news for 29 years.
“If your only relationship with the police is through a traffic stop, it’s going to be negative,” said Christopher Phillips, a black videographer with his own business, the Maverick Media Group.
Phillips should know. He is pulled over by the police on a routine basis.
It should be noted that Phillips holds two college degrees and has clients among Fortune 500 companies.
But to police?
“I’m viewed as a threat simply because of the color of my skin,” he said.
Michael Brown’s death is just the tip of iceberg, said Phillips.
“There’s a huge divide in this country,” he said.
AP reporter Jim Salter agreed.
“Protesters were greeted with Confederate flags and chicken bones,” he said. “This is our moment to confront these racist and cultural stereotypes as journalists.
“Can we do it?”
Many narratives to the Ferguson story
