The St. Swisher Brigade.
ST. LOUIS – A group of organizers who have held trainings for least 600 potential protesters in the last week have a vision, and they say it’s a non-violent one.
“We as a community of people, we aren’t going to use violent power,” organizer Michael McPhearson told a group of about 100 who met in a hall on South Jefferson Avenue in St. Louis Thursday night. “We’re going to use people power, to change things.”
Included in their plan is one to convene on and “shut down” Clayton the morning of the first business day after the grand jury announcement in the Michael Brown case.
McPhearson, the co-chair of the Don’t Shoot Coalition, joined with Julia Ho, a community organizer with Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment, and others to give the crowd advice on how to protest peacefully and to keep themselves and others safe after the announcement. Another similar meeting was held at the same time at Greater St. Mark Missionary Baptist Church in Ferguson.
Meetings are scheduled for the same locations from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday.
One by one, members of the crowd introduced themselves by their first names and where they lived – many were from south St. Louis, a few from Arizona, one from Canada. The crowd was diverse, with varying ages and different races. According to a rough survey given by organizers, more than half had been involved in the protests since Brown was shot by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson on Aug. 9. A handful had already been arrested, and about half the crowd indicated they were willing to risk arrest after the grand jury announcement.