WASHINGTON, October 10, (RIA Novosti) - St. Louis Missouri's "weekend of resistance" protests starting October 10 are expected to be peaceful, but could get messy depending on the police, a local organizer of the Hands Up Don't Shoot community group Nick Green told RIA Novosti Friday.
Several civil rights organizations and protest groups have planned massive marches and rallies in St. Louis in response to what they view as a series of racially motivated shootings of African-Americans by white police officers in the region.
"A lot of these communities are basically getting fed up and it's to the point now where it doesn't matter if it's the police's fault or not," said Green. "It's just coming down to where there's a natural hate towards for the police department here in the St. Louis region."
In just two months, the St. Louis region has lived through two fatal shootings of young black men who were killed by white police officers. On August 9, 18-year-old African-American Michael Brown was shot to death by Darren Wilson, a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri triggering intense racial protests and violent clashes between protesters and police officers.
Just two days before the "weekend of resistance" protests, 18-year-old African-American teenager Vonderrick Myers was fatally shot by a white off duty police officer igniting clashes between police and the Shaw community where he was killed.
Green says that the goal of the protesters this weekend is to remain peaceful and raise awareness about the region's political climate and police brutality.
"It can be worse because it's [the protests] already happened before, so people are probably going to be expecting it," said Green recalling the protests that took Brown's death.
Green worries that Myers's death could intensify the weekend protests and racial tensions that have been building up in the region since August.
"It's basically up to the police, they need to let these people march, get their frustrations out whatever they have to do to release this energy that's built up inside of them, said Green. "And if they do not let them do that and if they try and stop them, it's just going to create more of a rage... more of a dissatisfaction with the police and it's going to escalate the situation to an even higher level."
Organizers are expecting anywhere between 5,000 to 10,000 protesters from around the country to join the weekend long protests and hope to dissolve the local police departments in the region.
Missouri State Senator Jamilah Nasheed has called on the Justice Department to investigate Myer's death, saying that she will also ask the state's Governor to create a special panel to investigate racial profiling by police.
While the investigation into Myer's death has just started, a grand jury is expected to decide as early as next month on bringing criminal charges against officer Wilson who shot and killed another black teenager Michael Brown in August.
