New Years Eve got a little chaotic in St. Louis when protesters stormed the police headquarters with a list of demands, including the removal of the police chief and all other police officers.
According to KMOV, about 75 people marched to the headquarters protesting the grand jury decision not to indict Darren Wilson in the shooting death of unarmed Black teen, Michael Brown.
Demonstrators posted an “Eviction Notice” on the door of the headquarters that read “Chief Sam Dotson and all other occupiers of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department would be removed from power.” The notice listed police brutality, mass incarceration, and lack of cultural sensitivity training among other reasons the officers would be “evicted.”
Protesters marched through the city as part of the scheduled “March to the Arch” demonstration. According to Boston.com, police officers at the scene attempted to turn the protesters back by using pepper spray. Only a dozen protesters were able to make it past the police barricade into the headquarters. The protesters told KMOV that they planned to stay at the police headquarters for four hours to represent the hours that Brown’s body was left in the street after the fatal shooting.
18 of demonstrators were arrested for blocking traffic by lying in the street. One man was charged with allegedly assaulting a City Marshall inside the headquarters.