Ferguson protest leader #Darren_Seals shot and found dead in a burning car | US news | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/sep/08/ferguson-protest-leader-darren-seals-shot-dead-burning-car
#Ferguson protest leader Darren Seals was found dead early Tuesday morning in a car that had been set on fire. Seals had been shot, and St Louis County police said they were investigating his death as a homicide.
The 29-year-old’s death sent waves of shock and grief through the community of activists in Missouri who protested the police killing of unarmed black teenager #Michael_Brown in Ferguson in 2014.
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Local activists were also troubled by the parallels between Seals’ death and the 2014 murder of 20-year-old Deandre Joshua, who was shot and left in a burning car on the same night a grand jury chose not to indict police officer Darren Wilson in Brown’s death. In all, according to one activist’s count, five other men in the St Louis area have been shot and left in burning cars since 2014.
“Many people are really worried. We don’t know if there’s some type of movement serial killer on the loose,” said Patricia Bynes, a protester and former Democratic committeewoman for Ferguson.
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Seals was a proudly local activist and a fierce critic of the national Black Lives Matter movement. He had argued that prominent #Black_Lives_Matter leaders had hijacked the Ferguson protests and then failed to give enough back to the community that had catalyzed the movement. During a heated argument, he once hit Deray McKesson, one of the most nationally recognized movement activists.
As the principles of Black Lives Matter have gained increased national recognition from politicians, the White House and in the 2016 presidential campaign, some community activists still in Ferguson are struggling. Some have left town, and some have have trouble getting work because of their political activism, Bynes said. Activists are still fighting an uphill battle to reform policing, education and the economy, and to prevent violence. But national political and media attention have moved on to other police killings and other protests.
Several activists said that some of Seals’ criticisms of the national movement resonated with them.
“We all kind of felt like we were kind of getting other people rich and getting other people fame for our oppression,” Masri said.
“We were left here to suffer from the systemic abuse from the police. And, like, I don’t care about credit, as long as the job gets done. But the thing is, the job hasn’t got done.”
The national movement’s current demands “are in a language that I don’t speak”, his friend and fellow activist Tory Russell said. “This movement #jargon, this #terminology, are not for #working_people. The movement is not geared towards #working_class black people, and D Seals could always call that out.”
