“Hands up, don’t shoot! No justice, no peace! I can’t breathe!”
The chants continued in downtown St. Louis as protesters marched in a circle surrounding a group of people making speeches. They were arguing against the perceived social injustices of various cases where unarmed African-American civilians were fatally shot by Caucasian police officers.
“Everyone hit the ground!”
Senior Kira Bolos said at once everybody, including her, laid down on the ground while news helicopters flew overhead. The protesters stayed still for four and a half minutes, symbolizing the reported four and a half hours African-American teenager Michael Brown laid in the street after being fatally shot by Caucasian police officer Darren Wilson. Kira Bolos said this form of protest is called a “die-in.”
“At the protest there was anger and betrayal,” said Kira Bolos. “The majority of the protesters were African-American and [their ancestors] fought hundreds of years to get [their] freedom and it didn’t work. Clearly we’re not in a post-racist era. [The protestors] were very angry because they’re not being protected.”
Kira Bolos said she was in downtown St. Louis at the time a New York Grand Jury decided not to indict Daniel Pantaleo, a Caucasian New York Police Department officer, which sparked the protest she participated in.
According to multiple media sources, Pantaleo choked civilian Eric Garner to death. Eric Garner was African-American.
The protest Kira Bolos joined not only spoke out against the Brown and Garner cases, but all cases where Caucasian police officers killed unarmed African-American civilians.
Kira Bolos said that during the protests, policemen surrounded and supervised the protesters, and some took videos of the event. Also during her stay in St. Louis, Kira Bolos said she saw multiple officers from the National Guard and police officers filing out of the Ferguson Police Station watching for any sign of violence.
“I’m not scared of policemen because they’re supposed to protect you, but in this case, I have seen pictures of cops beating normal citizens,” said Kira Bolos. “It’s frightening to see [them]. [The police can be] very violent people and you don’t know if they’re going to attack or if [one of the protesters] in the crowd is going to start throwing something, and then the cops have every right to come in and shut everything down.”
According to Kira Bolos, this was not her first protesting experience. She has previously been involved in organizations that fight against social injustices such as Kony’s Invisible Children and the mass incarceration of African-Americans.
“If there’s ever an issue going on, I want to get involved,” said Kira Bolos. “My parents raised me to not just sit by and watch while something goes wrong.”
Kira Bolos’ father, Spiro Bolos, said, as a social studies teacher, it is exciting to watch his daughter develop interest in the current events of which he keeps track of for his classes.
“She’s not hesitant [to share her point of view],” said Spiro Bolos. “She doesn’t hold back. She’s got very strong opinions, which I admire.”
Spiro Bolos said he accompanied his daughter to St. Louis because he was worried about her safety, but when they arrived, St. Louis was quiet and Ferguson was even more inert when there were no protests.
“[I had] these expectations based on what the media’s shown [me],” said Spiro Bolos. “It seemed like 98 percent [of the city] was very boring.”
According to Spiro Bolos, only two blocks had stores with boarded up windows, and a lot of the stores were still open and running.
“[The media] is exaggerating what’s going on,” said Kira Bolos. “But there are still a lot of people involved in the movement. They’re not making nothing into something, they’re just making something into something more.”