Clergy arrested as St. Louis protests of police expand

FERGUSON, Mo. — Protesters, including religious leaders, were arrested Monday as they stepped forward into a line of officers in riot gear outside this city’s police department, a day when organizers here have promised numerous organized shows of civil disobedience around the St. Louis region over questions about police conduct.

About a dozen people were taken into custody by midday, and more protesters, arms linked, were waiting in the rain. Although the mood was tense, arrests early in the day were relatively calm as clergy members and others said they wished to meet with Ferguson police officers inside the building, then stepped forward, after saying they were prepared for arrest if they could not. Among the first taken into custody was Cornel West, an author and professor, who told the line of officers, “We’re here because we love the young folks.”

As they arrived at Ferguson’s police department, which has been the scene of testy nightly protests since the death of an unarmed black teenager by a white police officer in August, the religious leaders of numerous faiths stepped forward to a line of waiting police, offering to “take their confessions,” and pray with them.

An outline of a body was drawn on the ground — a reminder, organizers said, of Michael Brown, the 18-year-old who died here on Aug. 9, but also of the scores of other people killed by police officers.

“Black lives matter!” the crowd chanted. “All lives matter!”

By Monday morning, at least three separate actions were being carried out, including the demonstrations at the Ferguson police department. In St. Louis, not far from the neighborhood where another black teenager was killed last week by a white off-duty police officer, hundreds of protesters marched for blocks through fog, then announced it was staging a sit-down on the campus of Saint Louis University. By noon, another demonstration was taking place along a road in Ferguson.

At the university, a protest leader said into a megaphone shortly before 2 a.m., “As of right now, this is our spot.” Standing beside the clock tower on the campus of Saint Louis University, he continued, “We’re not going anywhere.”