Activists reflect on Michael Brown, decade after his death

Montague Simmons was holding a community meeting on Aug. 9, 2014, on the west side of St. Louis with the Organization for Black Struggle when the event was suddenly interrupted by breaking news: An unarmed 18-year-old Black man named Michael Brown had been killed by a white police officer. 

Simmons, now the director of strategic partnerships for the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL), said the meeting dissolved as members decided to answer one of the calls to action at the police station.

“We could see it was something different, because we’d been involved in other cases and when these things happened before, the community did not always turn out,” Simmons told The Hill. “So to see other people actually making the choice to show up, it was saying that this is definitely going to be a different moment.”

The nation watched as protests over the next several days, both peaceful and violent, spread across St. Louis. 

The unrest in many ways thrust the Black Lives Matter movement into the national spotlight in a way it hadn’t before, even in the wake of the 2012 killing of Trayvon Martin in Florida. 

“This was part of a longer arc of police killing,” said Simmons. “Folks had actually been responding and watching and noticing more so they had before. People’s nerves were already kind of frayed. 

“It was also a pivotal moment in terms of social media engagement,” Simmons added. “This wasn’t filtered by news channels. They didn’t have to wait for radio stations. They were literally watching livestreams of people who were on the scene. They were hearing the frustration of not only people in the community, but the parents that were on the scene who couldn’t get to [their kids] and that caused a visceral response.” 

A full decade later, Brown’s family, advocates and lawmakers say justice has still not been served. 

Six years after Brown’s death, then-newly elected St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell vowed to get justice for the Brown family. But Bell never brought charges against Darren Wilson, the officer who shot and killed Brown. 

“Ten years since Ferguson means ten years without justice, ten years without accountability, ten years without healing,” Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) said in a statement to The Hill.

Bell, who recently campaigned and won against Bush in the state’s Democratic primary, said at the time that an independent review could not prove that Wilson committed murder or manslaughter under Missouri law.

Brown’s family has expressed disappointment, with Michael Brown Sr., Brown’s father, saying Bell used his “family for power” while he endorsed Bush for reelection. Bell defeated Bush in a primary this week.

Wilson claimed he shot Brown after the teenager reached for his gun. The Department of Justice (DOJ) in investigating the killing determined there was no evidence prosecutors could rely upon to “disprove” Wilson’s belief that he feared for his safety.

Following the DOJ’s decision, Brown’s parents, Lesley McSpadden and the elder Brown, said they were “saddened” by the decision but hopeful change would still happen. 

“If that change happens, our son’s death will not have been in vain.”

Advocates say a lack of reforms across the country have led to the killings of more Black men and women since Brown.

Most recently, the killing of Sonya Massey in her home in Illinois has triggered outrage.

Massey, a 36-year-old Black woman, could be seen in body camera footage being shot three times in her home by Sean Grayson, a Sangamon County sheriff’s deputy. Vice President Harris, the new Democratic nominee for president, in a recent statement said that Massey “deserved to be safe” in her home.

“It’s sad that a decade after Mike Brown’s death, we’re still advocating for reforms that could have saved his and countless other Black lives,” said Derrick Johnson, CEO and president of the NAACP. 

“Mike Brown had a bright future ahead of him, but it was cut short when Missouri police took his life. It’s only right that his tragic death reignited the movement to hold police accountable.”

That’s not to say that there haven’t been some successes in police reform. 

Following Brown’s death, Simmons and other grassroots organizers on the ground created a menu of reforms around escalations, deployments and training. They also began meeting with elected officials. 

In 2016, along with other activists, St. Louis advocates including Simmons joined with other grassroots organizations to present a national Vision for Black Lives policy agenda. 

The vision called for divestment from militarized police forces and investment into other community resources, including mental health professionals to call in emergencies. 

Leaders in Congress have tried to pass legislation to address police violence and the disproportionate effect on Black Americans. 

These bills include the Helping Families Heal Act, which would support families, schools and communities harmed by police violence; the People’s Response Act, which would advance an inclusive, holistic and health-centered approach to public safety; and the BREATHE Act, which expands upon the People’s Response Act. 

“This past decade, we took the movement to save Black lives from the Ferguson Uprising to the halls of Congress,” Bush said. “We will never stop fighting to build a world where Mike Brown would still be here and no more lives are taken by police violence.”