Ferguson demonstrators disrupt Stenger election night party
By Steve Giegerich
sgiegerich@post-dispatch.com 314-725-6758
Nov 5, 2014 01:45 AM
CLAYTON • Demonstrators seeking justice for the shooting of an unarmed teen by a Ferguson police officer disrupted the election night party of victorious St. Louis County executive candidate Steve Stenger in a protest that early Wednesday spilled out of a Clayton hotel ballroom and into a downtown street.
Protest organizers say five people were detained in the loud but peaceful demonstration. There was no immediate indication if any charges would be filed.
Demonstrators began filtering into the Sheraton ballroom at the e Sheraton Clayton Plaza ballroom about a half hour after St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch arrived and then granted live television interviews from the Stenger reception.
McCulloch, a key Stenger political ally, has been the focus of demonstrators who contend the prosecutor should recuse from the investigation into the Aug. 9 death of Michael Brown.
One of the first protesters on the scene was escorted from the room by police as he approached McCulloch.
The number of protesters had grown to approximately 15 by the time Stenger took the stage shortly after midnight to claim a last minute, skin-tight victory over Republican State Rep. Rick Stream.
As Stenger began his remarks the two-term county councilman was interrupted by the strains of "Whose Side Are You On?" - the 1930s organized labor tune that has become the unofficial anthem of the Ferguson movement - rang through the ballroom.
The candidate's supporters countered by chanting "Stenger, Stenger."
Police then began escorting the demonstrators outside one-by-one.
At one point officers were forced to stand between a protester and an irate Stenger supporter.
Outside the hotel, demonstrators massed on Bonhomme Avenue as police formed a cordon in the Sheraton portico to chant and call for the arrest of Darren Wilson, the officer who fired the fatal shots on a Ferguson street three months ago.
The occasional guest departing the Stenger party shouted attempted to bait the protesters. The group summarily dismissed an attempt by another Stenger supporter to address the demonstrators.
"We want Steve! We want Steve!" the protesters demanded.
A few moments before 1 a.m. the demonstrators departed with a promise to police and party stragglers that "we'll be back."