Police arrested three protesters in Ferguson Wednesday night and impounded a truck bearing a slogan aimed at Governor Jay Nixon: "What will YOU do in this moment with the world watching?"
St. Louis County Police also said an unknown suspect broke out the taillights of a Fox2Now news truck.
The arrests came after days of peaceful, uneventful demonstrations in front of the Ferguson police station. Many of Wednesday night's protesters turned out as part of the Million Mask March, organized by Internet hactivist group Anonymous in more than 480 cities, and wore Guy Fawkes masks on the anniversary of his attempt to blow up England's House of Lords in 1605.
See also: Who's Who of Ferguson Protests: Leaders, Activists
The night of protest started when demonstrators blocked traffic in front of the Ferguson police station. As police formed a line in front of the station and threatened to arrest protesters, the crowd began marching north on Florissant Road, where they were going to try to shut down I-270, according to Sergeant Brian Schellman. The sign truck drove alongside the march, blocking traffic for protesters.
Police blocked the march at Elizabeth Road and Robert Avenue to prevent marches from reaching the highway.
St. Louis County Police arrested two protesters. Jelani Brown, 26, of St. Louis, was arrested on suspicion of peace disturbance for blocking the flow of traffic. Dean Johnson, 42, of O'Fallon, was arrested on suspicion of third-degree assault on a law enforcement officer, resisting arrest and peace disturbance. Police said Johnson grabbed a police sergeant's arm and refused to comply with officers while being arrested.
Update: At one point during the march, a large "Nixon Accountability" sign truck drew notice from law enforcement. In their daily description of the evening's events, St. Louis County PD wrote that "at one point, the truck and protestors blocked the passage of an ambulance on an emergency run. The driver was taken into custody and the truck was towed." However, activists began uploading archived livestreams of the incident which do not show the sign truck in the path of the ambulance. Although it appears the emergency response vehicle was delayed a few seconds, the marchers quickly waived the driver through:
Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream
The owner of this truck was arrested he parked& as he was going into walgreens policed snatched him & drove his truck pic.twitter.com/fIXJy55vHI
— PhenomenalBlackQueen (@truebeauty314) November 6, 2014The driver of the truck leading the #Ferguson #MillionMaskMarch was arrested and the truck was impounded. pic.twitter.com/K5FhUeHo51
— Ferguson Revolution (@pbj_stl13) November 6, 2014Driver of accountability truck has been released after held for hours. Thank you to everyone who raised their voices for his safe release.
— ColorOfChange.org (@ColorOfChange) November 6, 2014Follow Lindsay Toler on Twitter at @StLouisLindsay. E-mail the author at [email protected].
