P-D:
African-American group plans protest on I-70 during Monday night rush hour
ST. LOUIS — A group of African-American contractors and businesspersons announced today plans to hold a protest on Interstate 70 Monday during evening rush hour in the middle of All-Star Game festivities.
Members of the group, the African-American Business and Contractors Association, said at a news conference in St. Louis that they want the region to know that too few minority contractors are being hired as subcontractors on public projects.
“It seems like things have changed. In reality, they have not changed,” said Hilary Ogunrinde, owner of HLS Hauling and member of the contractors association. “You should be outraged because there is discrimination in your neighborhood.”
The demonstration would occur 10 years and one day after one brought motorists to a halt on I-70 at Goodfellow Boulevard. That protest, which resulted in 125 arrests, vaulted local tension over the lack of highway contracts for minority businesses onto a national stage.
The July 1999 demonstration “brought motorists to a halt on I-70 at Goodfellow Boulevard” because then-SLPD Police Chief Ron Henderson, a black affirmative action appointment (who would later benefit from more affirmative action when President Bush 43 made him the head of the U.S. Marshals Office in St. Louis), closed down the highway before the protests. The reason is that Chief Henderson agreed with the protesters. Individuals and organizations are true to their principles — an affirmative action beneficiary like Chief Henderson supports affirmative action beneficiary wannabes like these black “contractors.”
In reality, demonstrating and interrupting on state right-of-way (interstate highways’ right-of-way is purchased and owned by their respective states’ Departments of Transportation, not the Federal government), is a state crime. The reason the state didn’t do anything about it is that the state had a Democrat Governor (Mel Carnahan) and a Democrat Attorney General (Jay Nixon) in July 1999. Nixon was still trying to live down his opposition to deseg that he maintained in previous years, so there was no way in hell that he was going to cross any black activists.
A couple of years later, when MoDOT was stringing together the funding to rebuild Highway 40, which is going on right now, these selfsame black “contractor” whiners wanted to hold another protest, that time in Richmond Heights. They wanted to “shut down” Highway 40 between McKnight and Brentwood. The object of bad fortune for them is that Richmond Heights had a white police chief that didn’t put up with bullshit. He had his officers spray-paint yellow lines that marked the boundary of the state right-of-way for Hwy. 40, as it was not fenced off at that time, and said that the RHPD would arrest those who trespass across the yellow lines. Guess what? There was no “highway shutdown.”
The reason the black “contractors” are back at it now is because the SPLD once again has a black affirmative action police chief, in the person of Dan Isom. For all of Joe Mokwa’s faults, (Mokwa took over after Henderson left for the U.S. Marshals job), he wouldn’t have put up with this bullshit. Isom, on the other hand, will do what Ron Henderson did. And, like ten years ago, we have a Democrat Governor (Jay Nixon) and a Democrat AG (Chris Koster), so that won’t be a problem for the rabble-rousers, either.
That means that those of you who use 70 in the city better find alternate routes on Monday.
UPDATE 7/11: According to someone who posted a message at St. Louis Cop Talk on this matter, there might be a Federal law that prohibits the interference of interstate commerce. Nice in theory, but meaningless in reality — In July 1999, the President was Bill Clinton and the AG was Janet Nero. No way in hell that they would have crossed these black “activists” or the black police chief who made things easy for them. Now we have an affirmative action President and an affirmative action Attorney General, who likewise won’t apply any such laws. That’s one of the things that I’m sure the “activists” have taken into consideration, when deciding to start the “highway shutdowns again.” Even though Matt Blunt, George W. Bush, and Bush’s three Attorneys General were ballless on race, they were still Republicans, and this created a visceral but paranoid fear in these “activists.” Like I said above, Jay Nixon was Missouri AG in July 1999, and all the way up until his election as Governor last year, and even though he tried to live down the deseg thing, the black “contractors” might have feared him a little more in tandem with a Republican Governor.
UPDATE 7/14: As it turns out, their “shutdown” wasn’t really a shutdown at all. All that happened was a few of the loudmouths stood on the sidewalks of the overpasses over the depressed section of I-70 Downtown. They held up a few signs, and then quickly went away. Meanwhile, cars driven by fellow loudmouths stopped near the overpasses so that drivers would have to stop to see the signs.
From what I’m reading on various St. Louis websites, these protests aren’t as universally supported in the black community as the ones ten years ago. After those, various state-funded “construction career centers” and other affirmative actions measures were started, and that has created a new affirmative actioned black elite (Eric Vickers) who’ve got theirs, and to hell with everyone else.
