Ferguson: Black Residents Standing Guard At White-Owned Conoco Store
Source: Reuters & The Raw Story-1 hour ago
Since looting first erupted following the August police shooting of black teenager Michael Brown, nearly all the businesses in a 2 square mile area of this St Louis suburb have had to board up. All except one – the Conoco gas station and convenience store. At least a dozen stores have been set ablaze and others looted in Ferguson in racially charged riots since a grand jury on Monday cleared white policeman Darren Wilson in the shooting, which has torn apart this predominantly black Missouri city.
The unrest surrounding Brown’s death has underscored the often-tense nature of U.S. race relations. But the gas station has stood out as a beacon, literally and figuratively, as nightfall has descended and chaos has reigned around it. On Tuesday night, as police and soldiers took up positions in the parking lots of virtually every strip mall and big box store around it, the forecourt of the brightly lit gas station was busy with customers.
One, a six feet, eight-inch tall man named Derrick Jordan – “Stretch,” as friends call him – whisked an AR-15 assault rifle out from a pickup truck parked near the entrance. Jordan, 37, was one of four black Ferguson residents who spent Tuesday night planted in front of the store, pistols tucked into their waistbands, waiting to ward off looters or catch shoplifters. Jordan and the others guarding the gas station are all black. The station’s owner is white. Missouri allows the open carrying of firearms. State lawmakers recently passed a law overriding any local ordinance that banned the open carry of firearms by people who have concealed weapons permits.
Ferguson has seen a stark demographic shift in recent decades, going from all white to mostly black. About two-thirds of the town’s 21,000-strong population are black. By some accounts, the Brown shooting has heightened racial tensions in the city. But not at the gas station.“We would have been burned to the ground many times over if it weren’t for them,” said gas station owner Doug Merello, whose father first bought it in 1984. Merello said he feels deep ties to Ferguson, and if the loyalty of some of his regular customers is any indication, the feeling is mutual. At times, Jordan and his friends were joined on Tuesday night by other men from the neighborhood, also armed. None of the men was getting paid to be there. They said they felt they owed it to Merello, who has employed many of them over the years and treats them with respect. “He’s a nice dude, he’s helped us a lot,” said a 29 year old who identified himself as R.J. He said he, like the other volunteers, had lived a short distance away from the store for most of his life.
Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/11/in-ferguson-black-residents-stand-guard-at-white-owned-store/
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