An open letter to Ferguson protesters

I love you, but I don't like what you're doing. The disrespect you showed to those who attended Monday's Martin Luther King Celebration at Harris-Stowe State University was beyond the pale. You aggressively took over the stage and chanted an incoherent message to a crowd that wasn't there to hear you anyway. You didn't want to pay homage to Martin Luther King nor be a part of the program. Your disrespectful selves wanted to be the program.

In the more than five months since Mike Brown's death, your movement has been all over the place. It started in Ferguson, but then spread to the Shaw neighborhood in St. Louis City after the police shooting death of Vonderrit Myers. There was a build up to the grand jury decision, but that energy quickly fizzled. You then turned your attention to the police shooting death of Antonio Martin. That effort went nowhere after police released a video of Martin allegedly holding a gun.

Answers were demanded, but claims of racism and white supremacy didn't fit the narrative of the Berkeley, Mo. shooting -- mostly because the city's mayor, police chief and almost every other major post is held by a black person. The only thing that resulted from the protest of Martin's death was the arrest of a young man for allegedly attempting to set a Quik Trip on fire. Many of you laid down in the middle of the highway. Nothing was achieved.

You spent the holidays hopping from mall to mall. Someone had the bright idea of trying to rush into St, Louis City police headquarters. Someone could have been killed. You can't shut down a police station. There are active police investigations going on that involve witnesses, victims and criminals. That tactic alone was immature, irresponsible and showed a tremendous disregard for the safety and lives of your fellow protesters.

Please stop pitting people against their elders as many of you are not young. Yes, most of you are younger than Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson, but that's where your claims of youth should stop. Many of you are in your mid-to-late 20s, 30s and 40s and are only interested in gaining a measure of celebrity and position. Some of you are hoping to get tased, gassed or hit with a rubber bullet. Those things are worth at least 10,000 Twitter followers each.

You claim to protest in honor of Dr. King, but have learned next to nothing from him. Those in power -- those who have facilitated and maintained the mistrust between police and community sit comfortably in their plush offices without consequence. Those officials who allow killers and other hardened criminals to walk freely through our communities operate without fear of recall or censure. I'll make it plain. Almost everyone who was in office on August 9 is still in office.

I encourage you to formulate a plan and stick to it. Create a policy agenda and present it. Pressure those elected leaders who were so quick to march in August to be just as swift with new legislation now. Work with the students at universities like Harris-Stowe instead of rushing in and trying to take over. Your disrespect silenced them like you claim elders have tried to silence you.

We live in the context of the other. No matter the disposition, our commonality is our humanity. We must find it. Lest we be lost forever.

Sincerely,

Solomon Alexander