Meet the Locals Trying to Keep the Peace in Ferguson

“It’s the difference love brings to a situation.”

Paul Muhammad, an organizer of the Peacekeepers.<a href="https://twitter.com/RobertKlemko/status/501934861134086144/photo/1">Robert Klemko</a>/Twitter

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Peace prevailed last night in Ferguson, Missouri—for the most part. There were a few bottles hurled at the cops, and dozens of arrests, but no gunshots, looting, tear gas plumes, or fusillades of rubber bullets. Largely to thank for this turn of events are the Peacekeepers, a group comprised of mostly of Ferguson and St. Louis locals who’ve been physically inserting themselves between police and rowdy protesters over the past few days in an effort to diffuse tensions.

The Peacekeepers’ unofficial leader is Paul Muhammad, a linebacker-sized guy from St. Louis who favors fatigues but reportedly speaks in the soft tones of a therapist. Little is known about Muhammad, who did not immediately return a call from Mother Jones. “If you are going to be out here all night, I will be out here all night. Let’s just go home,” he told a teenager with a red bandanna over his face last night, according to Newsweek‘s Robert Klemko. A few minutes later, someone from a fringe group of onlookers hurled a water bottle and police moved in to disperse the crowd.

Members of the Peacekeepers have been active during the late-night protests since at least Wednesday, when Renita Lamkin, an African Methodist Episcopal Church pastor, was shot with a rubber bullet while attempting to mediate between police and protesters:

Over the next few days, Lamkin helped form the ad-hoc Peacekeepers group. Many volunteers turned out in response to a call during an August 12 church service by Rev. Al Sharpton for 100 men to step forward to be “Disciples of Justice” to keep the peace in the area.

The idea to make “Peacekeepers” shirts to help differentiate the group from other protestors was Muhammad’s, Lamkin told me. He posted a request on his Facebook page and the next day the shirts arrived. They’re now worn by about 10 to 12 people who conduct the nightly patrols. Here’s Lamkin in hers last night:

Pastor Renita Lamkin

Lamkin sees the Peacekeepers as a critical way to protect both police and protesters. “We don’t want police officers injured and we don’t want our young people’s lives altered,” she told me. “I often tell young people: “Don’t make permanent decisions in a temporary place. In this one moment, don’t do something that is going to result in a permanent decision for your life.”

The Peacekeepers have learned a few important lessons since last week. Since Sunday night, when Lamkin got pushed into side streets by police and cut off from her car, the group now keeps someone “on the outside” who can pick up people who’ve been cordoned off from the action. On Tuesday night, she ferried several loads of people back to their own cars.

When people ask Lamkin whose side she’s on, she replies that she’s “on the side of life.” Her goal, she clarifies, is “preserving life” so that “everybody goes home.”

“The people trust us and they know that we care about them,” she says. “So there’s the difference: It’s the difference love brings to a situation.”

“I ain’t expecting the police to love on folks; they’re there to do a job,” she adds. “Our job is to bring the love.”

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate