By Evan Sandel
The Scene staff
A Forest Park student is the youngest member of a commission formed by Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon to study the conditions that led to unrest after the Michael Brown shooting and to help make the region stronger and fairer.
Rasheen Aldridge, 20, a general transfer student, has spent recent weeks giving interviews to TV reporters, meeting with community leaders and even traveling to the White House.
“After we met with the senior staff, we actually met with (President Barack Obama), and that was a surreal moment,” Aldridge said. “I was thinking, ‘Oh my God, the president of the United States, the first black president of the United States.’ So it was powerful, but I tried to stay on business and tried to get our message across, and he really listened to us. I think he soaked up what we had to say, and I think he needed to hear what was going on, on the ground.”
Aldridge was one of thousands of people who protested in the streets of Ferguson in August after white police officer Darren Wilson shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old.
Aldridge is involved with several activist organizations, including Show Me 15, Missouri Jobs with Justice and Young Activists United. After graduating from Forest Park, he plans to study political science at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
On Oct. 21, Nixon announced the formation of a 16-member Ferguson Commission in a speech on the Florissant Valley campus of St. Louis Community College. Aldridge had applied to become a member on the State of Missouri’s website and gone through an interview process.
“It’s exciting, but also there’s a lot of back and forth fighting,” he said. “And also sometimes fighting with the community, because this is a commission that was appointed Governor Nixon … and he hasn’t been the best in terms of stepping up to the plate and addressing the issues.”
The commission’s first official meeting was Dec. 1. Aldridge and fellow member Brittany Packnett, a Teach for America executive, were unable to attend. They had traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet with Obama’s staff.
“We talked to them about certain things we had already schemed and dreamed (about, such as police) being accountable and getting rid of the 1033 program, and the police being militarized, and investing in communities instead of investing in military cops,” Aldridge said.
The 1033 Program was established in the 1990s as part of the “war on drugs,” allowing the Pentagon to send used military equipment to American police forces free of charge. That includes assault rifles and mine resistant ambush protected vehicles.
Aldridge and Packnett didn’t expect to meet with Obama on their trip. A U.S. Department of Justice official had hinted that it might be possible but gave no guarantee.
Obama offered Aldridge some advice, telling him not to get too broad with his message and to stay focused on police brutality. He also reminded the Forest Park student that there is only so much he can do at the federal level and that local activism will continue to be important.
“I definitely won’t forget that experience, being able to go to the White House and meet the president,” Aldridge said. “It’s a personal thing, but it’s also important for this whole movement. Who would’ve thought that 114 days from the death of Michael Brown, the protestors on the ground would be meeting with the commander-in-chief of the United States to talk about what had happened?”
After talking with Obama, Aldridge attended a larger meeting with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and others. At one point, he was asked to address the room regarding the situation in Ferguson.
“I was a little shocked,” Aldridge said. “I felt a little unprepared, even though it was the same stuff I had talked about in our (other) meeting. There were a lot of big people in the room, and little old me from St. Louis, standing there speaking to all these elected officials, people who are pretty important and have a lot of power in this nation.”
Aldridge returned from Washington on Dec. 2. Two days later, he was charged with third-degree assault for allegedly assaulting a St. Louis City Hall marshal on Nov. 26.
According to court documents, Aldridge was part of a group protesting the grand jury’s decision not to indict Wilson for Brown’s shooting. City Hall went on lock down as a security precaution, and protestors chanted, shouted, pushed the marshal and tried to force their way inside, breaking a door.
The Ferguson Commission has nine black and seven white members, 10 men and six women, two pastors, a police sergeant and a former police chief, one business leader, two lawyers, a social worker, university professors and Aldridge. They have a three-pronged mission:
- To conduct a thorough, wide-ranging and unflinching study of the social and economic conditions underscored by the unrest in the wake of the death of Michael Brown.
- To tap the expertise needed to address the concerns identified by the Commission. From poverty and education, to governance and law enforcement.
- To offer specific recommendations for making this region a stronger, fairer place for everyone to live.
At the commission’s first meeting, members introduced themselves and discussed their purpose. They invited community members to speak their minds by writing hopes and concerns on yellow and pink Post-it notes and displaying them on a wall.
One yellow note read, “I hope we can come to an understanding of the real problems behind this mess. Mike Brown was wrong for stealing. Darren Wilson was wrong for being judge, jury, executioner and God.”
A pink note read, “I am concerned that the commission is not independent, that the commission is political cover for Gov. Nixon, that the commission will not talk to residents across the city, that the commission will not try to understand issues of discrimination that are systematic.”
Despite this widespread concern, Aldridge insists the commission is more than “political cover.”
“We’re an independent body, even though we were appointed by the governor,” he said. “I still have my own views. I still am going to be out there protesting. I still am going to be a voice for the young people.”