On April 13, the family of Emeshyon Wilkins released video footage of the brutal killing of their son. Roughly two years ago, Wilkins, a Black 17-year-old teenager, was shot in the back of the head by a still unnamed St. Louis police officer while running away. Instead of investigating and prosecuting this clear criminal act by the police officer, what followed was a series of lies and misdirections intended to portray the victim of police violence as a threat. In the two years since, police have claimed that Wilkins was pointing a gun at officers, justifying their use of deadly force. This video release shows clearly that that claim was a lie. Meanwhile, Wilkins’ killer is still on the force today, drawing a public salary.
St. Louis police track record of lying
St. Louis police are notorious for saying and doing anything they can in an attempt to get out of trouble. Whether that be the casual intimidation and threats they issue to the working class daily, lying about why they crash their cruisers into local gay bars, or, most notoriously, when they lie to cover up the killings of young Black men and children. Just this March, St. Louis Metro PD was forced to pay $37 million for the 2016 shooting of Tyron Edwards. Courts found that SLMPD officers had lied, shooting the teenager in the back when he also fled from a vehicle.
If we extend our scope outside of the city, we can see the pattern holds throughout the larger metro region. In 2024, mere months after Wilkins’ killing, Woodson Terrace police attempted to execute Je’von Henderson. Henderson survived an onslaught of more than 70 bullets; officers claimed this was justified by the lie that Henderson had fired at them first. Body camera footage eventually unveiled what many already suspected: the police were lying. Most famously, Michael Brown was gunned down in the streets of Ferguson by police who stretched and twisted reality in an attempt to justify their killing of a young man. Racism, legalized lynchings by police and lying are the standard operating procedures of “law enforcement” in this city and across the country.
St. Louis police, who also train with Israeli security forces as part of long-established ‘exchange’ programs, cross-train with numerous municipalities in St. Louis County to create a culture where officers face no accountability for their actions. In the rare event that a St. Louis police officer commits a crime in St. Louis for which they actually face disciplinary action, all it takes is one phone call, and they are hired by one of the many outlying municipalities in St. Louis County and essentially disappear into the wind, leaving behind a trail of death, lies and ruined lives in their wake.
Wilkins was not holding a gun when he was shot. He was executed within 20 seconds of the unnamed officer exiting his vehicle. For the suspected crime of stealing a car, a life was ended. Al Watkins, who is representing Wilkins’ family in their case against the city, had this poignant comment about the case: “At best, it demonstrates wholesale malgovernance of the city and police department. At worst … very dangerous ignorance of a most horrid nature. I assure you that this young man would be alive and preparing for high school graduation if he resided in the 63124 ZIP code.”
Watkins is right. “Justice” looks different in nearly all-white Ladue (63124) vs. the nearly all-black The Ville neighborhood where Wilkins was killed. Wilkins’ killing highlights the disparity in justice reinforced by every level of Missouri governance.
The Police Board, Cara Spencer and big money
One year ago, Governor Mike Kehoe signed into law the reincarnation of the St. Louis Police Board. This move directly harkened back to the Civil War era policy of that time, which sought to directly clamp down on the Black population of the city. The board, through its conception up until its initial dissolution in 2013 (152 years of state control), was a tool designed to hamper any local control on the racist SLMPD. The recent reinstatement of the board cannot be seen as anything other than the fears of the primarily white, capitalist, ruling class of the city and state made manifest.
The six-member police board is staffed overwhelmingly by business owners who benefit directly and indirectly from the activities of the police department they’re set to oversee. Don Brown, a non-voting member of the six-person board, has sold millions of dollars’ worth of vehicles to the SLMPD over the years. In fact, the only person on the board who is not either a business owner or the mayor is Sonya Jenkins-Gray, who was the former head of HR for St. Louis city government. She is also the only Black person and the only member who will serve a two-year term. All others will serve for four years.
Cara Spencer’s involvement with SLPD
The final standout for the board is Mayor Cara Spencer. Spencer was swept into office by the vested business interests of the city. Bob Clark, the founder and executive of Clayco, a massive real estate development firm, gave more than $111,000 to Spencer’s election funds. Rodney Thomas, who is in part behind the AI data center development at the former Armory, gave her campaign $12,500. The trend is clear: both Spencer and the Police Board are backed by big business.
Mayor Spencer’s recent weak-willed attempt to sue the state government will not solve the epidemic of police killings in our city and region. The police board will not make our city safer. In fact, their attempt to increase the SLMPD budget to $274 million will likely make the city less safe by defunding the critical and already underfunded programs that actually reduce crime. Mayor Spencer uses these programs as a bargaining chip when she trots them out in a half-hearted attempt to dissuade the SLMPD budget increase.
The St. Louis Rams settlement funds sit at the core of this issue, with the Police Board eyeing them hungrily, using them to justify the massive budget increase. The Rams settlement resulted from the lawsuit that began when billionaire Stan Kroenke snuck the then St. Louis Rams out of the city in the dead of night, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars being paid out to the city. Fierce debate has followed this payout, mainly about how this money should be spent. What neither side of the debate expected though was the appointment of the Police Board and their backhanded accounting to declare that those funds should line the pockets of the SLMPD.
Meanwhile, the mayor refuses to release any of the money for the many proposed uses that would directly benefit social services or tornado recovery efforts. Dr. L.J. Punch, famous in St. Louis for his work in the Bullet Related Injury Clinic and more recently for his efforts with 314 Oasis dedicated to tornado recovery, has stated on multiple occasions that, “the path of destruction left by the tornado [in May 2025], looks exactly like the path a bullet takes through the body.” There is no more apt metaphor than this one to describe the ongoing situation. The government that funds killer cops, defunds tornado recovery. The Ville was at the epicenter of the May 16, 2025, tornado and that storm ripped through it like so many SLMPD bullets.
Wilkins’ killing is the manifestation of a corrupt, racist, capitalist system. One where big business enriches itself on the wrongdoings of the PD, and the mayor’s office toys with our lives in political games. If Mayor Spencer actually wanted to crush the police budget, to rein in legalized lynchings by officers, and end the era of no accountability, she would turn to the very people who cry out at the corruption and death.
The Minneapolis way
Minneapolis has shown us the way twice in 10 years. In the wake of the killings of George Floyd, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, Minneapolis turned out in large demonstrations and forced change. This January, the Twin Cities engaged in a general strike; hundreds of thousands of people refused to work, shop or go to school. The economy ground to a halt. Gregory Bovino, the head of ICE operations in Minnesota, was recalled from Minneapolis. We can do the same thing in St. Louis.
There is growing support for a general strike on May 1. St. Louis disrupted business as usual in 2014; the people, outraged at the constant death and destruction caused by the capitalist-backed police departments, shut down the day-to-day life of the region. Across the country, May 1 will mark a day against war, racist law enforcement and the threat of big business.
We call on all people of conscience to strike on May 1. Strike for Emeyshon Wilkins! Strike for Tyron Edwards! Strike for Je’von Henderson! Strike for Mike Brown! Strike against racist police! On May 1, NO WORK, NO SCHOOL, NO SHOPPING!
Feature photo: Community members demonstrate against racism in St. Louis. Liberation photo
