ST. LOUIS — Protesters have occupied the front steps of St. Louis city hall and they say they won't move until Mayor Lyda Krewson resigns.
Thursday night, the group "Occupy City Hall STL" threw Krewson a mock "retirement" — hanging signs and blocking the main entrance to 1200 Market Street.
The tension between protesters and the Mayor ratcheted up late last month when she read the names and addresses of some protesters live on Facebook. She was reading letters they had written to her about the city's medium-security jail.
The Mayor apologized and took down the video but protesters see it as an intimidation tactic and things have escalated ever since then.
Whatever the Mayor's intentions, some in the crowd Thursday night said their grievances with her go beyond that Facebook post.
Toni Taylor's son was shot and killed in an altercation with police in 2013.
"I just feel like since she's the boss of the police she should have been doing something against police brutality even before she read those names," Taylor said.
But Mayor Krewson said she is not going anywhere. Her office says she is focused on leading the city "through multiple public health and economic crises" and says this protest is a "distraction."
Overnight Wednesday into Thursday police say two city workers were trying to tow the car of a protester for street cleaning when two people in the group attacked them, hitting one working with the butt of a rifle.
Protest organizers released a statement about the altercation.
They blamed the city for escalating something they say could have been resolved with a parking ticket and said, in part, "This weaponization of parking enforcement simply to deter people's first amendment right of free speech is in line with tactics used by the city during previous occupations and protests."
