Ferguson activist Darren Seals dies at 29

By Mariah Stewart Of The St. Louis American
Updated 9 hrs ago

. . .

Darren Seals, 29, was a factory line worker and hip-hop musician. Following the death of Mike Brown – an unarmed black teenager who was fatally shot by a white Ferguson police officer – Seals protested in the streets of Ferguson.

. . .

Seals recently uploaded a Facebook Live video sharing his own encounter with the Ferguson Police Department, saying police drew guns on him and his younger brother. Seals described himself on his Twitter profile as a “Businessman, Revolutionary, Activist, Unapologetically BLACK, Afrikan in AmeriKKKa, Fighter, Leader.”

. . .

Carlos Ball, the brother of Cary Ball Jr., who was killed by St. Louis Police in 2013, replaced his Facebook profile picture with Seals’ profile picture, which was taken as part of the portrait series This is the Movement.

. . .

Police say their investigation revealed that Seals suffered a gunshot wound before the car was set on fire. The incident is currently being investigated as a homicide.

http://www.stlamerican.com/news/local_news/ferguson-activist-darren-seals-dies-at/article_2174f1d8-747f-11e6-990f-33cd70d152a7.html

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I've read he really loved his 14 year old little brother. You could see in the video the young man really, really idolized, cared so deeply about him. Thinking the brother believed he lost him once when he was shot 7 times, he was undoubtedly so very thankful he made it back to health.

Someone wanted to make sure he didn't recover this time.

As was mentioned among by the young man taking the video, when they were looking at the 4 police cars, and a police truck, Ferguson only has 2 cars itself. The others came from somewhere else, to help them harass this man, who had entered the dialysis store in relation to his own hospitalized mother's illness, grabbing him as soon as he came outside.

Holding a gun on his 14 year old brother, handcuffing him?

After detaining them so long, letting them go, at last, they decided they were going to stand in a cluster and continue to talk about the guy they clearly knew when they stopped him: they knew he had been shot multiple times, they knew he was a community activist, and they asked him about a Trump poster he had. Yup. Civic minded police officers.

I hope, one way or another, the witnesses who saw this entire event will be safe, and I hope like hell the 14 year old brother won't be harmed physically. He's going to hurt a long time spiritually, as it is.

It was a godsend that the man with the camera recognized Mr. Seals, and stopped, and got this much recorded for others to witness, too.

Thank you, airesgem. You are so kind.

I truly believe there is so much more to this than just some random street murder. I feel for his little bro and family. I hope the Feds step in and investigate.

And just another day in trump's america, make America great again by reinstating the social mores of the 1950's when white republikkkans were in charge and blacks were kept in their place.

I'm sure they will pull out all the stops to find out who did this heinous deed.

Who ever is responsible for this, it is absolutely horrible. Damn it all to hell.

The right wingers at Prison Planet will come up with some flimsy meme that Darren Seals was on the verge of 'coming clean to the press' when " THEY " had to silence Mr. Seals by killing him.

I'm from Missouri and this state is just full of suck. This won't stop us from demanding that police forces stop killing our citizens. Black Lives Matter, LGBT Lives Matter, All Lives Matter.

So horrible.

All three civil rights workers were killed in Mississippi in August of 1964. Fifty-two years ago last month.

What motive would the police have to kill him 2 years later? That's baseless speculation.

Ferguson may be off your radar, but it is not off everyone's.

The police have every motive to kill him now.

But regardless, please tell us about these motives and which PD is involved.

Meanwhile, Seals and other groups are still meeting with city and police officials regularly and with the DOJ while the DOJ ensures the required changes they forced on Ferguson are taking place.

would kill him?

Ferguson is complying with the DOJ guidelines, and Seals wasn't a resident of that city, so that's irrelevant. You made the suggestion that police killed him. Back that up.

Perhaps others have a far deeper, more complete understanding the situation and of some kinds of human beings. It's really not your place to try to fight someone about seeing it in a way you don't want anyone to mention, for whatever your reason is.

Good one.

Apart from the terms of service. Telling someone to back up a claim is just as appropriate as making a claim. Both fa within ToS. There is no other arbiter.

might be in any way suspicious despite his very public activism. The fact that the car was set on fire in an obvious attempt to hide evidence (and indicating that this wasn't a simple robbery or anything of that sort -- someone took the time to make certain the car burned after murdering its occupant) signals to me that there is something very suspicious about the case. Perhaps his death isn't related to his activism and/or was committed by persons for other reasons -- obviously we can't know this at this point. It will be interesting to see what an investigation produces.

three years ago might have done it? That was a year before the Brown shooting. Seems a lot more likely than a cop doing it.
https://www.facebook.com/darren.k.seals/posts/1682359948755392

Maybe not, of course.

It's good to take the time to thank you for sharing this with us, as you may have rummaged around through his writings to find material to bear out the racists' attempt to slur him and his life, and his friends, family, neighborhood, and most of the town. Or maybe not, of course.

He was so young to have been through as much horrific trauma as he experienced, and he managed to not let it destroy his spirit, he didn't turn vicious, which is more than you can say for a lot of people who experience no trauma at all.

Wild speculation about cop assassins is bullshit. His life had value no matter who the killer is. Same goes for the other 100+ young black men who have been murdered in ST. Louis so far this year. It doesn't take a cop's bullet killing them to say their lives matter. That seems to be the criteria for some when it comes to which black lives really matter. That sickens me.

But, hey, thanks for the not so subtle accusations.

Eta - I didn't rummage through anything. It was a link in a story. I haven't seen anything else on his Facebook.

Infiltration: Agents and informers did not merely spy on political activists. Their main purpose was to discredit and disrupt. Their very presence served to undermine trust and scare off potential supporters. The FBI and police exploited this fear to smear genuine activists as agents.
Psychological warfare: The FBI and police used myriad "dirty tricks" to undermine progressive movements. They planted false media stories and published bogus leaflets and other publications in the name of targeted groups. They forged correspondence, sent anonymous letters, and made anonymous telephone calls. They spread misinformation about meetings and events, set up pseudo movement groups run by government agents, and manipulated or strong-armed parents, employers, landlords, school officials and others to cause trouble for activists. They used bad-jacketing to create suspicion about targeted activists, sometimes with lethal consequences.[44]
Harassment via the legal system: The FBI and police abused the legal system to harass dissidents and make them appear to be criminals. Officers of the law gave perjured testimony and presented fabricated evidence as a pretext for false arrests and wrongful imprisonment. They discriminatorily enforced tax laws and other government regulations and used conspicuous surveillance, "investigative" interviews, and grand jury subpoenas in an effort to intimidate activists and silence their supporters.[42][45]
Illegal force: The FBI conspired with local police departments to threaten dissidents; to conduct illegal break-ins in order to search dissident homes; and to commit vandalism, assaults, beatings and assassinations.[42] The object was to frighten or eliminate dissidents and disrupt their movements.

He said during an interview during the original protests, on tv, seen by millions of people, that the police were intimidating him and his brother. When I saw the headline of the original article, I had a sick feeling, having seen the interview (he was interviewed multiple times) I knew who it was.

Also, as the sane ones of us would remember, the Ku Klux Klan felt it was a signal for them to drag their fat asses to Ferguson to start standing around menacing the protesters, claiming they were there to help the police of Ferguson.

Had you bothered to read the available information you would have seen the same thing happened to another well known protester in Ferguson not too long ago, very same vile tactics used against him, with a shot to the head, and he was also thrown into his car which was set on fire.

It's not likely you are an authority on what has happened in Ferguson to the point you really would have any idea what any of the police there would or wouldn't do to the same people they have terrorized for many years, as discussed repeatedly in published articles.

Every post here, including my original post, is baseless speculation. Of the two alternatives (murderer with a grudge or a grand police conspiracy to silence activists), which one seems the most likely?

since we don't know key details obviously? But if all the claims are baseless speculation then it seems a waste of time trying to argue that one baseless theory is more likely to be true than another baseless theory. I also am not sure that there are only two possibilities -- does it need to be a "grand conspiracy?" Also how does one rule out the other -- it is likely that the killer knew the victim and this case since the car was burned to hide evidence and that takes time to ensure that it burned. So it is very likely the killer "bore a grudge" -- does that mean that therefore the murder wasn't related to his activism?

Obviously none of us know at this point.

It doesn't make sense to jump to "ZOMG The cops killed him!!!" - that's in a different league of plausibility. Common sense dictates that's probably not what happened.

If there were actually evidence that the police were somehow involved, that would be a different story. It's definitely possible, but not likely. While i was speculating too, my speculation isn't that out of the ordinary.

This is horrible.

He was executed.

Prayers and peace. And justice!

There's more of Darren Seals in the world than the KKK cowards.

after the election the revolution will continue

Ferguson activist Darren Seals found dead in burning car

John Bacon, USA TODAY 4:55 p.m. EDT September 7, 2016

A homicide investigation was underway Wednesday in St. Louis County into the fatal shooting of Ferguson activist Darren Seals, whose body was found in a burning car.

County police spokesman Officer Benjamin Granda said the department's arson unit was called to assist the City of Riverview with a vehicle fire Tuesday morning. When the fire was extinguished, the body of Seals, 29, was found inside. Seals had suffered a gunshot wound, Granda said.

. . .

Seals, a St. Louis resident, was a leader of the protest movement prompted by the fatal shooting of teenager Michael Brown by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson on Aug. 9, 2014. Seals was with Lezley McSpadden, Brown's mother, when prosecutors announced in November of that year that a grand jury had declined to indict Wilson in Brown's death.

. . .

The St. Louis American, the self-described "voice of the area’s African-American community," reported Seals recently uploaded a Facebook Live video saying police had once drawn guns on him and his younger brother. In July, Seals tweeted that he and his 14-year-old brother were pulled over at gunpoint by police who warned him to "choose your enemies wisely."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2016/09/07/ferguson-activist-darren-seals-found-dead-burning-car/89955868/

n/t.

Darren Seals Found Dead: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

Published 8:00 pm EDT, September 6, 2016 Updated 2:04 pm EDT, September 7, 2016

. . .

1. Seals Was Shot Before the Vehicle Was Set on Fire, Police Say

Darren Seals was found about 1:50 a.m. in the 9600 block of Diamond Drive in Riverview, St. Louis County Police told the St. Louis American. He suffered a gunshot wound before the vehicle was set on fire, according to police.

The shooting remains under investigation and no suspects are in custody, police said. No information about possible suspects or a motive were released.

The car was still on fire when police found it, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The flames had to be extinguished before Seals’ body was found, the newspaper reports.


. . .

2. He Was Near the Scene of the Michael Brown Shooting & Was Vocal During the Protests That Followed

Seals became active in the protests after Michael Brown’s death, and said he was near the scene of the 2014 shooting in Ferguson.

“It wasn’t even a protest yet,” he told The Nation. “It was a black boy being shot in the community. It was about ten other women and men out there, and the family. Before it became a riot, before it became a protest, it was just the community coming together.”

Seals spoke often to the national media and co-founded a group called “Hands Up United.”

More:
http://heavy.com/news/2016/09/darren-seals-ferguson-protester-dead-death-murder-homicide-burning-car-st-louis-suspect-photos/