In Symbolic Gesture, 19-Year-Old Stands In Front of Ferguson Police Line

A 19-year-old St Louis college student stood in front of the police line in Ferguson on the night of Monday, August 10, in a symbolic gesture to protect the police. Lexi Kozhevsky posted a video on Snapchat showing her in front of the police line saying, “look guys, discrimination is a thing and I get it. But we need to stay with the people who protect us and that’s what I’m doing. I want to protect my police.”

In an email to Storyful Kozhevsky explained why she went to Ferguson, “They [the police] do not deserve for objects to be thrown at them because of an incident or incidents involving separate officers.”

“I believe there is a legitimate reason to protest. Black people are discriminated against, shot at, and pulled over more due to their skin color. However, peaceful protesting is what is needed. Not the slurs and chants the crowd yelled, not the objects being thrown, and no shots need to be fired. Protesting can work if it is peaceful as we’ve seen in history with Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.,” she wrote.

This is the video Kozhevsky posted to Snapchat. Credit: Snapchat/Lexi Kozhevsky