Anthony Shahid is a severe racial and anti-police antagonist within the Saint Louis community. He is very well known by activists and law enforcement. Mr. Shahid is an avowed friend of the notorious Louis Farrakhan, and also a National Action Network (NAN) friend of MSNBC’s Al Sharpton.
As this article from 2003 gently headlines: “Who’s Afraid of Anthony Shahid? – He’s a hero to some, a pain to others. Either way, he makes people very nervous“:
[…] When they were led to the elevator, Shahid and his friend John Bordeaux came, too. Both men have led civil-rights protests, but Shahid’s a professional agitator, an agitator who makes even his allies reach for water. Bordeaux usually comes off as the reasonable one, shrugging indulgently at his friend’s excesses. An ousted president of the St. Louis NAACP chapter, Bordeaux is also better known. Shahid plays his own game, regardless of what the rest of the world thinks of him.
“We’re going up with the sister,” Kessler remembers Shahid telling the Barnes security guard.
“He made me feel personally uncomfortable,” admits the attorney, “because even after we were getting what we wanted, he kept escalating, whipping it up. I never did figure out what his agenda was. But I can’t say anything bad — (link)
As the famous saying goes: ….And That’s How Things Get Started.
With years of anti-cop activism under his belt Mr. Shahid knows how to find the nucleus in an opportunity – and quick.
It was only moments after the media arrived at Canfield Greens apartment complex when Shahid, wearing a green shirt -and initially identified in our research as the “green shirt guy”- was quickly working his crowd magic.
As soon as the general script was outlined Dorian Johnson was put in front of the cameras with self-admitted “cop hater and grievance producer”, Anthony Shahid, watching closely.
Johnson is witnessed in this video being held tight by Mike Brown uncle, Calvin Ewings.
And watch as community organizer Shahid gives and delivers instructions from the background:
Just off camera, yet within earshot of the audio, Tiffany Mitchell and Piaget Crenshaw were awaiting their camera-turn when, according to Piaget, she was instructed to talk to Lesley McSpadden, Mike Brown’s mom, and confirm to her that it was indeed her son dead at the eastern end of Canfield Drive.
All of the family, and all of the New York media witnesses, and all of the provocateurs now together on the grassy knoll area.
Overtaken with emotion Big Mike’s mom collapsed in grief and shock (pictured below).
As quick as a jackrabbit, and totally understanding the value of the moment in front of a watching media, Anthony Shahid knew just what to do with the surrounding crowd:
“Hands Up, Don’t Shoot”
They killed her son in cold blood; Damn punk ass fuckin’ cops…
…. And so a T-Shirt meme was born.
Hands up, don’t shoot. Soon turned into violence, looting, rioting and general mayhem. The exact outcome of the ingredients Anthony Shahid put together in the Canfield Greens apartment complex on August 9th 2014.
And the media ran with it.