I first heard about the rampage when breaking news interrupted the regular TV programming. I was half paying attention until I heard “shooting at Kirkwood zoning and planning meeting.”

I screamed at the television, “Nooooo, Cookie!”

I knew who the shooter was right then but it was a while before news reporters identified Charles “Cookie” Thornton as the alleged gunman who left five dead and two injured. Thornton was shot dead by police.

This is a tragedy of epic proportions, one in which our humanity shouts out in sorrow and compassion. But if the city of Kirkwood doesn’t seek genuine understanding of their oppressive, racial relations, they are doomed for more tragedies. The body count is growing.

This is a tale of two cities, or should I say one city and a piece of a city.

Kirkwood, MO is a 90% white community, basically made up of middle and upper-class families. Seventy percent of its 27,000 + residents are homeowners.

Meacham Park is an historic African-American neighborhood that dates back to the turn of the 20th Century. An unincorporated area adjacent to Kirkwood, the town once had its own schools and businesses. Over the years, its stability wavered as the cost of services and living rose while the tax base declined. M-Park began to tarnish the “Mayberry” image of Kirkwood. Because M-Park didn’t even have police service, the drug and gun slingers moved in during the crack cocaine epidemic. Something had to be done.

Meacham Park’s decline came about at the same time as K-wood’s acknowledgment that they needed more commercial land if they were to grow and thrive. However, the city had no more land for expansion or development. Hungry eyes began to look to the south at a community ripe for ripping.

Residents of M-Park were convinced to put their fate in the hands of K-wood and to secure their future through annexation. They were told their lives would get better. In 1992, the measure was overwhelming passed by voters in both communities. That’s where the togetherness ends.

In a very short period of time, chunks of Meacham Park fell victim to eminent domain. Kirkwood police attempted to contain and control what was left of Meacham Park. There were a few new homes built for the original residents but about one third of the community was hacked off for the Kirkwood Commons shopping mall, anchored by a Walmart. Gone were homes of long-time friends and neighbors. Gone were streets with names like Attucks, Handy, Spellman. And gone was the historic school named after renowned educator, J. Milton Turner. The desire by people to turn the school into a museum, with archives devoted to the life of Turner, fell on deaf ears. The building is now the home office of developers.

Michael Moore, one-time resident of Meacham Park summed up the so-revitalization package. "Kirkwood has gotten rich off the backs of the blacks in Meacham Park,” Moore said. “Kirkwood adopted us, but only for the check."

Land acquisition brought no political representation. You guessed it - there’s nary a black person on city council. Such a scenario was made highly unlikely because of at-large elections.

This brings us to Kevin Johnson and back to Cookie Thornton.

The racial dynamics surrounding the Kevin Johnson case are a part of a cascade of tragedies. Last fall in a second trial, a predominantly white jury found 22 year old Johnson guilty of first degree murder for the 2005 fatal shooting of Kirkwood police officer, William “Big Mac” McEntee. Kevin, who had been demonized by the white media since the shooting, received a death sentence.

McEntee was nicknamed Big Mac not merely because of his size but because of his bullying tactics. But black residents were not the only ones who were victims. It turns out that it was a young white male who defaced the McEntee memorial with paint, one of several acts of vandalism since the structure was erected a year after the incident. Everyone didn’t have the same rosy perception of McEntee that his family and fellow officers had.

Back in Meacham Park, there are those who believe McEntee is responsible for the death of 12 year old Joseph “Bam Bam” Long, Kevin’s younger brother. McEntee was alleged to have chased him home after confiscating fireworks from him. In this close knit community, it was known that Long had a heart condition. He collapsed in his home but received no medical attention from McEntee or other officers at the scene. Family members were not allowed to help their loved one and instead, were ordered out of the house. Kevin testified at trial that he snapped in the face of McEntee’s callous indifference.

Now there’s 52 year old Cookie Thornton. The first time I met Cookie, he told me about his encounters with Kirkwood city officials and police. I jokingly asked him how he was going to get any respect with a name like Cookie.

Eeeeeverybody knew Cookie. He was an affable, colorful character but he was no pushover. Kirkwood officials were successful at dismissing Kevin Johnson as a young thug. What about a Cookie Thornton? What about a man who did all the things that American says you need to do to be a respected and productive citizen? Thornton was a star athlete in high school and college. He graduated from college and tried to become a successful businessman. How did these two, with such dissimilar backgrounds, end up in virtually the same place?

Cookie Thornton has long standing grievances with the city of K-wood. They have mitigated the situation (which has been parroted by the local and national press) by saying that it was all about parking tickets for his fleet of trucks. While parking ticket fines and court costs had skyrocketed to tens of thousands of dollars, most black people who heard about the massacre knew that it had to be more than tickets. He used every method at his disposal to raise what he declared where violations of his human and civil rights. Cookie was standing up for the voiceless and faceless citizens of Meacham Park who have been marginalized and disenfranchised for decades.

Since Cookie was one of few blacks who stood up to the Kirkwood plan for control and dominance through police terror, he was an easy target. He was certainly a target of police harassment, but more importantly, he was to be made an example by city officials. What he received was daily doses of mean-spirited, racist jabs, unseen by most of K-wood’s white citizens. This is the predicament of Black America: we live a totally different reality from the majority race, trying to convince them that Rodney King was not striking back but shielding his face, that black folks are disproportionately in prisons because of racist laws and law enforcement and not because they are congenital criminals, etc .

There are few who believe Cookie succumbed to some mental breakdown. Many believe that he was of sound mind when he killed police officers Tom Ballman and William Biggs; council members Michael Lynch and Connie Karr; and Public Works Director Kenneth Yost. Mayor Mike Swoboda remains in critical condition and reporter Todd Smith sustained minor injuries. He tried unsuccessfully to get to City Attorney John Hessel. Aside from Smith who appears to have been caught in the crossfire, Cookie felt his targets were the enemies of black folks’ pursuit of life and liberty.

So how is K-wood faring since its Jena-like racial explosion went public? They wrapped themselves up in the same denial coat as did most white folks in Jena. When I penned a column during the Kevin Johnson incident titled, “Time bomb in Meacham Park” I received a barrage of venomous messages by whites confused and angered that fingers were also pointing at them. There’s talk of beefing up security and surveillance. Now the media reports that what Cookie really said when he barged into City Hall was not “All we want is justice” but “Shoot the mayor”! Huh?

Some wonder out loud if Kirkwood police could have found young kidnapped Shawn Hornbeck if they weren’t so busy terrorizing Meacham Park. Michael Devlin, a child sexual predator had lived such a quiet life with Hornbeck since 2002 that he decided to kidnap another young boy in 2007. It was this kid’s classmate who identified the get-away truck that broke the case.

Yeah, Kirkwood has some big problems to deal with. They’ve had two black men respond to their respective conditions in a very specific way; these were no random acts of violence.

At Cookie’s funeral service, the church was brimming with people of all shades and hues, still in shock and definitely in pain. I can only hope that level-headed blacks and whites will come together, not for a group hug or an embrace of empty diversity, but to get to the ugly roots of racism and economic injustice that have festered for far too long. Kirkwood must make a place at the table for its black citizens where real power-sharing and decision-making happens. Only then can the healing begin.

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member Jamala Rogers is the leader of the Organization for Black Struggle in St. Louis and the Black Radical Congress National Organizer. Click here to contact Ms. Rogers.