IMHO the police are holding back so that the locals can appreciate what they’re missing. The locals are ready to go back to normal but the thugs from east St. Louis are still coming in by the truck loads.
That’s what I’d be doing if I were the police - ‘here is the alternative you are wanting?” Now they are whining that the police did nothing. Perhaps they want them to talk nicely to rioters and looters.
If my business had a rented building, I’d be outta there. The whole country is looking on. This is going to make a lot more people—mostly not black people—hunker down and build gates. If the police get shut down over something like this, and the MOB takes over, people are not going to open a business in a predominately black area.