If you hadn’t noticed already, stuff in Ferguson, Missouri got pretty rugged for a second. The St. Louis suburb was in turmoil after the 8/9/14 police shooting of unarmed black teenager, Michael Brown Jr. Eyewitnesses, including Brown’s friend and a bystander, report that an officer struggled with Brown through the window of his police car and then shot the teen as he ran away. Witnesses said that after he was hit Brown turned, put his hands up and began to get down on the ground. The officer fired several more shots killing the young man.
Local police responded by claiming that Brown was at fault, refusing to identify the officer involved and by addressing peaceful vigils and demonstrations with a show of military style force. The public responded with protests and the police responded with more force. In recent days, police action has limited press coverage, with officers clearing locations used as press staging areas and even arresting some reporters. Here is a good timeline of the conflict.
The crisis developed quickly and traditional media coverage has been limited. One of the best sources of information has been twitter where the #ferguson hashtag has been going off:
On Thursday afternoon, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon ordered State Police to take over the security situation. Capt. Ronald S. Johnson was appointed to head up the operation and it looks like he immediately fixed it. As the New York Times reported:
Captain Johnson told reporters he had ordered troopers to remove their tear-gas masks, and in the early evening he accompanied several groups of protesters through the streets, clasping hands, listening to stories and marching alongside them.
On Thursday night, the armored vehicles and police cars were gone, and the atmosphere was celebratory.…Captain Johnson, who is African-American and grew up in the area, said: “We’re just starting today anew. We’re starting a new partnership today. We’re going to move forward today, to put yesterday and the day before behind us.”
Even if this brilliant change of tactic does end the crisis, the tensions that caused the situation to escalate will remain. As The Onion so cogently put it: Sometimes Unfortunate Things Happen In The Heat Of A 400-Year-Old Legacy Of Racism.
UPDATE: Ferguson Police held a press conference on the morning of 8/15/14. There they identified the officer involved in the shooting as Darren Wilson, an officer with 6 years on the job and no disciplinary record. The police released stills from a convenience store camera purporting to show Michael Brown robbing the store of a package of cigars. Police also distributed reports showing that Brown came to Officer Wilson’s attention as a suspect in the robbery.
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