…you were wrong.
Violence has erupted again. Reports at the moment are unclear, but a short time ago, Gawker put up this article:
Reporters on the scene in Ferguson say the protests erupted into chaos as police began firing tear gas at crowds of protestors Sunday night—well before the official curfew time was set to begin—hitting media and children in the abrupt offensive.
It’s not clear what sparked the sudden violent turn just after 10 pm on Sunday. The St. Louis Police Department posted on Twitter around the same time that molotov cocktails had been thrown at officers, but reporters on the scene described a peaceful protest. Sports Illustrated’sRobert Klemko—who was also briefly arrested Sunday night— suggested on Twitter that police may have been responding to a march past a southern barricade.
He also writes that police are claiming their command center was attacked.
Information has been revealed about the autopsy of Michael Brown:
A private autopsy conducted on Michael Brown shows the 18-year-old was shot at least six times in the head, torso and arm, the New York Times reports.
According to the autopsy, Brown was shot at least three times in the face. At least two of those shots “would have stopped him in his tracks and were likely the last fired.”
According to the New York Times, Dr. Michael M. Baden, the former chief medical examiner in New York, found a gunshot wound at the top of Brown’s skull “suggesting his head was bent forward when it struck him and caused a fatal injury.”
“This one here looks like his head was bent downward,” he explained to the Times. “It can be because he’s giving up, or because he’s charging forward at the officer.”
Baden—who conducted the autopsy at the family’s request and was not allowed to examine Brown’s clothing—said no gunpowder was found on Brown’s body, suggesting he was not shot at close range.
Baden told reporters Brown—who was not given medical attention—likely would not have survived the shooting
More Tweets coming out of Ferguson:
Police scanner eavesdroppers say cops requesting reinforcements from wherever they can get them.
Police just widened cordon outside
#ferguson, threatening to arrest anyone within a mile.
Cop just told photog to “back the fuck up or ill shot.”
Police pointed weapon and me and Capt Johnson has threatened me with arrest. He has called squad car. V jumpy
Windows broken at Public Storage, some protestors yelling at guy who did it
Just spoke with Capt Johnson. They’ve quarantined me and two other journos. Not allowed to view Florissant. “They tried to take the command”
Cops stopped us. We explained ourselves. They said to walk away. We said why. They said command center was attacked. I said no it wasn’t.
Capt Johnson said walk away or be arrested. I started walking away. They followed and arrested us.
When they cut cuffs off minutes later, I held onto it. Johnson tried to take it. I said “it’s a ferguson souvenir.”
Entire goal was to document police action towards protesters. Johnson wouldn’t let us enter a visibly secured area.
Here is Ferguson news as reported in Australia:
On the ground in Ferguson
For days now, this community has been see-sawing between a fairly festive atmosphere in the street … when you have this outpouring of love and support for the family of Mike Brown and then down at the scene of the actual shooting, you have a completely different feeling of grief and prayer and shock.
Around town, there is graffiti on the walls, things like “The only good cop is a dead cop”, so there is still a lot of anger but at the same time, that graffiti was actually painted over within a day, I suspect by the community itself.
Protesters themselves have stopped the looters, this is a community that has no faith left in the police officers but are effectively now policing themselves.
[But] we have certainly seen a heavy FBI presence at the scene. Agents wanting to interview witnesses for this investigation will run in tandem to the investigations of the local police. All of this is just a sign of the extremely bad state of the relationship between the police here and this community.
Every person you talk to here feels personally affected by what has happened, they are painfully aware that even though it is Mike Brown who bore the brunt of it this time, it could have just as easily been any one of them lying dead in the street, they say.
They say it is part
of the reality of being a black man in America, that you are targeted and that you are the subject of heavy-handed treatment in a way that they just don’t see white members of this community being treated.– US correspondent Jane Cowan
Here is Robert McCulloch saying that the level of force deployed by the police is not excessive:
The show of force by police in Ferguson was not excessive. That’s what St. Louis County’s top prosecutor is saying the morning after a night of calm in Ferguson.
Robert McCulloch spoke to Kay Quinn this morning, about the violence in Ferguson, and about his strong feelings after St. Louis County’s police chief was removed from heading up the security detail there.
McCulloch says St. Louis County Police Chief, Jon Belmar, already had plans to scale back the security operation in Ferguson on Thursday, when in his words, Missouri governor Jay Nixon pops into town and takes over.
“The problem I had with the governor’s action is the manner it came about,” says McCulloch.
He’s been St. Louis county prosecutor for 17 years, and he knows Missouri governor Jay Nixon well.
McCulloch is offended Nixon replaced County Police Chief Jon Belmar as the commander of the security detail in Ferguson without even telling Belmar first.
“That was what really annoyed me about the governor’s action yesterday, aside from the fact that there was absolutely no legal authority for him to do that,” says McCulloch.
He says Belmar and Johnson had been working closely on the security detail from the start of the violence, that that the two had already decided to scale back the operation Wednesday night, when the governor arrived.
“So to come into town and not to talk to, certainly didn’t talk to me, certainly didn’t talk to Chief Belmar, didn’t bother to ask what is going on, what happened last night, where does it go from here, who’s doing what, the sort of things you would expect somebody to ask,” says McCulloch.
We also asked him about the militarization of the police presence.
Quinn: “Was the police response excessive in Ferguson?”
Prosecutor McCulloch: “No, I don’t think it was excessive at all.”
He says there’s a big difference between a show of force and the use of force. He also said officers on the front lines did a professional job.
“The abuse that they took on that line was incredible,” McCulloch said. “The show of force, by the time Thursday got around, was certainly above,” McCulloch added, “even though it was a show of force, even that it was the same show of force that it was Monday morning. It was certainly more than was necessary by Wednesday.” says McCulloch.
“But then again nobody knows what to expect until it happens, and when you see what happens, you say we don’t need it, let’s get it out of here,” says McCulloch.
He says he’s pleased the situation in Ferguson is calm again, and well aware of the national conversation about the police response. McCulloch adds the fact that no one was seriously hurt in the days and nights right after the Brown shooting proves the approach was appropriate.
“I know people for blocks around were affected by the tear gas,” McCulloch said. “But no serious injuries to the protestors that were out there, to law enforcement to residents in the area, and I think that’s something that kind of gets lost in the shuffle here.”
“But the use of force, while they were doing it under the circumstances, I don’t think was excessive,” says McCulloch.
As for the release of the name of the Ferguson officer involved in Mike Brown shooting, McCulloch said there are legitimate arguments for both releasing and withholding it.
He says he’d rather the officer’s name be withheld, but he understands the decision to release it.
