Missouri Deploys the National Guard to Ferguson, MO
By MONICA DAVEY, JOHN ELIGON and ALAN BLINDERAUG
18, 2014
New York Times
FERGUSON, Mo. — Missouri National Guard troops entered this battered city on Monday even as an overnight curfew was lifted, the latest in a series of quickly shifting attempts to quell the violence that has upended this St. Louis suburb over 10 days.
In the days since an unarmed black teenager, Michael Brown, was shot to death by a white police officer here on Aug. 9, an array of state and local law enforcement authorities have swerved from one approach to another: taking to the streets in military-style vehicles and riot gear; then turning over power to a State Highway Patrol official who permitted the protests and marched along; then calling for a curfew.
Early Monday, after a new spate of violence, Gov. Jay Nixon said he was bringing in the National Guard. Hours later he said he was lifting the curfew and said the Guard would have only a limited role, protecting the police command post.
At the same time, more details emerged from autopsies performed on Mr. Brown. One showed that he had been shot at least six times; another found evidence of marijuana in his system.
In Washington, President Obama said Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. will go to Ferguson on Wednesday to meet with F.B.I. agents conducting a federal civil rights investigation into the shooting.
He seemed less than enthusiastic about the decision to call in the National Guard.
Mr. Obama said he had told the governor in a phone call on Monday that the Guard should be “used in a limited and appropriate way.”
He said he would be closely monitoring the deployment.
“I’ll be watching over the next several days to assess whether in fact it’s helping rather than hindering progress in Ferguson,” said Mr. Obama, who emphasized that the State of Missouri, not the White House, had called in the Guard.
He again tried to strike a balance between the right of protest and approaches to security.
“While I understand the passions and the anger that arise over the death of Michael Brown, giving in to that anger by looting or carrying guns and even attacking the police only serves to raise tensions,” Mr. Obama said.
As darkness set in, along West Florissant Avenue, one of the city’s main thoroughfares and a center of the weeklong protests, scores of people marched peacefully, carrying signs and chanting. Protesters were required to keep moving, and they complied, with crowds growing as the evening wore on.
A few blocks away, at the police command post, National Guard members, dressed in Army fatigues, some with military police patches on their uniforms, began rolling up in white buses and military vehicles around 6 p.m.
Residents seemed puzzled and frustrated by the continually changing approaches, suggesting that the moving set of rules served only to worsen longstanding tensions over policing and race.
“It almost seems like they can’t decide what to do, and like law enforcement is fighting over who’s got the power,” said Antione Watson, 37, who stood near a middle-of-the-street memorial of candles and flowers for Mr. Brown, the 18-year-old killed on a winding block here.
“First they do this, then there’s that, and now who can even tell what their plan is?” Mr. Watson said. “They can try all of this, but I don’t see an end to this until there are charges against the cop.”The latest turn in law enforcement tactics — the removal of a midnight-to-5 a.m. curfew imposed Saturday and the arrival of members of the Guard — followed one of the tensest nights so far. Police officers reported gunfire and firebombs from some among a large group, and responded with tear gas, smoke canisters and rubber bullets.
By Monday, the police seemed intent on taking control of the situation long before evening and the expected arrival of protesters, some of them inclined to provoke clashes. The authorities banned stationary protests, even during the day, ordering demonstrators to continue walking, particularly in an area along West Florissant, not far from where the shooting occurred. One of those told to move along was the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson.
Six members of the Highway Patrol, plastic flex-ties within easy reach, stood guard at a barbecue restaurant that has been a hub of the turmoil. Just north of the restaurant, about 30 officers surrounded a convenience store that was heavily damaged early in the unrest. Several people were arrested during the day, including a photographer for Getty Images, Scott Olson, who was led away in plastic handcuffs in the early evening.
Explaining his decision to call in the National Guard, Mr. Nixon recounted details of the tumult on Sunday night, and described the events as “very difficult and dangerous as a result of a violent criminal element intent upon terrorizing the community.”
Yet Mr. Nixon also emphasized that the Guard’s role would be limited to providing protection for a police command center here, which the authorities say came under attack. Gregory Mason, a brigadier general of the Guard, described the arriving troops as “well trained and well seasoned.”
“With these additional resources in place,” said Mr. Nixon, a Democrat in his second term, “the Missouri State Highway Patrol and local law enforcement will continue to respond appropriately to incidents of lawlessness and violence, and protect the civil rights of all peaceful citizens to make their voices heard.”
While Mr. Obama and other leaders called for healing and more than 40 F.B.I. agents fanned out around this city to interview residents about the shooting, emotions remained raw, and the divide over all that had happened seemed only to be growing amid multiple investigations and competing demonstrations.
A recent survey by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press showed that Americans were deeply divided along racial lines in their reaction to Mr. Brown’s killing. The report showed that 80 percent of blacks thought the case raised “important issues about race that need to be discussed,” while only 37 percent of whites thought it did.
Blacks surveyed were also less confident in the investigations into the shooting, with 76 percent reporting little to no confidence in the investigation, compared with 33 percent of whites.
Supporters of Darren Wilson, the Ferguson police officer who fired the fatal shots, gathered outside a radio station over the weekend in St. Louis, as other groups continued to walk the streets of Ferguson, a city of about 21,000, holding their hands up, an allusion to Mr. Brown, who was unarmed when shot.
Mr. Brown is now the subject of three autopsies. The first was conducted by St. Louis County, the results of which were delivered to the county prosecutor’s office on Monday. That autopsy report showed evidence of marijuana in Mr. Brown’s system, according to someone briefed on the report who was not authorized to discuss it publicly before it was released.
Another, on Monday, was done by a military doctor as part of the Justice Department’s investigation.
On Sunday, at the request of Mr. Brown’s family, the body was examined by Dr. Michael Baden, a former New York City medical examiner.
The findings showed that he was shot at least six times in the front of his body and that he did not appear to have been shot from very close range because no powder burns were found on his body. But that determination could change if burns were found on his clothing, which was not available for examination.
In a news conference on Monday, family members and Dr. Baden said that the autopsy he had performed confirmed witness accounts that Mr. Brown was trying to surrender when he was killed.
Daryl Parks, a lawyer for the family, said the autopsy proved that the officer should have been arrested. The bullet that killed Mr. Brown entered the top of his head and came out through the front at an angle that suggested he was facing downward when he was killed, Mr. Parks said. What the autopsy did not show was what Mr. Brown was doing when he was struck in the head.
“Why would he be shot in the very top of his head, a 6-foot-4 man?” Mr. Parkssaid. “It makes no sense. And so that’s what we have. That’s why we believe that those two things alone are ample for this officer to be arrested.”
Piaget Crenshaw, who told reporters that she had witnessed Mr. Brown’s death from her nearby apartment, seemed unsurprised by the eruptions of anger, which have left schools closed and some businesses looted. “This community had underlying problems way before this happened,” Ms. Crenshaw said. “And now the tension is finally broken.”
For businesses here, the days and long nights have been costly and frightening. At Dellena Jones’s hair salon, demonstrators had tossed concrete slabs into the business as Ms. Jones’s two children prepared for what they had expected to be a first day back to school.
“I had a full week that went down to really nothing,” she said of her business, which has sat mostly empty. “They’re too scared to come.” As she spoke, a man walked by and shouted, “You need a gun in there, lady!”
In his news conference, Mr. Obama said that most of the protests rs had been peaceful. “As Americans, we’ve got to use this moment to seek out our shared humanity that’s been laid bare by this moment,” Mr. Obama said.
Frances Robles and Tanzina Vega contributed reporting from Ferguson, and Julie Hirschfeld Davis from Washington.
 |
| Demonstrators being gassed in Ferguson. |
18, 2014
New York Times
FERGUSON, Mo. — Missouri National Guard troops entered this battered city on Monday even as an overnight curfew was lifted, the latest in a series of quickly shifting attempts to quell the violence that has upended this St. Louis suburb over 10 days.
In the days since an unarmed black teenager, Michael Brown, was shot to death by a white police officer here on Aug. 9, an array of state and local law enforcement authorities have swerved from one approach to another: taking to the streets in military-style vehicles and riot gear; then turning over power to a State Highway Patrol official who permitted the protests and marched along; then calling for a curfew.
Early Monday, after a new spate of violence, Gov. Jay Nixon said he was bringing in the National Guard. Hours later he said he was lifting the curfew and said the Guard would have only a limited role, protecting the police command post.
At the same time, more details emerged from autopsies performed on Mr. Brown. One showed that he had been shot at least six times; another found evidence of marijuana in his system.
In Washington, President Obama said Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. will go to Ferguson on Wednesday to meet with F.B.I. agents conducting a federal civil rights investigation into the shooting.
He seemed less than enthusiastic about the decision to call in the National Guard.
Mr. Obama said he had told the governor in a phone call on Monday that the Guard should be “used in a limited and appropriate way.”
He said he would be closely monitoring the deployment.
“I’ll be watching over the next several days to assess whether in fact it’s helping rather than hindering progress in Ferguson,” said Mr. Obama, who emphasized that the State of Missouri, not the White House, had called in the Guard.
He again tried to strike a balance between the right of protest and approaches to security.
“While I understand the passions and the anger that arise over the death of Michael Brown, giving in to that anger by looting or carrying guns and even attacking the police only serves to raise tensions,” Mr. Obama said.
As darkness set in, along West Florissant Avenue, one of the city’s main thoroughfares and a center of the weeklong protests, scores of people marched peacefully, carrying signs and chanting. Protesters were required to keep moving, and they complied, with crowds growing as the evening wore on.
A few blocks away, at the police command post, National Guard members, dressed in Army fatigues, some with military police patches on their uniforms, began rolling up in white buses and military vehicles around 6 p.m.
Residents seemed puzzled and frustrated by the continually changing approaches, suggesting that the moving set of rules served only to worsen longstanding tensions over policing and race.
“It almost seems like they can’t decide what to do, and like law enforcement is fighting over who’s got the power,” said Antione Watson, 37, who stood near a middle-of-the-street memorial of candles and flowers for Mr. Brown, the 18-year-old killed on a winding block here.
“First they do this, then there’s that, and now who can even tell what their plan is?” Mr. Watson said. “They can try all of this, but I don’t see an end to this until there are charges against the cop.”The latest turn in law enforcement tactics — the removal of a midnight-to-5 a.m. curfew imposed Saturday and the arrival of members of the Guard — followed one of the tensest nights so far. Police officers reported gunfire and firebombs from some among a large group, and responded with tear gas, smoke canisters and rubber bullets.
By Monday, the police seemed intent on taking control of the situation long before evening and the expected arrival of protesters, some of them inclined to provoke clashes. The authorities banned stationary protests, even during the day, ordering demonstrators to continue walking, particularly in an area along West Florissant, not far from where the shooting occurred. One of those told to move along was the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson.
Six members of the Highway Patrol, plastic flex-ties within easy reach, stood guard at a barbecue restaurant that has been a hub of the turmoil. Just north of the restaurant, about 30 officers surrounded a convenience store that was heavily damaged early in the unrest. Several people were arrested during the day, including a photographer for Getty Images, Scott Olson, who was led away in plastic handcuffs in the early evening.
Explaining his decision to call in the National Guard, Mr. Nixon recounted details of the tumult on Sunday night, and described the events as “very difficult and dangerous as a result of a violent criminal element intent upon terrorizing the community.”
Yet Mr. Nixon also emphasized that the Guard’s role would be limited to providing protection for a police command center here, which the authorities say came under attack. Gregory Mason, a brigadier general of the Guard, described the arriving troops as “well trained and well seasoned.”
“With these additional resources in place,” said Mr. Nixon, a Democrat in his second term, “the Missouri State Highway Patrol and local law enforcement will continue to respond appropriately to incidents of lawlessness and violence, and protect the civil rights of all peaceful citizens to make their voices heard.”
While Mr. Obama and other leaders called for healing and more than 40 F.B.I. agents fanned out around this city to interview residents about the shooting, emotions remained raw, and the divide over all that had happened seemed only to be growing amid multiple investigations and competing demonstrations.
A recent survey by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press showed that Americans were deeply divided along racial lines in their reaction to Mr. Brown’s killing. The report showed that 80 percent of blacks thought the case raised “important issues about race that need to be discussed,” while only 37 percent of whites thought it did.
Blacks surveyed were also less confident in the investigations into the shooting, with 76 percent reporting little to no confidence in the investigation, compared with 33 percent of whites.
Supporters of Darren Wilson, the Ferguson police officer who fired the fatal shots, gathered outside a radio station over the weekend in St. Louis, as other groups continued to walk the streets of Ferguson, a city of about 21,000, holding their hands up, an allusion to Mr. Brown, who was unarmed when shot.
Mr. Brown is now the subject of three autopsies. The first was conducted by St. Louis County, the results of which were delivered to the county prosecutor’s office on Monday. That autopsy report showed evidence of marijuana in Mr. Brown’s system, according to someone briefed on the report who was not authorized to discuss it publicly before it was released.
Another, on Monday, was done by a military doctor as part of the Justice Department’s investigation.
On Sunday, at the request of Mr. Brown’s family, the body was examined by Dr. Michael Baden, a former New York City medical examiner.
The findings showed that he was shot at least six times in the front of his body and that he did not appear to have been shot from very close range because no powder burns were found on his body. But that determination could change if burns were found on his clothing, which was not available for examination.
In a news conference on Monday, family members and Dr. Baden said that the autopsy he had performed confirmed witness accounts that Mr. Brown was trying to surrender when he was killed.
Daryl Parks, a lawyer for the family, said the autopsy proved that the officer should have been arrested. The bullet that killed Mr. Brown entered the top of his head and came out through the front at an angle that suggested he was facing downward when he was killed, Mr. Parks said. What the autopsy did not show was what Mr. Brown was doing when he was struck in the head.
“Why would he be shot in the very top of his head, a 6-foot-4 man?” Mr. Parkssaid. “It makes no sense. And so that’s what we have. That’s why we believe that those two things alone are ample for this officer to be arrested.”
Piaget Crenshaw, who told reporters that she had witnessed Mr. Brown’s death from her nearby apartment, seemed unsurprised by the eruptions of anger, which have left schools closed and some businesses looted. “This community had underlying problems way before this happened,” Ms. Crenshaw said. “And now the tension is finally broken.”
For businesses here, the days and long nights have been costly and frightening. At Dellena Jones’s hair salon, demonstrators had tossed concrete slabs into the business as Ms. Jones’s two children prepared for what they had expected to be a first day back to school.
“I had a full week that went down to really nothing,” she said of her business, which has sat mostly empty. “They’re too scared to come.” As she spoke, a man walked by and shouted, “You need a gun in there, lady!”
In his news conference, Mr. Obama said that most of the protests rs had been peaceful. “As Americans, we’ve got to use this moment to seek out our shared humanity that’s been laid bare by this moment,” Mr. Obama said.
Frances Robles and Tanzina Vega contributed reporting from Ferguson, and Julie Hirschfeld Davis from Washington.
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