CNN reports:
The Missouri State Highway Patrol “will be directing the team that provides security” in Ferguson, Gov. Jay Nixon said today.
Ferguson has “looked a little bit more like a war zone, and it’s not acceptable,” he said.
The town is a “powder keg,” the city’s Police Chief Thomas Jackson said, ahead of yet more
protests expected after the police shooting of African-American teenager Michael Brown.
The situation includes increasing ire from journalists about police efforts — including arrests — to prevent them from doing their jobs in Ferguson. I’m sympathetic. But I put an even higher priority on such matters as the police slaying of an unarmed teen; firing of rubber bullets and tear gas at people who’ve done nothing violent; suspension of public records law and constitution by order of police authorities; presuming citizens of a city are enemy combatants and deploying combat weapons against them. Journalists, of course, are vital players in making such things known.
The usual suspects are turning up to defend cops against “looters” and “rioters.” Check this female Methodist minister shot in stomach by rubber bullet. Some looter. She’d been holding her arms high and chanting “Jesus” and urging people to go home.