Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon announced today that he is relieving St. Louis County law enforcement from policing the ongoing protests in the town of Ferguson, Missouri, placing the Highway Patrol in charge instead.
“We’ve all been deeply troubled by this crisis,” Nixon said, adding that the current crisis unfolding in the state “is not what Missouri is about.” He stated that Ferguson looks “like a war zone” lately, and added, “We need to rebuilt the trust that’s been lost” in the wake of Brown’s death and the use of police force on demonstrators.
The highly militarized police used rubber bullets, pepper spray, tear gas and sonic weapons even on peaceful protesters. They also went so far as to rough up and arrested 2 reporters, shoot another with rubber bullets, gas yet other press and confiscate cameras.
Nixon added that the Highway Patrol’s involvement will not affect the responsibility of those involved in conducting investigations into the killing of Brown and the protests that have taken place since his death. He confirmed that the Department of Justice is conducting a parallel investigation.
Nixon also touched on the controversy surrounding police refusal to identify the officer involved in Brown’s death. In response to a question at the press conference, Nixon said the official’s name should be released as “expeditiously as possible.”
Previously, Rep Wm. Lacy Clay (D-Mo.) told Bloomberg News on Thursday morning that Gov. Jay Nixon, also a Democrat, had confirmed to him that county police will be pulled from their duties in Ferguson.
On Wednesday evening, protests in Ferguson for the fourth straight day appeared to resemble a war zone when militarized police began firing tear gas and non-lethal ammunition into the streets towards private residences. Two journalists, one from Washington Post and another from Huffington Post, were briefly detained while on assignment.
“The gov. just called me and he’s on his way to St. Louis now to announce he’s taking St. Louis County police out of the situation,” Rep. Clay told Derek Wallbank, a reporter for Bloomberg, early Thursday.
Earlier that afternoon, US President Barack Obama said during a press conference that he has spoken with Gov. Nixon and Attorney General Eric Holder, and had instructed federal officials to do everything they could to investigate Brown’s death and keep the situation in Ferguson calm. According to NewsChannel 5, the Justice Department will also be spending special prosecutors to Ferguson to assist in the investigation.
Source: rt.com
Photo: AFP Photo / Getty Images / Scott Olson
Give a poplice department Swat team material, and it goes to their head…
Police State.
body cams for all cops, reigning in the corrupted asset forfeiture machine and independent investigative oversight of police are all good ideas to preserve the hard fought freedoms we want to keep.
they haven’t even needed to declare martial law in ferguson…..It’s there
Obama is smiling. This is just what he wants. It’s beginning to feel like communism in this country.
Needs to send someone in with the balls and backbone to put the criminals looting and burning in jail. If they resist-shoot them also. America is tired of the Blacks being able to act this way at will, and the Whites have to pay for the legal, and financial issues afterwards. Aren’t you tired of this type of action after an incident, from any race?
The problem is cops know they can kill someone and the worst that can happen to them is they can lose thrir job wich 99% dont. They receive a paid vaction untill it blows over. Untill they are held to a higher standard and charged like the rest of society to the crimes they committed than it will never stop.
He was a punk, a thief and a bully. I am sure that the cop was just defending himself.
Its 100% illegal what the police are doing regardless of what he did or didnt do. Nothing but Zorg baby’s regardless of color or religion. You will all live life as puppets Muslim Christian or anyone that feeds hate & feels the need to indulge in these falls wars. Its not just ethnic ppl being gased & shot in this its everyone.
Calmer minds are going to be here.