Ferguson, Mo., Is Destroying Public Faith in Government

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Ferguson, Mo., Is Destroying Public Faith in Government

Well to be fair, this is how modern American police forces operate. We shouldn’t have any faith in them to protect anyone but themselves.

The astonishing absence of oversight from government officials as the local police, armed to the teeth, have effectively laid siege to local protesters, shooting them with rubber bullets and tear gas, arresting reporters, and inflaming the situation in a way that seems likely to lead to more violence.

What I Saw in Ferguson

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What I Saw in Ferguson

Inside of a week, two black teen-agers have been shot by police and, in both instances, the bureaucratic default setting has favored law enforcement, fuelling a perception that the department is either inept or beholden to a certain nonchalance about the possibility of police brutality.

…When I spoke to Umana and Malik Ahmed, the C.E.O. of Better Family Life, they acknowledged that the anonymity of the officer may have something to do with the death threats, but said that it also would make it easier for the department to avoid scrutiny until an official narrative has been crafted. “Nobody out here believes that young man actually went for the officer’s gun,” Ahmed told me.

Although the following scenes sound like they are describing some place we are at with, this is the United States. Well, perhaps a better way to say it is that this is the United States where our domestic military is at war with the citizens they gold dominion over.

 

…Late in the afternoon on Wednesday, the armored vehicles rolled into place just beyond the charred shell of the QuikTrip gas station that was burned on the first night of protests. Police, some outfitted in riot gear, others in military fatigues, barricaded the streets. At least one of them draped a black bandana over his face; others covered their badges.

…Police stopped anyone but residents from entering, but the tear-gas also prevented the people who were already there from getting out. Umana invited me into his home; outside, clusters of protesters and journalists wandered the side streets, hemmed in for hours. One homeowner walked out of his house to find a spent flash grenade on his lawn. An armored truck rolled down the street, a flume of tear gas issuing from the back.

“didn’t know any better.”

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Reporters arrested in Ferguson

The Ferguson police chief was reportedly alerted to their arrests by Matt Pearce, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times. Pearce tweeted that when he informed the police chief of the reporters’ arrest, the chief answered “Oh God” and said the riot police were from St. Louis County and likely “didn’t know any better.”

It cannot go without saying, any officer of the law should have “known better.” 
..and who is in charge here? No one interested in protecting anything except the police department.

“He would not tell me what I was under arrest for…he was in complete SWAT gear,” Reilly continued. “The most frustrating thing…I repeatedly asked over a dozen times for his name or ID number was never given it… The worst part was he slammed my head against the glass purposely on the way out of the McDonalds then sarcastically apologized for it.”

“It was just a terrible experience,” he continued. “I recognize I’m in sort of a place of privilege here both as a journalist and as a white person frankly, in that evidently the police chief made the decision to not hold us. … The mentality of the officers was extremely disturbing. They essentially acted as a military force.”

Which, in essence, they have become. One whose sole enemy is citizens of the United States.

Michael Brown shooting: Anger at crackdown on protests

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Michael Brown shooting: Anger at crackdown on protests

“The only reason we’re out is because of the fact that we are reporters,” Reilly said. “If they treated a white reporter who was working on his laptop that way, I can’t imagine how terribly they’re treating other people.”

Lowery later tweeted: “Apparently, in America, in 2014, police can manhandle you, take you into custody, put you in cell & then open the door like it didn’t happen.”

yup.