As sad and disturbing as the death and possible murder of Michael Brown by a police officer in Ferguson , Missouri may have been what I witnessed last night was perhaps even more disturbing. It can really only be described as a police riot. Police response to the primarily peaceful protest is only pouring gasoline on the fire. I watched the coverage from Ferguson for about and hour and a half last night and it was shocking, it looked more like scenes I would expect to see from Egypt not from a small town in Missouri. [icopyright one button toolbar] These images will be viewed all around the world and will probably do more to damage US credibility than even anything George W Bush did. Notably absent these last few days have been elected officials form both Ferguson and State of Missouri. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has a great editorial:
When the independent investigation deconstructs the Ferguson incident, as it must, it should explore the history and conditions that may have helped precipitate Saturday’s shooting and the subsequent public protests. That includes racial segregation. That includes the training and qualifications of Ferguson police officers. It includes command-and-control decisions by the Ferguson and St. Louis County police forces and the Missouri Highway Patrol.
One big problem with convening such an investigative panel is that it’s not clear who has jurisdiction. The same problem plagues the entire response in Ferguson: Who has command authority? Who is accountable for the decisions that are being made?The fragmentation may be deliberate; it certainly mirrors the fragmentation that is the bane of the entire region. But the first rule of restoring public confidence is to earn it. Someone must step forward and take responsibility — both for the law enforcement effort that’s currently underway and then for the investigation that must follow.
It will have to be Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, a man whose every instinct is to dodge bad news whenever possible. Sorry, governor. But you asked for the job.
The elected politicians in Missouri have for the most part tried to stay out of this. So its seems unlikely the the spineless Democratic Governor, Jay Nixon, will do anything so the DOJ must step in and investigate the police departments of both Ferguson and St. Louis county. Their actions are not only wrong but damaging to the entire country.