T H E N O . 1 S T. L O U I S W E B S I T E A N D N E W S P A P E R
Friday • 08.15.2014 • $1.50
President Obama
Sen. McCaskill
Gov. Nixon
There’s ‘no excuse for police to use excessive force against peaceful protests ...’
‘This kind of response by the police has become the problem instead of the solution.’
‘We must also safeguard the rights of Missourians to peaceably assemble ...’
a unifying force? amid backlash, nixon puts patrol in charge in ferguson county prosecutor blasts move • hundreds gather peacefully under change of tactics
J.B. Forbes • jforbes@post-dispatch.com
Many people drove down West Florissant Avenue in Ferguson on Thursday, honking their horns, raising their arms and holding signs. No violence was reported.
COMMANDER promises ‘different approach’
McClellan: We’re fine here, for now • A17 Merchants move forward Business • B1
By Kevin McDermott kmcdermott@post-dispatch.com > 314-340-8268
Facing a withering national judgment that a community in his state had come to look like “a war zone,” Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon ordered on Thursday that the Missouri Highway Patrol take over security of Ferguson from St. Louis County police and vowed “a different tone” to that police presence. “What’s gone on here over the last few days is not what Missouri’s about, it’s not what Ferguson’s about,” said Nixon, referring to imagery of tear gas, police in body armor, automatic weapons pointed at unarmed civilians and questionable arrests. “(It’s) a Missouri community, but lately it’s looked a little bit more like a war zone, and that’s See Brown • Page A10
TODAY
87°/70°
State of change
PARTLY SUNNY
TOMORROW
88°/73° CHANCE OF RAIN
Weather A22
A new sheriff in town Editorial • A18
Meet Ronald S. Johnson At war in the suburbs
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Twitter boots Anonymous French in the spotlight Full coverage Live updates
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• STLtoday.com
lines blurring between military and police gear
Police MISSTEPS AFTER shooting Fueled the crisis
By Robert Patrick and Joel Currier Post-Dispatch
By Jeremy Kohler jkohler@post-dispatch.com 314-340-8337
FERGUSON • The focus on continuing protests here turned Thursday toward paramilitary tactics and equipment that critics — even among some law enforcement leaders — say have provoked violence from the crowds. Calls for St. Louis County and Ferguson police to “demilitarize” the response ranged from people
Deluged with questions and outrage after the killing of an unarmed teen by police in Ferguson, authorities at times seemed to get nothing right. First there were statements by the St. Louis County police chief, whose agency was called in for an independent investigation, that seemed to reflexively take the side of the Ferguson
See Gear • Page A8
See Tactics • Page A8
Queen of summer
Iraqi prime minister resigns
Katy Perry anthems have ruled airwaves.
Dispute over Ukraine aid convoy
GO! magazine
Cards beat the Padres, 4-3
Liberia gets Ebola drug
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2 M Vol. 136, No. 227 ©2014
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08.15.2014 • FRIDAY • M 2
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH • A7
FERGUSON POLICE SHOOTING
SCENES OF THE DAY EVENTS FOLLOWING THE SHOOTING OF MICHAEL BROWN Ha lls rry Fe
Florissant Valley Community College
Party City looted
Walmart looted
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SATURDAY AFTERNOON Michael Brown, 18, was shot and killed 367 by a Ferguson police officer.
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TUESDAY NIGHT The Rev. Al Sharpton spoke at Greater St. Mark Church.
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THROUGH THE WEEK Protesters gather outside the Ferguson police station.
Lambert International Airport
TUESDAY NIGHT 19-year-old was shot and wounded by a St. Louis County police officer.
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TWO INJURIES REPORTED WEDNESDAY Christian Hospital treated a 23-year-old man for injuries related to rubber bullets Wednesday evening following the demonstrations in Ferguson, said hospital spokesman Bret Berigan. The
Lewis and Clark
ST. LOUIS COUNTY
SUNDAY AFTERNOON Police established a command center in a Target store parking lot.
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“Today we call upon the Department of Justice to undertake a comprehensive federal review of each instance of excessive police violence against African-Americans,” Ifill said. “All involved officers and other public servants must be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.” (Nancy Cambria)
CLAY CALLS BROWN’S DEATH ‘MURDER’ Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-St. Louis, said Thursday that he considers Michael Brown’s death a murder. “Here is why I call it a murder,” Clay said in a telephone interview with the Post-Dispatch. “You have an 18-year-old young man, known as a gentle giant, who did not have a weapon on him, was not armed at all, and he is walking home and happens to be killed, and you have a cop unload a weapon into this young man. If that is not a murder, you tell me what is.” Brown died after being shot by a police officer, but authorities Thursday afternoon had not yet released many details about their investigation, including the name of the officer. In the interview, Clay said that the St. Louis area is now synonymous with “racial discord” to the rest of the world. (Chuck Raasch)
SUNDAY EVENING After a vigil at the site of Brown’s shooting, violence and looting spread to these general areas.
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The family of Michael Brown joined hundreds of other people at a peaceful vigil against police brutality Thursday evening near the Arch. The vigil began with a moment of silence at 6:20 p.m. It was one of several National Moments of Silence for Victims of Police Brutality replicated at the same time at other cities across the country. “We wanted to come to the heart of the city under the Arch and be part of a peaceful demonstration,” said Eric Davis, a first cousin who spoke on behalf of the family. Davis said that Michael Brown was always peaceful. The family, he added, dismissed reports that Brown confronted a Ferguson police officer prior to the shooting that led to the 18-year-old’s death last Saturday. “Michael was a fun and gentle soul,” Davis said. The national moment of silence was inspired by a New York woman. Chloe Angelique Ward, the main organizer in St. Louis, sent out notice of the event on Twitter and Facebook. At the vigil, the racially and ethnically diverse crowd chanted, “Hands Up! Don’t Shoot.” (Margaret Gillerman)
Luc asHu nt
VIGIL AT THE ARCH
SHARPTON BACK SUNDAY
CHRISTIAN GOODEN • cgooden@post-dispatch.com
Jay Mitchell of Pagedale speaks and solicits a show of hands from a crowd of several hundred at the Old Courthouse downtown on Thursday during a vigil and moment of silence for Michael Brown.
patient was released shortly after treatment. Police also reported that an officer suffered an injured ankle when a brick was thrown at him. Twelve arrests were reported. (From staff reports)
NAACP DEMANDS ACTION The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. called on Attorney General Eric Holder Thursday morning to take immediate action to address the unjustified use of lethal and ex-
cessive force against unarmed African-Americans by police forces throughout the country. “The recent killings of Eric Garner, Michael Brown, and Ezell Ford, like the killings and beatings of other unarmed African-Americans by police officers, are unconscionable,” said Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. “The depravity demonstrated by law enforcement in these recent events must be met with immediate reform.
Civil rights leader the Rev. Al Sharpton of the National Action Network is heading back to St. Louis to lead a rally in support of Michael Brown. Brown’s parents; attorney Benjamin Crump, the family’s lawyer; and Martin Luther King III are all expected to speak at the event. The rally is scheduled for 3 p.m. Sunday at Greater Grace Church in Ferguson. Sharpton spoke at that same church earlier in the week, drawing more than 1,000 supporters. (From staff reports)
ACLU SUES ST. LOUIS COUNTY The American Civil Liberties Union sued St. Louis County and the county police Thursday morning to obtain copies of initial police reports surrounding the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by Ferguson police. The ACLU filed the lawsuit in
PROTESTS PUT FRENCH IN THE SPOTLIGHT BY DAVID HUNN dhunn@post-dispatch.com 314-340-8121
LIBERTARIAN PARTY SAYS POLICE SHOULD STAND DOWN IN FERGUSON The National Libertarian Party said in a statement that America’s war on drugs is frequently used to justify police who accost minorities engaged in peaceful behavior. “This may have been what precipitated the killing of 18-yearold Michael Brown over the weekend, leading to riots and another shooting on Wednesday,” the statement said. “Although all the facts of this case are not yet known, the War on Drugs can be blamed for breeding the tension and resentment that has led to the dangerous rioting we now see in Ferguson.” (From staff reports)
UNREST IN FERGUSON HURTS BUSINESSES Sales are off by $6,000 this week at the Papa John’s Pizza on West Florissant, in Dellwood, four blocks from the burned-out QuikTrip in Ferguson, said a store manager, who halted late-night deliveries this week because of the unrest in the area. “I think that drivers are scared because it’s just crazy,” said the manager, who declined to be identified. Papa John’s normally delivers pizzas until midnight but has closed five hours early each night this week. (Tim Bryant)
TREATMENT OF JOURNALISTS CONDEMNED The American Society of News Editors, based in Columbia, Mo., released a statement Thursday morning on the arrests of the two journalists and the police handling of events in Ferguson last night. “From police physically assaulting citizens engaged in peaceful protest to arresting without cause reporters from the Washington Post and the Huffington Post, it is clear that there is a concerted, top-down effort to restrict the fundamental First Amendment rights of the public and the press,” the release said. (Nancy Cambria)
TWITTER SUSPENDS ‘ANONYMOUS’ ACCOUNT BY DAVID HUNN dhunn@post-dispatch.com > 314-340-8121
F E R G U S O N • Just after dark
Wednesday night, Antonio French posted a video to the Internet. The St. Louis alderman was inside his car, at the protests here. White light filled the windshield. A line of police stood outside the door. “Happening now in #Ferguson,” he wrote on Twitter. French’s followers on the social media site — about 30,000 then subscribed to his feed — applauded the post. “this is awesome,” wrote one. “they gonna find you bro.” It was French’s 220th posting of the day, and one of hundreds from him this week. Then his feed went silent. For 15 hours. Finally, just after noon on Thursday, he posted again: “After a night in the #Ferguson jail, I’m free. Thank you for all the support.” And, overnight, his Twitter followers doubled, to more than 60,000. There have been few more visible figures during this week of protests and riots — on the streets of Ferguson, on 24-hour news channels, on social media and on the pages of the Washington Post and New York Times. His photographs, 10-second video clips and live-news-style text updates have shown residents in the streets, tear gas canisters flying and line after line of police moving in. In one sense, his messages have been straightforward news briefs, such as this tweet from Wednesday evening: “Snipers rifles aimed at unarmed American citizens right now in St. Louis, MO.” But in another sense, each has lifted French’s own public image, from city politician and passionate advocate for north St. Louis, to a national voice against the militarization of police. “I don’t think there’s any political agenda moving him,” said state Sen. Jamilah Nasheed, D-St. Louis. “Antonio, he’s a different kind of guy.” French, 36, started in politics early.
St. Louis County Circuit Court after their open records request for the initial incident report of the shooting was rejected by police Wednesday, the suit says. Also Thursday, the ACLU filed a separate federal lawsuit against St. Louis County, Ferguson and Highway Patrol Superintendent Ronald Replogle, seeking to bar them from trying to prevent the news media and public from recording law enforcement actions. (Robert Patrick)
J.B. FORBES • jforbes@post-dispatch.com
Antonio French photographs the Rev. Al Sharpton as Sharpton addresses reporters at the Old Courthouse on Tuesday.
His grandmother, who raised him and sent him to Catholic high school, was Democratic committeewoman in his north city ward, the 21st, at a time when party committees ran politics. French ran for school board when he was 25, and lost. He ran a politically active newspaper, the Public Defender, and then a blog, Pub Def, which railed against state control of the local school board, among other issues. In 2008, he ran for committeeman, and won, then for city alderman, and won again. He was re-elected in 2013 with more than 80 percent of the vote. He’s had some black eyes — most notably a couple of run-ins with the state ethics commission for campaign finance violations. But they haven’t stopped him from building a reputation in City Hall as a fearless gadfly of the establishment, especially four-term Mayor Francis Slay. His arrest especially, said Nasheed, is a political stepping stone. “Antonio, now he has a badge of honor,” she said. “He’s a true activist.” French said he drove up West Florissant Avenue on Saturday afternoon puzzled by the story he was reading on social media then — that
a mob had gathered following the police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown. What he found was a community mourning. And a line of police officers. “It was just a crazy scene,” he said. “I just started taking pictures. And I’ve been there ever since.” He calls his tweets “advocacy journalism.” Wednesday night, just before his arrest, he directed a post picturing an armored police truck and officers in riot gear at St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley. “Please de-escalate now,” he begged Dooley. Thursday morning, when he got out of jail — still uncertain why he was ever held — he discussed his arrest with typical calm: “People are being tear gassed and snipers are pointing rifles at them when they’re peacefully assembling.” After the interview ended, the tape kept rolling. “Could this go into a run for mayor in the future?” one reporter asked. French hesitated, stammered, then chuckled. “I just want to get through the week. “The place I think needs a new mayor,” he continued, “is Ferguson.”
Twitter suspended an account associated with the hacker group Anonymous Thursday after the account published the name of the person it said was the officer who shot and killed Michael Brown. Police and the Ferguson mayor both said the name Anonymous released was wrong. The person tweeting under the handle @TheAnonMessage confirmed via email that the account was suspended, “for practicing free speech,” the person wrote. He also said he would immediately begin using a secondary Twitter account, @TheAnonMessage2. However, TheAnonMessage2 has been relatively inactive. Just after noon Thursday, the account posted a note saying it would suspend future document releases “until further notice.” Two different Anonymous operatives also confirmed via email that Anonymous was responsible for the St. Louis County Web crash Thursday morning. St. Louis County government websites have been down since Wednesday. Police say they are aware of the problem but don’t know the extent of it. The St. Louis County government website, the police website, parks and revenue are among those that weren’t coming up Thursday morning. A county source says they have limited access to external email and the Internet. A woman at the county executive’s office said she was able to access the website internally Thursday morning after 8 a.m. A parks employee said they were working on the problem and that “sometimes they’re up and sometimes they’re down.” In the hours after Michael Brown, 18, was shot and killed by a Ferguson police officer on Saturday, the group Anonymous urged residents to hit the streets. Ferguson’s city website went dark Tuesday morning, and the phones died. Anonymous also started releasing information about police officers. And the hackers vowed retribution if police harmed protesters. “We are watching you very closely,” Anonymous’ distinctive electronic voice rasped in a video posted Monday on Twitter. “If you abuse, harass or harm the protesters in Ferguson, we will take every Webbased asset of your departments and federal agencies offline.” Kim Bell, Joel Currier and Steve Giegerich, all of the Post-Dispatch, contributed to this report.
A8 • ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
M 2 • Friday • 08.15.2014
Ferguson Police Shooting CHRIS SOMMERS
Ronald s. johnson
Maxine Clark
Antonio French
OWNER OF PI PIZZERIA CHAIN
CAPTAIN, MISSOURI HIGHWAY PATROL
FOUNDER, BUILD-A-BEAR WORKSHOP
ST. LOUIS ALDERMAN
‘I’m grateful that our immediate expansion is not in the St. Louis area.’
‘I understand the anger and fear that the citizens of Ferguson are feeling ...’
‘This is not the STL I know and love. Stop! This behavior is absurd and unnecessary.’
‘It was just a crazy scene. I just started taking pictures. And I’ve been there ever since.’
(From a Tweet)
Backlash on militarization of police “The images from Missouri of stormtrooper-looking police confronting their citizens naturally raises the question: How the hell did we get to this point? When did the normal cops become Navy SEALs? What country is this, anyway?” James Fallows, journalist
“Have no doubt, police in the United States are militarizing, and in many communities, particularly those of color, the message is being received loud and clear: ‘You are the enemy.’” Tom Nolan
Boston Police Department veteran and professor at SUNY Plattsburgh
“At a time when we must seek to rebuild trust between law enforcement and the local community, I am deeply concerned that the deployment of military equipment and vehicles sends a conflicting message.” U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder
“Historians looking back at this period in America’s development will consider it to be profoundly odd that at the exact moment when violent crime hit a 50-year low, the nation’s police departments began to gear up as if the country were expecting invasion — and, on occasion, to behave as if one were underway.” Charles C.W. Cooke The National Review
“You see the police are standing online with bulletproof vests and rifles pointed at people’s chests. That’s not controlling the crowd, that’s intimidating them.”
city police chief is among critics Tactics
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officer who shot Michael Brown, 18. As public anger grew, the FBI was brought in. Calls for details — including the Ferguson officer’s name — were rejected. Then came mass protests, looting, an arson and a paramilitary response to crowd control. Finally, the nation winced as officers gassed a reporting crew and dismantled their equipment, arrested two journalists and pulled a St. Louis alderman from his car. A live stream of night-vision images rendered River City to the world as a landscape from the video game “Call of Duty: Black Ops.” Over the chaotic days and nights, police tactics changed the question from whether one police officer violated one man’s civil rights to whether civil rights are systematically violated in St. Louis. President Barack Obama and Sen. Claire McCaskill decried the militarized response. Gov. Jay Nixon installed the Highway Patrol to command the security of Ferguson, taking that responsibility away from the St. Louis County police. Two St. Louis city police commanders, including St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson, will advise him. Nixon hinted at a lack of transparency, calling the release of the officer’s name an “important milestone” that should be reached soon. The heavy-handed police tactics drove a wedge between the two biggest police agencies in the area: the city and county police departments, which work closely on regional policing efforts and increasingly share resources. Dotson said he stopped
Gear from A1
“Had you set out to make matters worse, you couldn’t have done a better job. There’s a real place for dogs in police work, but it is not in the context of a nonviolent protest. In fact, using dogs for crowd control is operationally, substantively, and from an image point-of-view just about the worst thing you can do.”
on the streets near where an unarmed teenager was shot Saturday to U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill and Attorney General Eric Holder. Writing in Time magazine, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul said scenes in Ferguson resembled “war more than traditional police action.” Tactical officers in body armor and ballistic helmets do look far more like soldiers deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan than the police of decades ago, who often managed riots with a miner-style hard hats and wooden batons as their only special gear. Ferguson’s tear gas may be familiar through the generations. But use of armored vehicles, a sonic blaster to disperse crowds with sound and .60-caliber rubber “Stinger” rounds for “pain compliance” are relatively new to the work. Tim Lynch, director of the CATO Institute Project on Criminal Justice, said police use of military weapons and tactics accelerated after the 2001 terrorist attacks, in part because of Homeland Security grants. He complained that federal money is “distorting decisionmaking on the local level” by giving away “M-16s, grenade launchers, armored vehicles.” Otherwise, Lynch said, a police chief faced with limited dollars “is going to be more sensible.” He said departments that perceive a real need would make it a priority for their own money. “The downside is that we are starting to blur the civilian police mission with the military mission and when that happens, there are unnecessary, violent confrontations between the police and citizens such as
Former Seattle police chief
“In some cases, military equipment has a practical use. But there are limitations on the type of equipment, obviously. The idea that state and local police departments need tactical vehicles and MRAPs with gun turrets is excessive.” Duncan Hunter
Republican member of House Armed Services Committee
“People in communities of color have borne the brunt of militarization of policing for several decades.” Kara Dansky
American Civil Liberties Union
“Washington has incentivized the militarization of local police precincts by using federal dollars to help municipal governments build what are essentially small armies.” U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.
sending officers to help with crowd control on Tuesday. “My gut told me what I was seeing were not tactics that I would use in the city, and I would never put officers in situations that I would not do myself,” he said. Dotson’s comments upset some of the rank-and-file, said Jeff Roorda, business manager for the St. Louis Police Officers Association. “Our membership feels we should be there in every way necessary for the county police and Ferguson officers and anyone else who is in the middle of these tensions,” he said. Mistakes by police in Ferguson will have long-lasting repercussions for St. Louis and for the nation, said David M. Kennedy, a criminologist at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, at the City University of New York. Kennedy developed the Operation Ceasefire, a nationally acclaimed antiviolence program. “Military people will tell you that in military settings, in active war zones, they don’t sit on the top of their trucks pointing live weapons at the populace,” he said. “Under no
circumstances do you begin your deployment with citizens of the United States by pointing live weapons at them.” But Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson defended SWAT units Thursday, saying they are necessary to handle “deadly force” situations. Kennedy said the episode exposed a rift between the police and the public they are supposed to serve. “The community is looking at the incident but in a very real way they’re looking at all the incidents — not just in their community but across the country, where awfully similar things have happened and young black men were killed by the police, and everyone says fundamentally this is OK and it’s the dead guy’s fault and the police are justified in what they did.” Samuel Walker, a professor emeritus at the University of Nebraska, and an expert in police accountability, said statements by county police Chief Jon Belmar in the early hours of the police investigation — when he said the officer shot Brown after a struggle for his weapon — were premature,
FBI SWAT Gear •
Jason Fritz, former Army officer
Norman Stamper
Chris Lee • clee@post-dispatch.com
St. Louis County and Dellwood police detain two people on the 9900 block of West Ferguson Avenue on Wednesday in Ferguson. Both were released after being questioned.
SWAT gear varies by department. An FBI website details the equipment worn or carried by its tactical team members.
• Kevlar helmet • Flame-resistant Nomex fatigues and gloves • Plastic kneepads • Climbing or utility boots • Blast-rated goggles • Armored vest • Pouches for ammunition, other
small gear • Two-way radio with earpiece and microphone • H&K MP5 10mm submachine gun with 30-round magazine, laser sight and flashlight • Springfield .45 caliber
we’re seeing in Ferguson.” He continued, “It’s only when there has been some kind of horrible tragedy, like somebody getting shot or somebody getting killed during one of these paramilitary raids ... that the hard questions start getting asked — the questions that should have been asked since the beginning.” But in a news conference Thursday, the Ferguson police chief, Thomas Jackson, whose department does not have a SWAT team of its own, defended the concept. “The tactical units will be out there if firebombs start getting thrown, property is getting destroyed, shots are being fired, people are being shot at. We have to respond to deadly force,” he said. “The whole picture is being painted a little bit sideways from what’s really happening,” Jackson said. “And it’s not military. It’s tactical operations. It’s SWAT teams. That’s who’s out there. Police. We’re doing this in blue.” Full details of the tactical gear being deployed in Ferguson by the St. Louis County police and other agencies are not available. The Department of Defense’s 1033 Program may have provided some of the equipment, but it isn’t clear how much of this gear was purchased from other federal programs or local
semi-automatic pistol with 8-round magazine • Thigh holster • Metal handcuffs • Nightstick • Gas mask • Medical supplies • Flexible handcuffs
budgets. The 1033 Program has transferred more than $4.3 billion in surplus military equipment to thousands of law enforcement agencies and others. It is intended for “counternarcotics and counterterrorism operations, and to enhance officer safety,” according to the Missouri Department of Public Safety website. The department will not release specific destinations for tactical equipment. According to federal data, various police agencies in St. Louis County received 12 5.56mm rifles and six .45-caliber pistols between Aug. 2, 2010, and Feb. 13, 2013. They also received 15 “reflex” gun sights, four night vision devices and three night sights, as well as an $10,000 explosive ordnance robot, three helicopters, seven Humvees and three cargo trailers. One helicopter alone was originally worth $200,000. State data obtained in 2012 show that St. Louis County police received at least two helicopters, computer equipment, two old SUVs and roughly 20 Kevlar helmets since 2007. Ferguson received medical supplies, computer equipment and dozens of large backpacks and wool blankets through the program, records show, as well as a generator, a trailer and several utility vehicles.
and suggested to the public that the investigation had already drawn conclusions. Among people who were upset by the comment was St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley, said Dooley’s chief of staff, Pat Washington. She said Dooley had a meeting with Belmar after the statement to the media, where Belmar clarified that he was relaying only the Ferguson officer’s version of events. Dooley “had a concern about it and that’s why he had a conversation with the chief about it and try to understand what was intended,” she said. “I think (Belmar) understands that people may have taken his comments in a way that he didn’t intend.” Belmar declined to comment Thursday. Walker said he could understand why people wouldn’t trust the police after the early support for the officer’s version. “You can say, ‘No comment at this time. We have not completed the investigation. We haven’t even barely begun the investigation at this point.’” What larger impact St. Louis will feel is unclear. On Thursday, some business owners publicly worried about devastation to the region’s economy. If you ask Bob Cooper, the concerns could be well founded. Cooper, 56, a computer executive who lives in Charlotte, N.C., told a reporter that in two weeks he is taking his wife and two children, 8 and 12, on a road trip to San Francisco. They had booked two nights in St. Louis to visit the Gateway Arch and the brewery. After what happened in Ferguson, they crossed St. Louis off their itinerary. Joel Currier of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.
Ferguson police spokesman Tim Zoll said his agency has no military level weapons or armor, except for two Humvees donated by the Missouri National Guard after a tornado. Despite reports that military “Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected” vehicles, or MRAPs, were used on Ferguson streets, a spokesman for the Missouri Department of Public Safety said none has been supplied to agencies in St. Louis or St. Louis County. Some other Missouri communities have received them, including St. Charles County. Lt. David Tiefenbrunn of the St. Charles County Sheriff’s Department said Thursday his agency has not yet used its MRAP. He said his department’s BearCat, an armored truck bought with Homeland Security funds, is on the streets with the county’s multijurisdictional SWAT team. St. Louis County police also has a BearCat, bought with federal grant money, and its larger cousin, the BEAR, purchased more than a decade ago. BearCats cost up to $275,000, and BEARs up to $350,000, the manufacturer says. Officials confirmed that at least those three armored vehicles were used Wednesday on the streets of Ferguson. Tiefenbrunn said his SWAT officers carry .223-caliber rifles, similar to an AR-15, bought after Los Angeles police were badly outgunned in a dramatic shootout after a bank robbery. The local SWAT officers also have less-lethal TASERs, bean bag rounds for shotguns and a paintball-like gun that shoots pepper balls. As for militarizing the police, Tiefenbrunn said, “Our actions are based on what we’re faced with on the streets. America is becoming more heavily armed.” Chuck Raasch of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.
08.15.2014 • Friday • M 1
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH • A9
Ferguson Police Shooting
detail photos by David Carson
60-caliber Stinger rounds can hold dozens of rubber ball projectiles.
This spent tear gas canister was found near Lang Drive.
Each rubber ball projectile is about the size of a thumbnail.
RIOT GEAR
the weapons and tactics of crowd control
David Carson • dcarson@post-dispatch.com
Police officers line up across West Florissant Avenue as they watch protesters on Tuesday near the QuikTrip that was burned down a few days earlier in Ferguson.
David Carson • dcarson@post-dispatch.com
A police sharpshooter keeps an eye on protesters along West Florissant Avenue on Tuesday. Police said the show of force was necessary to control crowds and property and to avoid more looting.
Robert Cohen • rcohen@post-dispatch.com
SWAT troopers from the Missouri Highway Patrol move into the area where stores were looted on Florissant Road in Ferguson on Sunday.
Chris Lee • clee@post-dispatch.com
Tactical officers advance east on Chambers Road through clouds of tear gas Wednesday as they try to clear protesters in Ferguson. It was the third night of unrest after the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown on Saturday.
A10 • ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
M 2 • Friday • 08.15.2014
Ferguson Police Shooting William Lacy Clay
Joe Reagan
ERIC HOLDER
KITTY RATCLIFFE
U.S. REPRESENTATIVE
CHIEF OF ST. LOUIS REGIONAL CHAMBER
U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL
ST. LOUIS TOURISM CHIEF
‘What I am hoping is that we can be a model ... on how we go forward from here.’
‘Arresting journalists and those observing the protests is unacceptable.’
‘Law enforcement response ... must seek to reduce tensions, not heighten them.’
‘This tragic incident is not reflective of the community as a whole.’
NATIONAL Reaction “Clearly this issue (the death of Michael Brown) is resonating here ... and they knew about it before we got here. The story continues to run in circulation over and over again (on Geneva television). The world is watching what is happening in Ferguson, Missouri.” Hilary O. Shelton
director of the NAACP Washington Bureau, At a United Nations conference on racial equality
“ This is not China or Russia or Syria. This is America, and in this country we have a right to protest in a peaceful, orderly, nonviolent fashion, and the press should be free to cover these protests without fear. The police should not interfere in the exercise of these constitutional rights. If people are not allowed to express their dissatisfaction through peaceful protest, they will find other means to make their voices heard.” JOHN LEWIS, D-GA.
Civil rights leader and congressman
“The right to record and report on police activities is a First Amendment right — and one essential to the journalist’s role as a watchdog and guardian of public accountability for law enforcement and other public officials. That it should be so disregarded, particularly after the journalists identified themselves as members of the press, is almost unthinkable — yet it happened, and happened quite violently, according to news reports.” BRUCE BROWN
director, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
“Our condolences go out to the Brown family on this terrible tragedy. We are deeply alarmed by the continuation of police brutality and violence against minorities, in particular African-Americans. We hope that the federal investigation will independently determine the facts and take appropriate action.” MOHAMED MAGID
president, Islamic Society of North America
“Part of the basic social contract created by our Constitution is that government be transparent and accountable to the people. That is clearly not happening in Ferguson at this time. The Ferguson Police Department has yet to release the name of the officer who shot and killed teenager Michael Brown, who was unarmed. They have assaulted, arrested and held journalists who were exercising their First Amendment rights without filing charges or completing any paperwork. They have responded to largely peaceful protests with a heavily militarized force (approximately 70 SWAT members and an armored vehicle) and trained loaded weapons on Ferguson residents, including children. They have deployed tear gas and bean bag rounds against protesters and news media. This state of affairs is unthinkable in the United States of America.” Coalition to Stop Gun Violence
‘a different approach’ is promised Brown
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from A1
unacceptable,” Nixon said. The move appeared to calm the situation along West Florissant Avenue, the Ferguson thoroughfare marked by looting and clashes with police earlier this week. Tear gas, smoke bombs and riot police were absent Thursday night as nearly 1,000 people gathered peacefully on the sidewalk chanting “Hands Up! Don’t Shoot!” when they weren’t responding to the cacophony of car horns honking to support their efforts to protest the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown at the hands of a Ferguson police officer. The new face of security in the racially tense conflict is Capt. Ronald S. Johnson, a native of the region who is African-American. Appearing with Nixon at a North County news conference, Johnson said his command will employ “a different approach.” “I understand the anger and fear that the citizens of Ferguson are feeling, and our police officers will respect both of those,” Johnson said. He later made good on that vow by marching with a procession of peaceful demonstrators in Ferguson. Part of the new approach, Johnson said, will be “making sure we’re not taking resources out there that we don’t need.” That is a response to criticism from across the country of police confronting protesters with weapons and vehicles that look like they belong on a battlefield rather than a suburban street. While Nixon clearly was cautious not to say it, the move is likely to be interpreted as a criticism of the way St. Louis County police have handled security in the North County community since nightly violence erupted after Michael Brown was shot to death by a police officer on Saturday. Police also came under blistering criticism Wednesday night when two national journalists were arrested and tear gas was fired on a television crew. “All of us have seen some level of escalation, and we’ve certainly seen some level of escalation of the arms that have been used to deter as well as some of the conduct,” said Nixon. That was as close as he came to outright criticism of county police. When pressed on the issue, he said only: “I’m not looking backward, I’m looking forward.” St. Louis County Police
Associated Press
About 1,000 people march peacefully in New York City’s Union Square on Thursday. Vigils were being held across the country in honor of people who organizers say died at the hands of police brutality.
Chief Jon Belmar declined to comment on the change in command over Ferguson. But St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch blasted Nixon’s decision. “It’s shameful what he did today, he had no legal authority to do that. To denigrate the men and women of the county police department is shameful,” McCulloch said. “For Nixon to never talk to the commanders in the field and come in here and take this action is disgraceful. “I hope I’m wrong, but I think what Nixon did may put a lot of people in danger.” Also Thursday, Missouri House Majority Leader John Diehl, R-Town and Country, said Nixon should declare a state of emergency and put Ferguson under a curfew. Earlier in the day, Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson signaled a change of strategy, describing a plan to try to reduce tension by allowing protesters to use sidewalks while keeping streets open to traffic. Jackson said officials want to tone down the confrontations and will talk about “not only the tactics but the appearance” of police in riot gear. He said tactical units would remain on standby in case of trouble. But when pressed about use of tear gas on nonviolent demonstrators, Jackson suggested that people need to distance themselves from those who provoke police with aggressive acts or threats. “There is gunfire. There are firebombs being thrown at the police,” he said. The issue of the militaristic police response has become almost as central to the Ferguson story as the racial tension. Pundits and public officials
have been holding up the conflict here as an example of what they say is a national trend toward militaristic weapons and tactics among civilian police. U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., speaking to area residents at Christ the King United Church of Christ near Black Jack on Thursday, stressed the need to “demilitarize the police response.” The comment drew a standing ovation. Nixon acknowledged the racial component to the strife, and the community’s history of tension between police and residents. “This feels a little like an old wound that has been hit again.” As state attorney general for 16 years, Nixon alienated black leaders when he tried to end court involvement in St. Louis public schools and phase out the voluntary busing program. While he moved to patch those relationships when he first ran for governor in 2008, they are still somewhat strained. Nixon began Thursday with a phone conversation with President Barack Obama. “He wanted me specifically to thank the faith leaders and other community leaders who are leading with vigor but with peace,” Nixon said of Obama during remarks to community organizers and clergy gathered at Christ the King United Church of Christ near Black Jack. In a short address Thursday, Obama called for “peace and calm on the streets of Ferguson” while expressing his concern for the violent turn of events. “Let us remember we are all part of one American family,” Obama said. “We are united in common values and that includes belief in equality under the law, basic respect for public
order and the right of peaceful protest.” Obama said he was briefed Thursday on the situation by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. He criticized the arrest of journalists, said there is no excuse for police use of force against peaceful protesters, and that there is “never an excuse for violence against police or those who would use this as a cover for vandalism or looting.” Missouri state Sen. Jamilah Nasheed, D-St. Louis, speculated that arrests Wednesday night of reporters for the Washington Post and the Huffington Post may have prompted Nixon to act. “The treatment that the media received … was what many of the protesters have received the last four days,” Nasheed said. “Only when the media get attacked in a negative manner by the police officers, only then does the governor come out and speak.” Later on Thursday, Johnson, the new security chief for Ferguson, led about 300 marchers who made their way along West Florissant Avenue in the most peaceful demonstration since Brown’s death five days ago. Johnson marched in shirtsleeves — a stark contrast with the paramilitary uniforms that have become the symbol of the Ferguson police presence during nearly a week of unrest. In an impromptu discussion with reporters, Johnson allowed that he has “a big dog in this fight.” Johnson grew up nearby, close to the intersection of Halls Ferry and Chambers roads. Virginia Young, Chuck Raasch, Stephen Deere, Steve Giegerich, Paul Hampel and Koran Addo, all of the Post-Dispatch, contributed to this report.
Patrol captain ‘understands urban policing’ By Virginia Young vyoung@post-dispatch.com 573-556-6181
JEFFERSON CITY • The new commander assigned to keep order in Ferguson is a veteran law enforcement officer with deep knowledge of the St. Louis area. Missouri Highway Patrol Capt. Ronald S. Johnson was born and reared in the St. Louis area. He has been with the patrol for 26 years, the last 12 as commanding officer of the patrol’s Troop C, which serves the 11-county St. Louis region. “I’ve worked with him for many years, even before I was chief,” said St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson. “You couldn’t have a better partner for the region. He’s smart, he’s professional, he comes from the area,” Dotson said. Johnson’s father-in-law, Charles McCrary, was a deputy police chief for the St. Louis Police Department before he
David Carson • dcarson@post-dispatch.com
Missouri Highway Patrol Capt. Ronald S. Johnson gets a hug from Angela Whitman as a crowd of protesters marches down Canfield Drive on Thursday in Ferguson.
retired, Dotson added. Johnson was tapped Thursday by Gov. Jay Nixon to coordinate law enforcement agencies in Ferguson, where violence has flared nightly since
the fatal police shooting last weekend of an unarmed black teenager. Johnson said at a news conference that he planned to “have an approach that we’re
in this together.” Johnson, who is AfricanAmerican, joined the Highway Patrol in 1987. His first assignment after graduating from the agency’s Law Enforcement Academy was with Troop C. He was promoted to corporal in 1995 and sergeant in 1997. When he made lieutenant in 1999, he was transferred to Troop A in Lee’s Summit. He returned to the St. Louis area as commanding officer in 2002, when he was promoted to captain. Troop C, which is headquartered St. Charles County, includes 147 uniformed officers and 157 civilian employees. The patrol said Johnson holds a criminal justice degree and has attended various training programs, including the FBI National Academy. Dotson said Johnson “understands urban policing and the challenges we have. He’s low-profile, but not afraid to take on the tough jobs.”
A12 • ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
M 1 • Friday • 08.15.2014
Ferguson Police Shooting
In the SUBURBs?
RIOTS’ EVERYDAY backdrop creates JARRING CONTRAST By Nicholas J.C. Pistor npistor@post-dispatch.com 314-436-2239
W
e have seen the riot police before. Their grim faces capped with helmets, their tough hands clenched around batons, their German shepherds growling and howling in a cloud of tear gas. We have seen them in south central Los Angeles after Rodney King, in Chicago after the 1968 Democratic National Convention, and flanked across Detroit’s inner city streets after the civil rights movement came to a boil. We have seen the demonstrators, too. The lone “tank man” in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The Arab Spring movement tightly packed into downtown Cairo’s Tahrir Square. Protesters in Kiev holding off police with a ring of fire. But we haven’t seen them together like this: hurling rocks and rubber bullets on wide open suburban streets. After all, this is Ferguson, pop. 21,135. The images are striking, and all the more frightening, because of the backdrop. Ground zero for the chaos is a torched QuikTrip, a chain convenience store built on the edge of the four-lane road across from a carwash. The aftermath of a fatal police shooting of an unarmed teenager has created a jarring picture of suburban warfare. Far from the sprawling plazas or dense inner cities or lunch counters normally conjured up in thoughts of political unrest, the images here have mixed a familiar American setting with a surreal situation. The nightly ritual of police hurling smoke bombs and shouting on megaphones in attempts to clear demonstrators has played out on an asphalt strip normally traveled by SUVs and minivans on their way home from Walmart. But the Ferguson Walmart is different. The giant suburban icon on Sunday night saw looters hit its well-lighted aisles as police trailed them with guns drawn. The scenario was re-
Laurie Skrivan • lskrivan@post-dispatch.com
Brothers pose in front of a line of officers in riot gear during a nightly protest on Tuesday in front of the burned QuikTrip in Ferguson. “You are in a suburban community,” said Lewis Reed, president of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen. “This is so different than anything I’ve seen.”
played at the nearby Walgreens. “In the other riots you think of the high-rise public housing and the city backdrop, but this has a different feel because you are not dealing with a major city,” said St. Louis Aldermanic President Lewis Reed. Reed remembered the civil rights rebellion that gripped Los Angeles in 1965. Over six summer days, 34 people were killed, more than 1,000 injured, and about 600 buildings destroyed in the Watts neighborhood, just a few miles removed from the city center. “You are in a suburban com-
munity,” Reed said of the Ferguson protests. “This is so different than anything I’ve seen.” How different? The sea of tactical trucks and military-style equipment was staged not at an armory or police station, but in a Target parking lot. That has the power to grab at someone who traded the big city for a cul-de-sac. Not surprisingly, Mid America Arms in suburban south St. Louis County reported that firearm sales were up by about 50 percent this week. “This is a manifestation of what happened over decades
David Carson • dcarson@post-dispatch.com
Women argue with police officers to let them pass to go home because they were afraid of being near the protest scene along West Florissant Avenue on Tuesday.
of mistrust,” said Michael McMillan, the leader of the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis. “We have seen the issues of the inner city move to the suburbs.” McMillan said: “We are together now. It’s our job to listen, to meet, to ensure a safe quality of life.” But right now, little of that is happening. The scenes from Wednesday night prompted CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin to say the police response in Ferguson made the place look like Belfast during the Northern Ireland bombings. And he noted
that it’s the big cities that saw riots in the 1960s that have been more peaceful. “And if you look at the many, many protests that take place in cities like New York and Chicago and Los Angeles, where people protest even at night, and there are not rubber bullets, they’re not tear gassed, there are not reporters being arrested for sitting in McDonald’s,” Toobin said. Perhaps that is why this story is shocking so many in the region and across the nation, causing civil rights leader Jesse Jackson to write: “There’s a Ferguson near you.”
Robert Cohen • rcohen@post-dispatch.com
Ferguson residents, including a young man who declined to be identified, shoot video of police officers as they clear Ferguson Avenue on Wednesday.
BusineSS AND civic leaders decry unrest, arrests By Lisa Brown lbrown@post-dispatch.com 314-340-8127 and Tim Bryant tbryant@post-dispatch.com 314-340-8026
Some St. Louis business leaders are denouncing violence and police actions in Ferguson following the fatal shooting of 18-yearold Michael Brown last Saturday. Among the most vocal online was Maxine Clark, founder and retired CEO of Build-A-Bear Workshop, the Overland-based chain of 400 retail stores. On Wednesday night, after two national reporters covering the Ferguson story were arrested while inside a McDonald’s, Clark tweeted to her nearly 6,000 followers: “REALLY???? Arresting visitors/news at McD?? This is not the STL I know and love. Stop! This behavior is absurd and unnecessary.” Clark’s other tweets, shared on her @ChiefExecBear account, decried the worldwide spotlight now on the region: “Three conf. calls today & everyone asked ‘what is going on in STL?’ These aren’t proud moments. Someone tell Ferg Police honesty matters!” Clark could not be reached for comment for this story.
GROUP LAUNCHES FUND for those hit by turmoil A business organization said Thursday it is donating $10,000 to start a fund to support schoolchildren and owners of small businesses affected by the turmoil in Ferguson. The St. Louis Regional Business Council said the Reinvest North County Fund is intended to help small businesses and to provide school districts resources needed to show students the importance of education. North County Inc., a nonprofit group founded in 1977, will select projects to fund with the money raised, the Regional Business Council said. To apply for funding, go to NorthStLouisCounty.com. Applications will be accepted beginning Monday.
Joe Reagan, president and chief executive of the St. Louis Regional Chamber, agreed Thursday that the arrests were a mistake. “The business community is clear that arresting journalists and those observing the protests is unacceptable,” he said. “We can do much better than that. We are much better than that.” Chris Sommers, owner of the Pi Pizzeria chain in St. Louis, also has been active on social media throughout the week, mostly retweeting news accounts of the unfolding events in Ferguson on his Twitter account, @sommerscm, to his more than 800 followers. Sommers said the protests following Brown’s death have been mishandled by authorities. “It’s devastating to our town,”
said Sommers, who’s opened six Pi restaurants in the region since 2008. “Many of us have been working really hard to build our city back up, and the St. Louis County and Ferguson police are undoing that in a manner of days.” Sommers has two new Pi restaurants opening in Miami and Cincinnati, and said the current unrest here and the attention it’s garnering worldwide will have a negative impact on the region’s economy for a long time. “It’s going to suffer,” Sommers said. “I’m grateful that our immediate expansion is not in the St. Louis area. I would certainly think twice about an investment here now. What’s infuriating is a lack of leadership, and the result of that is a devastation to the economy.”
Photos and videos of people looting businesses and other lawlessness in the wake of Brown’s death have reached an international audience. Kitty Ratcliffe, president of the St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission, said some potential visitors to St. Louis have asked how the unrest in Ferguson is affecting the region and individual attractions. “We have assured those potential visitors that hotels, visitor attractions, restaurants, parks, transportation companies and other components to the tourism infrastructure in our region are not affected by the encounters between concerned individuals and the police department in Ferguson,” Ratcliffe said in an email Thursday. Referring to the shooting death of Michael Brown, she said, “It is important to note that this tragic incident is not reflective of the community as a whole.” Many employees in the region’s tourism industry live in the Ferguson area and are more “affected by this tragedy than the rest of us,” Ratcliffe’s email continued. “Support for the businesses and the citizens of that portion of our metropolitan
area is needed more than ever at this time.” Reagan said he backed Gov. Jay Nixon’s decision Thursday to change the leadership of the police response to the unrest in Ferguson. Reagan said the change should produce “an environment where peaceful protests may happen.” Nixon ordered the Missouri Highway Patrol to take over as the lead police agency dealing with the unrest in Ferguson. Reagan said that key to the response is keeping the focus “on the tragic loss of a young man’s life.” “What’s also tragic is the breakdown and the lack of confidence that people have about how the situation has been handled over the past few nights,” he said. Reagan said that no company considering investing in St. Louis has wavered as a result of the violence in Ferguson. He also said he was unaware of business leaders, other than Clark, who have publicly expressed outrage over the arrest of the reporters. Arrested but not charged were a reporter for the Washington Post and a reporter for the Huffington Post.
A L E E E N T E R P R I S E S N E W S PA P E R • F O U N D E D BY J O S E P H P U L I T Z E R D E C . 1 2 , 1 8 7 8
FRIDAY • 08.15.2014 • A18
A new sheriff in town Our view • Signs of hope after a law-enforcement debacle
So how did it get to this? How did Ferguson, Mo., an unremarkable inner-ring St. Louis suburb, come to share time with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria during a presidential news briefing? How did Ferguson, which has been trying for years to rebrand itself as semi-cool (the new Maplewood!), manage to do just the opposite in just a few days? How did things there get so bad, so fast, that Jay Nixon, host of the Governor’s Ham Breakfast at the State Fair in Sedalia, had to tear himself away from an event dear to the heart of a Missouri politician? How did Mr. Nixon, a law-andorder Democrat from rural De Soto, become convinced that he had to relieve the St. Louis County police department from its command responsibilities over Ferguson’s continuing civil unrest? There are long-term answers and short-term answers. We hope to get to the long-term answers on Sunday. They have to do with fragmented government, decades of deliberate residential segregation and inequalities in educational opportunity. Short term, Ferguson happened because of a series of shockingly poor law enforcement decisions. Those decisions began last Saturday when a still-unidentified Ferguson police officer decided to shoot to kill an unarmed man, 18-year-Michael Brown. They continued when Ferguson police left Mr. Brown’s body on the street for four hours. How long does a crime-scene investigation take? Does Ferguson not have a tent? The bad decisions escalated when St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar, summoned by an overwhelmed Ferguson police force, opted to react to protests with an overwhelming show of paramilitary force. Before being named chief in January, Col.
DAN MARTIN • dmartin@post-dispatch.com
Belmar had made his reputation in the department by running its tactical (SWAT) unit. That was his training. That’s where he went. Cops armored up in tactical gear and began using non-lethal, but unnecessary, crowd-control weapons. Wooden and rubber baton rounds. Tear gas. Smoke grenades. Armored vehicles mounted with machine guns. The bad decisions continued with the arrests and/or detentions of peaceful protesters and journalists. They continued as St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert P. McCulloch refused to share even basic information about the case. Not the name of the officer who killed Mr. Brown. Not the autopsy findings about how many bullets struck him and where. Not an incident report. Not the most basic information generally available to reporters when the alleged shooter
isn’t a cop. Mr. McCulloch’s father was a St. Louis Police officer who was shot and killed in the line of duty in 1964. He has personally prosecuted cop-killers and sought the death penalty for them. He’ll take the case of Mr. Brown’s shooting to a grand jury, but grand juries nearly always follow where the prosecutor leads. And that’s where Mr. McCulloch has a problem. On Thursday he waded into the change in command in Ferguson, telling PostDispatch reporter Paul Hampel that Mr. Nixon’s decision was “disgraceful.” He went so far as to suggest the change might “put a lot of people in danger.” That’s inflammatory talk for a man who is supposed to prosecute the incident that set off the protests. It strains his credibility. This case might be too much for him.
Short-term, Gov. Nixon’s decision Thursday afternoon — at the prodding of the president of the United States and most of the state’s leading Democratic politicians — to get more directly involved was welcome, if about 48 hours late. Mr. Nixon said he wanted to change the “tone” of the law enforcement response in Ferguson. He also changed the optics, putting Capt. Ronald S. Johnson of the state Highway Patrol in command in Ferguson. Capt. Johnson, who grew up in the Ferguson area, is a recruiting-poster trooper who happens to be black. But like the rest of the 1,100 Missouri state troopers, he has little urban policing experience. The Highway Patrol is not a full-service police agency. Its chief responsibility is traffic, though it has a fine crime lab and
investigates crimes that rural sheriffs’ departments can’t handle. That was less important Thursday evening than Capt. Johnson’s openness and willingness to engage with protesters. He set an example by walking and talking with marchers. Most importantly, he left no doubt that there was a new sheriff in town. Until he took over, there was considerable doubt about who was actually in charge. The few news briefings were unhelpful. There was little engagement with protesters, no accountability. Worse, there was very little coordinated command structure. Cops from multiple jurisdictions were on hand, but few if of them knew who was responsible for what. From now on, when police academies want to teach the wrong way to handle a civil disturbance, they’ll study the Belmar Plan. At least the force that was employed was non-lethal. With the change in command and tactics comes some hope that the protests can wind down and the process of healing will begin. That process will be long and difficult. It will require people of good will to sit down together and interact in a way that is rare in this metropolitan area. Ferguson has its own set of issues to resolve. So does St. Louis County. There is an election in November. Mr. McCulloch, a Democrat, is seeking a seventh term as prosecutor. However his investigation into Mr. Brown’s killing turns out, it won’t affect his chances. He is unopposed. But county voters also will choose a new chief executive. Before last Saturday, it would not have occurred to either Democrat Steve Stenger or Republican Rick Stream that Ferguson would be a campaign issue. Now it could be a defining one.
YOUR VIEWS • LETTERS FROM OUR READERS Police must show restraint, peacefully resolve conflicts Many of us are trying to remain objective about the shooting of the young man in Ferguson, but it is becoming more difficult to do so as the police demonstrate their militaristic tactics against innocent people, including reporters who are there to report to the rest of us. Is it really necessary to wear combat gear and point machine guns at the community members? Is that the way to win the trust of the community? We know policing is not easy ... but their job is to serve all in the community, not just those who look like them. I am a white teacher; I know it is difficult to face the anger of a child or parent who is upset ... but that is my job. It is time for the police to learn strategies of cultural competency, peaceful conflict resolution and personal restraint. Nancy L. Williams • St. Louis
County and Ferguson police aren’t getting the message The Wednesday Post-Dispatch editorial (“Where better begins”) addressed, among other things, the harm done when police adopt a military-like response as a first step in response to dealing with mass protests. The editorial pointed out that this is counter to best practices recommended by the FBI but has been much in evidence in the Ferguson situation, and lamented the lack of transparency regarding who authorized it. Evidently, the county and Ferguson police are not listening. Later in the day Wednesday, the following events were reported on stltoday.com: • Reporters from the Washington Post and the Huffington Post reported being assaulted by police who objected to being taped. (This seems consistent with allegations that airspace restrictions put in place earlier in the week seemed designed solely to keep news helicopters from filming.) • Three armored vehicles approached a mostly quiet and peaceful crowd of demonstrators on West Florissant Avenue, one with an officer on top manning a long rifle
Post-Dispatch, Guardian US team up to get your voice heard The killing of Michael Brown is one of those stories that is more than local news — it’s the story of one young man shot by a police officer in Ferguson, and the story of so many people of color, in so many places. #IfTheyGunnedMeDown, #HandsUpDontShoot, #IGotTheTalk: These hashtags have become an instant mirror, helping expose and define a larger community’s ongoing relationship with law enforcement. We want to hear your stories, and help make everyone’s story heard, not confined to hashtags on Twitter or Instagram feeds in the St. Louis area. You have the world’s attention. To try to keep the stories of Ferguson in focus in a local and a national way, the
on a tripod. Predictably, this agitated the crowd. • More trucks arrived carrying officers in military clothing, carrying rifles, who deployed to the street. • Police fired tear gas into the crowd of demonstrators. Keep in mind these were demonstrators assembling in the street, not looters or an out-of-control mob. And the police point automatic weapons at them ... are you kidding me!? The most generous assessment of this is that the county and Ferguson police are in way over their heads in handling this type of situation. A less generous assessment is that we really do have a police problem in St. Louis County. These are the actions reminiscent of scenes in the South decades ago. This underscores your editorial’s recommendation that Gov. Jay Nixon needs to intervene quickly, before this local police consortium turns Ferguson into another
RAY FARRIS PRESIDENT & PUBLISHER
THE PLATFORM TM STLtoday.com/ThePlatform Find us at facebook/PDPlatform Follow us on twitter @PDEditorial
Post-Dispatch editorial page and the Guardian US opinion page are working together to give you a voice, no matter where you’re from. Tell us using the form at stltoday. com/fergusonvoices: What is your police racial profiling story? How did it change you? If you’re from Ferguson or the St. Louis region, tell the world the real story, from on the ground, that you think needs to be told — and what needs to change. Your submissions could be used for special Post-Dispatch/Guardian interactive features as the story unfolds. Keep sharing your thoughts — and this call for responses — on Twitter with the hashtag #FergusonVoices.
Watts. Eric Stein • University City
Make a positive plea for forgiveness Would that the call for justice and peace to flourish in our communities include the reminder of our human solidarity. It is here we exercise the duties incumbent on us in our common brother and sisterhood and seek to put aside the demand for “an eye for an eye” by replacing it with a positive plea that we forgive even as we wish to be forgiven. This takes tireless and relentless effort, but we have seen the alternative. Dette Reh • St. Louis County
Media ignore the good in North County Once again, the St. Louis media have chosen to ignore the good being done in North
GILBERT BAILON EDITOR
difference in its cardinal principles, that it will always fight for progress and reform, never tolerate injustice or corruption, always fight demagogues of all parties, never belong to any party, always oppose privileged classes and public plunderers, never lack sympathy with the poor, always remain devoted to the public welfare, never be satisfied with merely printing news, always be drastically independent, never be afraid to attack wrong, whether by predatory plutocracy or predatory poverty • JOSEPH PULITZER • APRIL 10, 1907
Letters should be 250 words or fewer. Please include your name, address and phone number. All letters are subject to editing. Writers usually will not be published more than once every 60 days. Additional letters are posted online at STLtoday.com/letters.
MAIL Letters to the editor St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 900 N. Tucker Blvd. St. Louis, MO 63101
Pointing fingers in blame too soon I have many problems with the editorial page of the Post-Dispatch, but this one was too much (“Disparity of due process,” Aug. 11). Don’t you think it would have been nice to wait and see what the facts were before you printed such a flamefanning editorial? I think it is sad that everyone is so willing to blame the policeman, the one who risks his life every day on our behalf. You mention justified anger over this shooting. Does that also mean justified looting? There is definitely justified sadness, but why don’t we wait and see what actually happened before we point fingers? N. Lincoln • St. Charles
What is justice for shooting? Interesting to note that everyone talking about the incident in Ferguson has stated unequivocally that justice should (must) be done. However, no one has defined what justice is in this case. Thomas R. Etling • Chesterfield
TONY MESSENGER EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR
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County, in this case in regards to the shooting death of Michael Brown and the subsequent violence that has followed. The nation and, yes, even the world, has been informed of the countless protests, demonstrations and news conferences held on this matter. Yet not one word about peaceful, quiet prayer vigils that are being held. One such service was held Tuesday evening at Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church in Bellefontaine Neighbors. A group of 100 or so people gathered quietly to sing a few hymns about peace, hear a short story and a few nonviolent comments, and, to contemplate peace and justice ... what it means, how to achieve it for oneself and, perhaps how to achieve it for all people in nonviolent ways. Sadly, no one will know about this service but those who were in attendance. I get it: Violence sells papers, peace does not. How sad. Shame on you. Mary Migliazzo • Bellefontaine Neighbors
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TONY MESSENGER tmessenger@post-dispatch.com Editorial Page Editor • 314-340-8382 KEVIN HORRIGAN khorrigan@post-dispatch.com Deputy Editorial Page Editor • 314-340-8135 FRANK REUST freust@post-dispatch.com Letters Editor • 314-340-8356 DEBORAH PETERSON dpeterson@post-dispatch.com Editorial writer • 314-340-8276
08.15.2014 • Friday • M 1
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH • A19
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TJ Allman of Maryland Heights says, “Instead of violence and hatred, we need hope and love. We need hope that truth, justice and peace will shine through and drive out the darkness of these terrible days. We need to love our fellow man and be understanding of our differences as individuals.”
Read and talk about this letter and more letters online at STLtoday.com/letters
The Killing of
Michael Brown John D. Inazu
Let’s talk about race Lessons of Ferguson • Criminal justice and racial injustice are intrinsically linked here. “You spent too much time talking about race in this class.” Of all the student evaluations I’ve received over the years, this one rankled me the most. I teach criminal law. In St. Louis. It’s not possible to talk too much about race in that context. In past years, our class discussions on race have centered on Trayvon Martin, or before that, on the kids shot up by Bernie Goetz on a New York City subway. From now on, the example will come from much closer to home. In the coming weeks, we will have much to say about the tragedy, chaos and anger surrounding the death of Michael Brown. Among the most important issues will be the connection between law enforcement and race. That
is not to say that all police officers are evil or that all black youths are innocent. But it is to insist that criminal justice and racial injustice are intrinsically linked in this city and its surrounding communities. And the injustices that manifest in handcuffs and bullets flow out of the injustices of neighborhoods, schools and shopping malls — all linked to issues of race that nobody in this city likes to talk about. Easy for me to say. I spend most of my days on the campus of Washington University, and I’ve just left town for a year-long position at the University of Virginia. I am miles away — in many senses — from the tumult and tragedy that is now engulfing Ferguson. But I can at least offer some suggestions.
So let me implore my white friends and colleagues not to let this be a “black thing.” Join the peaceful demonstrations, and get your friends and families to join with you. As importantly, get involved after the demonstrations fade. Get to know the issues, and make sure your friends know them, too. Spend some time at one of our public schools. Get to know the collision of hope and despair that confronts great people faced with insurmountable obstacles. Visit one of our local courtrooms and watch an arraignment or a hearing. Visit the county courtroom in Hazelwood, just west of Ferguson. The halls of justice there are housed in a strip mall. Defendants — almost all of them without lawyers — sit in
rows of metal chairs, waiting for hours for a few minutes of whispered exchanges with a judge who will tell them where they must go next. The defendants in that particular courtroom are there on misdemeanor charges for nonviolent crimes. The last time I visited, almost every one of the hundred or so defendants in the room was black. (If you think that’s because black people are just more inclined to commit crimes, you are either painfully naïve or willfully blind.) And to the media, the politicians and others who have the power to focus our collective attention on things that matter: highlight the positives for more than a sound bite or a tweet. Get to know the amazing staff and students at Northwest Academy of Law, a
public high school in north St. Louis. Spend a Sunday worshipping at the interracial congregation at U-City Family Church on the Loop. Encourage others to give their time and their money to the countless nonprofits in this city where black and white people serve together, as friends who share not only a common purpose but also a common existence. The tragic circumstances unfolding in Ferguson also offer a moment of opportunity. We should all spend too much time talking about race in the coming months.
John D. Inazu is associate professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis.
Ric Ashe
Kernels of truth in our views of Ferguson Race relations • Let’s make sure we keep these events from hardening our biases. J.B. Forbes • jforbes@post-dispatch.com
A convoy of St. Louis County tactical vehicles and more than 60 riot police drove down West Florissant Avenue in Ferguson on Wednesday afternoon to Canfield Avenue, where demonstrators had gathered in the street.
The militarization of the police Jamelle Bouie
Criminal justice • Police departments acquire more hardware and find more reasons to use heavy-handed tactics. WASHINGTON • The most striking photographs from Ferguson, Mo., aren’t of Saturday’s demonstrations or Sunday night’s riots; they’re of the police. Image after image shows officers clad in Kevlar vests, helmets and camouflage, armed with pistols, shotguns, automatic rifles and tear gas. In one photo, protesters stand toe-totoe with baton-wielding riot police, in another, an unarmed man faces several cops, each with rifles at the ready. What’s more, police have used armored vehicles to show force and control crowds. In one photo, riot gear-clad officers are standing in front of a mineresistant ambush protected vehicle, barking commands and launching tear gas into groups of demonstrators and journalists. This would be one thing if Ferguson were in a war zone, or if protesters were violent — although, it’s hard to imagine a situation in which American police would need a mine-resistant vehicle. But an episode of looting aside, Ferguson and St. Louis County police aren’t dealing with any particular danger. Nonetheless, they’re treating demonstrators — and Ferguson residents writ large — as a population to occupy, not citizens to protect. This is part of a broader problem. In his book “The Rise of the Warrior Cop,” journalist Radley Balko notes that since the 1960s, “law-enforcement agencies across the U.S., at every level of government, have been blurring the line between police officer and soldier. Driven by martial rhetoric and the availability of military-style equipment — from bayonets and M-16 rifles to armored personnel carriers — American police forces have often adopted a mind-set previously reserved for the battlefield.” This process ramped up with the “war
on drugs” in the 1980s and 1990s, as the federal government supplied local and state police forces with military-grade weaponry to clamp down on drug trafficking and other crime. And it accelerated again after the 9/11 attacks and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, when the federal government had — and sent — billions in surplus military equipment to state and local governments. Since 2006, according to an analysis by The New York Times, police departments have acquired 435 armored vehicles, 533 planes, 93,763 machine guns and 432 mine-resistant armored trucks. Overall, since Congress established its program to transfer military hardware, local and state police departments have received $4.3 billion worth of equipment. Accordingly, the value of military equipment used by these police agencies has increased from $1 million in 1990 to $324 million in 1995 (shortly after the program was established), to nearly $450 million in 2013. At the same time as crime has fallen to its lowest levels in decades, police departments are acquiring more hardware and finding more reasons to use SWAT teams and other heavy-handed tactics, regardless of the situation. According to an American Civil Liberties Union report released this summer, 79 percent of SWAT deployments from 2011 to 2012 were for search warrants, a massive overreaction that can have disastrous consequences, including injury and death. That was the case for Aiyana Stanley-Jones, who was killed during a SWAT raid by the Detroit police department. Serving a search warrant for an occupant of the house, Detroit police rushed in with flash bangs and ballistic shields. When one resident tried to grab an officer’s gun, it fired, striking Aiyana. She was 7. If you know anything about the racial
disparities in the criminal justice system, then it also shouldn’t shock you to learn that SWAT deployments are used disproportionately in black and Latino neighborhoods. The ACLU finds that 50 percent of those impacted by SWAT deployments were black and Latino. Of these deployments, 68 percent were for drug searches. And a substantial number of drug searches — 60 percent — involved violent tactics to force entry, which lead predictably and avoidably to senseless injury and death. The fact that police are eager to use their new weapons and vehicles isn’t a surprise. As The New York Times notes, “The ubiquity of SWAT teams has changed not only the way officers look, but also the way departments view themselves. Recruiting videos feature clips of officers storming into homes with smoke grenades and firing automatic weapons.” Put simply, when you give anyone toys, you have to expect they’ll play with them. That is how we get images like the ones in Ferguson, where police officers brandish heavy weapons and act as an occupying force. We should expect as much when we give police departments military weapons. Already — when it comes to predominantly black and brown communities — there’s a long-standing culture of aggressive, punitive policing. Add assault weapons and armored vehicles, and you have a recipe for the repressive, violent reactions that we see in Ferguson, and that are likely inevitable in countless other poor American neighborhoods. Jamelle Bouie is a Slate staff writer covering politics, policy and race. His work has appeared in the Daily Beast, the Nation, the Atlantic and The Washington Post. Copyright Slate
Ferguson is where I went for holidays on my mother’s side of the family growing up in the neighboring north St. Louis County enclaves of Florissant and Riverview. I returned two years ago for dinner at my aunt’s house, a few of blocks from the recent improvements to its historic commercial district, in a neighborhood full of architecturally distinct houses echoing the more affluent inner St. Louis suburb of Webster Groves. On the way to dinner, I slowed to a near stop to pass two young black men walking in the middle of the street. They responded to my car with the casual confidence of teenagers, curious to see if my white family would be intimidated by their presence. My immediate reaction was hesitation and uncertainty, similar to the reaction I receive when answering “Riverview” to the uniquely St. Louis question as to where I attended high school. A second later I recognized in the young men the same swagger my friends and I had when we wandered these streets in the ’80s. I acknowledged their presence with a slight nod and I drove around them. I think a lot about Ferguson and those young men since the shooting of Michael Brown, similarly walking down the middle of a street with a friend when a police officer pulled up alongside them. I think about respect. The young men demanding it for themselves by their physical presence believing they cannot otherwise earn it, and the police officers and passers-by who assume the bravado of these men is evidence of criminal intent. I think about fear. The fear white St. Louisans have of young black men. The fear black St. Louisans have of the police. These fears are justified in limited circumstances, but if applied in all circumstances, the former can only be called racism and the latter can only evolve into anarchy. I think about lost economic opportunity. The local businesses damaged by looting can be repaired, but the reputation of Ferguson will never recover in the minds of the substantially white population living in west or south St. Louis County, or in neighboring St. Charles County, where former North County residents moved en masse as black people began migrating out of the inner city in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s. My wife, who is from the prosperous suburb of Ballwin in West County, may be the last person from her neighborhood to see Ferguson’s historic commercial district or its wonderful variety of mid-century homes for years or even decades to come. But mostly, I think about the hardening of bias. Right now, the death of Michael Brown, the subsequent protests and looting appear likely to only further cement our own established biases. Police officers, seeing young black men walking in the street, will be quicker to assume criminal intent. Blacks, who are tired of police harassment, will be more defiant when they approach. Whites who fear young blacks will feel more justified. Young blacks who see fear in their eyes will be more likely to intimidate. The only way to prevent the further hardening of bias is to accept that each of our views on Ferguson grow from kernels of truth, and to stop using this event to water only those kernels that support our established opinions on race, crime, poverty and law enforcement. Ric Ashe is an attorney at Carnahan, Evans, Cantwell & Brown in Springfield, Mo.