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Day 2 of Ferguson exploding
Tuesday, 12 August 2014 06:11 amFailing in Ferguson: How the police are doing everything wrong and why it’s dangerous for everyone (Melissa Byrne, 12 August 2014)
Her premise is that police escalated the tensions in Ferguson by taking an increasingly aggressive posture in response to events - by bringing police dogs to the crime scene for crowd control (a gesture with extremely negative historical connotations), by bringing out the riot gear early (as early as the vigil, like a slap in the face), by trying to shut out the media, and so on. One look attonight's last night's events, and it's hard to argue. (Sorry, I work weird hours.)
Officially, there was a curfew and the police began to close off the area and disperse the assembled protesters to avoid a repeat of Sunday night's looting and vandalism.
But when you look at the video from folks on site, what you see is armored vehicles and police in riot gear throwing tear gas into crowds of non-violent protesters (or protesters who look non-violent in the clips, especially when up next to guys in riot gear aiming guns at them), shooting rubber bullets at people recording them (including area politicians), blocking off the roads and yanking people out of their cars at gunpoint when (apparently) they were trying to leave the area as instructed. According to people there, roads were blocked in such a way that the people they were telling to go home physically could not leave, despite threats of arrest; add that mass transit was interrupted by the blockages, and there were people who were stranded in the area.
Some reporters said they were told they had to leave, which struck many as suspicious as hell and made them wary that shit would get really ugly if the reporters pulled out.
By the time things quieted in Ferguson, rumors popped up that it was moving south via the Metrolink. Earlier in the day, there was an incident at the Galleria that was rumored to be some thwarted looting (the local news had a clip with a woman who said she'd come to the Galleria after reading some inciting Facebook post), but the late night rumor was that folks were gathering at Chippewa and Gravois and moving up to Hampton Village, which is pretty far away, and makes this a stupid, stupid plan. Having worked overnight at a 24-hour shop on a major bus-line, a group of thieves popping in to steal shit and then running for the bus is nothing new, and I thought, if there was anything to the rumor, it was likely just a bigger-than-usual handful of these asshats trying their luck because they figured most of our police force would be in Ferguson.
Also, that Chippewa and Gravois is a terrible place to group up for a raid on Hampton Village. What are you going to loot between Gravois and Kingshighway, the Wonder Bread day-old store? A really stupid plan.
No sooner had I scoffed, though, than a friend near Gravois Plaza (around the corner from Chippewa and Gravois) reported a smash-and-grab at a shoe store there. So either the rumors were wrong and this was just a coincidence, or the opportunists had their sights the closer Gravois Plaza. (Or maybe someone mentioned that the Wonder Bread day-old store had long since closed down, I don't know.)
Anyhow.
- I hate that it's so easy to lose sight of the fact that this was originally about a teenage boy's death, but there's that terrible dichotomy: does seeing Mike Brown as a symbol and rallying point take away from his death?; and does trying to bring it all back to his death do an injustice to the protesters who are outraged about the violence that threatens them all, and of which Mike Brown is a symbol?
- I hate that folks are conflating protesters with looters, so as to more easily dismiss the protests and justify the violent response. (Yes, in case it wasn't already obvious, I'm kind of a hippie. Deal.)
- I hate that there are these perceived lines in the sand, so folks think you can't be outraged at the police response and outraged at the looters and waiting for the results of the investigation into Brown's death.
- I hate that a friend in the area finds herself not just living through this, but through the stress of having friends on both sides waving flags (metaphorically) and being angry. Twice the rage, twice the stress, I imagine.
- I hate that my tag for all local news, a reference to a hoax from a few years ago, now looks a little racist without context. Dammit. I love my 'sweet baboon of florissant!' tag.
Links, for the linkfully inclined:
- St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Different versions of the encounter that led to a fatal police shooting
- MSNBC: Eyewitness to Michael Brown shooting recounts his friend’s death
- Alderman Antonio French's Twitter feed, with lots of Vine videos from the scene
- Reddit's live feed and map of police scanner reports and incidents (compare with KMOV's map of the looting)
- RT: #FergusonShooting: Outrage as Missouri police shoot and kill ‘unarmed’ black teen because it's nice to get an outside perspective
Her premise is that police escalated the tensions in Ferguson by taking an increasingly aggressive posture in response to events - by bringing police dogs to the crime scene for crowd control (a gesture with extremely negative historical connotations), by bringing out the riot gear early (as early as the vigil, like a slap in the face), by trying to shut out the media, and so on. One look at
Officially, there was a curfew and the police began to close off the area and disperse the assembled protesters to avoid a repeat of Sunday night's looting and vandalism.
But when you look at the video from folks on site, what you see is armored vehicles and police in riot gear throwing tear gas into crowds of non-violent protesters (or protesters who look non-violent in the clips, especially when up next to guys in riot gear aiming guns at them), shooting rubber bullets at people recording them (including area politicians), blocking off the roads and yanking people out of their cars at gunpoint when (apparently) they were trying to leave the area as instructed. According to people there, roads were blocked in such a way that the people they were telling to go home physically could not leave, despite threats of arrest; add that mass transit was interrupted by the blockages, and there were people who were stranded in the area.
Some reporters said they were told they had to leave, which struck many as suspicious as hell and made them wary that shit would get really ugly if the reporters pulled out.
By the time things quieted in Ferguson, rumors popped up that it was moving south via the Metrolink. Earlier in the day, there was an incident at the Galleria that was rumored to be some thwarted looting (the local news had a clip with a woman who said she'd come to the Galleria after reading some inciting Facebook post), but the late night rumor was that folks were gathering at Chippewa and Gravois and moving up to Hampton Village, which is pretty far away, and makes this a stupid, stupid plan. Having worked overnight at a 24-hour shop on a major bus-line, a group of thieves popping in to steal shit and then running for the bus is nothing new, and I thought, if there was anything to the rumor, it was likely just a bigger-than-usual handful of these asshats trying their luck because they figured most of our police force would be in Ferguson.
Also, that Chippewa and Gravois is a terrible place to group up for a raid on Hampton Village. What are you going to loot between Gravois and Kingshighway, the Wonder Bread day-old store? A really stupid plan.
No sooner had I scoffed, though, than a friend near Gravois Plaza (around the corner from Chippewa and Gravois) reported a smash-and-grab at a shoe store there. So either the rumors were wrong and this was just a coincidence, or the opportunists had their sights the closer Gravois Plaza. (Or maybe someone mentioned that the Wonder Bread day-old store had long since closed down, I don't know.)
Anyhow.
- I hate that it's so easy to lose sight of the fact that this was originally about a teenage boy's death, but there's that terrible dichotomy: does seeing Mike Brown as a symbol and rallying point take away from his death?; and does trying to bring it all back to his death do an injustice to the protesters who are outraged about the violence that threatens them all, and of which Mike Brown is a symbol?
- I hate that folks are conflating protesters with looters, so as to more easily dismiss the protests and justify the violent response. (Yes, in case it wasn't already obvious, I'm kind of a hippie. Deal.)
- I hate that there are these perceived lines in the sand, so folks think you can't be outraged at the police response and outraged at the looters and waiting for the results of the investigation into Brown's death.
- I hate that a friend in the area finds herself not just living through this, but through the stress of having friends on both sides waving flags (metaphorically) and being angry. Twice the rage, twice the stress, I imagine.
- I hate that my tag for all local news, a reference to a hoax from a few years ago, now looks a little racist without context. Dammit. I love my 'sweet baboon of florissant!' tag.
Links, for the linkfully inclined:
- St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Different versions of the encounter that led to a fatal police shooting
- MSNBC: Eyewitness to Michael Brown shooting recounts his friend’s death
- Alderman Antonio French's Twitter feed, with lots of Vine videos from the scene
- Reddit's live feed and map of police scanner reports and incidents (compare with KMOV's map of the looting)
- RT: #FergusonShooting: Outrage as Missouri police shoot and kill ‘unarmed’ black teen because it's nice to get an outside perspective
