A St. Louis city official who has been extensively documenting the ongoing protests against police in Ferguson, Mo. on social media was arrested Wednesday night during the latest round of clashes between law enforcement and protesters.
Alderman Antonio French was arrested and charged with unlawful assembly, his wife told St. Louis TV station KMOV. French was later released from custody just after 7 a.m. local time Thursday morning.
French’s wife tweeted that her husband had been ordered out of his car and arrested when he “didn’t listen” to police:
@AntonioFrench being booked now. Not sure what the charge is yet. Was ordered out of his car and arrested because he “didn’t listen”.
— Senka (@senka) August 14, 2014
Two reporters, the Washington Post’s Wesley Lowery and the Huffington Post’s Ryan Reilly (formerly of TPM), were also arrested overnight in a separate incident at a McDonald’s. The two had been covering the ongoing protests over Saturday’s fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager, Michael Brown.
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon (D) said in a statement that he found the situation in Ferguson “deeply troubling” and would visit north St. Louis County on Thursday.
“While we all respect the solemn responsibility of our law enforcement officers to protect the public, we must also safeguard the rights of Missourians to peaceably assemble and the rights of the press to report on matters of public concern,” he said.
Eventually they’ll make one too many mistakes with people who actually matter.
Can’t they just “kettle” all the protestestors and spray them in the face with mace? That worked for Officer Balogna and the OWS peaceful protestors in New York. Doesn’t history teach us anything?
It’s stunning to me that in one night they managed to arrest two prominent members of the national media and an alderman. Is it even possible for the local police to have fucked this up any worse without actually killing more innocent people?
Damn. If Ferguson & county police crack out this much military hardware for unarmed protesters, imagine what they’d do if one of the protesters pulled out a gun.
Fuckin’ militarized storm troopers still don’t realize that in the age of social media and Anonymous, they are ultimately bound to lose. The question is how many people they injure or kill before that belated realization.