Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon (D) said Thursday that the identity of the Ferguson police officer who shot an unarmed African-American teen should be released “as expeditiously as possible.”
Nixon added that he did not know the name of the officer who shot Michael Brown on Saturday, sparking the confrontations between protesters and police that have captured the nation’s attention.
Police have so far refused to release the name, citing threats against the officer.
“I would hope that the appropriate release of that name with the security around it if necessary to make sure that there’s not additional acts of violence be done as expeditiously as possible,” Nixon said.
He added that he was “not sure” that a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union to force the release of the police report of the shooting was the best way to make that information public.
“I think it would be an important milestone here to get that out as expeditiously as possible,” Nixon said.
Reasonable statement.
Very much so. Of course it’s the actions that will really count.
He is the governor. And they haven’t told him the name yet?
That doesn’t sound reasonable to me.
The best way to deal with the lawsuit is make it moot by complying with their request and releasing the police report.
If they want to set a new tone, right now is the time to get this information out of there, while you are putting someone new in charge.
Not releasing the name until they have this guy in a safe location, etc. is very reasonable in my estimation.
Maybe they don’t want to release the name of the police office involved because the officer has a long list of incidents with black men and that everyone who knew him expected that, eventually, something like this murder would happen.