Missouri Highway Patrol Captain Ron Johnson on Tuesday said that some journalists have given too much attention to the “criminal element” of the Ferguson protests.
“We had a number of journalists — and not all, I want to say that now, the journalists have been on our side, they have been our partners in reporting. I get home each morning, I look at the news and I am really grateful to the media for what they’ve done,” he told MSNBC, according to video recorded by Mediaite. “But we have a lot of media that have not done a great job.”
Johnson then explained that he feels media presence sometimes fuels the violent, criminal aspects of the protests in Ferguson.
“When a certain element, that criminal element, that got out here with masks on, that wanted to agitate and build up the crowd, would stop in front of the media, the media would swarm around them, give them a platform and glamorize their activity,” he said. “Before we knew it, the crowd was 100. Now it’s 200. Now it’s 300. And now those criminals began to start throwing things out of the crowd that was standing within the media.”
Protesters and police continued to clash Monday night in Ferguson. Overnight, at least two people were shot and 31 were arrested, including four journalists.
Watch the MSNBC clip via Breitbart TV:
