So did the Ferguson PD get military surplus gear from that Pentagon program which has handed out various heavily armored ambush protection vehicles to local police departments around the country? Well, indeed they did!
Here’s another point I keep wondering about on the “Hollywoodization” front. Why are a lot of police officers wearing jungle camouflage? Is there more jungle or forest terrain in Ferguson than I realize? It’s not even a standard military uniform. Obviously in Iraq the beige/brown desert camouflage is the standard, for obvious reasons. But it goes without saying that jungle camouflage serve no purpose in an urban setting than to signal a highly militant response to whatever citizens are doing.
Not confirmed yet by the Governor’s office. But St. Louis Rep. William Clay says the Governor told him he plans to remove the St. Louis County police from duty in Ferguson when he arrives in St. Louis.
As tensions run high in Ferguson, the New York Times video team put together an excellent video to capture the feeling of protests in about three minutes. Flagged by reporter Dylan Scott, the video seems to show the anger and distress of protesters. The last thing you see is a highly armed police officer shoving the camera away.
“Go! Get outta here,” the unidentified officer says.
Watch the full video, below.
A member of Congress is introducing a bill to ‘demilitarize’ local police forces – specifically to end the practice of having the Pentagon transfer military grade weaponry and vehicles to local police departments.
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon puts state Highway Patrol in charge of security in Ferguson. It appears the Ferguson City PD and the St Louis County PD will still be involved in some fashion by that the state Highway Patrol will be in charge.
After a week of basically non-stop suck, check out this powerful on the scene reporting from Wesley Lowery on what appears to be the dramatically changed mood at the protests this afternoon/evening in Ferguson. Ron Johnson, the state Highway Patrol officer now in charge of the police response is marching with the protesting crowd. Amazing read.
Ferguson Police claim dead teenager was “prime suspect” in convenience store robbery.
Just to bring you up to date on the latest development in the Ferguson story, city police have released a police report that purports that show that Michael Brown was the suspect in a convenience store shoplifting/roberry incident in which the suspect stole a box of Swisher Sweets cigars. (It’s a little hard to capture the apparent progression of alleged events in a few words – see the print out of the police report here.)
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