Ed Krayewski on Ferguson, Newark, State Violence, Riots, and Democracy

The situation in Ferguson, Missouri, isn’t
looking much better. On Saturday afternoon a cop who has not been
identified shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year
old police say was walking in the street. Brown’s body was left out
in the open for hours—as a warning, some residents said. If it was
meant to intimidate, it didn’t work. The reaction from the
community was immediate—impromptu protests that same afternoon
included chants of “Kill the police.” By Sunday night, there were
protests, followed by rioters, and the now standard set-piece, the
militarized police. The same happened on Monday, and on Tuesday,
and on Wednesday, when cops assaulted multiple
journalists, arrested at least 16 people,
including a St. Louis alderman covering the protests on
Twitter, clashed with protesters, and generally acted pretty
close to the way an occupying force might when faced by indigenous
resistance. Were people shooting at cops?  It didn’t look like
it. Protests were largely peaceful. The police were not. On
Wednesday night, Missouri’s Democrat governor, Jay
Nixon released a statement “urging” law enforcement to
respect the rights of residents in Ferguson. He excused police
actions this week as in the interests of “protecting the public.”
The limp statement was excoriated by activists following events in
Ferguson, Missouri, and, writes Ed Krayewski, rightly so. How could
a governor merely urge local cops to respect rights? But would
sending in the National Guard instead be better?

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