State officials on Sunday defended their tough response to the chaos that enveloped this St. Louis suburb on the first night of a curfew and imposed a second night of restrictions as signs emerged of heightened federal involvement in the
fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager.
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon (D) stood behind his decision to order the midnight-to-5 a.m. curfew, after a night marked by gun violence, tear gas and armored vehicles on the streets, the latest wave of protest over the Aug. 9 death of 18-year-old Michael Brown. The shooting has made this town of 21,000 people the epicenter of a national debate about race and justice in African American communities.
"Last night's curfew - I think everybody worked well," Nixon said on CNN's "State of the Union." "We're always disappointed when things aren't perfect. But thousands of people spoke last night, thousands of people marched, and [there was] not a single gunshot fired by a member of law enforcement last night."
Capt. Ronald Johnson of the
Missouri Highway Patrol, who is overseeing security in Ferguson and had earlier mingled with protesters, took a new tack Sunday, calling the police response "proper" and saying he was "disappointed" in the actions of the demonstrators. A highway patrol spokesman told the
St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the curfew would be extended for another night.
In Washington, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. issued an unusual statement ordering an independent autopsy of Brown's body by a federal medical examiner. Spokesman Brian Fallon said the Justice Department was responding to requests from Brown's family and "the extraordinary circumstances involved in this case." Brown was killed by a white police officer, Darren Wilson.
Comment: Governor Nixon has it backwards. It's not the community that is out of control. It is the city's dehumanizing militarized police force that is on the rampage. When authorities lose their humanity in their inability to work out issues with people who are understandably outraged over police brutality and unjustified murder, they should lose their authority all together.