Protests turn violent in St. Louis suburb

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By ALAN SCHER ZAGIER and JEFF ROBERSON

FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) — Police used tear gas and smoke bombs to repel crowds who threw Molotov cocktails during another violent night on the streets of a St. Louis suburb in the wake of the shooting of the unarmed 18-year old Michael Brown.

Hours earlier, the police chief had said race relations were the top priority in the town, where a white police officer fatally shot the black teen. Authorities have vowed to reach across the racial, economic and generational divide in a community in search of answers.

In the streets of Ferguson, though, the polite dialogue heard at community forums and news conferences is nowhere to be found.

Instead, officers from multiple departments in riot gear and in military equipment have clashed nightly with protesters, who chant, "Hands up, don't shoot." Wednesday saw more tense confrontations and further volleys of tear gas from police — this time paired with smoke bombs in response to flaming projectiles and other objects lobbed from the crowd. Protesters faced heavily armed police who at times trained weapons on them from armored trucks.

FULL story at link.



A device deployed by police goes off in the street as police and protesters clash Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2014, in Ferguson, Mo. Authorities in the St. Louis suburb where an unarmed black teen was shot and killed by a police officer have used tear gas to try to disperse protesters after flaming projectiles were thrown from the crowd. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20140814/us--police_shooting-missouri-d234146033.html

[KG]

1. the protests didn't turn violent, the police did.

[Mnemosyne]

2. +1000 nt

[sarge43]

3. Exactly. Thank you n/t

[ReRe]

8. Exactly my first thought. n/t

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

11. Thank you so much! The Corporate Media trying hard to paint us Negroes as violent animals!

They are reacting to police brutality if anything happened. If there are a few bad apples, the Corporate Media generalizes about EVERYONE!!! UGH!!

[jwirr]

17. Exactly. An old 60s police action.

[Roland99]

25. I wonder who threw those "Molotov cocktails"

we all know that cops infiltrated Occupy Wall St protests and instigated violence back then....

[deutsey]

4. I heard on the radio a few minutes ago

that Palestinians in Gaza are tweeting advice to protesters in Ferguson on how to deal with tear gas.

[jwirr]

18. LOL Good - we used to chant "The world is watching."

[Divernan]

5. In a Hill Street Blues world turned upside down, civilians need "to be careful out there."

[alcibiades_mystery]

6. Molotov cocktails my ass

The AP should be ashamed of printing this bullshit.

There was a police riot in St. Louis county last night - municipal and county police basically assaulted a town and its residents.

[Dustlawyer]

9. I only watched MSNBC and there was ZERO on Molotov cocktails!

[Chasstev365]

7. A Police Riot

"Gentlemen, let's get this straight: the police aren't their to provoke disorder; they're there to preserve it." Mayor Richard M. Daley August 1968.

[surrealAmerican]

21. Wrong mayor ...

It was Richard J. Daley, and the quote was:

The police are not here to create disorder, they're here to preserve disorder.

[Chasstev365]

22. You are correct!

[Billy Budd]

10. where are the Cliven Bundy Militias ?

The "Jack Booted Thugs" are out violating folks rights and the Cliven Bundy Freedom dudes are nowhere to be seen ....

[onehandle]

13. The gun owners are singing 'Dixie' in their basements. nt

[Deny and Shred]

14. Everything the Bundy bunch thinks COULD happen

to them IS and HAS BEEN happening to people of color across the nation. Complete hypocrites. To them, it is We the White People.

[notadmblnd]

12. I watched the live feed last night and the only violent actions taken

was by law enforcement as both a Huffington Post and Washington Post journalists can attest to.

[Moostache]

15. We have made ZERO progress in 26 years...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=1M8vei3L0L8

It is unbelievable that we have a televised police invasion and military coup in Ferguson (unapproved curfews? Tear gas in residential areas? More gear than the Marines had in Fallujah?)....

FUCK THA POLICE indeed...

&feature=player_detailpage

In honor of the police department of Ferguson, Missouri and every other cop who thinks the badge and weapons make them special....marinate in the words and rage of Ice-T and the rest of the world watching you disgrace yourselves and the United States of America on cameras for the world to see now...

[jwirr]

16. The city officials say one thing and their police force comes out dressed for military action and

does the opposite. Talk about mixed messages. This police force is either out of control - disobeying their own bosses - or the city officials are lying to us.

Come on city officials take their toys away from them and tell them to stand down. Ask the Feds for help if you must.

Then send in the preachers and peacemakers who went to jail last night to regain control. They are the only group left with any respect from the people.

Show the people that you mean what you say about racist attitudes. Talk is not enough. Fire openly racist police and educate the rest. One thing they need education in is crowd control. You do not do it by escalating the situation. They also need to be taught that they work for ALL of us not just the few.

And above all get rid of the military equipment. Put it in your parks like we did the ones from other wars. But your police back into regular uniforms and regular equipment.

Tell those who are military trained that they cannot use tactics in this country that they may have used in a war zone.

Arrest the police officer who killed the two unarmed black men. Too often this has been happening across the US and nothing is done. No justice and it needs to stop now.

[PatrickforO]

19. Usually protests begin peacefully until the police

escalate them.

[zeemike]

20. Well let's be practical. The cops need the practice in case the terrorist.

It is not often that they get the opportunity to practice the art of war, so they take advantage of it.
If you give a kid a tool he wants to play with it. And you should not be surprised when they use that hammer to smash things...
So let's be practical, kids need to play with the toys.

[blackspade]

23. Fascism.

The cops are the out of control rioters in this case.

[negoldie]

24. UH

uh, if there were Molotov cocktails being thrown where are the photos of said cocktails. Sounds like there might be provocateurs in the crowd. Again I wonder where the photojournalist are. There should be multiple photo's of folks throwing shit but I can't find any. Any DUers know of video or still pics of the crowd becoming violent. if there was so much violence against the police. Shouldn't the police have video evidence of such awful behavior.

[randys1]

26. The AMerican Taliban/Teaparty and cons hate Black prez, they want to create situations

where they can murder Black people, that is what they are doing

We will watch this for how long before we demand some changes, i dont know

[heaven05]

27. where was this

type of police response when those in bundyland had automatic weapons trained on law enforcement? I'm just saying.........