Ferguson Disgrace: Police Fire on Unarmed Crowds, Attack News Trucks
LatestToday in Ferguson, following the arrest of two journalists police continued their all out assault on the liberties and rights of the town’s citizens. Here’s the latest update on what we know so far.
On Saturday, police in Ferguson, Missouri shot and killed an 18-year-old unarmed man named Michael Brown. Since then, protests have taken place throughout the town, which has a population of around 21,000. For those wondering what was going in Ferguson on Wednesday it might have been hard getting information. Many of the major networks were not airing live coverage of anything. Add to that journalists who were actually trying to report on the scene were being rounded up, blocked from the town or just outright arrested.
Via the I Am Mike Brown livestream KARG Argus Radio, viewers watched as police fired rubber bullets into crowds of unarmed citizens. We watched as police advanced on a group of peaceful demonstrators. I Am Mike Brown livestream reported police were demanding that they turn off their cameras. “Because they don’t want witnesses,” the reporter said. This definitely echoes the experience of Huffington Post reporter Ryan Reilly, who was arrested earlier in the day after a SWAT team invaded the McDonald’s he was working out of. When he took a photo, an officer demanded to see his ID. Last I checked, taking a photo was not something that required an ID in this coutry. Reilly was then assaulted and arrested, along with Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowery.
The scene from I Am Mike Brown’s live stream grew incredibly tense. Crowds of people were standing in the street, with their hands above their head. The police began firing tear gas and rubber bullets into the crowd. The crowd did not provoke them. The police took the first shots. The police continued firing as the crowd retreated into a residential neighborhood. The police continued firing into the neighborhood without regard for property or personal safety of the residents.