Following the death of Michael Brown, the riots in Ferguson were reacted to fairly quickly and forcefully by Ferguson police. They were immediately strongly criticized for being over-reactive, too militaristic, etc., and were replaced by state command.
Following the announcement of the Grand Jury decision, the state command response was much more laid back. Although the National Guard was already on scene, they and the rest of the police response pretty much let the rioters do what they wanted. Seems to me this is what was asked for in response to the original riots.
But, the response to this was immediate criticism that the National Guard was not more involved, the police response was weak, etc.
Is there any way that the police response would be considered to be appropriate?
Experience enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again - Jeanne Pincha-Tulley
Comprehensive is Latin for there is lots of bad stuff in it - Trey Gowdy
HEARTLESS wrote: More flowers, rainbows, stuffed animals and a cow bell. Definitely a cow bell.
What?! No unicorn farts?!
I can explain it to you but I can't understand it for you.
"Any man who thinks he can be happy and prosperous by letting the Government take care of him; better take a closer look at the American Indian." - Henry Ford
Corruptissima re publica plurimae leges; When the Republic is at its most corrupt the laws are most numerous. - Publius Cornelius Tacitus
HEARTLESS wrote: More flowers, rainbows, stuffed animals and a cow bell. Definitely a cow bell.
What?! No unicorn farts?!
Is that what I hear and smell? I've been blaming the dogs.
jf1acai, It is easy to armchair quarterback the situation from the comfort of home. Those at ground zero always have it tough, damned either way. We can all learn from the perceived mistakes but life is messy and rarely works out the way we plan. I have so much respect for all our first responders and will always cut them some slack because until someone has been in their shoes we are just imagining what we would do.
I can tell you this as a business owner. Unless some assurances had been made by someone in authority that my establishment would be protected from rioters I would have been at my business and ready to defend it from a mob intent on destroying it.
National guard was in the area, but, according to an interview I heard on KNUS, they were held in reserve until about 2 a.m. despite the pleas of the mayor of Ferguson, by Governor Nixon and the majority of those guard units were staged in the St. Louis area, not in Ferguson. You will notice that in the time since there are more guard units and that they are now positioned at regular intervals along the commercial avenues.
Much less in the way of lawlessness since Monday night/Tuesday morning. Now whether this is because there is little left to loot and burn, the lion's share of passion was spent, or there is now a higher presence of armed personnel that are highly visible is impossible to determine, but I feel confident in saying that seeing someone in full combat gear every few feet certainly affects one's thinking when one is thinking about mischief of any kind.
The person interviewed on KNUS was retired law enforcement from the Ferguson force, and in the interests of full disclosure, the brother of the current chief of police. It was his opinion that because the mayor wouldn't replace the chief, or do other biddings of the governor in other areas, that the governor was punishing the mayor by making himself scarce while the mayor desperately was seeking assistance and that the delay in deploying the guard was done to harm the mayor politically. Note, please, that I said it was his opinion, not mine.
It seemed to me that most of the criticism of the original Ferguson response was from politicians and pundits who have little knowledge of what they are talking about. However, it appears that criticism of that response has led to unwillingness on the part of the current command to engage forcefully, resulting in the fiasco on Monday night. And of course many of the same people who criticized the strong initial Ferguson response, were also quick to criticize the weaker response on Monday.
As Heartless said, the responders are damned if they do, and damned if they don't.
Experience enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again - Jeanne Pincha-Tulley
Comprehensive is Latin for there is lots of bad stuff in it - Trey Gowdy
I think what can also be gleaned from the experiences thus far is that the response in August didn't exacerbate the problem, which is one of the criticisms that was leveled against the local and State forces.
If I were a betting man I'd bet that the most recent response was by request of the president and his AG, couched as a suggestion from them given the broad investigation the feds are currently conducting. "You don't want to give us more reasons to expand our investigation do you? So what I would recommend, in order to avoid even the appearance doing something we might find objection with, is that you handle it this way . . . "
