Follow-Up To Michael Brown Post

Yesterday I posted a piece about the tragedy of Michael Brown's death in Ferguson, Mo. That post seems like old news today. I was up into the early morning hours of August 14th watching news coverage of demonstrations and police response in Ferguson. The coverage I was watching started with the reporting of two reporters being arrested at a local McDonalds in Ferguson. It then became apparent that there was more to come. Throughout the coverage I watched as police broke up a crowd with tear gas, flash bombs and some reports of rubber bullets being shot at people.

Much of what I saw reminded me of actions taken 50 years ago by police in Selma, Al. Actions that resulted in thousands of people responding to assist the people of Selma and demonstrators in putting the spotlight on police behavior in that community.

What strikes me about the police actions in Ferguson is that no civilian authority seems to be stepping forward to monitor or direct these actions. Perhaps it is happening in the background but it certainly isn't obvious. There are videos showing police dismanteling lights and video cameras. There are multiple police agencies and coordination and authority seem to be confused. This morning, the Governor of Missouri, Jay Nixon, has expressed concern about police action relative to citizen's rights to assembly and protest and the medias' right to cover these activities. Local leaders in authority, the mayor and city council, have a responsibility to oversee and if necessary control police actions. That's how the relationship between policing authorities and civilian authorities is supposed to work. If it doesn't work that way we should all be concerned.