Missouri Governor Jay Nixon deployed the National Guard to Ferguson in a late-night decision on Sunday without first consulting with, or informing, President Obama. According to a White House spokesman, the administration "didn't know" such a move had been made, and was never contacted by anyone in Nixon's administration.
This is not the first time officials in Missouri have either ignored or expressly gone against the wishes of the White House. Last week, the Justice Department explicitly requested that local police not release a convenience store video, allegedly showing Michael Brown stealing. The fear: releasing such a video would be tantamount to incitement. Instead of complying, Ferguson police released the video, and escalation that night led to police firing upon protesters with tear gas and deploying riot police.
Police confront unarmed man in Ferguson. Image by Ben Kesling
Attorney General Eric Holder also
severely critiqued Missouri's militarized police response last week, calling the use of force excessive, and expected a less militarized response after Justice Department "guidelines" were expressed.
Instead, the National Guard has been deployed, children were hit with tear gas last night, and today no standing protesters are being allowed in Ferguson, with anyone milling rather than marching set to be arrested.
This police response in Ferguson is the confluence of two powerful forces: systemic racism in policing and the militarization of law enforcement. Those two forces are meeting in Ferguson to constitute a war being waged on black citizens by police who look like an occupying military force.
And all of this is happening upon direction of Missouri officials who are either ignoring or opposing a black President and a black Attorney General.
This is madness.
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David Harris-Gershon is author of the memoir What Do You Buy the Children of the Terrorist Who Tried to Kill Your Wife?, recently published by Oneworld Publications.