I've been trying to follow what is happening in Ferguson by reading the Twitter accounts of a few people there, watching their Vines, looking at their pictures, and reading their first hand account of what is happening in addition to whatever the news media has reported.
We know that the Ferguson police department was warned not to release the video of the theft at the convenience store specifically because it might ignite tensions in the community. From a New York Times article, we know the Justice Department asked the Ferguson Police Department not to release the video because of concerns that “it would roil the community further.” The Justice Department said that it had opposed the release of the video. But the Ferguson police release it anyway.
You are already probably aware of how peaceful the protests were initially when the Missouri Highway Patrol and Captain Johnson took over, so I won’t rehash all that here. But last night, even after the release of the convenience store video, the protests were peaceful early in the night. But I have collected some of the information from Twitter about how police officers behaved late in the night and how the protestors reacted and then the looters reacted.
Here are some tweets from Antonio French about what happened last night, starting from a time when everything seemed calm:
We get a different perspective of the flare of problems between the police and the people, this time from the perspective of a writer for Buzzfeed:
The police ended up in their paramilitary gear again:
Tensions rose, but many protestors tried to deescalate, even after flash bangs and tear gas were used by the police, again:
Here is similar sounding account from the Washington Post:
But as the night wore on, the crowd grew increasingly hostile as the older members and families went home and were replaced by a large crowd that consisted of many clearly intoxicated young people.
Missouri State Highway Patrol Capt. Ronald S. Johnson, who is now in charge of crowd control and had been a calming force on Thursday night when he marched with protesters, was nowhere to be seen.
It was then, according to dozens who were there at the time, that police deployed tear gas and flash grenades — which dispersed many but seemed to only further incite the angriest among the crowd.
This is from one of the reporters arrested earlier this week, Wesley Lowery.
There were many, many tweets describing the interactions between French and members of the protestors present attempting to quell the most upset members of the protest group as well as trying to get the police to back off I've included just a couple, from French himself, that talk about the actions some of the other Ferguson residents took to help:
But besides these interactions, we know that some people began breaking into stores and looting. Some tweets talk about people having come in from out of town, based on the license plates some of the protestors took down.
Beyond that, some may have planned to commit these thefts and were not just spontaneously doing so during the protests:
But here is what many of the protestors did in response:
So they were not able to stop every act of looting. But a lot of people tried.
And today, what is happening in Ferguson?
I wanted to post these tweets and pictures because “the protestors” are not a monolith. What happened last night involved lots of different people with different motivations, most good and a few not so good. But I look at those pictures and see a community trying to do the right thing under tremendously difficult circumstances. I have a lot of respect for the people of Ferguson.
And finally --
Never forget: