Wesley Lowery:
Several people have been arrested more than once during the ongoing unrest in Ferguson, a St. Louis suburb. The records show that the vast majority of the arrests (126) were of Missouri residents – primarily from the St. Louis area.
Nine of those arrested were of Illinois residents, six were from New York, five from California, three from Texas, two from Ohio, and one each from Georgia, Washington D.C., Alabama and Iowa.
The roster includes some journalists, including Ryan Deveraux of The Intercept. However, the list of arrests does not include the majority of journalists who have been detained or arrested, which numbers at least a dozen but could be higher.
Most are not from Ferguson, but surrounding St Louis county.
Reporting in non-Ferguson St. Louis County. There are problems here. Words sources have used: Crushing. Staggering. Entrenched. Unfixable.
— @radleybalko
Yishai Schwartz:
Convicting Darren Wilson Will Be Basically Impossible
You can thank Missouri law for that
We may never know what actually happened during the violent encounter between teenager Michael Brown and policeman Darren Wilson. But legal judgments rarely happen with perfect knowledge and absolute certainty. In their place, we rely on presumptions and standards that guide our thinking and discipline our judgments. In general, we presume innocence. But when we know that a killing has occurred and can definitively identify who committed the act, our presumptions are supposed to shift. Now we are supposed to presume guilt, and it is the shooter who must prove that his actions were justified. Unless the shooter is a policeman. And unless the victim is a black male. And unless the shooting happens in Missouri.
In any clash of witness testimony, police officers begin at huge advantage. Although the courts insist that juries give policemen no extra credence because of their badges as an “essential demand of fairness,” that’s not how jurors actually think or behave. Large percentages of potential jurors readily admit to giving police testimony extra weight, and many more likely act on this implicit bias. And in this case, the favoring of police testimony is compounded by another more pernicious bias: racial prejudice. Extensive research shows that Americans are far more likely to believe that African Americans—and especially young black men—have committed crimes and display violent behavior. It therefore won’t take very much to convince a jury that Officer Wilson was acting out of self-defense.
Cop who pointed rifle at protestors and said âIâll fucking kill youâ suspended indefinitely:
http://t.co/...
— @ezraklein
More politics and policy below the fold.
Jill Lawrence:
If Obama wants to show personal passion, there is a way. He should take up the causes of voter registration and turnout in Ferguson, as Al Sharpton has done. Republicans call this exploiting a tragedy, but in reality it is promoting politics as a substitute for looting, shooting and street protests, in a place that needs to hear that message. Consider: Overall turnout in this year's municipal election in Ferguson was about 12 percent — "an insult to your children," Sharpton told mourners last weekend. Last year, according to research done for The Washington Post, black voter turnout was a tiny 6 percent — roughly one-third the level of white turnout.
As you'd expect, given those patterns, Ferguson has a white mayor, five white council members out of six, and a police force that is 94 percent white. The real shock is that this small St. Louis suburb is 67 percent black. There is no reason for blacks in Ferguson to feel isolated or hopeless. There is every reason for them to vote, and for Obama to remind them through exhortation and his very existence of the change that can be wrought at the ballot box.
Jennifer Bendery:
Missouri congressmen will meet with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Thursday to discuss possible changes to a Pentagon program that provides surplus military weapons to police departments.
Reps. Emanuel Cleaver (D) and Lacy Clay (D), who represents Ferguson, will discuss with Hagel the so-called "1033 program," which since launching in 1997 has provided billions of dollars in military equipment at no charge to local law enforcement agencies around the country. The effects of the program have been on full display this month in Ferguson, Missouri, where police have responded to mostly peaceful protests over the Aug. 9 killing of Michael Brown with a stunning display of force involving armored vehicles, tear gas, assault rifles and smoke bombs.
And in other news:
Sam Hall:
Chris McDaniel, the failed GOP candidate who is contesting the primary results for U.S. Senate, is continuing his fundraising efforts as the court phase of challenge kicks off.
Despite the odd timing, following the first hearing before Judge Hollis McGehee, McDaniel's campaign sent out a fundraising email asking people to contribute at least $35 to his efforts.
LA Times:
Clashes erupted Wednesday as security forces sealed off a sprawling seaside slum in the Liberian capital in a bid to prevent the spread of the deadly Ebola virus.
Angry residents stormed barbed-wire barricades and threw stones at the troops, who fired shots in the air to drive them back, news reports said. Photographs from the scene showed a youth on the ground with blood pouring from his legs.
Fear and confusion have been spreading in the West African nation, where at least 576 people have died, more than in any other country affected by the deadliest Ebola outbreak on record.
David Rohde:
The U.S. government refused to negotiate or pay a ransom in Foley’s case or for any other American captives — including my own abduction by the Taliban five years ago.
With the help of an Afghan journalist abducted with me, I was lucky enough to escape. But today Foley is dead and the Islamic State militants now say Steven Sotloff, a journalist for Time magazine whom the group also captured, will be killed if the United States does not stop bombing its fighters in Iraq.
There are no easy answers in kidnapping cases. The United States cannot allow terrorist groups to control its foreign policy.
One clear lesson that has emerged in recent years, however, is that security threats are more effectively countered by united American and European action. The divergent U.S. and European approach to abductions fails to deter captors or consistently safeguard victims.