As the grand jury in
the August 9 shooting death of Mike Brown at the hands of Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson nears a decision, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon held a press conference today to discuss public safety. Below are five critical observations
from the press conference.
1. Governor Nixon chose to have two African-American men stand in the middle behind him during the press conference, but neither answered questions of any sort during the extended Q & A. This lends itself to making the black men look more like optic props instead of substantive contributors to such an urgent conversation.
2. In his very first sentences, Nixon started the presser off talking about the "ugliness" of property damage and how it will not be tolerated. Typically, how a presser begins shows the primary issue of importance and it is disappointing to see potential property damage be the focus in light of the human rights abuses as documented by Amnesty International.
3. The entire tone, content, and trajectory of the press conference operated under the assumption that Darren Wilson would not be indicted and that an angry response would follow. This is troubling. Why is the governor operating under this assumption? What does he know?
4. As has been suggested for months, Nixon confirmed that the National Guard was on alert and has been training for thousands of hours on how it can respond after the grand jury announces its decision.
5. Two names were not mentioned in the 45-minute press conference: Mike Brown or Darren Wilson. Why not?
What observations did you make that you'd like to add?