One of the most peaceful nites in Ferguson yet. I was collecting tweets to show just how nice it was
. . . how nice it was without the police lining up ready to attack everyone, when the mood shifted rapidly and dramatically.
I posted the entire account here:
VERY quiet and PEACEFUL tonight in Ferguson- THEN, one PLASTIC bottle thrown and its a POLICE STATE!
____ I had turned off the live feed because it was such a calm and satisfying sight that I wanted to record just how peaceful it had been with the police out of view (mostly, they were guarding the McDonald's of all places. Whatever, I thought).
Almost as soon as I was getting some accounts down of just how special a night it had been with these amazingly dedicated and committed youth and others sticking to the sidewalk and marching for hours on end, when someone threw a plastic water bottle. That's all it took for the police to forcefully mobilize against them.
What I found notable was the way in which the police pushed those who were resting in a parking lot - a spot which had been a refuge ALL night for demonstrators to rest and catch their breath, get water and food, etc. - the way they lined up with their riot gear and rifles and pushed everyone into the street. Then, they began ordering protestors OUT of the street THEY pushed them in.
Demonstrators then formed a circle in that same general parking area and, after asking whatever police they were able for permission, began to pray together. At the end of the prayer, one man announced through a bullhorn that their demonstration was over and they would meet the next morning at another location. At that, most of the demonstrators started for their cars and many left.
The prayer circle seemed to agitate the police even more. They mobilized and lined up opposite the PRESS area. Several reporters began taking pictures; several were threatened at the point of guns to stop recording. There were several strobe lights held by officers lined up in riot gear opposite the press area to block the shots of their aggression. It was a futile, but an amazingly unconstitutional act.
I couldn't believe what I was seeing in the images and what was being recorded by these very prominent members of the press and also some public officials like Patricia Bynes, Democratic Committeewoman of Ferguson Township in St Louis County in MO; A delegate for MO's 1st Congressional District; who was hemmed in with the besieged media group.
The mostly young protesters who were left (not more than minutes after the prayers) quickly moved into the press area. For god sakes, it was the only place they were allowed to go. Older members of the demonstrating group quickly moved in between the line of police in riot gear who had lined up opposite the press area as if to attack and they held hands in a line and turned their backs to police to provide a barrier against the imminent assault.
That's when all hell broke loose. The police began yelling for the press too disperse. Where were they going to go? They were hemmed in on all sides. The police then began to rush in to the press area and extract youth who didn't appear to be threatening at all. The police ordered the press to move to one place and many did. The young and old demonstrators moved right along with them for protection, PLEADING with the press to not abandon them To the media's credit, they stayed right with them.
The police then ordered the press to move back to where they were, in an obvious effort to shake them off from the demonstrators seeking refuge among them from the rifles and batons and the mace that was being sprayed now indiscriminately at completely innocent protestors. The officers would rush into the press crowd with their rifles pointed directly at the non-threatening crowd and pick out young people and arrest them in the most violent way imaginable; face down on the concrete with their feet in their backs.
Reporters, photogs, and others who were incredibly there as human rights and legal observers were also slammed to the ground at gunpoint and arrested. At one point, police were literally throwing this one black man against a low metal fence until it gave way then they pushed whoever was gathered there into and violently over that metal barrier; many unable to get over it without effort or injury.
After it became clear that the crowd wasn't resisting and was scattered here and there, the police began to dissemble their assaults as well . . . but not until after they had perpetrated the most egregious, arbitrary, and unnecessarily violent assault on an American-based media that I think I've ever witnessed or even heard of.
I think this pic taken from an instagram vid says it all . . . it's a shot of one of the rights observers under a riot policeman's boot with a gun to his head . . .
Ryan J. Reilly @ryanjreilly 19m
RT @akjohnson1922: That green hat reads National Guild Lawyer, which is a legal observer. #Ferguson http://instagram.com/p/r6K-lJALeX/
Ryan J. Reilly, who re-tweeted that, was on the scene during the melee and is a Justice Reporter for HuffPost. He made this comment to Politico on his own role there:
" . . . the media have a tendency to “protect their own,” which can result in disproportional coverage of journalists. Media personalities are also better known than the average citizen, and readers have the expectation that they can be trusted, he said.
“I definitely didn’t come down here planning on becoming a part of this story — I would have been much happier staying out of it. But that wasn’t really a choice I had, because I was locked up,” said Reilly. “As a reporter, you’re in the midst of it, and your presence is obviously going to have an impact.”
He added, “It’s tough to imagine how much worse the treatment must be for those who aren’t in the media, who don’t have that platform that we in the media do. Obviously, our story doesn’t compare to what other people have gone through.”
I can't help but well-up with great emotion at that thought and sentiment. I really don't know what's going on in my country - in Ferguson - and what we can do to make this stop immediately and to protect these youth and others right to assemble and protest without this police brutality and repression. Those aren't just catchphrases in Ferguson anymore. They are a stunning and frightening reality that we are all witnessing, seemingly helpless to make it stop. I'm almost undone by it. Almost, but not yet.
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