You know, switching who is running security in Ferguson is a good idea - obviously. Changing tactics to try to be more reasonable with the protesters is a no-brainer - obviously.
But seriously? "We are looking forward, not behind."
When asked if anyone would be held accountable for the strong arm tactics being deployed in Missouri over the last few days that was the response. What I'm hearing is a simple "No. We don't want to look at our behavior or bother to determine who fucked up, so we're going to pretend that going forward is a reflection of positive focus instead of a a way of dodging our mistakes."
When the governor is asked questions like will they release the incident report surrounding the shooting of Michael Brown, will they release information about the reporters who were arrested yesterday seemingly for no reason, he essentially indicated that he had NO IDEA what was going on with regards to these issues. "I'm not involved with the actual investigations".
When they say that they want to encourage peaceful protests and start a dialog, that's great. But when they focus so much on how that means other people need to listen too, they seem like they are saying that the protesters are not listening to the poor police officers point of view on the subject. There might be a time and a place for a statement like that but this was not it.
He talked about how "gunfire was used on both sides" and characterized the situation as if the public was more responsible - or as responsible for this escalation and violence as the police who have been perpetuating a reign of fear on their own community.
On the whole the tone of the press conference disturbed me greatly. I'm not satisfied. I want to tell Governor Nixon that he needs to do more than this. Putting a black highway patrol officer in charge of local security is all well and good but in this context it feels like a poor attempt at placation.
*This is not meant to comment, impute or make any statement about the qualification of the highway patrol captain who has been placed in charge.