Well, well! It looks like Gov. Jay Nixon has been the recipient of a spinal transplant. Events in Ferguson have finally pushed him off the fence a bit and forced him to take a stand.
Missouri governor points finger at Ferguson police chief for new violence
The governor of Missouri, Jay Nixon, on Sunday blamed the local police chief in Ferguson for renewed violence in the city, as the US department of justice stepped in to order an independent autopsy on the body of the teenager shot dead by a police officer a week earlier.
Nixon condemned the release by the local Ferguson force on Friday of security camera footage and a police report that implicated Michael Brown, 18, in a petty theft at a convenience store a few minutes before he was shot dead. The DoJ, which is leading a civil-rights investigation into the killing, also made it clear at the weekend that it had opposed publication of the pictures.
“I think it had an incendiary effect,” Nixon said in an interview on CBS’s Face the Nation.
In Washington, a spokesman for Eric Holder, the attorney general, cited the “extraordinary circumstances” of the case for the decision to order the postmortem examination, which will be carried out by a federal medical examiner. The circumstances of Brown’s death remained murky and Brown’s family demanded a federal autopsy in an attempt to bring clarity.
The battle lines are hardening in the effort of the black community of Ferguson to seek justice and the reactionary response of the white racist establishment. The Democratic administrations of both the state and federal government are finding it necessary to take a more proactive role in the situation.
Nixon noted the difference in approach of Johnson, who made a point of walking with the crowds, dispensing with military hardware and using “less hard” tactics. “When Captain Johnson arrived, he came right into the community, he did not roll up in MRAV [armoured vehicle],” Nixon told NBC. “It’s very important that our officers are in the communities, to be part of the community when they need protection and not feel like an external force. Across the country, that’s a task we have to address.”
I hope that this means that he is actually coming to understand that and it is not just a good line that his speech writer came up with. Up until now that understanding hasn't come across in his press conferences.