Map of the area. The police line crosses W. Florissant Ave., north of Maline Creek.
We presume to be a police officer, on top of a vehicle operated by the police. The fully-automatic rifle is magazine-fed; and possibly this man and rifle are the source of a number of rubber bullets fired - carelessly, despite the sniper-scope - into the crowd. Members of the media were targeted, an unwise police action.
Prior to the bottle tosses, there had been distinctly different views on the Michael Brown death - events - and what was happening, both locally and nationally as a result, among people in the crowd/protest last evening, in Ferguson, MO.
There were people who said that Obama and The Race Card Players (Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton et al) are all talk, which was countered by some Chicago area stalwart union types whose comments amounted to "Don't diss Obama." The people in general were *not* in agreement about the "black power politicians" interests and intent.
Such distinctions changed a lot, over the evening leading to dusk, as local people went home for dinner and the evening, but out-of-towners showed up with determination to confront (at a distance) the police line.
Other than a fellow who showed up after the sun went down, and he had a bullhorn and led chants trying to whip up the crowd of about 150 people, there were some young black men who were prepared to launch bottles --- these may be the people who caused the police to change tune, from "You can continue to protest peaceably" to "You are no longer protesting peaceably and must leave the area."
After the bottle tosses, the police quickly responded with a warning and commenced to fire rubber bullets and tear gas. That caused the protesters and media to flee away from the police, more than 200 ft. Followed by the police repeatedly stating that "You must leave the area; return to your cars and homes; or you will be subject to arrest." The police said that *a lot.* There was plenty of warning and opportunity to "call it a night."
There were several different news media types present. Some, local TV; some, Internet-based. For unknown reasons, at least 2 separate local TV news teams were attacked by the police, and these people mostly retreated to within their vehicles; but at least 2 female police/SWAT members plus another who constantly aimed an automatic rifle at a nearby home, attacked and dismantled the communications and news gear of an Al Jazeera news team:
... again, an unwise police action. While the other more footloose, Internet-based media who kept video rolling, were at times accurately relating events but at other times were *over-stating* events.
One team, I believe it was from infowars.com, retreated along Lang Dr. to the west of Florissant Ave. At some distance along Lang Dr., they encountered a husband and wife standing outside their home. The wife did a pretty good job of summing up the situation. She squarely said, that the violent protestors and thieves (of the previous destruction re the QT store) were in the wrong, but she added that the police had made a number of mistakes and were in the wrong on those counts, too.
One thing that the police and public officials seem to be unaware of, is how good the intel is among the neighborhoods. Certainly, people are unhappy about events, and there is some bias regarding what happened to young Michael Brown, but the awareness - among the local people - of who are the good cops and who are the bad cops, seems to very specific.
Overall, the "unrest" of last night (Wed., Aug. 13th), was the result of some out-of-town agitators - about 2 dozen - plus some young men who piled on.
Some of such, who like to pile on, picked on a white man, accusing him of "being with the cops," and they pummeled him for a bit --- while locals kept telling the "boys" to stop.
To the limited extent of the travels of the video-graphers, it seemed clear that the local residents are unhappy and willing to protest, but they do *not* seem to be the cause of violence and destruction.
Since then, photos that allege to include the deceased, Michael Brown, have shown up at FR, such as the one above in reply 15, where a man assaults a woman, plus [yesterday, 08/14/2014] in an article posted to FR, a photo [dated last year, 08/24/2013] of four somewhat young men, leaving a Home Depot, who were suspects in the stolen-hammer beating of a man outside the Home Depot store 1 year ago:
