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In a tense, middle-of-the night press conference early Tuesday morning, Missouri Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson lectured members of the media about safety and implored them to assist law enforcement in calming tensions in the city. After reporting that two individuals had been shot and several police officers injured during another night of protests in response to last week’s shooting of Michael Brown, Johnson showed members of the media items that law enforcement officials had confiscated during the previous night’s protests including a Molotov cocktail, fireworks that had been thrown into a crowd, and two guns. Johnson said the guns...

<p>It may not have been the aim of Missouri Highway Patrol captain Ron Johnson to outsource security responsibilities to someone affiliated with the New Black Panthers and a legal activist group, but that is the impression that one receives from listening to his exchange with and praise of Malik Shabazz. If this is the same Malik Shabazz who has a long history of virulent racist and inflammatory anti-Semitic statements, then there has been at least a partial erosion of legal authority in Ferguson.</p>

Eric Holder is instituting the same process in Ferguson Missouri he used in Sanford Florida. The civil rights wing of the DOJ is dispatched into Ferguson. They are officially called the “Community Relations Service” (CRS), and historically -in previous administrations- have been called upon when racial animus is a concern amid a local municipality. However, under the Eric Holder tenure, and as a specific mandate of the current administration, the CRS has been given a different mandate. The CRS is a statutorily protected secret entity within the DOJ, and is now the official racial advocacy network for the professional black...

Two Missouri Democrats on Tuesday said it would be a bad idea for President Obama to visit Ferguson, Mo. They said the last thing authorities in the St. Louis suburb need right now is to deal with the security surrounding a presidential visit, something they also said would also place unrealistic expectations on Obama. So, I don't think the president needs to come to Ferguson,” Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program. “It adds another distortion. We don't need that now. And we don't need any more people coming into Ferguson to help the poor people out...

Angry protests and police violence have continued night after night in Ferguson, Mo., since the murder of an unarmed Black teenager, Mike Brown, on August 9. Despite claims by local and state authorities that they want to respect the rights of protesters, police provocations have grown more intense over the past two nights--with reports on Monday that the cops began their nightly barrage of tear gas hours before a midnight curfew. SocialistWorker.org writers Eric Ruder, Elizabeth Schulte, Trish Kahle and Donny Schraffenberger traveled to Ferguson to provide this account of a community rising up against police violence, despite a crackdown...

Every once in a while serendipity strikes the background. Check out the cardboard sign carried by a group of protestors being interviewed by Anderson Cooper: (Photo) “You’ve Killed Our Kind 4 Years But Won’t Sacrifice 1 Cop For Justice & To Save A Community & These Businesses” Somebody tell me exactly how you open dialogue with that mindset ?

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)National Guard troops entered the protest zone Monday night after a large crowd suddenly gathered at Ferguson and West Florissant avenues, ignoring police orders to disperse.. An hour later, the atmosphere remained tense in this St. Louis suburb, and tear gas and smoke wafted through the air. Several people were arrested. For much of the day, demonstrations over the Aug. 9 police killing of Michael Brown had been peaceful. But about 10:15 p.m. the tenor changed. About 100 people seemed to appear in the blocked-off street out of nowhere, and a few plastic water bottles flew through the air. "You...

The Justice Department’s chief peacekeeper is on his way to embattled Ferguson, Mo. Usually, Grande H. Lum flies under the radar. As head of the department’s Community Relations Service, the Harvard Law School graduate is an experienced mediator, more diplomat than prosecutor. The agency he heads was established under the 1964 Civil Rights Act, with the stated mission to aid communities “in resolving disputes, disagreements, or difficulties relating to discriminatory practices based on race, color, or national origin which impair the rights of persons in such communities.” “These officials will continue to convene stakeholders whose cooperation is critical to keeping...

....Obama appeared wary today about the National Guard being sent to Ferguson, Missouri, saying he urged the governor to ensure the troops were involved in a "limited" way. Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon ordered the state's National Guard to be deployed to the city this morning after another violent night of clashes between protesters and police over the shooting death of Michael Brown on Aug. 9.

<p>FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) — Leaders of the Nation of Islam and other black activist groups working to calm tensions in Ferguson are asking protesters to clear the streets of the St. Louis suburb at sunset amid the National Guard's arrival.</p>

PROTESTERS STORM GOVERNOR’S ST. LOUIS OFFICE – Demand Removal of National Guard in #Ferguson

Attorney General Eric Holder released the following statement Monday following his briefing of President Obama on the latest developments in the federal civil rights investigation in Ferguson, Missouri: “As I informed the President this afternoon, the full resources of the Department of Justice are being committed to our federal civil rights investigation into the death of Michael Brown. “During the day today, more than 40 FBI agents continued their canvassing of the neighborhood where Michael Brown was shot. As a result of this investigative work, several new interviews have already been conducted. “Moreover, at my direction, an additional medical examination...

...There seems no reason to treat Ferguson as if it were an actual neighborhood rather than what it's become, namely, just another place where civilization goes to die. The current residents have amply demonstrated their "sense of hope and sense of purpose." There's compelling evidence outsiders won't impose another. As with any natural sinkhole, wishing it were some other way is futile. Ferguson's fate seems decided. Businesses which escaped the looting and arson will also be abandoned, never to return. The remaining law-abiding, productive citizens will flee with them. The tax base will collapse. Schools will teach it's all someone...

President Barack Obama is sending Attorney General Eric Holder to Ferguson, Missouri, to meet with federal law enforcement authorities investigating the police shooting of an unarmed teenager. Obama says Holder will travel to the St. Louis suburb on Wednesday.

Calling for understanding in the face of racially charged anger, President Barack Obama said Monday that the vast majority of protesters in a St. Louis suburb were peaceful, but warned that a small minority was undermining justice for the unarmed black man shot and killed by police. During a brief pause in his summer vacation, Obama expressed sympathy for the “passions and anger” sparked by the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, but said giving in to that anger through looting and attacks on police only stirs tensions and leads to further chaos. …

Random thoughts on the passing scene: I don't know why we are spending our hard-earned money paying taxes to support a criminal justice system, when issues of guilt and innocence are being determined on television — and even punishment is being meted out by CNN's showing the home and address of the policeman accused in the Ferguson, Missouri shooting. One of the big differences between Democrats and Republicans is that we at least know what the Democrats stand for, whether we agree with it or not. But, for Republicans, we have to guess. It is amazing how many otherwise sane...

Ferguson happens a few times every month. More often in the summer when tempers are hot and crowds of bored men and women fill the streets looking for something to do. Teenagers ransack stores. Small cities stretch their budgets in a bad economy to put as many cops as they can on the street. And then somewhere between the open fire hydrants, the stores that do most of their business in EBT cards and lottery tickets, the check cashing places and furniture rental outlets, something happens. And it happens a lot more often than you think. A crowd gathers. Fists...

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In an unusual move, the global rights organization Amnesty International has dispatched a delegation of observers and organizers to Ferguson, Mo., to provide direct support to community members and to observe the police response to protests. The 13-person delegation, which arrived late last week, was the first of its kind deployed by Amnesty within the United States, the organization said. The St. Louis suburb has been filled with unrest since since Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, was shot and killed on Aug. 9 by Darren Wilson, a white police officer. That unrest intensified once again on Sunday, with reports...

WASHINGTON — Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon called the National Guard to Ferguson late Sunday without letting the White House know first. “Folks didn’t know,” an administration official told BuzzFeed Monday. “The White House did not know they were sending it in.” Nixon gave “no heads up,” the official said.