Michael Brown shooting: Missouri Governor calls in the National Guard

ALL content used in this not-for-profit blog remain the property of their respective owners.
https://news.vice.com/article/there-was-a-state-of-emergency-in-ferguson-long-before-saturday

On Saturday, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency in Ferguson. The following day, Nixon confirmed emergency status by calling in the National Guard — the mark of a domestic crisis.

But what does it mean to declare a state of emergency? In practical terms, the invocation of "emergency" by a politician is not just a description — it does something.

Emergency declarations enable the authorities to deploy extraordinary state powers and restrict ordinary rights and liberties.

What gets to be 'an emergency'?

A reality in which police officers shoot dead unarmed black teens with apparent impunity is already a state of emergency — for unarmed black teens.

The fact that protests that follows are met with stun grenades, lungfuls of tear gas, and M4 rifles is an emergency for constitutional rights to free speech and assembly.

Instead, a number of other factors have earned Ferguson its official "emergency" status. For one, the authorities in Missouri are facing a crisis of reputation, which, following the failure to quell unrest with an "operational shift" at the end of last week, reached emergency levels over the weekend.

The public relations disasters of arrested journalists, warrior cops, and tear gas did not provoke an immediate declaration of emergency.

Rather, the "emergency" lies, I believe, in the realization that rightful rage in Ferguson will not be contained.

The curfew was ignored. People did not go home.

As was the case with the Los Angeles riots in 1992, the risk of calling in the National Guard — is an admission that authorities on the ground did not have control.

On this point, writer Raven Rakia, had noted in the New Inquiry long before the Ferguson unrest:

Nothing gets the attention of the elite like taking away or destroying what they value above all else: property. In America, property is racial. It always has been…. For 300 years, the very idea of a black person's freedom was a direct threat to white men's property…. When the same system that refuses to protect black children comes out to protect windows, what is valued over black people in America becomes very clear.

Raw coverage on the ground in Ferguson, Missouri. Watch it here.