http://www.npr.org/2014/08/11/339482090 ... -by-police
Stores Looted After Vigil For Mo. Teen Shot And Killed By Police
by The Associated Press
August 11, 2014 4:19 AM ET
A day of anger over a fatal police shooting of an unarmed black man in suburban St. Louis turned to mayhem as people looted businesses, vandalized vehicles and confronted police who sought to block off access to several areas of the city.
The tensions erupted after a candlelight vigil Sunday night for 18-year-old Michael Brown, who police said was shot multiple times the previous afternoon after a scuffle involving the officer, Brown and another person in Ferguson, a predominantly black suburb of the city.
Afterward, a convenience store was looted. Several other stores along a main road near the shooting scene were broken into, including a check-cashing store, a boutique and a small grocery store. People also took items from a sporting goods store and a cellphone retailer, and carted rims away from a tire store.
TV footage showed streams of people walking out of a liquor store carrying bottles of alcohol, and in some cases protesters were standing atop police cars or taunting officers who stood stoic, often in riot gear.
Other witnesses reported seeing people vandalize police cars and kick in windows. Television footage showed windows busted out of a TV station van.
Police were having a hard time catching looters because crimes were happening at several locations in Ferguson and spilling into neighboring communities, Mayor James Knowles told KTVI-TV. It wasn't immediately clear how many arrests were made. Authorities set up some blockades to try to keep people from the most looted areas.
While St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley said that there were no reports of injuries as of about 11 p.m., there also were scattered reports of assaults into the early morning. Pat Washington, a spokeswoman for Dooley, there was one instance she knew of in which tear gas was used. There were scattered media reports of gunfire but authorities did not immediately confirm any.
"Right now, the small group of people are creating a huge mess," Knowles told KTVI-TV. "Contributing to the unrest that is going on is not going to help. ... We're only hurting ourselves, only hurting our community, hurting our neighbors. There's nothing productive from this."
As the investigation of Brown's death progresses, "we understand people want to vent their frustrations. We understand they want to speak out," Knowles added. "We're going to obviously try to urge calm."
Earlier in the day, a few hundred protesters had gathered outside Ferguson Police headquarters. At one point, many of them marched into an adjacent police building, some chanting "Don't shoot me" while holding their hands in the air. Officers stood at the top of a staircase, but didn't use force; the crowd eventually left.
County Police Chief Jon Belmar said the shooting occurred after an officer encountered two people - one of whom was Brown - on the street near an apartment complex in Ferguson.
Belmar said one of the men pushed the officer back into his squad car and a struggle began. Belmar said at least one shot was fired from the officer's gun inside the police car. Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson said authorities were still sorting out what happened inside the police car. It was not clear if Brown was the man who struggled with the officer.
The struggle spilled out into the street, where Brown was shot multiple times. Belmar said the exact number of shots wasn't known, but "it was more than just a couple." He also said all shell casings found at the scene matched the officer's gun. Police are still investigating why the officer shot Brown, who police have confirmed was unarmed.
I don't know what the facts of the shooting are, there are two very different versions, hopefully it will be sorted out. Any way you cut it it's a real tragedy; the kid was scheduled to start college the day after this happened. If it's established that this was an unjustified police shooting, then I hope they throw the book at the cop.
But that having been said, what really irritated me about the coverage of this yesterday, were the number of talking heads who were on the news channels trying to make excuses for the violence and thievery. A lot of bull stuff about " Well it was wrong, but it was understandable" and "This was an expression of outrage that had boiled over"....
Yeah, it's "understandable" alright; but not in the way they meant...
A relatively small group of thugs, thinking they could take advantage of the police being pre-occupied with the protest vigil, decided to raise hell and steal stuff. Very easy to understand.
The reason people loot stores isn't because "their outrage has boiled over"; it's because they want to steal stuff; full stop. They want to steal it either to have it for themselves or to sell. This is why people loot...
What on earth did the owner of the convenience store, or the sporting good store, or the liquor store, or the tire store have to do with a cop shooting a teenager? Sorry, I'm just not going to buy the "To express my outrage over this unjust shooting, I'm going to steal a set of tire rims and a case of rum" argument...
If the violence had been limited solely to the attacks against police property, maybe a case could be made for this "outrage boiling over" argument...But what did the TV station whose van was vandalized have to do with it? What was their "outrage" against them?
Shame on those who attempted to rationalize this. What they should have done, (and some did) was to condemn the violence and thievery unconditionally, and then go to talk about how it wasn't representative of the community. Rather than sympathizing with these thugs, and making excuses for them, they should have expressed anger with them for making the community look bad, and for diverting attention from the issue of the shooting.
