Missouri Governor Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency on Monday as he authorized the National Guard to assist police in Ferguson. This comes just before the grand jury’s decision on whether or not to charge Officer Darren Wilson for the murder of 18-year-old Michael Brown in August this year. Protests in Ferguson have not died down since then, and if Wilson walks free, you can bet they will get a whole lot worse.
Gov. Nixon has said that if Wilson is found innocent, “violence will not be tolerated” on the streets (unless of course it comes from the police, who have been provided with military-grade weapons to beat back members of the community, arresting and harassing reporters to cover up their crimes).
Democracy Now interviews Montague Simmons, a Ferguson protest organizer, about the conduct of police in the area, shady secrets that have surfaced since Michael Brown´s death, and what needs to be done to repair tensions between authorities and the community going forward.
Image Credit: Flickr / Cactus Bones
