Ferguson Reignites As Police Shoot 2nd Man; Obama’s Response “Insultingly Inadequate”

– Ferguson Reignites As Police Shoot 2nd Man; Obama’s Response “Insultingly Inadequate” (ZeroHedge, Aug 13, 2014):

Despite Police best efforts to force Ferguson residents off the streets, tensions reignited once again as night fell last night and, as The Guardian reports, a second man has been shot by police. Police officials told local reporters that the man was shot in Ferguson by a St Louis County officer after pointing a handgun at him soon after 1am on Wednesday. A crowd of around 250 young protesters were halted by police and separately a woman is being treated in hospital after being shot in the head during a drive-by shooting in the troubled city. Protesters exclaimed, “we have a right to assemble, a right to freedom,” said Paul Muhammad. “But here we are facing what looks like a military imposing martial law. It is not acceptable.” Interestingly, President Obama’s official response “urging reflection” has been rejected as insultingly inadequate by many African American residents of Ferguson.

As The Guardian reports, a second man has been shot by police in Ferguson…

Police officials told local reporters that the man was shot in Ferguson by a St Louis County officer after pointing a handgun at him soon after 1am on Wednesday, following fresh demonstrations over the death on Saturday of Michael Brown.

The officer was responding to reports of shots being fired and men wearing ski masks carrying shotguns. The man was in critical condition in hospital, a police spokesman told the St Louis Post-Dispatch, Fox 2 and KMOV, and his gun was recovered at the scene.

But chaos reigns in the city it would appear…

A woman was separately being treated in hospital after being shot in the head during a drive-by shooting in the city. The incidents followed the peaceful end earlier to a tense standoff between protesters and police, prompting hopes of avoiding a third night of violence.

A raucous convoy of about 250 young demonstrators, marching along a main route into downtown Ferguson, was halted about 30 yards from a wall of police assembled at the entrance to the street where Brown was killed by a still-unidentified officer on Saturday.

As SWATified Police tried to keep control…

Officers in military-style uniforms, some carrying high-powered rifles and wearing balaclavas, formed a line at least two men deep and blocking the entire width of Florrisant Street, the main drag where angry protests over Brown’s killing had flared for the previous two nights.

Pitched behind two large armoured trucks, they repeatedly warned the demonstrators through a Tannoy system to “get out of the road or face arrest” – the same warning delivered on Monday night before officers fired teargas, rubber bullets and wooden baton rounds into the crowds.

But for 40 minutes, the protesters defied the threat. Some hung out of car windows, while others raised their arms aloft and repeated what has become their defining slogan: “Hands up, don’t shoot.” A police helicopter swooped around the dark sky above, shining a bright spotlight on the faces of the almost entirely African American crowd.

…

As the police declined to follow through with arrests, furious members of the crowd screamed obscenities at officers and urged them to “shoot those rubber bullets”. But after 40 minutes in which it seemed that a repeat of Monday night’s clashes would happen at any moment, the protesters abruptly melted away.

“We have a right to assemble, a right to freedom,” said Paul Muhammad. “But here we are facing what looks like a military imposing martial law. It is not acceptable.”

President Obama is not making any friends…

In a statement on Tuesday, Barack Obama described Brown’s death as “heartbreaking”. Noting the FBI investigation, the president appealed for calm. “I know the events of the past few days have prompted strong passions, but as details unfold, I urge everyone in Ferguson, Missouri, and across the country to remember this young man through reflection and understanding. We should comfort each other and talk with one another in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds.”

The official response to Brown’s death has been rejected as insultingly inadequate by many African American residents of Ferguson, a city of about 21,000 people where 67% of the population is black, yet 94% of the police force – and prominent figures in local government, such as the mayor – are white.

Read more here…

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Of course, all we have is Tweets and YouTube evidence since US airspace was closed to news choppers… welcome to Free America.