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Ferguson as a preview of worse things to come

Manuel E. Yepe

22/08/2014

Opinión

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“Ferguson, Missouri is under military occupation right now, and the entire world is watching in horror as militarized police fire tear gas and rubber bullets at unarmed protesters. Sadly, this is just a preview of what is coming to America in the years ahead. As the economy falls apart and people become even angrier and more frustrated, there will be a lot more incidents of civil unrest as we have just witnessed in Ferguson. And in response, the federal government and our overly militarized police will seek to crush those uprisings with overwhelming force.”

This was written byjournalist Michael Snyder, on his blog The American Dream, when he discussed the events in the small suburb of Ferguson, near St. Louis, Missouri.

It all started whenpolice officer Darren Wilson, a policeman with six years’ experience, shot and killed a young black man, Michael Brown. Brown with his friend Dorian Johnson, had been suspected of stealing a box of cigarillos in a shop on the morning of Monday 11.

According to the police,Brown was wounded by gunfire when the officer fought him and his friend in the street. One of the men supposedly pushed the police officer inside the patrol car where he was physically assaulted and there was quarrel over the officer's gun. After the fight inside the vehicle, in which at least one shot was fired, the fight continued into the street where Brown was shot several times.

DorianJohnson offered a very different version. He and Brown were walking down the street when an officer ordered them to stop and immediately grabbed his friend by the neck and tried to force him to enter the patrol car. Brown ran away and was chased by the officer who shot him several times.

Theidentification of Officer Darren Wilson as the killer took place almost a week after the event. It was revealed by Thomas Jackson, Chief of the Ferguson Police Department, after intense protests from local citizens.

A preliminary report of a private autopsy carried out on Sunday, was issued at the request of Michael Brown's family, showed that the young man had received six shots, two of them to the head. There were four to his right arm and no gunpowder residue on the body, indicating that the shots were not made close range.

Boththe autopsy and expert witness testimony indicate that Michael Brown had his arms raised when he was shot.

Popular response started early and remains intense. Police have been using tear gas, smoke bombs and grenades to break up demonstrations every night for over a week.

Police in anti-riot gear stationed next to a huge armored vehicle on the main street severely repress demonstrators. Numerous people have been arrested including Antonio French, San Luis councilman, who posted videos of the protest and were interviewed by the progressive website "Democracy Now".

The U.S. mediathese days has highlighted the racial gap existing between police and residents of Ferguson. The 53- officer police force has only 3 black members while the town's population is 69% black, according to The New York Times.

It is believed that the White Houseis closely monitoring the violent situation that threatens to spread to other cities across the country and around the funeral which has been announced for Monday, August 25.

The rapid broadcast through social media allows warning many locations --with similar critical discrimination and inequality situations-- of the danger to the poor of the militarization of the police which is being imposed in the United States after the delivery for police use of surplus military equipment left over from the many foreign conflicts in which Washington is involved.

According to The New York Times, as a result of a program established by Congress to transfer military hardware (armored vehicles, planes, machine guns, and mine-resistant armored trucks) to local and state police departments, the value of military equipment used by these police agencies has increased from $1 million in 1990 to nearly $450 million in 2013.

“And when police get all of this equipment, it is inevitable that they are going to use it,” says journalist Michael Snyder.

The brutality of themilitarized police in Ferguson resembles that of the American conquerors in Iraq or in any other Third World city which is a victim of U.S. occupation.

August 20, 2014.

A CubaNews translation

Edited by Walter Lippmann.

http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs4161.html

https://www.alainet.org/de/node/102687