I am home now, and I was extremely encouraged by what I saw today in Ferguson. Everyone was extremely kind and respectful towards one another. It felt like a block party or even a church picnic. However, I am extremely worried about what will happen tonight. I hope that we will have a night of peace, but I doubt it. Literally everyone that Ive talked to -- including cops, activists, media, and residents -- thinks the curfew is going to backfire and tonight will be total mayhem. From what people told me, the looters are almost exclusively people who come in from outside Ferguson at night and start causing trouble, and the arrests from last Sunday seem to bear that out. My worry is that without a legitimate way to continue the protest after midnight, the cops will be going after people who want to protest peacefully and who have often protected the businesses in their community from the looters, and that will create more opportunities for the bad actors. Law enforcement needs to differentiate between the legitimate protesters and the people who are there to steal and sow chaos. Maybe the curfew will help in that process, but I am skeptical. I guess we will find out in about five hours...
Posted on: Sat, 16 Aug 2014 23:50:56 +0000
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