Ferguson officer shot; 2 suspects wanted

[frigidmagi]

Yahoo

A Ferguson police officer was shot in the arm Saturday night after encountering two men at a community center who ran from him and then opened fire during a foot chase, authorities said.

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St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar said at a media briefing early Sunday that the officer approached the men around 9:10 p.m. because the community center was closed. As the officer approached, the men ran away. When the officer gave chase, "one of the men turned and shot," Belmar said.

The officer was shot in the arm and is expected to survive, he said. Belmar did not identify the officer or give further details about his condition. He said the officer returned fire but said police have "no indication" that either suspect was shot.

A search was underway for the suspects early Sunday in Ferguson, the St. Louis suburb that's been the scene of racial unrest in the wake of the August shooting death of an unarmed black 18-year-old by a white police officer.

Belmar said he did not think the officer's shooting was related to two separate protests about Michael Brown's shooting that were going on Saturday night around the same time.

Around midnight at the police station, approximately two dozen officers stood near a group of about 100 protesters who mingled on a street corner, occasionally shouting, "No justice; no peace."

View galleryIn this framegrab image courtesy of KSDK-TV a crowd …
In this framegrab image courtesy of KSDK-TV a crowd gathers near the scene where a police officer wa …
Nearby, part of a road was closed in town as police conducted a search for the suspects. Numerous law enforcement agencies were responding, and police helicopters were canvassing the area.

The officer's shooting comes after Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson issued a videotaped apology to Brown's family earlier in the week and attempted to march with protesters, an effort that led to a clash with activists and several arrests on Thursday.

Brown's parents told The Associated Press on Saturday they were unmoved by the apology.

Brown's mother, Lesley McSpadden, said, "yes," when asked if Jackson should be fired, and his father, Michael Brown Sr., said rather than an apology, they would like to see the officer who shot their son arrested.

A county grand jury is weighing whether to indict Ferguson officer Darren Wilson in Brown's shooting.

View galleryA police officer takes pictures outside the Ferguson …
A police officer takes pictures outside the Ferguson Community Center at 1050 Smith Avenue on Saturd …
The Justice Department, which is investigating whether Brown's civil rights were violated, is conducting a broader probe into Ferguson police. On Friday, it urged Jackson to ban his officers from wearing bracelets supporting Wilson while on duty and from covering up their name plates with black tape.

Ferguson residents complained about the bracelets, which are black with "I am Darren Wilson" in white lettering, at a meeting with federal officials this week.

Brown's shooting has also focused attention on the lack of diversity in many police departments across the country. In Ferguson, of 53 officers in a community that is two-thirds black, only three are African-American.

Also early Sunday, not far from Ferguson, an off-duty St. Louis city police officer was injured on Interstate 70 when three suspects fired shots into his personal vehicle, a police spokeswoman said.

Schron Jackson said the officer, who has nearly 20 years of experience, was being treated at a hospital for a minor injury to his arm from broken glass. She said there is no reason to believe the two shootings were related.

Oh Fuck.... Oh fuck.

[Hotfoot]

Yeah, this isn't good, but given what's been going on down there, I'm actually surprised this didn't happen sooner. The general response I've seen ranges from "Stop the cycle of Violence and Hate" to "Fergeson Shooter still at large, Darren Wilson yet to be arrested".

How the cops handle this one is going to be a very big deal, however, and they're in a no-win situation here. If they take the guys alive, the public response is going to be "Oh, him you'll take alive, but not an unarmed kid?", and if they end up killing the shooters here, if it's not a clear case of no other way, there may well be riots all over the place.

Police Brutality has been in the spotlight the last few months, with cases of beatings, shootings, illegal detainment, harassment, and the like practically flooding the news networks. I can't speak to the numbers yet, but a lot of this stuff looks pretty bad. I'm usually one to defend the police when some asshole claims police brutality when they put up a fight or ran and the cops had to tackle his dumb ass, or when someone starts a fight with a cop and gets a few extra bruises for his stupidity. But I'm going to be honest, a lot of the shit that's being brought to light right now is bad. Not cataclysmically bad, but really not good for public trust in our law enforcement. Only so much shit can be laid at the feet of the politicians and the administrators here, at a certain point, the police have to be responsible for reform at their level, like the police in Florida who rebelled from having to write hundreds of thousands of dollars in traffic tickets.

[General Havoc]

Oh Fuck.... Oh fuck.

Thanks for the cogent commentary there.

A bit of perspective is perhaps required here. There are hundreds of thousands of law enforcement officials in the country. Thirty-three thousand major felony-grade crimes are reported in the United States every day. A proportion of those officials and reported crimes are going to go horribly wrong, because human nature is a thing and any population of several hundred thousand has its proportion of assholes and tyrants. That is not an excuse for not doing anything, nor is it to ignore the structural problems that underlay a great deal of police brutality, but to cry "fuck the police" and condemn them all for these facts is to ignore the nature of reality. Nothing we ever do will ever result in a police force that is completely without its flaws. This does not mean we stop trying, but throwing our hands up and crying the end of the world is not warranted here, insofar as it ever is.

Crime is at an all-time low in this country. So is police brutality. Getting it lower is a good and noble thing to do. But guys who shoot at cops in all but the most unspeakable of circumstances, should be arrested and/or shot in return. And if that's what happens here, I will not be shedding tears, not even if it happens in Ferguson.

[Josh]

What good can come of this is examination of various things going on with law enforcement policies in this country. I grew up with examples of both ends of the spectrum- some downright noble individuals who put their asses on the line for the common good, and some sick-ass corruption brought on by the grotesque stupidity of the war on drugs. Howdy, war's over, we lost, time to get back to civil policing.

[Hotfoot]

While I generally agree, Havoc, the numbers do require something of a closer look if for no other reason than to reassure people that things aren't disappearing behind the blue wall, because it's very difficult to get good stats on the things that are covered up. Every case that hits the news gives the impression of hundreds or thousands more that are not reported, even if that's not the case. In the last week I've seen stories on at least a half dozen cases of unjustified shootings by police, which at least one of which did involve the arrest of the officer. Now it's entirely the case that this is a case of the media following up on big stories with additional stories to get extra views, the question that needs asking is how much of this is the News cycle as usual, and how much is a very serious problem that has been covered up until recently.

The simple fact is that this is getting to the point of another flashpoint similar to that which centered around Rodney King back in the 90's, and that was from a beating he survived. A lot of people from a lot of places are doing their best to prevent that from happening and to allow the process to work itself out, but there are people who are tired of innocent people being shot and the cops getting off with what appears to be a slap on the wrist, and many of them are going to feel that they have no other outlet than violence. The issue here is that whether or not this is actually an epidemic or not is at this point, there are clearly people who think that it is and are resorting to violence as a result. If this escalates, it will end badly for a great number of people. The Ferguson PD is not known for having a soft touch, so if anything goes even remotely sour, the National Guard may not be enough this time.

[General Havoc]

If this escalates then it escalates, and things may well go bad if they do, but such things are not, as you said, made up of cold and sober judgment, but of perception and anger and mass emotion. This doesn't make them less real, but it does not behoove us to treat them as though they are. The impression that there are hundreds and thousands of unreported cases of police brutality is just that, an impression. It may be completely false. It may be entirely true. It may even drastically underestimate the matter. The impression exists regardless of the underlying reality, and will continue to. Dealing with the impression and the realities that do underlie it is only prudent. But one must seek those realities first, and the mere existence of the impression does not convey any information as to their nature. It's a snapshot, nothing more. Riots started after Rodney King was beaten because there was an impression, an absolutely true one, that the LAPD were wantonly beating black men for no reason. Riots however also started that same year in New York in Crown Heights because of a completely false impression that Jews were wantonly killing black children for no reason, one that turned into the nearest thing New York has ever seen to a Pogrom.

Maybe there will be more riots in Ferguson, and if there are, maybe some good will come of them. But if riots do occur for no other reason than a guy who shot a cop was himself arrested or shot, I shall have very little positive to say towards those engaged in the riot. And even less towards those whose reaction is to scream and panic and nothing more.