After two weeks of tear gas and escalated action, no one should be surprised when it comes to the Ferguson Police's hostility towards those mourning and protesting the death of Michael Brown, the 18-year-old who was shot and killed by officer Darren Wilson. And yet, shocking stories continue to come out that further highlight the authorities' prevailing disrespect.
According to a new report by Mother Jones about the night of Aug. 9, when Brown was killed, a makeshift memorial for the teen was repeatedly desecrated by police officers on the scene. First, one officer let the dog he was controlling urinate on the memorial, Mark Follman reports:
The incident was related to me separately by three state and local officials who worked with the community in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. One confirmed that he interviewed an eyewitness, a young woman, and pressed her on what exactly she saw. "She said that the officer just let the dog pee on it," that official told me. "She was very distraught about it."
Then, alderman Antonio French, who went on the be the voice of the Ferguson protests on social media, reported further abuse of the memorial site:
Missouri state Rep. Sharon Pace, whose district includes the neighborhood where the shooting occurred, told me she went to the scene that afternoon to comfort the parents, who were blocked by police from approaching their son's body. Pace purchased some tea lights for the family, and around 7 p.m. she joined Brown's mother, Lesley McSpadden, and others as they placed the candles and sprinkled flowers on the ground where Brown had died. "They spelled out his initials with rose petals over the bloodstains," Pace recalled.
By then, police had prohibited all vehicles from entering Canfield Drive except for their own. Soon the candles and flowers had been smashed, after police drove over them.
With this unbelievably disrespectful and combative behavior by police in mind, immediately after Michael Brown was killed, it isn't a surprise that Ferguson erupted into unrest in the days that followed.
