NYTimes | The
Highway Patrol officer named to take over security in Ferguson, Capt.
Ronald S. Johnson, also expressed his displeasure with how the
information had been released. Captain Johnson, who grew up in the area,
had been brought in by Gov. Jay Nixon on Thursday to restore peace
after days of confrontations between demonstrators and the police in
riot gear and military-style vehicles. The captain said he had not been
told that the authorities planned to release the video of the robbery
along with the name of the officer. But he sought to calm people down,
saying, “In our anger, we have to make sure that we don’t burn down our
own house.”
Protests
on the streets Friday night started peacefully. Cars clogged streets as
horns blared and music played. Hundreds of demonstrators clutched signs
and chanted slogans, but many others danced to music. On one street,
six people danced atop a delivery truck.
Although
the police presence was limited, Captain Johnson walked through the
community, taking photographs with children and offering hugs and
handshakes. “I’m pleased with how it’s going,” he said early in the
night.
But
tensions rose around midnight when the police released a small amount
of tear gas as they backed away from the crowd. Some protesters threw
rocks and other objects, according to media reports. Some demonstrators
fired weapons into the air.
Captain
Johnson told The Associated Press that the police backed off to try to
ease the tension. “We had to evaluate the security of the officers there
and also the rioters,” he told The A.P. “We just felt it was better to
move back.”
Using
people and vehicles, protesters quickly blocked a major thoroughfare
here, prompting the police to return and form a barricade of their own.
For a time, the protesters and the police faced off in the road. The
police urged protesters to go home, and demonstrators, many of them
chanting slogans like “We ready for y’all,” approached the officers.
Some tossed glass bottles toward the police.
