Ferguson Fatigue

It seems fatigue has set in with the protests in Ferguson, Missouri, following the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by Officer Darren Wilson. I’ve been following the protests and the police response every night on Twitter since the shooting, and it’s been riveting. I keep telling myself to ignore it for a while, and for most of the last two weeks, I keep getting drawn in anyway.

There seemed to be a sort of hardening effect going on among the protesters. I first really noticed it the second night after the highway patrol took over from St. Louis County. Everything was relatively peaceful for a while, but then it started to rain, which I think chased off many of the ordinary residents of Ferguson, leaving behind a crowd with a larger-than-normal fraction of drunks, criminals, and agitators. Without the moderating influence of normal people, the looters went a little wild, which prompted the Governor to declare a state of emergency. Captain Johnson of the highway patrol had said that police wouldn’t use tear gas on peaceful protesters, but police ended up gassing the crowd anyway, which they claimed was necessary because of people with guns and Molotov cocktails. That drove off even more people.

Meanwhile, experienced protesters from all over the country had started to travel to Ferguson, and I started to notice more signs of preparedness among the crowds — eye protection, ear plugs, stashes of supplies, legal aid phone numbers written on their arms — and I began anticipate that things would get more confrontational, but also that the message of the protesters would get derailed as the outsiders brought their own agendas to the scene. I’m pretty sure I saw some protest signs about Gaza and bankers.

Instead, it all just kind of fell apart, starting on Tuesday. I’m not sure why. Maybe it was a change in police tactics. When police saw someone throwing dangerous objects or brandishing a weapon, instead of gassing the crowd, they would just swarm in, grab the people causing trouble, and quickly retreat. They’ve also stopped trying to enforce a curfew or hold a an arbitrary line on the streets. They had figured out a way to go back to the basic police mission of protecting the mass of the citizens from the relatively small number of miscreants. The more peaceful protesters had always been angry at the troublemakers, so I think this relieved the tension a bit.

Maybe it was the media circus. By some estimates, Tuesday night’s crowd held more members of the media than Ferguson residents. It was getting a bit silly. On the other hand, perhaps Ferguson residents finally felt their concerns were being heard by someone.

Or maybe the protests just ran down as part of their natural course. People worked through their anger and returned back to their normal lives.

Now I guess the question is what happens next? Will Michael Brown’s death be brushed under the rug once people stop looking? Or has all this attention created enough pressure on the local and state government to ensure that a thorough investigation takes place and justice is served? Or will police and prosecutors railroad Darren Wilson in order to gain political approval? And what will happen to the really awful police and government of Ferguson? Will Antonio French succeed in his voter drive to run them out? Or will whatever kept them in power ’til now keep working?

And what about the larger issues? Following along through the internet, it certainly felt like something of national importance was happening in Ferguson. But that might just be an illusion; I was intensely interested, so I noticed how much everyone else was interested. Still, it brought attention back to the issue of policing in minority communities, and it attracted a lot of scrutiny to Ferguson and the St. Louis County area in particular. It also attracted some much-needed attention to the issue of police militarization.

Maybe this has all been a step down the road toward some change. I have my doubts, but I certainly hope so.