As Missouri awaits decision on police shooting, National Guard called in

[November 18, 2014]  By Scott Malone
 
 FERGUSON Mo. (Reuters) - Troops from the Missouri National Guard were due to deploy on Tuesday around Ferguson, Missouri, as the city awaits a grand jury's decision on whether to indict a white police officer who shot and killed an unarmed black teen in August.

Governor Jay Nixon has declared a state of emergency in Missouri but local officials said troops would play a backup role to police in responding to any protests that develop after the grand jury's report.

People around St. Louis are braced for a possible reprise of the wave of sometimes violent protests that followed the Aug. 9 fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown, particularly if Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson is not charged.

Officials have said the grand jury's decision is likely to come this month.

"The National Guard is well suited to provide security at command posts, fire stations and other locations, freeing up law enforcement officers to focus on community policing and allowing citizens to exercise their constitutional rights," Nixon told reporters.

He declined to say how many National Guard troops would be assigned to the St. Louis area or where they would be stationed.

In the past two days, peaceful demonstrations were held around St. Louis and some local leaders expressed frustration that Nixon had pre-emptively declared a state of emergency.

"The National Guard is called in when policing has failed. Military presence in my city will mark a historic failure on the part of (government)," Antonio French, a St. Louis alderman, said on Twitter. "This is not a war. There is no military solution."

Police in Ferguson were criticized for taking a military posture in response to the August demonstrations, regularly deploying officers in riot gear and using tear gas and rubber bullets against crowds that torched two businesses in the St. Louis suburb and at times threw rocks and gasoline bombs at police.

Police in St. Louis County have since gone through conflict de-escalation training and activist leaders have also been training potential protesters in nonviolent techniques in recent days.

St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay said police in his city would respond to demonstrations in their normal uniforms unless conditions became violent and that National Guard troops would not play a primary role in responding.

Some area schools have told parents they will dismiss students early when the decision comes and many businesses near the stretch of downtown that saw the worst rioting after Brown's killing have boarded up their windows as a protective move.

There are conflicting accounts of what happened, with some witnesses saying Brown had his hands up in surrender when he was shot and others describing a physical altercation between Brown and Wilson.

(Additional reporting by David Bailey in Minneapolis; Editing by Peter Cooney)

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