Fantz, Ashley, Holly Yan, Catherine Shoichet, Ryan Sloane, Wayne Sterling, and Dave Alsup. “Police Angry at ‘hands Up’ Gesture by St. Louis Rams Players.” CNN. Cable News Network, 1 Dec. 2014. Web. 11 Dec. 2014. <http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/01/us/ferguson-nfl-st-louis-rams/>. (XX)
“Ferguson Officers Not All Wearing ID After Two Justice Deparment Orders.” Slate Magazine. 29 Sept. 2014. Web. 2 Dec. 2014. <http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2014/09/29/ferguson_nametags_department_of_justice_mandate_not_completely_effective.html>. (XX)
“2010 Census Interactive Population Search.” 2010 Census Interactive Population Search. Web. 11 Dec. 2014. <http://www.census.gov/2010census/popmap/ipmtext.php?fl=29:2923986>. (XX)
Network, Paulina. “5 Things to Know about Ferguson Police Department.” USA Today. Gannett, 19 Aug. 2014. Web. 11 Dec. 2014. <http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2014/08/14/ferguson-police-department-details/14064451/>. (XX)
“Ferguson Case: Racial and Gender Makeup of Grand Jury Revealed.” CBSNews. CBS Interactive. Web. 11 Dec. 2014. <http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ferguson-case-racial-and-gender-makeup-of-grand-jury-revealed/>. (XX)
“Police Are Using Military Weapons to Occupy Ferguson, Missouri.” Slate Magazine. Web. 11 Dec. 2014. <http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2014/08/police_in_ferguson_military_weapons_threaten_protesters.html>. (XX)
“Missouri Has Spent $11.7 Million Policing the Ferguson Protests (So Far).” Www.nationaljournal.com. Web. 11 Dec. 2014. <http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/missouri-has-spent-11-7-million-policing-the-ferguson-protests-so-far-20141205>. (XX)
On August 9th, 2014, Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, was shot and killed by an on-duty police officer, Darren Wilson. In the months that followed the shooting, protests began and continued throughout the city of Ferguson, Missouri, United States, where the killing occurred, and some of those peaceful protests turned into riots, riots that involved the police using tear gas to attempt to get the crowds dispersed. The day after the shooting, a statement was issued by the Ferguson police department, stating that Brown had attacked Wilson, and Wilson shot Brown in self defense. A candle light vigil was held for Brown, and became a violent incident as stores were looted. Police arrived to contain the situation, but when they arrived in large, armored trucks, the people of Ferguson turned against the police. In the days that followed, protests would turn violent and enraged against officers, who would break up even the peaceful protests using tear gas. The protests went on for months, and at the time of the project, December 2014, four months after Michael Brown’s death, people are still protesting.
A device fired by police goes off in the street as they battle demonstrators in Ferguson.(Photo: Jeff Roberson, AP)
What brings Ferguson in connection to the events in Northern Ireland is the policing, and the way that situations were handled. The protests both in Derry and in Ferguson turned violent at the sight of officers that had been oppressive or violent to the protesters, to which the officers would respond- and their response would be overtly forceful, and uncalled for- shooting at unarmed citizens, and tear gassing protesters and marching on them in an attempt to intimidate them.
It’s hard not to look at the events in Ferguson without looking at them in terms of race. As of the 2010 census, 67% of the population was Black. 92% of those who were arrested for disorderly conduct are black. 53 people work in the Ferguson police department, and of those 53 men and women, 3 of them are black. Of the 12 members of the grand jury that decided not to indict Darren Wilson in Michael Brown’s death, 3 of them were black. Even if you want to argue that Brown’s death had nothing to do with race, it’s hard to look at these demographics and not see that something is not right.
The tactics officers deployed in Ferguson were aggressive and terrifying- people compared them to tactics used in “a war zone“. Protesters were terrified to see that the weapons being used against them were automatic rifles, and to see police donning riot gear as they marched the streets along side armored trucks. Tear gas was launched into crowds of peaceful demonstrators and journalists; “they’re treating demonstrators—and Ferguson residents writ large—as a population to occupy, not citizens to protect.” And if the fact that terrorizing American citizens wasn’t bad enough- the cost of the policing reached $11.7 million in early December 2014. Thats not to say that the treatment of the protesters is lesser than the amount of money spent, but rather to pose this question:
Why are police officers in Ferguson spending approximately $2.93 million in three months, trying to break up protests?
Police Officer in Ferguson, August 2014
And these moments seen in Ferguson only bring further similarities between the LA Riots, Bloody Sunday, and Ferguson to light.
Much like in Northern Ireland on Bloody Sunday, police strength was used over the protesting oppressed people, trying to be peaceful but having a handful “hooligans” or “thugs” taking things to the extreme with looting and rioting. No one knew the names of the paras and militants that took part of the violence that day, after Darren Wilson’s named was released (six days after the shooting), police officers in Ferguson removed their name tags; as of September 29th, over a month since Brown’s death, they were still not wearing them.
Photo by Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images
In Eyewitness Bloody Sunday, Patrick Friel was headed to join the march when he passed by three army vehicles. From one of them, he heard “You’ll get it today you bastards”*, which they interpreted as an idle threat, until everything went so horrible wrong. In Ferguson, a police officer threatened a protester, saying “I will f—— kill you.”
“Then a fellow came out with a white flag, no sooner had he done this when the middle one of three British soldiers pulled the trigger and shot him in the head.”** This moment happened during Bloody Sunday, when the worst of the attack was occurring. The man was obviously showing that he meant no harm, and that he was surrendering- despite the fact that he never attacked- but whoever shot him didn’t care. In Ferguson, and all throughout the united states (including the Saint Louis Rams), protesters have taken up the cry of “Hands up, don’t shoot”.
Taken August 11, 2014
Unlike Ireland, however, the events in Ferguson and other major parts of the country are widely documented and discussed. Vines and youtube videos of the protests and riots are viewed by the millions. Twitter is filled with tweets from reporters at the scene and citizens of Ferguson. There are hundreds of first hand reports out there of what is happening in Ferguson today, and the people who live throughout the rest of the united states follow all sources and learn all they can about what happened there, not just believing what was said by officials.
After events like these, questions are left behind.
What has led to extreme action being the first response? What caused this knee-jerk reaction?
Occupy Wall Street was a peaceful protest that took place in 2011, protesting structural inequality between the majority wealth holders, “the 1%” and the rest of the world. Why didn’t the police get violent during this protest? What is the difference in their minds between protesting a death versus protesting wealth issues?
“The political direction of the army has been strictly neutral at all times between the Catholics and Protestants. […] Under no circumstances were we allowed to take sides […] Bloody Sunday ripped all that apart.”
Soldiers taking cover behind their sandbagged armoured cars on Bloody Sunday (PA)
On January 30th, 1972, a peaceful protest and march took place in Derry, Northern Ireland. The protest (banned by the government because it was seen as a violent display) had thousands of attendees, estimated near enough to 6,000 people by the Widgery Report, the official response from England. The march began at about 2:00 PM, with the Catholic citizens marching through the Bogside, advocating for their rights. British Soldiers and Ulster officers “chaperoned” the protest, well armed. Soldiers had placed themselves along the walls surrounding Derry, with rifles poised and ready to be used if necessary. When the march reached its end, many in the crowd had grown angry and unruly at the presence of the British soldiers and Paratroopers (known for being particularly violent soldiers), and began to shout at them, calling them obscenities. A riot broke out, and the enforcement at the event responded, shooting into the crowds. By the end of the riot and response, 13 people were dead and 14 were wounded. A total of 108 rounds were fired.
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Reports from Eyewitnesses that day all have the same consensus: the reaction from officers that day was overly violent, and the deaths that occurred that day were uncalled for and brutal. Collected and discussed here are seven eyewitness reports from Don Mullan’s Eyewitness Bloody Sunday.
Patrick Joseph Fox was 38 years old on Bloody Sunday. He was trying to let people into his flat during the shootings in an attempt to keep them safe. He looked outside to see if anyone else needed help, and saw Fr. Daly kneeling beside someone (this someone was the dying Jackie Duddy, who was 17 years old), and wanted to go out and help him, if he could. Bullets were flying and someone ran in front of Fr. Daly, shouting “Don’t shoot Fr. Daly! Shoot me!” The man was then shot in the leg. Fox then went around to the front of his flat and saw four young men laying on the ground. He convinced them to come into the flat, but the fourth man got shot as he came in. Fox went to find help, but when he came back, the man had died. The man who had died was Michael Kelly, aged 17.
Bridget O’Reilly had not participated in the march that day, but she had headed to Rossville Street to see it. When tear gas was fired, she turned to go home, and had barely made it back before the shooting began. She managed to get some people into her house before she saw a man in Glenfada Park get shot. She got him carried into her house and went to find a priest, and when she came back, then man had died. The man was William McKinney, aged 27.
Raymond Rogan had also not participated in the march on January 30, but when he heard gunshots being fired, he look out his window and saw two men shot and dying on the ground. He opened his door to get them into his house, and when the were brought in, he saw the scope of their injuries. One of the men in the room, a doctor, told him that if the boy wasn’t brought to a hospital, he would die. They got him into a car, and drove in the direction of a hospital. They got stopped at a police blockade and were pulled from the car, and the car was driven away by one of the RUC members. He was detained under the Special Powers Act for an entire day, with the reason being that explosives were in the car. The young man in the back of the car, Gerard Donaghy, was said to have been found with nail bombs in his jacket pocket; he had bled out.
Peter McLaughlin was in his apartment when he heard gunfire. He looked out the window and saw several people laying on the ground, some injured and some not. He saw one injured man crawling towards the nearest building, when two shots were fired at him; the first missed, the second hit his side. The man yelled out “Ah! Christ, they shot me again” before dragging himself a few feet, then laid motionless upon the ground. He laid out on the ground for fifteen minutes before help was able to come, but he was already dead. His name was Patrick Doherty, and he was 31 years old.
Matthew McCallion had attended the march on Bloody Sunday, and he fled with Fr. Daly with the police started firing CS gas and rubber bullets. He was hiding in a building when he look out the window and saw “a fellow came out with a white flag, no sooner had he done this when the middle one of three British soldiers pulled the trigger and shot him in the head. I have witnessed this as God is my judge and I say it was cold blooded murder.” The man who was shot in the head was Bernard McGuigan, who had been going to the aid of Patrick Doherty.
Peter Kerr was in his house when he heard the sound of bullets being fired, followed by a few men carrying an injured young man towards his house. He brought them in, but the man died in the living room not long after his arrival. Kerr stresses that the young man, Michael Kelly, was not armed in any way. He checked on his children and, during a lull in the shooting, had another man brought into his home. He ran to get an ambulence when the firing picked up again and he took cover. When there was a pause, he went back to his home and got the two men into the ambulence. Kelly was dead, and the other, James Wray, was still alive, but looking very bad. Kerr, at the end of his report, states “At no time did I see any person or persons other than soldiers with firearms.” Wray did not make it to the hospital.
Michael Bridge was in the march on Bloody Sunday, and he was with a large group of people when the bullets started flying. After being bothered by the gas in the air, he turned down an alley, before fleeing. He tried multiple times to find a safe place to hid, and ended up getting hit with a rubber bullet once, and was shot in the leg with a round towards the end of the shooting. He noted, at one point that one of the paras had “his rifle on his shoulder in an aiming position. I noticed he did not have a riot visor down over his face. There was no camouflage paint on his face”, as though they knew that the protesters would not fight back.
