Wednesday: The nation and the world watched scenes of protesters being tear-gassed, shot with rubber bullets, chased by tank style military vehicles, constrained by curfews and arrested. A small US city, Ferguson Missouri has become ground zero for what looks like a war zone; indeed the National Guard is on the ground. The focus of protesters: justice for the killing of Michael Brown, an unarmed Black teenager. Why the violent police response?
International human rights groups are now turning turned their attention to Ferguson as evidence of potential abuses against protesters begin to mount. We speak to Rachel O’Leary, of Amnesty International and Alba Morales of Human Rights Watch. Both are on the ground in Ferguson.
And, Missouri’s troubled racial history. Historian Gwen Moore, Curator of Urban Landscape and Community Identity at the Missouri History Museum puts the unrest in an historic context.
Also Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr. of the Hip Hop Congress and Barbara Arnwine, Executive Director of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law.
Sojourner Truth Wednesday August 20th.
