Armed Oath Keepers Spark Unrest During Ferguson Protest
The anti-government, conservative organization composed of former military personnel, police and first responders showed up unannounced at the protest marking the one-year anniversary of the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown.
Heavily armed members of a group known as the Oath Keepers arrive in Ferguson, Mo., early Tuesday. (Jeff Roberson / AP)
The Oath Keepers, an anti-government, conservative organization composed of former military personnel, police and first responders, showed up unannounced at the protest marking the one-year anniversary of the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown.
The Washington Post’s Abby Phillip described the scene:
Members of the group arrived on West Florissant Avenue in Ferguson in the early morning as protests wound down just before 2 a.m.
The small group of men — dressed in military-style camouflage and bullet-proof vests, and armed with long guns — initially startled protesters, some of whom asked the Oath Keepers to leave. But they insisted that they were “on their side,” and had arrived to protect protesters from police, who stood standing watching in riot gear across the street. They said Missouri law permitted them to openly carry legally owned weapons.
When the Oath Keepers crossed to the same side of the street where police stood, protesters followed. But police didn’t react to their presence.
The complacency shown by the police to a group of heavily armed white men inserting themselves into the midst of the protest raises the question: Has anything really changed in Ferguson?
–Posted by Clara Romeo
Your support is crucial…With an uncertain future and a new administration casting doubt on press freedoms, the danger is clear: The truth is at risk.
Now is the time to give. Your tax-deductible support allows us to dig deeper, delivering fearless investigative reporting and analysis that exposes what’s really happening — without compromise.
Stand with our courageous journalists. Donate today to protect a free press, uphold democracy and unearth untold stories.
Anger over police shootings and wrongful convictions, often involving African Americans, fuels effort to make police reviews more transparent.
On the fifth anniversary of his son's death at the hands of Ferguson, Mo., police, Michael Brown Sr. claims that "justice has not been served."
A prolonged federal class-action claims thousands of people in Missouri were jailed because they couldn’t pay off fines.
Police say Danye Jones’ death was a suicide. His mother says it was a lynching.
The loss of the Black Lives Matter activist, who died at age 27, is incalculable.
With every life taken, law enforcement is exposed for being the source of violence rather than its remedy.
You need to be a supporter to comment.
There are currently no responses to this article.
Be the first to respond.