Countdown to Riots

National Guard troops will be deployed in Ferguson, Missouri, only to help police “keep peace” and not “clash with protesters,” officials said Monday as a state of emergency was declared ahead of a potentially inflammatory grand jury report over the shooting death of an unarmed black teenager by a white officer.

  alJazeera

Governor Jay Nixon signed a state of emergency order BEFORE anything has happened. How do you justify that? Sounds to me like, with all this “preparation” that’s been going on for the eventuality of riots, the authorities already know what the Grand Jury has decided.

[ St. Louis Mayor Francis] Slay also said that police officers would be wearing their regular uniforms, adding, “They're not going to be having riot gear” unless situations arise in which they are necessary. “We do not want to make this look like this is a militarization of our police department, and we want to make sure people know that these cops are just there to keep peace and they’re not there to clash with protesters.”

We don’t want it to “look like” militarization of the police department. That got us too much bad press the last time.  We’re bringing in the military for that.

To say nothing of the KKK's claims to huge upsurges in membership and promises to use lethal force in response to protesters.

And this:

A Facebooking employee of Chesterfield’s Drury Plaza Hotel is out of a job after curiosity over dozens of Homeland Security vehicles in the hotel garage got the best of him. His photos on social media got him fired.

Mark Paffrath saw the collection of vehicles [70+ Homeland Security vehicles] last Thursday, and it certainly got his attention.

“It was very odd that there was a bunch of Homeland Security cars there and I was shocked and took a picture and a short video and posted them to Facebook with the status update, ‘What are these vehicles doing here? I wonder if it has anything to do with Ferguson?’”

[...]

It was the day after that Paffrath [ex-Navy] says he was called into the office again. This time, he says the hotel chain’s director of security was there to fire him. And some of the things he said were hard to swallow for this man who served three years in the navy.

“He called me a terrorist and said I dishonorably served my country for posting those pictures and the short video,” he said. Then, “He gave me a threat that if I were to repost the pictures that I would be locked up and have DHS knocking on my door and all that other stuff.”

[...]

The Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Protective Service confirms that the vehicles belong to them. They refused comment on why so many are in town, and would not answer the specific question as to whether they are in place in anticipation of the St. Louis County Grand Jury’s decision in the case of Officer Darren Wilson. The Federal Protective Service handles security for all federal buildings and courthouses.

[...]

Paffrath says he was also told by his superiors that he put a $150 thousand contract with the Department of Homeland Security in jeopardy for the hotel.

  KPIR

So whose brilliant idea was it not to tell the employees what was going on and tell them to keep it under wraps?  And did they not think maybe a hotel guest would do the same thing?  I'm guessing Paffrath is going to be offered some compensation before this is all done.