Dispatch from Ferguson, Sunday, 11 P.M.
by Li Onesto | August 18, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
As I send this dispatch from the streets of Ferguson at 11 p.m., people are being hit with rubber bullets. People are being hit with tear gas. Police are blocking the ends of the street to keep people from escaping, running their hippos—which is what people call the armored vehicles they use to attack people from—on the street. There are helicopters overhead.
Here’s what happened tonight: Police attacked people far before the announced midnight curfew. I was not there when the initial attack came, but other reporters who I am talking to, who were there, are insistent that all that was going on was that people were peacefully marching when the police started shooting tear gas.
And since then, police have been progressively pushing people up and down the street. People have been resisting, while retreating, because of the intensity of police attacks.
I was gassed while attempting to photograph and report on the events.
I’m with a group right now of a few dozen people, journalists and protesters. I just spoke with an older woman had come out tonight to be part of a peaceful protest. She had planned to go home at curfew time. But when the march was attacked hours before the curfew was supposed to begin, for no reason, this woman who had not planned to stay past the curfew remained in the streets. She has been shot by a rubber bullet and is injured.
People are especially furious because the march was attacked hours before the unjust curfew was to go into effect. They are still in the streets.
And still no justice for Michael Brown.
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