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Anger Simmers in Ferguson, Missouri; Hackers Claim to Name Officer - New York Times

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U.S. |Anger Simmers in Ferguson, Missouri; Hackers Claim to Name Officer



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U.S. |​​NYT Now





Slide Show|9 Photos

Demonstration In Missouri Broken Up by Police



Demonstration In Missouri Broken Up by Police


Whitney Curtis for The New York Times






FERGUSON, Mo. — After a fifth night of unrest in this St. Louis suburb, a group identifying itself as Anonymous, the computer hacking collective, disclosed Thursday what it said was the name of the police officer who fatally shot an unarmed African-American teenager on Saturday.


Writing on Twitter, the group said it would publish additional information about the officer — including his photograph — if it did not receive a response from the St. Louis County Police Department, which is overseeing one of the investigations into the death of Michael Brown, 18. Mr. Brown was shot Saturday afternoon while walking from a convenience store with a friend.


The name of the officer released by Anonymous could not be immediately confirmed. Calls to the Ferguson police and the St. Louis County police were not returned Thursday morning.



Related Coverage





  • Anonymity in Police Shooting Fuels Anger in MissouriAUG. 13, 2014





  • Missouri Police Cite Threats in Deciding Not to Name Officer Who Shot TeenagerAUG. 12, 2014




  • Tyler Atkins posted these pictures on Twitter and suggested that the news media would select the one on the left to depict him if he were shot.

    Shooting Spurs Hashtag Effort on StereotypesAUG. 12, 2014




The Ferguson Police Department has declined to release the name of the officer, citing safety concerns for the officer and his family after threats were made against him and the department on social media.




Play Video|0:47

Missouri Community Mourns Slain Teenager



Missouri Community Mourns Slain Teenager



A cousin of Michael Brown, a lawyer representing the Brown family and the Rev. Al Sharpton spoke at St. Mark’s family church in Jennings, Mo., days after the teenager was killed in nearby Ferguson.


By Brent McDonald on August 13, 2014. Brent McDonald/The New York Times

Seeking a way to calm tensions between residents and the police, Gov. Jay Nixon canceled a scheduled appearance at the Missouri State Fair on Thursday and planned to visit Ferguson.


“The worsening situation in Ferguson is deeply troubling, and does not represent who we are as Missourians or as Americans,” Mr. Nixon said in a statement. “While we all respect the solemn responsibility of our law enforcement officers to protect the public, we must also safeguard the rights of Missourians to peaceably assemble and the rights of the press to report on matters of public concern.”


The statement added: “As governor, I am committed to ensuring the pain of last weekend’s tragedy does not continue to be compounded by this ongoing crisis. Once again, I ask that members of the community demonstrate patience and calm while the investigation continues, and I urge law enforcement agencies to keep the peace and respect the rights of residents and the press during this difficult time.”


On Wednesday night, Ferguson was buffeted by another round of protests over the shooting. The selective release of information by the authorities about the shooting, and especially the anonymity granted to the officer, has stoked frustrations in this largely African-American community north of St. Louis, where residents describe increasingly tense relations with the police.


The police chief, Thomas Jackson, has repeatedly declined to identify the officer, who has been put on administrative leave.


Chief Jackson said Wednesday that the officer who shot Mr. Brown had been struck in the face during the encounter and was treated at a hospital. Touching his own cheek, the chief said that a side of the officer’s face was swollen from what the police have described as a struggle in which Mr. Brown assaulted the officer and tried to take his gun — an account disputed by a witness, a friend of Mr. Brown’s who said his hands were raised when the last of several shots was fired.


Despite persistent and increasingly angry calls from the public to release the officer’s name, Chief Jackson said the officer required protection after numerous death threats had been made. Computer hackers, saying they were outraged by police conduct, now have also joined the fray.


Anonymous said Wednesday on Twitter that it had broken into Ferguson’s municipal computer system. It released details about city workers and posted photos of Jon Belmar, the chief of the St. Louis County police who is conducting the investigation into the shooting, as well as those of his wife, son and daughter. It also posted Chief Belmar's home address and telephone number. The group threatened to bring down city, county and federal networks if the police overreacted to rallies and protests.


On Wednesday night, scores of police officers in riot gear and in armored trucks showed up to disperse protesters who had gathered on the streets near the scene of the shooting. Some officers perched atop the vehicles with their guns trained on the crowds while protesters chanted, “Hands up, don’t shoot.” A police spokesman said that some demonstrators had thrown Molotov cocktails at officers and that some had tried to set fires. The police used tear gas on demonstrators, and some protesters said rubber bullets had been fired at them. Police said one officer appeared to have suffered a broken ankle after being hit by a brick.


The police made more than 10 arrests. Among those arrested was Antonio French, a St. Louis alderman, who had been documenting the protests on social media, his wife said on Twitter.


Two reporters covering the protests also said they had been arrested inside a McDonald’s on accusations of trespassing and later released without charges or an explanation. The reporters, Wesley Lowery of The Washington Post and Ryan J. Reilly of The Huffington Post, both said they had been handled roughly by the police.



Graphic



Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, was shot and killed Saturday by a police officer in Ferguson, Mo. The Times examines the demographics of the town and its police force, as well as crime rates.




OPEN Graphic



Chief Jackson and the St. Louis County prosecutor, Robert P. McCulloch, held news conferences on Wednesday to try to allay concerns without divulging the officer’s name or details of the investigation. Neither would say how many times Mr. Brown had been shot.


Mr. McCulloch promised a thorough investigation but refused to say how long it would take. “There is no timeline,” he said. But he added that all the evidence would be made public, whether or not there was an indictment.


Whether to identify an officer in a charged situation like a shooting has been a continual tug of war around the country, pitting the desire of police departments to protect their own against the demands of victims’ relatives and the public for accountability.


“I get why they want to protect him,” said Meko Taylor, 36, of Ferguson, who was at a protest on Wednesday. “But the people want answers. When we get answers, things will calm down.”


David A. Harris, an expert on police misconduct and accountability at the University of Pittsburgh Law School, said: “Police departments do not welcome disclosure or the input of outsiders. So when you have a problem like this, it’s hardly surprising to see that they are very reluctant to give out information.”


That reflexive, insular stance is increasingly being questioned in the courts, said Merrick J. Bobb, a Los Angeles-based consultant on police oversight. “What is happening is that in a number of jurisdictions, voluntarily or as a result of a lawsuit, the ability of police to keep the name of the officer secret has been constrained,” he said.


In Missouri, legal groups citing the state’s sunshine law, which requires government agencies to release most documents to the public, have joined with community leaders to press for information about the officer who shot Mr. Brown.


On Tuesday, the Missouri office of the American Civil Liberties Union wrote to the Ferguson and St. Louis County Police Departments requesting unredacted copies of the “incident reports” describing the death of Mr. Brown. The A.C.L.U. said it had been told by the St. Louis County police that it would not release an incident report because the investigation was continuing. Adding to the pressure, the National Bar Association, an organization of African-American lawyers and judges, also filed a records request on Wednesday with the Ferguson Police Department.


By law, police departments have three days to comply to such requests, but if they choose to withhold an officer’s name, they could argue that circumstances warrant an exception. Then the petitioning groups would have to file lawsuits to obtain the information.


There is no federal constitutional right, under the First Amendment, to information about government activities, including internal police reports, said Erwin Chemerinsky, a law professor at the University of California, Irvine. Rather, individual states have disclosure laws with varying requirements, and the country’s thousands of law enforcement agencies have their own rules and subcultures regarding disclosures.


The inconsistency in policies, even when a freedom of information law is on the books, is illustrated in New York City. In most cases, the New York Police Department refuses to release the names of officers who have shot people, at least in the days immediately afterward. If a shooting attracts widespread attention, however, the officer’s name rarely remains a secret for long.



Timeline



The sequence of events after the shooting of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old unarmed teenager, by a police officer in Ferguson, Mo., on Aug. 10.




OPEN Timeline



In the July 17 case of Eric Garner, who died after being wrestled to the ground by the police, including one officer who apparently used a chokehold banned by the police, the department did reveal the name of the officer — but after two days, and only after wide public viewing of a videotape of the fatal confrontation. By that time, the news media had already reported the officer’s name based on unnamed sources.


Mr. Harris said that while it was understandable that police officials would try to protect their officers from threats and unfair accusations, silence also had its risks. “This case is not being tried yet, but the narrative is being forged in the public arena,” he said of the Ferguson shooting. “When that goes on, information is put out selectively and withheld selectively.”


“There is real danger in that,” he said, “because ultimately law enforcement depends on the trust of the people they serve.”


On Wednesday, the St. Louis County medical examiner’s office said it would take two to three weeks to complete the autopsy of Mr. Brown, including a toxicology report, which is standard procedure in such deaths.


Suzanne McCune, a forensic administrator at the office, said that a preliminary autopsy was completed Monday and found that Mr. Brown had died of gunshot wounds, but she gave no other details. She added that Mr. Brown’s body had been released to his family. Ms. McCune said the Police Department would decide whether to approve the release of the report once it was complete.


Benjamin L. Crump, a lawyer representing the Brown family, said that arrangements were being made for a private autopsy to be performed in the next week or so. “The family wants an autopsy done by somebody who is objective and who does not have a relationship with the Ferguson police,” Mr. Crump said.


Trying to control protests that have occurred daily in Ferguson and intensified after dark, the mayor and the City Council posted a letter on Wednesday on the city’s website asking protesters to limit their demonstrations to daylight hours.


The police have made over 50 arrests since Sunday.


“We ask that any groups wishing to assemble in prayer or in protest do so only during daylight hours in an organized and respectful manner,” the letter said. “Unfortunately, those who wish to co-opt peaceful protests and turn them into violent demonstrations have been able to do so over the past several days during the evening hours.”


Chief Jackson said the request did not amount to a curfew.


Chief Jackson said Wednesday that protection had been assigned to some Police Department personnel after Anonymous released their names and that others had taken vacation.


Anonymous also released on Wednesday what it said were county 911 tapes from the time of the shooting on Saturday. Most initial calls seemed to be about crowd control, but the tapes also suggested that dispatchers learned from an early call that a police officer was involved. Chief Jackson said he had not heard the tapes.



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