FERGUSON, Mo. — Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon activated the state’s National Guard and declared a state of emergency Monday ahead of a grand jury decision in the case of a white police officer who shot and killed a black teenager.
The emergency order, in effect for 30 days, instructs St. Louis County Police Department, Missouri State Highway Patrol and St. Louis Metro Police to work together in a unified command to keep the peace should public reaction to the decision turn violent. It puts the county police, rather than Ferguson police, in charge of security in Ferguson if unrest develop in the St. Louis suburb.
The governor directed police “to protect civil rights and ensure public safety in the city of Ferguson and the St. Louis region.”
“This is America. People have the right to express views and grievances, but they do not have the right to put fellow citizens and property at risk,” Nixon said last week. “Violence will not be tolerated.”
