Authorities established a no-fly zone and warned journalists to stay away from street demonstrations.  No, not in Gaza, nor Egypt, nor eastern Ukraine.  This is happening in Ferguson, Missouri, the Middle American town where the police shooting of an unarmed, college-bound black teen set off days of protests and civil unrest.

Civil rights leaders as well as the parents of slain teenager Michael Brown called for calm.  They also called on the Ferguson Police to release the name of the officer involved in the killing of 18-year old Brown, which officials had gone back on because of alleged death treats posted on social media.

“The value of releasing the name is far outweighed by the risk of harm to the officer and his family,” said police Chief Thomas Jackson.  Revenge attacks on police officers in the United States are exceedingly rare.  The officer has been placed on administrative leave.

“We want this man arrested, in jail, and charged for murder,” the rev. James Stewart, pastor of the Murchison Tabernacle church.

All that officials would say is that the officer is a six-year veteran of the force.  And that the officer, like 90 percent of the cops with the Ferguson Police Department, is white.

Ferguson police officials also would not reveal how many shots killed Brown, who witnesses say had already surrendered to police and had his arms in the air when the cop opened fire.  Nor would they reveal if Brown had been shot in the front or the back.  Nor have they even made a phone call or tried to interview Dorian Johnson, Brown’s friend who was standing right there as a witness to Saturday’s killing.

Nor have the Ferguson Police or Missouri State Police cooperated with journalists who came to town to cover the story.  Several of them took to social media to reveal how cops were blocking streets to keep reporters away.

Even more disturbing is how local officials requested the Federal Aviation Commission to declare a “No-Fly Zone” over Ferguson – the same thing the US did to box in Iraq’s Saddam Hussein during the 1990s.  The reason?  Officials wouldn’t say, but a dispatcher contacted by a journalist probably broke the rules by revealing what was going on.

“It’s just for a no fly zone because we have multiple helicopters maneuvering in the area and we were having some problems with news aircrafts flying around there,” said the dispatcher, who would only identify himself by his first name, Chris.