The idiot governor of the US state of Missouri Jay Nixon imposed a curfew on the town of Ferguson, where demonstrations against the police killing of a black teen had degenerated into militarized police violence against citizens under the cover of “public safety”.  To understand the outrage and why this is an insulting decision, here’s the chronology:

A cop later identified as Officer Darren Wilson shot and killed 18-year old Michael Brown after stopping the teen for jaywalking.  Three witnesses from three angles said Brown had his hands up in surrender when he was killed.  Brown’s body was left facedown, bleeding out into the street for hours, until it was tossed into the back of a police truck and carried off.  People got angry. 

Legitimate protests followed along with some minor looting.  So the cops rolled out a ton of hand-me-down military hardware granted to local police departments in the paranoia following the 9/11 attacks.  Leaving their badges and nametags behind and pointing automatic weapons at people, cops attacked citizens with sound cannons, flash-bang grenades, and tear gas.  Reporters were arrested and harassed.  Cops were caught on tape deliberately gas-bombing an Al Jazeera live shot and then pointing AJ’s camera down so that it couldn’t record anything.  The police refused to release the incident report, in violation of Missouri’s disclosure laws.

After days of dilly-dallying, Governor Jay Nixon got a phone call from President Barack Obama, and a couple of hours later Nixon ordered local police to stand down and replaced them with State Police commanded by Captain Ron Johnson, a black guy from the Ferguson area who gained national praise for his level-headed depressurization of the situation.  What followed was a night of peace.  Johnson did something that residents say the 90 percent white police force had refused to do:  He listened to them.

But it seems that peace wasn’t what some people wanted.  After the US Justice Department asked him not to do it, Ferguson’s white police chief Thomas Jackson (namesake of a Confederate general) released store surveillance video that suggested the late Michael Brown shoplifted some cigars and shoved a store clerk, as if to prove the Brown was a “bad guy”.  Anger in the community was reignited, Brown's family called it character assassination and a provocation.  After all, Michael Brown is not alive to defend himself or admit to the allegation.  Later on, flanked by a row of beefy white cops glaring at journalists, a visibly nervous Chief Jackson stuttered and sweated, and admitted that Officer Darren Wilson didn’t even know about the shoplifting incident when he killed Michael Brown. 

Friday night brought more protests and more looting.  But a funny thing happened – the cops didn’t come to the aid of the storeowners.  They stayed back while ne’er-do-wells (from out of town, according to residents) came through and stole liquor, meat, and groceries.  Neighbors came out and formed human chains to protect the stores in lieu of the police protecting and serving.

And that’s how we got to Saturday night’s state of emergency and curfew as declared by Governor Doofus.  People in Ferguson who committed no crime are ordered into effective house arrest.  Will there be a showdown with protesters?  We’ll see.

But there’s something else that’s very important to understand.  Ferguson’s crime rate wasn’t really an issue; this suburb of Saint Louis is not a dangerous town.  It has the same problems as any other working class town in America.  And since 2008, the crime rate was steadily decreasing.

Until a white cop gunned down black jaywalker Michael Brown on a suburban street in August of 2014.