A top Missouri lawmaker on Thursday called on the governor to declare a state of emergency and impose a curfew in riot-torn Ferguson because of “elements from outside … coming here to cause trouble.”
House Majority Leader John Diehl (R-Town and Country) said Gov. Jay Nixon should act to avoid a repeat of Wednesday night’s violence, when protesters angry over the police-shooting death of an unarmed teen threw Molotov cocktails at cops, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
“Whether it’s 8 o’clock or 9 o’clock, whenever it hits, law-abiding people would know they need to be off the street at that time,” Diehl told the paper. “Curfews are routinely and legitimately used as a law enforcement technique in situations like this.
“What’s happening now,” he said, “is, after dark you have peaceful protesters that are mixed up with those that aren’t peaceful. It’s a question of elements from outside Ferguson coming into this. They’re coming here to cause trouble.”
Diehl did not say the governor should call in the Missouri National Guard, but said the Missouri Highway Patrol and other agencies could coordinate an effective law-enforcement response.
“The governor has a lot of tools at his disposal” by declaring an emergency, Diehl said.
Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson also blamed the violence on non-residents.
“It’s a lot of outside agitators that are causing the violence,” he told Fox News’ Sean Hannity in a show that aired Wednesday night.
New Black Panthers party “four-star general” Chawn Saddam Kweli is in Ferguson, posting “live Battle Reports” on Facebook and Twitter, and other hard-left groups are also on the ground in the city.
Protesters have staged nightly demonstrations following the police shooting Saturday of Michael Brown, 18, who was about to start college.