Maria Chappelle-Nadal, a Missouri state senator, has tweeted numerous expletives at Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon on Thursday.
[Expletive] you, governor,” she wrote on her Twitter page. “I’m calling your [expletive].”
Nixon issued a statement about the Ferguson, Missouri protests and riots in recent days that were sparked by the police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown on Saturday.
Chappelle-Nadal’s district includes Ferguson.
“I never expected to represent a war zone,” she also wrote on Twitter. She added: “Get on your knees, Governor. Get ready.”
She also wrote: “Listening to John Legend on my way to Ferguson. Seems like the only thing that’s calming right now. #MikeBrown.”
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The Associated Press update:
Police images fuel outrage in St. Louis and beyond
FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) — The images are reminiscent of a war zone: Helmeted officers pointing weapons from armored trucks, flash grenades lighting the night sky and tear gas exploding in crowded streets.
The ugly clashes between police and protesters in this St. Louis suburb have fueled a torrent of criticism and raised questions about whether the officers’ tactics are inflaming the same violence they aim to suppress after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager.
The repeated scenes of police officers wearing military-style camouflage and gas masks and training their rifles on unarmed civilians — some holding their hands up — led critics to condemn the unusual show of force, suggesting it looks more like an Army trying to quell a revolution than a police department trying to keep the peace in a small suburb.
“It’s clear what is going on in Ferguson is a complete, hyper-exaggerated, hysterical response on the part of law enforcement,” said Thomas Nolan, a former Boston police officer and criminal justice professor of the State University of New York at Plattsburgh. “It’s clear that there is no one in charge and no one to corral the officers ... and restrain them from engaging in an unprecedented show of brutal force against civilians. It’s horrifying and shameful and a disgrace.”
The protests escalated late Wednesday into smoky chaos after police lobbed tear gas to repel a crowd of about 150 protesters after some had thrown Molotov cocktails and rocks at officers. It was the fourth straight day of street confrontations spurred by Saturday’s fatal shooting of the 18-year-old by a white police officer.
More than 60 people have been arrested since Sunday.
Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson said Thursday that police are trying to balance the public’s right to protest with public safety, including the need to keep streets open. But he added, “If firebombs are being thrown, property gets destroyed, shots get fired ... we have to respond to deadly force.”
