began patrolling the streets before dawn on Tuesday, which police quickly labeled "inflammatory."
The
men said they were part of a group called "Oath Keepers," which
describes itself as a non-partisan association of current and former
U.S. soldiers, police and first responders who aim to protect the U.S.
Constitution. They told reporters on the street that they were in
Ferguson to protect a media organization.
The
men attracted immediate attention in the mostly black neighborhood,
which exploded into violence on Sunday night as protesters marked the
one-year anniversary of the killing of an unarmed black teen by police.
The
Southern Poverty Law Center, a non-profit civil rights organization,
has described the "Oath Keepers" as a "fiercely anti-government,
militaristic group," and St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar
condemned their appearance in Ferguson.
"Their
presence was both unnecessary and inflammatory," he said, adding that
police would work with county prosecutors to see if the men had broken
any laws.
The men told reporters they were
licensed to carry firearms. A voter-backed 2014 amendment to the state
constitution cleared the way for open carrying of licensed firearms, so
long as they are not used in a threatening manner, legal experts said.
"There
is no exception for a state of emergency for these laws not to apply,"
said Marcia McCormick, a professor of law at St. Louis University Law
School.
State
law prohibits brandishing a weapon in an "angry or threatening manner,"
McCormick said, but that standard is subject to interpretation.
"Clearly
the people who are carrying these weapons are trying to send a message
that some might see as threatening but it's probably not a violation of
the statute," McCormick said.
Many in the crowd questioned the wisdom of openly carrying such heavy weapons into an emotionally charged situation.
"You’re going to bring some
uncommissioned citizens, white citizens, into a black community like
this? It's disrespectful," said Talal Ahmad, 30, who is black and was a
fixture at last year's protests.
"Here, in a black neighborhood, we’re already living in a state of terror," Ahmad said.
'WE NEEDED TO BE PREPARED'
The
group, led by a man identified only as John, wore bulletproof vests and
carried their rifles with barrels pointed downward. They said they were
in Ferguson to protect a journalist from the conservative
"Infowars.com" website.
"There were problems here, there were people who got hurt. We needed to be prepared for that," said John.
Members
of the group had patrolled the streets of Ferguson for a time in
November, after riots erupted when a grand jury found that a white
police officer had broken no laws when he shot dead 18-year-old Michael
Brown.
Sunday night's protests were punctuated by gunfire, and police shot and critically wounded a man accused of firing on police.
An
Infowars representative acknowledged by telephone that the Oath
Keeper's had a presence in Ferguson but said it had not asked them for
security."We happen to be in some of the same circumstances as they are on occasion and ideologically we may share the same views," said the representative, who asked not to be named citing security concerns. "They are there of their own volition and secondarily they are there to protect anyone who is innocent. Of course, we fall under that because our reporters are reporting."
Protests
on Monday were less chaotic than they had been on Sunday. Twenty-two
people were arrested in nighttime skirmishes with police during which
protesters threw rocks and bottles at officers on the block where the
Oath Keepers appeared. Another 63 people were arrested earlier in the
day after blocking a highway.
Source: Reuters
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