Missouri Gov. Nixon on Michael Brown Video Release: ‘It’s Not Right’
Missouri Governor Jay Nixon went on Meet the Press today and seriously called out the Ferguson police department for releasing that surveillance video of Michael Brown, without consulting the Missouri Highway Patrol or his office and against the advice of the US Department of Justice.
Andrea Mitchell: Well governor, there was peace, uh, there was peace on Thursday night after you appointed the county police to come in and take over, uh, the state police rather to take over from the county. But then, the local police chief released that video. What justifies releasing the video about the convenience store, while there’s still no details about what happened with the shooting itself? That is what caused everything to erupt again on Friday night, and eventually led to the curfew having to be imposed?
Gov. Nixon: Yeah, we in our security team and the Highway Patrol did not know that was gonna be released, uh, I don’t think the Attorney General knew that. Uh, and quite frankly, we disagree deeply. I think for two reasons, number one, to attempt to in essence, uh, disparage the character of this victim, uh, in the middle of a process like this, is not right. It’s just not right. And secondarily, it did put the community and quite frankly the region and the nation, you know, on alert again. These are old wounds, and these are deep wounds between, uh, in these communities, and that action was not helpful.
