As
the Missouri National Guard prepared to deploy to help quell riots in
Ferguson, Missouri, that raged sporadically last year, the guard used
highly militarized words such as "enemy forces" and "adversaries" to
refer to protesters, according to documents obtained by CNN.
The
guard came to Ferguson to support law enforcement officers, whom many
community leaders and civil rights activists accuse
d of using excessive
force and inflaming an already tense situation in protests that flared
sporadically from August through the end of the year.
The
National Guard's language, contained in internal mission briefings
obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, is intensifying
the concerns of some who objected to the police officers' actions in
putting down riots. They broke out after the August 9 shooting of
unarmed black teenager Michael Brown by city police officer Darren
Wilson. A grand jury declined to indict Wilson in the case.
"It's
disturbing when you have what amounts to American soldiers viewing
American citizens somehow as the enemy," said Antonio French, an
alderman in St. Louis.
The
documents obtained by CNN also detail that the Missouri National Guard
was concerned about perceptions of its deployment, with superiors later
telling troops to stop using heavily militarized language to describe
protesters.
And the communications show
them calibrating the timing of their deployment in November -- in
anticipation of the St. Louis County prosecutor's decision on whether to
indict Wilson -- to try to ensure that their presence didn't further
dial up tensions, though several community members voiced concern that
they were not deployed quickly enough.
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