I still do not see a direct conflict of interest. Saying, "Oh, the area prosecutor has dealt closely with the area police in the past" goes without saying, and to impugn his competency or clarity because of his father's death is simply vile.

Calling for the smelling salts and fainting couch is not a rebuttal. Your constant appeals for everyone else to bend to your ephemeral personal sense of decorum is beneath even you.

What about looting? How do the protesters self-police criminality. I don't really care about property damage (if allowing it provides public safety), but there have been dangerous situations involving reckless shooting and Molotov cocktails, exacerbated by the military presence and heavy handedness of the local police force-Ferguson and St. Louis Co. I wish Gov. Nixon, Holder, and Obama had been on the same page a week ago when it was obvious that the local leadership was stonewalling and in over their heads in their ability to handle the situation.

I am amazed at how the vast majority have handled this situation with relative calm when the police have at times been very belligerent and even thuggish at times in their responses to media and protesters. When I was 20, I would not have handled seeing people I felt an affinity towards manhandled or assaulted by tear-gas and rubber bullets.

Huffington Post:
Video taken Tuesday night during protests in Ferguson, Missouri, show an officer pointing his weapon at civilians, shouting: "I will fucking kill you."

Two separate videos uploaded to YouTube on Wednesday show the officer pointing a rifle at protestors.

"Gun raised, gun raised and pointed," a protestor shouts out, alerting others as the officer approaches closer.

"My hands are up," another protestor says.

"I will fucking kill you, get back!" the officer shouts.

Another protestor asks for the officer to identify himself.

"What's your name, sir?" he asks.

"Go fuck yourself," the officer replies.

In another video, protestors can be heard shouting at the officer to lower his weapon. At least one other cop can be seen trying to deescalate the situation by placing his hand on the weapon to lower it.

August 20: The St. Ann Police Department has released a statement saying the officer involved in threatening protestors has been "suspended indefinitely."

SCMP:

Almost 10 per cent of the 28,000-strong police force gathered yesterday as units from across the city took part in what is understood to have been the second major exercise to prepare for the Occupy Central civil disobedience campaign.

Some 2,600 officers received training at the Police College in Wong Chuk Hang, next to Ocean Park, on how to remove people from a sit-in and how to process the arrests, a police source familiar with the matter said. Liaison with media was described as a "key area" of the training, he said.

The arrangements were similar to the first major exercise, said to have involved about 1,600 officers in late June. Neither drill was announced to the media. This time, training covered more about arrestees' rights, such as ensuring access to food and lawyers, following the July 2 sit-in on Chater Road, the source said.

"Shame on police," 600 officers acting as mock protesters chanted as songs favoured by social activists played in the background. Commissioner of Police Andy Tsang Wai-hung, believed to have been absent from the first drill, turned up to "show his support", the source said.

Photographers trying to capture the goings-on from 100 metres away saw an officer apparently make a gun gesture with his hands, "aiming" at them.

A police spokeswoman said the force was investigating whether the officer's behaviour was appropriate and would treat any breach of rules seriously.

In response to queries about the exercise, a spokeswoman said only that the force trained regularly to prepare officers for public order events.

Occupy organisers have threatened to block streets in Central should the official framework for the 2017 chief executive election not live up to international standards of universal suffrage.

Some moderate pan-democrats including Civic Party chairwoman Audrey Eu Yuet-mee, former Democratic Party lawmaker Cheung Man-kwong and chairman of the Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood Bruce Liu Sing-lee have been invited to attend a meeting with senior Beijing officials in Shenzhen on Friday.

I find the complaints against the prosecutor very grating. He is an elected figure with over two decades of experience. The idea he should recuse himself because he has family ties to law enforcement is farcical. There is no direct conflict of interest. And there is no guarantee a subsequent special prosecutor would not have his or her own history the protestors might find distasteful.

It is surprising and saddening how accepting even approving some people around the country are about the frankly unprofessional at best, barbaric at worst the police are in handling these protests and riots

The prosecutor or whoever he was gave a somewhat detailed synopsis of what happened just before, during and after the incident. I think it's clear it was justified in my view and these protests just grew from misinfo that spread after the incident. Can't erase that now but some of these folks need to move on now and stop trashing stuff again.

As for the cop, he will need to move yo Oklahoma or something for the foreseeable future.

They burned down Taco Bell. This has gone too far.

Unbelievable that this didn't go to trial. Un. Fucking. Believable.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/ferguson-michael-brown-indictment-darren-wilson/

Sure sounds legal.

A kid was murdered. And the murderer didn't have to face a jury.

How would you fucking feel if your child was murdered and their killer didn't have to stand trial?