August is a slow month for 2016 presidential news but there are a lot of other important topics unfolding around the world. At the moment, the country is focused on the unrest in a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri.
Report on the latest from the Washington Post:
FERGUSON, Mo. —Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. will travel to this battle-scarred St. Louis suburb to oversee the investigation of the shooting death of an unarmed black teenager at the hands of a white police officer, the White House said Monday.
Holder’s visit was announced as National Guard troops arrived to back up local and state police. On Monday night in Ferguson, an early evening calm gave way to new confrontations as some demonstrators threw bottles at heavily armed police and officers threw stun grenades and tear gas towards them.
The day was expected to be a crucial test for everybody in charge here, from local police commanders to Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon (D) — who had called out the National Guard after chaotic protests Sunday — to President Obama himself. Obama’s decision to dispatch his attorney general was an admission that the teenager’s killing had become a symbol of something enormous: a test of the American justice system and the government’s ability to police the officers who police everyone else.
The bottom line is that the facts aren’t yet 100% clear and the investigation will take time. In the meantime, the violence has continued through the weekend.
