I assume most of you are following what is going on in Ferguson, Missouri tonight, with the heavily armed police (thanks to excess military materiel from Iraq and Afghanistan) violating the civil rights of both reporters and citizens and generally using the Constitution as toilet paper.

The stories are just being written as Twitter is ablaze with not only commentary but first hand accounts from arrested reporters. This is the open thread for this horrible event.

President Obama or Governor Jay Nixon needs to call in the National Guard and disarm the Ferguson police.

Another photo, this from the AP:

….Washington Post reporters have been arrested in 2 cities in 2014: Teheran and Ferguson.

……I see Jay Nixon was very, very busy today with something of the utmost importance. I can see why he has done nothing.

…[SL] Read Bouie on the militarized suppression of protest. I also note that this is yet another example of how federalism and local control are awesome for civil rights.