Brentwood Mayor Pat Kelly touched on the turmoil in Ferguson at his monthly coffee with residents Friday morning. He said most of the time two Brentwood police officers were in Ferguson through the events.
He said it would be OK with him if Brentwood officers wore vest video cameras. The Ferguson officer accused of shooting Michael Brown was not wearing a camera.
“If it’s something the chief and the men want, I don’t see any reason why we wouldn’t buy the cameras,” he said. “They’re really not that expensive.”
He said the Wentzville Police Department found that officers wearing cameras decreased the number of citizen complaints against them.
Kelly said a couple of Brentwood’s police cars have cameras. He said they’re expensive, around $7,000, which is why every car doesn’t have them.
He said it’s to the point that anytime a police officer has to use force they’re automatically in the wrong, but said “it’s the way it’s being presented by the local media.” He said he’s concerned it could deter people wanting to become police officers.
He said the Internet was partly responsible for some of the turmoil in Ferguson.
“A lot of this, also, was being instigated on social media,” Kelly said. “Most of you know, I’m very much against our Internet stuff because I think a lot of it is incorrect and it just gets people stirred up more quickly.”
Though he said it was through social media that St. Louis County Police were ready for an incident at the Galleria on August 11, which shut it down for several hours.
Of course the white mayor of a mostly white suburb talking to an all white crowd is going to dismiss the riots/civil unrest in Ferguson as some sort of social media caused hubbub.
This head-in-the-sand attitude by our elected officials are why we are in this trouble. Unless we all realize there is a social, economic and racial disparity that must be addressed as soon as possible: the St Louis area is in VERY big trouble.