– Gov. Jay Nixon said Monday that not one person — including himself — is ultimately responsible for the police response in Ferguson if protests turn violent following the results of the investigation into the shooting of Michael Brown.
When asked by a reporter Monday night, “does the buck stop with you” — a phrase coined by Missouri’s only president, Harry Truman – Nixon paused and stumbled on his words.
“Um — It… Our goal here is to keep the peace and allow folks voices to be heard. In that balance, I’m using the resources we have to marshal to be predictable on both those pillars. I’m more — I will have to say, I don’t spend a tremendous amount of time personalizing this vis-a-vis me,” Nixon said.
He continued: “I’m trying to make sure that we move forward in a predictable peaceful manner that plans for all contingencies that might occur so the people of a different group of opinions and actions can be heard and at the same time the property and persons of the St. Louis region can be protected. I prefer not to be a commentator on it. I’m making decisions to make sure we’re prepared for all contingencies.”
Nixon’s telephone call with reporters Monday night came after he announced he had called a state of emergency and active the Missouri National Guard in the lead up to an imminent announcement from a St. Louis grand jury about its investigation into Darren Wilson, a white police officer who shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed black man, in August.
When asked if there is one official or agency in charge of the state’s response, Nixon did not have an answer.
“We’ve worked hard to establish the ‘unified command’ to outline the responsibilities. Now, with the additional assets provided by my order today with the National Guard, we have worked through a number of operational issues the folks have, and I will only say that our efforts today are on top of a lot of things that have been done in the past 100 days to make sure we’re prepared for any contingency,” he said.
Speaking with reporters last week in St. Louis County, Nixon said the National Guard had not trained with the local police force.