Send the National Guard to Ferguson

Dear MoveOn member,

I'm Kareem Deanes, a MoveOn member in Warson Woods, Missouri, and I started a petition to Governor Jay Nixon and President Barack Obama, which says:

Dispatch the National Guard to Ferguson to guarantee the constitutional rights of residents and visitors protesting the murder of Mike Brown at the hands of the Ferguson police.

It is evident that the National Guard is needed in Ferguson, Missouri, where a white police officer shot and killed Mike Brown, an unarmed black teenager who reportedly had his hands in the air.

I may live in St. Louis now, but Ferguson was once my home. My mom lived there for 10 years. And what I see happening to my former community at the hands of local law enforcement officers makes me sick, and it makes me angry. This isn't Afghanistan. It's not a war zone. But the police are treating United States citizens like enemy combatants, violating their civil rights at every turn.

Residents who protested Mike's death were met by police in riot gear and military vehicles. On Wednesday, police shot peaceful protesters with rubber bullets and attacked them with tear gas canisters, some of which exploded into nearby residents' yards, gassing sleeping families and children. They even used a torture device called a sonic cannon to try to disperse crowds.

We can't trust local police not to hurt folks in Ferguson for peacefully assembling to protest unjustifiable state violence. And so, like leaders 50 years ago did during the civil rights movement, our leaders today must take bold, swift, and decisive action. Tell President Obama and Governor Jay Nixon to protect the citizens of Ferguson from the cruel excesses of local police by sending in the National Guard.

Click here to add your name to this petition, and then pass it along to your friends.

Thanks!

–Kareem Deanes

This petition was created on MoveOn's online petition site, where anyone can start their own online petitions. Kareem Deanes didn't pay us to send this email—we never rent or sell the MoveOn.org list.

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This email was sent to eddie alfaro on August 14, 2014. To change your email address or update your contact info, click here. To remove yourself from this list, click here.