Of course, we knew about this.
Here's a clip from Prairie Weather on August 20 written during the ongoing demonstrations in Ferguson as it became clear (if largely forgotten by now) that the Ferguson police had arranged to prevent overflights in their area, fearing that overhead cameras would pick up illegal police actions. Which, of course, they would have.
One of the most depressing aspects of the events in Ferguson has been the serial lying -- story-changing -- on the part of the police and local government. Ferguson has been, as Rachel Maddow pointed out last night, a "no-fly" zone during the past week. Media helicopters have not been allowed to track events because "they might get shot at."
(Actually, unarmed reporters on the ground have been shot at... by the police... and wounded.)
But the absence of those overhead images makes us more dependent on police accounts -- police accounts and justifications that have been demonstrably concocted to relieve the police of responsibility. No cameras. No verification. No touching base with reality. Just pay attention, please, and believe what the police tell us.
The official Ferguson accounts of events continue to change from telling to telling. ...PW
Imagine if we had those images in front of us now! Imagine if the grand jury could see them!
All this was dismissed as conspiracy-think. Now Daily Intel has an update.
In the early days of this summer's protests over the death of Michael Brown, the Federal Aviation Administration agreed to enforce a 37-square-mile no-fly zone over Ferguson, Missouri. This was done at the request of the St. Louis Police Department, which claimed that shots had been fired at one of its helicopters. (That claim was never substantiated.) Of course, the supposed safety ban on flights in the area had the side effect of preventing news helicopters from filming the clashes between cops and demonstrators from above. Now, an Associated Press report seems to show that the no-fly zone's true purpose was to keep the press away, and local FAA officials knew it.
The Ferguson flight restriction, first imposed on August 12th, originally applied to all aircraft flying at up to 5,000 feet. However, afficials at the FAA's command center in Warrenton, Virginia soon complained that the no-fly zone was interfering with commercial planes coming in and out of the nearby Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. From the AP:
The Kansas City FAA manager then asked a St. Louis County police official if the restrictions could be lessened so nearby commercial flights wouldn't be affected. The new order allows "aircraft on final (approach) there at St. Louis. It will still keep news people out. ... The only way people will get in there is if they give them permission in there anyway so they, with the (lesser restriction), it still keeps all of them out."
"Yeah," replied the police official. "I have no problem with that whatsoever."
Subsequent conversations between FAA employees indicated that they understood exactly what the St. Louis police were hoping to accomplish with the no-fly zone... ...DailyIntel
