The Washington Post’s Jonathan Capeheart said on MSNBC’s “The Cycle” that Missouri Governor Jay Nixon’s address took a “hardline” stance by promising to protect Ferguson businesses and protesters, calling it “not the right message to send.” (RELATED: Missouri Governor: ‘Senseless Acts’ Of Destruction In Ferguson ‘Cannot Be Repeated’)
I don’t think Governor Nixon did a good job of soothing fears, soothing people for this decision, whatever it is, to come down. The one thing I found quite odd, and I think everyone’s hit on it, this message sending to protesters, I thought that the comments by [St. Louis Police Chief Sam] Dotson and the comments by Governor Nixon, they should have come from — they should have been swapped. I thought Mr. Dotson’s comments were broader, more soothing in recognizing that the people of Ferguson had legitimate beefs and concerns and they should be taken into account.
And Governor Nixon, on the other hand, took this sort of hardline to my view, hard line sort of ‘We’re going to protect businesses and we’re going to protect people and people come here to protest and incite violence, we’ll take care of you. We’re waiting for you.’ Not the right message to send, especially after what we’ve seen in August.