National Guard Called Protesters "Enemy Forces"
TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. Today startling new details out of Ferguson, Missouri, the guardsmen, who had been called in to preserve the fragile calm there last summer and last fall were briefed as if they had been headed into war. E-mails and other mission briefings obtained by CNN reveal Missouri national guardsmen labeled these U.S. citizens who demonstrated and other ones amidst them enemy forces and adversaries. Let's get right to CNN's Sara Sidner. Sara, these e-mails obtained by CNN showed these National Guard commanders knew that using this kind of language could be seen as potentially inflammatory. How are civil rights activists, people in Ferguson, responding to today's news?</s>SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Very negatively and they feel like, you know, they are American citizens, and they say, look, there are so many people who are out of this protests for dozens and dozens of days on end, and most of the time they say they weren't violent. And to be called an enemy is just an absolutely wrong thing to call these protesters who went out every single day, just exercising their rights.</s>SIDNER (voice-over): This was the scene when the Missouri governor decided to call in the National Guard in Ferguson, Missouri, the first time. It happened a week after large protests had erupted twice into violence, looting and burning. And after the highly criticized actions of the St. Louis County Police Department, which many argued enflamed tensions using military vehicles and snipers with rifles pointed at protesters turning Ferguson streets into what looked like a war zone. Documents obtained by CNN reveal the way the National Guard saw the situation as they prepared to deploy a second time when the governor called them up again in November, as the grand jury prepared to make its decision in the police shooting case. They list, enemy forces to watch out for. General protesters are third on that list. Following the RBG black rebels and the Ku Klux Klan saying protesters have historically used Molotov cocktails, rocks and other debris to throw at police. Several small arms fire incidents have occurred and some they use militant tactics taught by that rebel group. Protesters, Rick Coyle, at enemy called enemy forces especially they when the majority of people protesting were not violent and simply exercising their constitutional rights as Americans.</s>KATHERINE JACKSON, PROTESTER: How am I an enemy? All I am is a 62- year-old grandmother who's worried that I'm going to leave my grandchildren in a world where I can't protect them anymore. I want to see change. I want to see real change.</s>PAUL MUHAMMED, PROTESTER: We are looked at as the enemy anytime we're vocal, anytime we're expressing ourselves, disenfranchised particularly in a black community.</s>SIDNER: The National Guard itself worried about the words enemy and adversary. In the documents one colonel warned the language could be construed as potentially inflammatory. A couple of days later a notification was sent to commanding officers saying all reference of enemy were changed to state criminal elements. The head of Missouri's National Guard telling CNN in an e-mail, the documents used in the Ferguson, Missouri, case were a generic military planning format, utilized in a wide range of military missions so the term enemy forces would be better understood as potential threats. Ultimately, in the wake of the grand jury's decision not to indict the officer who killed Michael Brown, the National Guard was criticized not for its overtly military response, but the guards' lack of response. In November, when two streets of Ferguson went up in flames, they were nowhere to be seen, something that angered the mayor of Ferguson. (on camera): Did the governor do the wrong thing? When it comes to how quickly the National Guard was actually deployed on the streets?</s>JAMES KNOWLES, FERGUSON MAYOR: I don't know who made that call, but I do believe that the National Guard should have been out there much sooner.</s>SIDNER: And so as you heard there, there were businesses there, really angry that the National Guard wasn't out in force when all of that burning and looting went down on the day after the grand jury decision. But the protesters say listening to this after they did hundreds of days of protesting peacefully, they really, really feel that something has to change and has to change fast -- Jake.</s>TAPPER: Sara Sidner, thank you so much. Let's bring in Jeff Roorda. He is the business manager for the St. Louis Police Officers Association and a retired police officer. We should underline again this was not St. Louis Police office using this terminology. It was the National Guard. Jeff, using terms like enemy forces. These were Americans. Do you find this disturbing as all?</s>JEFF ROORDA, ST. LOUIS POLICE OFFICERS ASSOCIATION: Well, Jake, I understand why it is disturbing to hear these terms in hindsight, but let's remember, and I'll remind you that I was a state representative at that time, and I was briefed by the National Guard. There was clearly distinction in their mind between the violent elements within the protests that were shooting at police, that were flowing Molotov cocktails and the peaceful protesters who they were charged with protecting. I think we're making a little too much of the use of sort of standard military jargon here.</s>TAPPER: Well, I mean, I was in Ferguson when the people in the crowds of protesters burned stores, looted, threw Molotov cocktails, rocks, even gun shots both last month and, of course, last fall. But there were many, many more people who were peaceful protesters. Now without question, it was a very challenging environment for law enforcement. But isn't using a term such as "the enemy" does that make it tougher for national guardsmen to distinguish between the bad actors and the larger crowd of peaceful protesters?</s>ROORDA: Well, they should have departed from the standard language that they use in these sorts of deployments. I totally agree with that, Jake, but I don't think it changed the outcome. Just within the report that Sara just brought forward, I mean, you can see the no-win situation for the governor in deploying the National Guard. In one breath criticized for over-militarization by bringing in the National Guard. The next, criticized for not fully deploying them. It was a tenuous situation, and when you bring military into a situation like that, it's very dangerous. Remember, the L.A. riots over 50 people were killed. Many of them by -- by law enforcement in these riots, we were able to preserve life and to some extent, more property than a lot of us expected, a lot more arson and carnage that we saw.</s>TAPPER: Jeff, I want to ask. The last time we spoke last month, it was right after two local police officers had been shot in Ferguson.</s>ROORDA: Right.</s>TAPPER: How are they doing?</s>ROORDA: Thank you very much for asking, Jake. One is a very good friend of mine, you know. His recovery is going very well. He was the St. Louis county officer shot in the shoulder. He's doing remarkably well and handled this whole thing very well. The officer that was shot in the face, obviously, has a longer road to recovery, but he seems to be recovering well too. So thank you for asking.</s>TAPPER: All right, our thoughts and prayers with your friends. Please pass that on, if you would, Jeff. Thanks so much for joining us. Appreciate it.</s>ROORDA: Thanks, Jake.</s>TAPPER: Coming up, the Pop Culture Lead, he might be on Oprah's list of faves, but Dr. Oz is getting called a quack by fellow doctors. Could it lead to the TV star getting pushed out of a prestigious position? And the Money Lead, how about a little cannabis with your kale? That's right. Pot is going gourmet. How the business of weed is reinventing the stoner diet. That's next.