ferguson

In response to the controversy surrounding the shooting death of Michael Brown -- and especially the differing versions of events from officer Darren Wilson and others who were at the scene -- there has been a massive call to equip police officers nationwide with body cameras.

The Brown family themselves have been outspoken on the matter, and it seems the White House was listening. In a report released yesterday, the Obama administration laid out a proposal to spend $263 million on improving law enforcement, $75 million of which will be used to equip cops with body cams.

Amidst the many photos of hate, anger, sadness and sometimes outright destruction that have flooded the media since a grand jury decided not to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, sparking riots and protests across the US, there are glimmers of hope and humanity.

One such glimmer was captured by Oregon-based freelance photographer Jonny Nguyen at a Ferguson demonstration in Portland earlier this week.

More so than ever before, it's regular citizens with camera phones who are breaking the news... or in some cases shaping the news. And it's this topic, hot on the heels of the protests in Ferguson, MO, that developer Nicky Case decided to tackle in a powerfully simple game.

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If you've been wondering what it's like to be there, taking pictures in Ferguson, MO as protesters and police continue to clash, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch is happy to oblige.

On Monday night, they 'embedded' photographer David Carson (yes, the same photojournalist who was attacked by protesters) with the police tactical team in Ferguson, GoPro mounted and recording on his helmet.

Cop pulled a gun on me tonight for asking a question. #ferguson— raffephoto (@raffephoto) August 20, 2014

By now we all know that the stories of media/police confrontation from Ferguson, MO have two sides. On the one hand, seemingly unnecessary arrests of major photojournalists had even the President of the United States condemning that officers' actions. On the other, a photojournalist on the ground explained why he was embarrassed by the way the media is acting in the area.

And yet, it's hard to imagine there being a good reason why, on a relatively peaceful protest day, a police officer answered a journalist's seemingly innocent question by pulling and pointing a gun at him.

I’ve spent the past week down in Ferguson, MO covering the protests and police response. What I never expect was to find myself embarrassed to photograph but it happened on Tuesday 8/19/14.

Getty Images photographer arrested #Ferguson pic.twitter.com/ScOaHO8bjY— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) August 18, 2014

The photograph above, tweeted out by Huffington Post justice reporter Ryan J. Reilly, shows Getty photographer Scott Olson being taken into custody by Ferguson police while covering the ongoing protests and riots sparked by the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown, an unarmed African American man who was shot and killed by police on August 9th.

I am troubled by what I have seen.

In recent weeks, we have witnessed terrible, on-going episodes within our borders through photos and video that speak volumes about the tragedy of race. Racism is as old as human history, and there is a long, rich history of capturing race conflicts in the US by photographers like Charles Moore, Bruce Davidson, Gordon Parks and others.

But in this post 9/11 world, the balance of power has shifted towards authority -- militarized officers outfitted with high-powered machine guns and body armor straight out of central casting for a Michael Bay film who seemingly police differently depending on the color of your skin.

Post-Dispatch photojournalist David Carson has covered a number of intense situations, including the wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq. But it was just this past weekend, in the 21,000-resident town of Ferguson, Missouri that he faced one of his scariest moments yet.