Ferguson, Missouri — Late Sunday in Ferguson, Missouri, 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot and killed by a police officer, causing a violent protest.
Over 20 police vehicles have been damaged, a gas station was looted, and additional police units were called for backup.
A witness, and friend of Brown, claimed that Brown had his hands in the air when the officer shot and killed him.
According to the officer, he tried to leave his patrol car when Brown pushed him back into the car and fought for his weapon.
Jon Belmar, St. Louis County Police Chief, said, “The genesis of this was a physical confrontation.”
The hacker group Anonymous, known as “hacktivists,” posted on their YouTube page showing their full support, and promised any attempts to harm — or retaliate protesters — would result in a cyber attack against Ferguson city and government offices.
This is the message they sent along with the video:
Article continued below
Anonymous Operation Ferguson – Press Release
Sunday – August 10, 2014 1:30 PM CST USA
A little over 24 hours ago in Ferguson, Missouri – USA the Ferguson Police Department shot an un-armed teen 6 times and killed him. His body was left to lie in a pool of blood in the sweltering heat for hours while the police militarized the area against protesters and attempted to concoct a reasonable story as to why they snatched this innocent students life for no reason. The St. Louis County Sheriff Department even sealed the roads leading to Ferguson in a vain attempt to prevent protesters from reaching the city. His name was Mike Brown, he was 17 – and he would have started college next week. Instead, his family is struggling to come up with funeral costs.
The entire global collective of Anonymous is outraged at this cold blooded murder of a young teen. Not a week goes by that some young person, usually of minority ethnicity – is slaughtered by murderous police in the USA. For this reason Anonymous will not be satisfied this time, as we have in the past – with simply obtaining justice for this young man and his family. Anonymous demands that the Congressional Representatives and Senators from Missouri introduce legislation entitled “Mike Brown’s Law” that will set strict national standards for police conduct in the USA. We further demand that this new law include specific language to grant the victims of police violence the same rights and prerogatives that are already enjoyed nationwide by the victims of other violent criminals. The Equal Protection clause of the US Constitution demands nothing less.
To the good people of Ferguson, take heart – and take your streets. You are not alone, we will support you in every way possible. Occupy every square inch of your city. Open your homes and help in any way you can the protesters who will come to your city from every part of Missouri and the USA. Businesses and householders that are near protest rallies, open your WiFi routers so that live streamers and other independent journalists can use the Internet connections. Feed each other, keep each other safe – and stay in the streets until we are totally victorious in all our demands.
To the Ferguson Police Department and any other jurisdictions who are deployed to the protests: we are watching you very closely. If you abuse, harass – or harm in any way the protesters in Ferguson we will take every web based asset of your departments and governments off line. That is not a threat, it is a promise. If you attack the protesters, we will attack every server and computer you have. We will dox and release the personal information on every single member of the Ferguson Police Department, as well as any other jurisdiction that participates in the abuse. We will seize all your databases and E-Mail spools and dump them on the Internet. This is your only warning.
The time has come for more than simple justice for these atrocities. The time has come to draw a line in the sand and say “no more dead kids”, no more police killings and beatings. Anonymous is drawing a line in the sand, and that line runs right down the middle of Main Street Ferguson, Missouri. Police impunity ends with the barbaric death of Mike Brown.
We Are Anonymous – We Are Legion – We Will Not Forgive – We Will Not Forget
EXPECT JUSTICE – DEMAND CHANGE
In April 2011, Anonymous hacked and brought down the PlayStation Network for one month, resulting in $170 million dollars lost and over 100 million accounts were compromised. In December of 2012, after the Newton shooting, the Westboro Baptist Church promised they would picket at the funerals of the deceased. Anonymous acted out by hacking the WBC’s website and released the names, phone numbers, e-mails, and home addresses of WBC church members.
Over the last four years, Anonymous has hacked multiple major businesses’ and government agencies’ websites and databases. In 2010, Anonymous hacked Visa, MasterCard, and PayPal. In 2011, they hacked the Orlando Chamber of Commerce, Universal, and a potential attack on Facebook. In 2012, they hacked the CIA, the Vatican, and Godaddy. In 2013, they hacked the Federal Reserve and had a planned attack on the NSA after a semi-failed attempt back in 2013.
A small branch of Anonymous created Lulz Security (commonly known as LulzSec), whose first attack was on Fox.com, leaked several passwords, LinkedIn profiles, and the names of 73,000 X Factor contestants.
Chief Belmar and city officials would not comment on promises made by Anonymous. However, Ocala Post did confirm that the city’s e-mail database was taken offline.
[Updated August 12, 2014 at 5:58 p.m.]
Anonymous has just taken credit for taking http://FergusonCity.com offline. The group promises there is more to come.
—By Michael LaTulipe—