Lt. Governor Of Missouri: 'Gov. Nixon Appeared Tentative And Sometimes Weak And Confused'

By Chris Stigall

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Chris Stigall spoke with Peter Kinder, the Lieutenant Governor of Missouri, on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT about violence and upheaval in Ferguson following the shooting of Michael Brown by a police officer on August 9.

Kinder, a Republican, blamed Governor Jay Nixon, a Democrat, for allowing the situation to escalate and erupt into continued violence.

"The Governor has, frankly, disappointed a lot Missourians in his repeated media appearances and has seemed to be behind the curve time and again on this matter, now that we're in day nine, I guess, going on ten days. He has appeared tentative and sometimes weak and sometimes confused. At a minimum, it seems to me that the tax payers and citizen of Missouri have a right to expect that each level of law enforcement is communicating in real time in this critical situation with each other. Instead, they constantly seem to be surprised."

He thinks Nixon was unprepared and should have alerted the National Guard to be ready long before he actually did.

"I don't think he has any choice when you have the kind of complete collapse of civic order that you had last night. I don't think the Governor has much choice but to call in the National Guard. I happen to believe that he should've had them standing by several nights ago and ready to be called in to restore public order as needed."

Kinder also said that performing a third autopsy on Brown is slowing down the investigation and further escalating tensions.

"I believe I've read there have already been two autopsies, now we will have a third. I guess there is no harm in that and Attorney General Holder may have done that at the request of the Brown family. Okay, fine. When the Brown family requests that, we need to dial down some of the people who have gotten way out ahead of their skis on the rush to judgment here. You cannot prolong the process with a third autopsy and then say we're upset that there has not been an arrest of the officer yet. The wheels of justice are turning."

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