FERGUSON, Mo. (KTVI) – Buisness affairs have been conducted via phone calls and text messages for the last couple of days in Ferguson, and relatives of some city employees and police officers have been hurried out of town, reports KTVI.
A cyber attack that the collective Anonymous takes credit for has causes as much if not more damage than a thrown rock or bottle, and the group promises more is on the way if there is no compliance.
Several conditions were named and threats made by Anonymous after the police department back tracked from naming the police officer involved in the fatal shooting of teenager Michael Brown, and as controversy grew around the situation.
The St. Louis suburb of 21,000 has been wracked by violence as outraged protesters demonstrate over the shooting of allegedly unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown.
Part of their message was “We will take every web based asset of your departments and governments offline. That is not a threat, it is a promise.”
As protests and conflict boiled over in the streets, cyber hackers tore into the city’s computers, shutting down email and phones, and releasing personal information about nearly everyone who works for the city, KTVI reports.
What’s the worst thing you’ve heard on the phone? “I can’t say it on the air but people who want to come here and excrement on my dead body and different things like that; cut my throat,” said Ferguson Mayor James Knowles to KTVI.
“We’re taking them seriously. They’re credible threats.” said Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson.
“Anonymous will not be satisfied this time … with simply obtaining justice for this young man and his family,” the voice says. “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 and misbehavior in the USA.”
Read more on KTVI.
