because the response here was so swift. folks who saw that video, didn t bother convening a grands jury they said, this is pretty damning video and went ahead and charged the officer with murder. we should note also here really quickly, here in south carolina over the past five years there have been 209 incidents of officers firing their weapons at suspects 209 times. there has never been a conviction in the past five years of an officer involved in a shooting. fascinating point. craig, you have been there to cover ferguson and all of these officer involved shootings, great, great coverage as always. it s an incredibly tough story to cover. we want to go back to andrea mitchell in panama. thank you, kristen, here in panama, we re preparing for a historic event. cuba joining the summit of americas for first time after president obama in december ended the u.s. policy for
what s the answer? he also said it s very costly to cover ferguson. it s cost him $5 million so far. any time you have these incidents where you have protests and you have to bring in additional police officers it s going to cost money. we see that in new york city all the time. we saw it as a result of ferguson and the garner incident in new york enormous amounts of money. the governor has the right to activate the national guard if it s necessary. that call would basically from the police chief to the governor s office a request, and the governor makes the decision whether it s necessary. they can do that. in towns like ferguson st. louis, where they don t have the amount of staff that you would have in new york that may be necessary. all right, i m going to leave it there. maria chappelle nadal, thanks to all of you. i appreciate it. i ll be back with much more in the newsroom.
things done? should the federal government come in? should eric holder send people from the civil rights division down to ferguson? let me tell you, i wrote a letter on august 18th last year saying that the federal government should intervene because i had no confidence in our state policing nor do i have confidence in our st. louis county policing at this point. yes, we have to be able to exercise our rights. and for anyone to suggest stopping protests that would be against the first amendment. your own crew has been offended by losing their right in the first amendment. journalists have had their first amendment take friend them. if you don t want it taken from your colleagues in the press, i m pretty sure my constituents who are peacefully protesting don t want the first amendment taken away from them. there is no cause when it comes to the first amendment or any other constitutional right. i m not talking about violating their first amendment rights.
away from the cops. this was a direct assault on these cops intended to kill these cops. i think the chief is trying to make that point. and he also said commissioner it s very hard to protect yourself. this was an ambush. he wanted the whole community to understand that it would be difficult in future protest scenarios to do things the exact right way. what was he trying to say? you know what carol? think back to the early days of the ferguson protests. started out with peaceful protests the officers came in with heavy equipment and armored vehicles. they were criticized. then the aftermath of those protests led to substantial confrontations. the officers have to protect themselves. the officers have to be protected. i think the chief is in a position now where he wants to put his guys out there, put his men and women out there to protect the people of ferguson
expectation now of how, given what s happened last night, what do you hope to see with how law enforcement reacts and conducts themselves? i think the way the department conducted themselves was exemplarily. i think they conducted themselves exceptionally in the face of two officers being shot. i trust that will continue. i have full faith it will. that s how it will move forward in the future. going back to your discussions with mayor knowles, would you expect to see the tabling of the police in ferguson? i m not going to say i would prefer to see that. i would like to see a solution as we move forward that is in the best interest of the residents of ferguson and our county and our police department. county executive, will you please walk us through when you found out and your first initial reactions to what happened last night? i got a call from a chief and