Nixon orders National Guard to begin withdrawing from Ferguson

Missouri National Guard troops will begin to pull out of Ferguson, according to an order Thursday from Gov. Jay Nixon.

The National Guard had been ordered to assist the Missouri State Highway Patrol and other agencies in keeping the peace in the St. Louis suburb, which erupted in protests and looting for days after the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teen by a police officer. Nixon said the improving conditions in Ferguson in recent days would allow for the Guard to “begin a systematic process of withdrawing.”

The Guard specifically had been ordered to protect the Unified Command Center set up in Ferguson.

Since the protests began after the Aug. 9 death of Michael Brown, 163 arrests have occurred in the area. Most arrested were from Missouri, and the majority were arrested for failure to disperse.

The pace of arrests and violence had slowed by Wednesday night. Nixon noted in a news release that there had been “fewer incidents of outside instigators interfering with peaceful protesters, and fewer acts of violence.”