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After several nights of calm, the Missouri National Guard will soon begin a systematic withdrawal from the city of Ferguson, Governor Jay Nixon said on Thursday. The Missouri State Highway Patrol will work with the National Guard to carry out the order. “I greatly appreciate the men and woman of the Missouri National Guard for successfully carrying out the specific, limited mission of protecting the Unified Command Center so that law enforcement officers could focus on the important work of increasing communication within the community, restoring trust, and protecting the people and property of Ferguson,” Nixon said in a statement. “As we continue to see improvement, I have ordered the Missouri National Guard to begin a systematic process of withdrawing from the City of Ferguson.” According to the statement, since Monday night when the Guard was first called to Ferguson, “the situation has greatly improved with fewer incidents of outside instigators interfering with peaceful protestors, and fewer acts of violence.”