FILE - In this Nov. 25, 2014 file photo, people watch as stores burn in Ferguson, Mo. The four Republican candidates in Missouri's gubernatorial primary on Aug. 2, 2016, are pledging an aggressive law-and-order approach, two years after the fatal Ferguson police shooting of Michael Brown prompted widespread protests. But the four candidates aren't focusing on complaints about police discrimination. Instead, their TV ads have shown images of riots while promising to "secure our streets" and "enforce the law." (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)
FILE - In this Nov. 25, 2014 file photo, people watch as stores burn in Ferguson, Mo. The four Republican candidates in Missouri's gubernatorial primary on Aug. 2, 2016, are pledging an aggressive law-and-order approach, two years after the fatal Ferguson police shooting of Michael Brown prompted widespread protests. But the four candidates aren't focusing on complaints about police discrimination. Instead, their TV ads have shown images of riots while promising to "secure our streets" and "enforce the law." (AP Photo/David Goldman, File) Credit: David Goldman

It has been two years since a white police officer fatally shot black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., touching off days of rioting, but the political repercussions from the incident have only intensified, fanned by a governor’s race in which all four Republican candidates are pledging an aggressive law-and-order approach.

Their TV ads show images of angry protesters and burning buildings and vehicles. They denounce “lawlessness” and “chaos” while promising to “secure our streets” and “enforce the law.”

Absent from the ads is any reference to community complaints after the Brown shooting that police discriminate against black residents. The candidates also show no indication that they believe black students were justified in launching protests over racial issues that toppled the administration of the University of Missouri last year.

In police incidents, “I don’t want it to be a fair fight for our police; I want them to be able to show overwhelming force,” one of the candidates, former U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway, said in recent debate remarks echoed thematically by her rivals.

The campaign approach appears to be playing well with the mostly white rural and suburban residents who will comprise the majority of voters in the Aug. 2 Republican primary.

“The people I hang with, they want the law and order,” said Bruce Buwalda, a suburban St. Louis party leader.

Strong talk has been common nationwide amid a seeming surge in international attacks and deadly domestic incidents, including the fatal police shootings of black men in Baton Rouge, La., and suburban St. Paul, Minn., and the subsequent shootings of police by black men in Dallas, the St. Louis suburb of Ballwin and Baton Rouge, where the shooter was a Kansas City resident.

A similar theme pervaded the Republican National Convention this past week, where the slogan for the opening day was “Make America Safe Again” and presidential nominee Donald Trump declared: “I am the law-and-order candidate.”

But the political recriminations have been especially strong in Missouri, where the Brown shooting in August 2014 honed the nation’s attention on racial relations with police.