Ferguson is police anarchy.
Last edited Mon Aug 18, 2014, 08:40 AM - Edit history (2)
There are untold units from all over the area and there is no telling who is there in some uniform. It could be somebody's cousin John. Police are wearing camouflage, police riot gear, and everything in between. Many have their badges covered. There appears to be no one entity or person in charge. They are reacting with all weapons at hand.
They are untrained and overarmed. The tactics are piecemeal if they are even there. The police began firing tear gas at everyone at 8:30pm well before curfew. They say there were molotov cocktails thrown and shots fired. Who and where is in dispute. A lot of kids were at the protest because it was well before the curfew.
Anybody is a target with journalists in for a special round of abuse. Chris Hayes was threatened with mace while another who was livestreaming was threatened to be shot by a cop.
There are people intent on violence who appear to be seperate from the locals. Since there is no coordination or anybody with experience in protests and those who use them for their own purposes, it is a free for all response.
They are using an ad hoc response by calling in gawd and everybody when the shit hits the fan. They have no idea what they are doing and that suits a lot of purposes.
The police have used CS gas, LRAD, and everything they have indiscriminately. If they had SAMS, they would probably use those. The use of LRAD is particularly troubling given that its use is debatable especially in close quarters.
While the violent people have to be dealt with, IMO the onus is on the police to use the most effective tactics and control their use of force. A general blast at everybody is counter-productive and dangerous.
Gawd help them all.
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