Thursday, August 14, 2014

Ferguson, MO, shows cost of militarizing police

Police Militarization in Ferguson -- and Your Town | Cato @ Liberty - Walter Olson:

August 13, 2014 - "Why armored vehicles in a Midwestern inner suburb? Why would cops wear camouflage gear against a terrain patterned by convenience stores and beauty parlors? Why are the authorities in Ferguson, Mo. so given to quasi-martial crowd control methods (such as bans on walking on the street) and, per the reporting of Riverfront Times, the firing of tear gas at people in their own yards? ('"This my property!" he shouted, prompting police to fire a tear gas canister directly at his face.') Why would someone identifying himself as an 82nd Airborne Army veteran, observing the Ferguson police scene, comment that 'We rolled lighter than that in an actual warzone'?

"As most readers have reason to know by now, the town of Ferguson, Mo. outside St. Louis, numbering around 21,000 residents, is the scene of an unfolding drama that will be cited for years to come as a what-not-to-do manual for police forces. After police shot and killed an unarmed black teenager on the street, then left his body on the pavement for four hours, rioters destroyed many local stores. Since then, police have refused to disclose either the name of the cop involved or the autopsy results on young Michael Brown; have not managed to interview a key eyewitness even as he has told his story repeatedly on camera to the national press; have revealed that dashcams for police cars were in the city’s possession but never installed; have obtained restrictions on journalists, including on news-gathering overflights of the area; and more."

Read more: http://www.cato.org/blog/police-militarization-ferguson-nationwide
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