So several days of police attacking peaceful protestors gets a yawn from the state, but "a handful of looters" warrants a state of emergency declaration?

Probably was for the mine executives bonuses for slashing the work force in half and making the remaining double up their workloads.

"Where all of these comments will stay at the bottom"

Didn't touch on the rapid mass gain, either. Darn.

And yet my mom bitches at me because I refuse to friend her on facebook.

Since when is peacefully, nonviolently protesting the unjust shooting of an unarmed man in need of being threatened with automatic weapons? The looters have kept on looting, and this escalated, completely ridiculous response is mostly being aimed at people holding signs and protesting unjust use of police-force.

I see you've made the same mistake as the police. The people looting...those are rioters. The people with signs...those are protesters.

Rioters...protesters...

Maybe you aren't, but the people of Ferguson sure are. Which means it could happen anywhere else in the country.

To be fair, there's really no reason for them to be wearing military camo. It's not like it's even urban camo.

Those cops very nearly are rioting. Seeing a force like that one roaming the streets would make me seriously question whether my community was still operating under the rule of law.

I think the main problem as you pointed out Luke is why are they armed better then most countries? Most of these big town(and growing small towns) are getting armed to the teeth, I'm not talking shotguns or assault rifles I mean actual APC and some even have fucking MRAPS. Most of these police get government funding…

You're looking at an entire police force taking that path, aren't you? Regardless, neither the quote nor the article was saying anything about what any cop "is like," as a person. It's examining why we're seeing what we're seeing in Ferguson and why, in the author's opinion, we're likely to see more of it. He didn't…

Wow, good article. Food for thought.

So it can only be one or the other? They can be either powerless or ready like they're in a war zone. Why no middle ground?

Or no knock warrant serving.

I dunno...
I'd ask Black men ages 16-32 how much sunshine they get blown up their asses.
They'd probably say "That was sunshine? Sure felt like a cop's boot to me!"
But that's a topic for another day.

Nearly 1 in 3 young black men are in prison, much of that for non-violent drug related crimes, and you can shoot them dead and claim self defense and walk away.

Denial. It's not good for you, or for the rest of us.

http://www.economist.com/news/united-st…
http://www.cato.org/publications/w…
https://www.aclu.org/militarization
http://www.salon.com/2014/03/28/4_s…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/police-mi…

The military is all about race and class. Why do you think the majority of recruitment offices are in poor minority areas ?