An army of cops in a community with little reason to trust them

There are two general themes in the chilling reports out of Ferguson, Missouri. The first is racism: white authorities, in an old and shameful tradition, are denying black citizens their basic rights. A white cop shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager. Now, a whole bunch of mostly white cops are using violence to prevent mostly black protesters from exercising their first amendment rights (and mocking them for trying). My earlier post joined the chorus taking up this theme.

The other thread is the general militarization of local police in recent years. Local departments are gearing up to combat threats real or imagined, aided by the Pentagon and Homeland Security. Excessive use of civil forfeiture, sometimes enforced by SWAT team, helps fund this militarization. In a chilling turn in Ferguson, journalists are being targeted. It's frightening: cops who don't seem to know what they're doing have massive firepower with which to do it. Officer Friendly is vanishing, replaced by a commando with all the gear but little of the training and no clear enemy:

How come nobody blames THIS violence on video games? pic.twitter.com/Dvc9N6n7gq