![\"at](\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/at-Ferguson.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nThe shooting and killing of 18 year-old Michael Brown by a police officer sparked outrage in Ferguson, Missouri \u2013 a city that is predominantly Black but where the police force is overwhelmingly White. According to eye witnesses, the young man was shot about eight times, even though he was unarmed and had his hands in the air. Ferguson police officials stated that Brown was attempting to take a police officer\u2019s weapon \u2013 a version of the story that was contradicted by various eye witness accounts.<\/h5>\n
The death of the young man at the hand of police caused protests which degenerated into looting and rioting. Far from attempting to calm the situation, local authorities turned Ferguson into an occupied war zone as police showcased its vast array of military equipment. Ferguson, an inner-suburb of the Midwest suddenly occupied by soldiers equipped with military fatigues, kevlar vests, helmets, tear gas and assault weapons, followed by armored vehicles topped by snipers. Some war veterans even noticed that \u201cpolice officers\u201d were better equipped than they were while serving in Iraq.<\/h5>\n
This kind of upsetting scene is becoming increasingly common in America as police forces across the country have been actively purchasing military equipment in the past few years.<\/h5>\n
Walter Olson from the Cato Institute<\/span><\/a><\/span> stated:<\/h5>\n
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? (\u201c\u2018This my property!\u2019 he shouted, prompting police to fire a tear gas canister directly at his face.\u201d) Why would someone identifying himself as an 82nd Airborne Army veteran, observing the Ferguson police scene, comment that \u201cWe rolled lighter than that in an actual warzone\u201d?<\/h5>\n