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Military veterans see flawed police response in Ferguson

Jet-black rifles leveled at unarmed citizens and mine-resistant vehicles once used to patrol the roadways of Iraq and Afghanistan rumbling through small-town America. These are scenes playing out in Ferguson, Mo., which has been racked by protests for the last week following the fatal shooting of an unarmed 18-year-old named Michael Brown.

Missouri State Highway Patrol Capt. Ronald Johnson addresses the crowd of protesters, asking them to stay on the sidewalk and not block traffic Thursday, Aug. 14, 2014, in Ferguson, Mo. The Missouri Highway Patrol seized control of a St. Louis suburb Thursday, stripping local police of their law-enforcement authority after four days of clashes between officers in riot gear and furious crowds protesting the death of an unarmed black teen shot by an officer. (AP Photo/St. Louis Post-Dispatch, David Carson)
Missouri State Highway Patrol Capt. Ronald Johnson addresses the crowd of protesters, asking them to stay on the sidewalk and not block traffic Thursday, Aug. 14, 2014, in Ferguson, Mo. The Missouri Highway Patrol seized control of a St. Louis suburb Thursday, stripping local police of their law-enforcement authority after four days of clashes between officers in riot gear and furious crowds protesting the death of an unarmed black teen shot by an officer. (AP Photo/St. Louis Post-Dispatch, David Carson)Read more

Jet-black rifles leveled at unarmed citizens and mine-resistant vehicles once used to patrol the roadways of Iraq and Afghanistan rumbling through small-town America. These are scenes playing out in Ferguson, Mo., which has been racked by protests for the last week following the fatal shooting of an unarmed 18-year-old named Michael Brown.

For veterans of the wars that the Ferguson protests so closely resemble, the police response has appeared to be not only heavy-handed but out of step with the most effective ways for both law enforcement and military personnel to respond to demonstrations.

"You see the police are standing online with bulletproof vests and rifles pointed at people's chests," said Jason Fritz, a former Army officer and an international policing operations analyst. "That's not controlling the crowd, that's intimidating them."

The protests in Ferguson began in earnest just a day after Brown was killed, when a prayer vigil for the slain teen turned into an evening of looting.

Scriven King, a veteran of the U.S. Air Force's law enforcement component and a SWAT officer, attributed the initial spasm of violence to a lack of leadership and mismanagement of public perception on the police department's behalf.

"The first thing that went wrong was when the police showed up with K-9 units," Scriven said. "The dogs played on racist imagery. . . . It played the situation up and [the department] wasn't cognizant of the imagery."

King added that, instead of de-escalating the situation on the second day, the police responded with armored vehicles and SWAT officers clad in bulletproof vests and military-grade rifles.

"We went through some pretty bad areas of Afghanistan, but we didn't wear that much gear," said Kyle Dykstra, an Army veteran and former security officer for the State Department. Dykstra specifically pointed out the bulletproof armor the officers were wearing around their shoulders, known as "Deltoid" armor.

"I can't think of a [protest] situation where the use of M4 [rifles] is merited," Fritz said. "I don't see it as a viable tactic in any scenario."

Police have defended their handling of the protests and said some demonstrators have been trying to "co-opt" peaceful protests. But while the police may have made their presence felt in the streets, they have made only limited use of social media.

"They've kept people in an information black hole," King said, mentioning that their decision not to share details about operations more widely has only exacerbated the situation.

"There has not been a dialogue about the tactical situation the officers faced," he said, referring to the fact that there might have been a reason that caused the officers to respond with such heavy equipment. "There could have been threats to the officers, but that information has not been shared to the public."

King said that Ferguson police also exacerbated tensions by allowing individual officers to engage with protesters.

"Officers were calling the protesters 'animals,' " King said. "I can't imagine a military unit would do that in any scenario."