"We went through some pretty bad areas of Afghanistan, but we didn’t wear that much gear"
. . .
Scriven King, a 10-year veteran of the U.S. Air Forces 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 Ferguson Police Departments 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] wasnt cognizant of the imagery.
King added that, instead of deescalating 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 didnt 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 cant think of a [protest] situation where the use of M4 [rifles] are merited, Fritz said. I dont see it as a viable tactic in any scenario.
. . .
THE REST:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2014/08/14/military-veterans-see-deeply-flawed-police-response-in-ferguson/