FERGUSON, August 22 (RIA Novosti) – Law enforcement tactics used on protests over the police killing of an unarmed African-American teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, were learned from overseas US wars, Shahid Burrae, director of a legal rights group, told RIA Novosti.
“What’s more disturbing than the using military tactics and weapons to suppress dissent in violation of constitutional rights is using taxpayer dollars to pioneer those abuses in foreign countries, which are used as laboratories for policing tactics,” said Burrae, of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee.
“From automatic license plate scanners to shot-spotter audio listening devices, surveillance drones to tear gas and SWAT teams, local policing has emerged as a part of the military industrial racket. The trend is disturbing nationally, but communities are acting against back the militarization of their police forces,” Burrae added.
Ferguson, a mostly African-American suburb of St Louis of some 21,000 residents, has been shaken by often violent protests since the police killing of Mike Brown, an unarmed teen, as he walked with a friend on a residential street on the afternoon of August 9.
Missouri Governor Jay Nixon withdrew National Guard troops on Thursday as protests calmed in recent nights. Police have been criticized for using military tactics, toting assault rifles and using tear gas, rubber bullets and other heavy-handed measures.
