Michael Brown shooting: How Ferguson botched crowd control of protests

The inability to quell the nightly violenceengulfingthe streets of Ferguson is a "great training tool" for officers on how not to manage a volatileprotest, says one former police chiefwho is among a number ofsecurity experts slamming the police for their tactics.

"Its a terrible, terrible situation. So many thingshave been done wrong,"said CharlesDrago, a formerpolice chief for Oviedo, Fla.,a police instructor and career police officer who specializes inpolice practices anduse of force."Certainly not the typical standard of care for thesetypes of activities."

"Its going to be a great training tool for police chiefs in the future. Unfortunately, its sad, it really is."

Protesters continue to fill the streets every night, throwing Molotov cocktails rocks and bottles, onlyto be met by tear gas and flash grenades from police.

The violent protests weresparked by the death of unarmed blackMissouri teenMichael Brown, who was shot by a police officer on Aug 9. The18-year-old's death has brought to light the tense relations between Ferguson's black community and the local police department andhas made it that much more difficult to resolve the crisis, law enforcement officials say.

"Obvious to everybody, there'sabsolutely norelationship between that community and the police department," Drago said. "So right from the get go, day one, therewas no wayforthat community and the policedepartmentto resolve this or workthrough this peacefully."

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With relations already frayed, police exacerbated the volatile situation with an overly aggressive response, confronting the protestcrowds while garbed inmilitary-likegear, brandishing automatic weapons and guard dogs, and setting the tone for future exchanges between the police and protesters, analysts say.

"What we've seen time and time again is that aggressivepolicing tacticsincrease aggression on the part of the protesters," saidTamaraMadensen, director of the Crowd Management Research Council in the department of criminal justice at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

'It's mind-boggling to think they're even doing that'

"You saw Ferguson come out dressed in riot gear when no violence had actually occurred yet. We know that even potential police use of force, for example visible riot gear, armouredvehicles thesecan instigate crowdmembers especially looking for a reason to engage in violence," she said.

"Heres peoplepeacefully demonstrating and they're watching them through thescopes ofM-16s," said Drago. "It'smind-bogglingto think that they'reeven doing that. The force that they used at the beginning is probably the mostdamaging."

Norm Stamper, the former police chief ofSeattle, who headed the force during the 1999WTO riots, said the aggressive military tactics used for crowd control was a "huge mistake, one for which they continue to pay the price."

"The early image of snarling GermanShepherds on a leash handledby a white police officer approaching black protestersthats a horrific image, particularly given our history here in the states," Stamper said.

Meanwhile,deploying tear gas against the crowds has been largely ineffective, Stamper said, and it has done nothing more than provokeprotesters.

"It is not working, so why are you doing it? Its also very provocative, inflames passions," he said."When peoplerecover from the tearyeyesand snotty noses, theyre goingto come right back, and thats whats been happening. They're coming back with battle wounds."

Retired Lieut.-GeneralRussel Honore, wholed Task Force Katrina to restore order in New Orleans followingthe devastating hurricane, said officers in Ferguson looked like they were responding to a hostage situation as opposed to dealing with a civil disturbance.

He questioned the overall strategy of thepolice, saying it looks like they've been making it up as they go along.

"Your strategycan't be: 'We'regoing to bring the tear gas out, then we're going to bring the stun guns out, then we'regoingto point machine guns. It's not working."

Law enforcement officials have alsosuffered from alack of communication and co-ordinationbetweendepartments, Drago said, with Missouri State Policeand Ferguson police often delivering different messages.

Release of information has been problematic

"There's stillno co-ordinationintermsofwhats going on in the streets and themessagethat's being released,"Drago said.

The release of information to the public has also been problematic, Drago said.

"They wouldn'trelease evenbasic information for the family and the community becomes more distrustful. And then you release bits and pieces that appear to be for the police's own purposes, that further creates more and more issues."

Many critics have praised the move to placeHighway PatrolCapt.Ron Johnson, who is black and from the Ferguson community, in charge of policing efforts, which didhelpdefusethesituation temporarily. But Drago said policewent too far the other way in pulling back and didn't take the necessary force needed to stop the outside agitators who havehijacked the protests.

"They didn't recognize there was still a criminalelement out there that was committingcrimesand was going to stir things upand they need to be sure to address those issues quickly."

But Stamper,who has been critical of his own response to the 1999 riots in Seattle,said the true sign of failure of a police force'spublic safety mission is being forced to deploythe National Guard

"Having the National Guardon the streets of an American city when there'snot a flood, not a fire, not a naturaldisaster, isonce again evocative of an earliertime in our country and ugly chapters of our history," said Stamper, who brought in the National Guard to help defusethe Seattle riots.

"Its a very clear sign that youve lost it."