re: #153 William Barnett-Lewis

No officer in that place should be carrying anything other than a sidearm and a riot baton - and even then they need MAJOR retraining on how to properly employ the riot baton. Second day, I think, I commented that if I had, as a trained National Guard NCO, carried a baton the way the St. Louis Cty PD did when deployed for riot control, I’d have gotten an Article 15.

For the non-military that’s a non-judicial form of punishment that can take one months pay AND reduce you by one rank.

An M4? That should be in the squad car’s trunk under lock and seal unless otherwise ordered by, at minimum, the state governor.

As for your first point, I’d reply that I can see the point of having a shotgun used to deploy less lethal rounds, but I’m not fond of the idea. That shotgun is a Remington 870 (the SLCPD’s shotguns are ID’d here), and any ‘Less Lethal’ labeling on it is just that, labeling. In and of itself, its not problematic for the police to have such a shotgun, heck my dad owns that model of shotgun. But it is quite capable of deploying lethal rounds and 12-gauge buckshot rounds are widely available in Missouri and Illinois. In my view a different system should be used for delivering less lethal rounds in a situation such as Ferguson.

As for your second point, I will concur with it by posting this:

Even the Army’s Crowd Control Rulebook Says Ferguson Police Tactics Are Dumb
Just read military field manual FM 3-19.15

In regards to your third point, I’m going to partially agree with the proviso that its OK for the police to uncase their rifle if they come under fire or are facing demonstrators armed with firearms. That second is unlikely to be an issue in Missouri, but in Texas or Arizona it might well come up.