THE DAY AFTER IN FERGUSON - By Charles P. Pierce

[MineralMan]

6. All true. The line quoted below seemed very pertinent to me:

"Our police are armed and trained as you would arm and train an occupying army. They are given body armor, and armored vehicles."

There is one thing the police are not trained for, and that is a resistance movement. Occupying armies often face a more or less organized resistance force. That has not been the case in the United States for the police. We've armed the police to deal with large groups of people who are poorly armed, primarily. They have the armored vehicles, body armor and semi-automatic rifles that look a lot like military small arms. They have lots of tear gas, rubber bullets and the like. They're very well equipped against mobs of unarmed people.

Resistance movements do not operate as large unarmed mobs. They operate stealthily and act differently than mobs do. Resistance fighters use ambush and sniping as their primary methods. Our police forces are very ill-equipped against such a resistance. Resistance tactics are well known and well documented.

It wouldn't surprise me if, one day, an organized resistance develops in this country and uses those well-understood tactics. That prospect should give police departments pause. Truly, it should.