Rand Paul: Scene in Ferguson Resembles “War More Than Traditional Police Action”

Here’s Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) responding to the
ongoing strife in Ferguson, Missouri following the police shooting
of Michael Brown.

In an op-ed for Time, he
writes: 

Anyone who thinks that race does not skew the application of
criminal justice in this country is just not paying close enough
attention. And the root of the problem is big government.

The shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown is an awful tragedy
that continues to send shockwaves through the community of
Ferguson, Missouri and across the nation.

If I had been told to get out of the street as a teenager, there
would have been a distinct possibility that I might have smarted
off. But, I wouldn’t have expected to be shot.

The outrage in Ferguson is understandable—though there is never
an excuse for rioting or looting. There is a legitimate role for
the police to keep the peace, but there should be a difference
between a police response and a military response.

The images and scenes we continue to see in Ferguson resemble
war more than traditional police action.

Paul goes on to say that “there is a systemic problem with
today’s law enforcement” and that local police have been
militarized thanks to the use of “federal dollars to help municipal
governments build what are essentially small armies—where police
departments compete to acquire military gear that goes far beyond
what most of Americans think of as law enforcement.”

Read the whole thing at Time here.

Last night, GOP Rep. Justin Amash (Mich.)
took to Twitter with a similar description of the scene in
Ferguson as like a “war zone.” 

As Reason‘s Ed Krayewski
noted yesterday, Amash and Paul were two of the politicians
called out in a piece by Paul Waldman in The Washington Post asking
where libertarians were on the heavily armed police presence in
Ferguson.